Al-Jumu'ah · Madani · ayah 5 of 11

Al-Jumu'ah 62:5

مَثَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ حُمِّلُوا۟ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةَ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَحْمِلُوهَا كَمَثَلِ ٱلْحِمَارِ يَحْمِلُ أَسْفَارًۢا ۚ بِئْسَ مَثَلُ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“The example of those who were entrusted with the Torah and then did not take it on[1687] is like that of a donkey who carries volumes [of books].[1688] Wretched is the example of the people who deny the signs of Allāh. And Allāh does not guide the wrongdoing people.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A donkey can carry a library and feel only its weight; the ayah asks whether your Book has ever been allowed to open you.

A reflection

Written about them, aimed at us

A teenager reading the translation underlines this ayah. In the margin of her printed copy she writes 'them'. Her grandmother, reading over her shoulder, takes the pen and writes 'us' beneath it.

Most Muslims meet this ayah as a description of someone else. It names those entrusted with the Torah, and its first target was plainly a community of the Prophet's ﷺ own day. It is easy to read it with a slight sense of relief. Thank God we are not like that.

The classical commentators did not read it that way. One says that whoever has knowledge and does not act on it is exactly this parable. Another calls the ayah a warning from Allah to whoever carries the Book. Learn its meanings and know what is in it, it says, so the same blame does not reach you. A third says it plainly. Though struck for the Jews, the parable covers by its meaning whoever carries the Quran and abandons acting on it.

One early scholar used to recite this ayah to people who knew the Quran well. 'People of the Quran,' he would say, 'follow the Quran before it follows you'. He was not talking about anyone else's scripture.

So the worn reading is half-right. The parable was first spoken about a particular people, in a particular argument. But a parable is a mirror, not a window. It reaches the reader who has a Book on the shelf, a recitation app on the phone, and an unchanged week.

The teenager and the grandmother are both right. The ayah was about them. And the grandmother had noticed whose hands were now holding the Book.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.