Al-Munafiqun · Madani · ayah 4 of 11

Al-Munafiqun 63:4

۞ وَإِذَا رَأَيْتَهُمْ تُعْجِبُكَ أَجْسَامُهُمْ ۖ وَإِن يَقُولُوا۟ تَسْمَعْ لِقَوْلِهِمْ ۖ كَأَنَّهُمْ خُشُبٌ مُّسَنَّدَةٌ ۖ يَحْسَبُونَ كُلَّ صَيْحَةٍ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ هُمُ ٱلْعَدُوُّ فَٱحْذَرْهُمْ ۚ قَـٰتَلَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ۖ أَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَ

“And when you see them, their forms please you, and if they speak, you listen to their speech. [They are] as if they were pieces of wood propped up[1690] - they think that every shout is against them. They are the enemy, so beware of them. May Allāh destroy them; how are they deluded?”

Saheeh International

Essence

An impressive shape and a fluent voice are not evidence of anything inside; this ayah asks what is actually standing behind the surface that pleases you.

A reflection

Timber leaned against a wall

Khushub is ordinary, unworked timber, the lexicons' examples include a sword only roughly forged, an arrow shaped but not yet smoothed, poetry produced quickly with no care taken over it. The common thread is something raw, big, and unrefined, the opposite of anything finished or alive. Musannadah adds the specific picture the ayah wants: not standing timber still rooted and growing, but cut lengths propped against something else for support, unable to stand on their own weight.

The comparison is exact rather than merely insulting. A plank of propped timber can be large. It can even be handsome, if the grain is fine and the cut is clean. What it cannot do is produce fruit, take root, or grow another inch, because whatever made it alive has already been removed from it. It keeps the shape of a tree while having stopped being one.

This is precisely the accusation in tuʿjibuka ajsāmuhum, their physiques please you. The hypocrites' impressive bearing was not fake in the sense of being poorly made; by every account the commentaries preserve, men like the chief of this faction were genuinely striking to look at and genuinely fluent to listen to. The ayah's point is not that the wood is ugly. It is that wood, however fine, is not a tree. Something that once made it alive, able to grow, able to bear something, has already left it, and no amount of admiring the grain changes what is now propped against the wall rather than standing rooted in the ground.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.