Al-Munafiqun · Madani · ayah 5 of 11

Al-Munafiqun 63:5

وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ تَعَالَوْا۟ يَسْتَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ رَسُولُ ٱللَّهِ لَوَّوْا۟ رُءُوسَهُمْ وَرَأَيْتَهُمْ يَصُدُّونَ وَهُم مُّسْتَكْبِرُونَ

“And when it is said to them, "Come, the Messenger of Allāh will ask forgiveness for you," they turn their heads aside and you see them evading while they are arrogant.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Offered a debt cancelled for free, they turned their heads away rather than accept it, because pride made the cost of bowing higher than the relief was worth.

A reflection

The same twist that stalls a debt

Lawā is the word for bending something out of its straight line: twisting a rope, bending a stick, turning the head away from its natural direction. The lexicons also preserve a very specific idiomatic use of the same root: lawā daynahu, he twisted his debt, meaning he stalled, delayed, or evaded repaying what he owed. A debtor who is able to pay but keeps inventing reasons not to is described, in the Arabs' own language, with this exact verb, a deliberate bending away from a straight and owed obligation.

That detail changes how this ayah's gesture should be read. These men were not merely offered good advice they happened to dislike. They were offered the cancellation of a debt, their own sin, settled for nothing, through the Messenger's own intercession, at no cost to them beyond the willingness to come and ask. And the exact verb used for their response is the same verb the language already used for a debtor refusing to honour what he owes.

A debt, unlike an insult, is not cancelled by indifference. Someone has to actually act to be released from it, and the whole point of istighfār on offer here was that the acting had already been made as easy as arriving and asking. What they twisted away from was not a demand. It was a release, held out and waiting, that required nothing from them except the humility to reach for it.

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.