Al-Mulk · Makki · ayah 6 of 30

Al-Mulk 67:6

وَلِلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِرَبِّهِمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ ۖ وَبِئْسَ ٱلْمَصِيرُ

“And for those who disbelieved in their Lord is the punishment of Hell, and wretched is the destination.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They covered over the One who raised them, and the word used for where they end up means the pen a herd comes back to.

A reflection

Covering over the one who raised you

A tanner takes on a boy of twelve. He feeds him, houses him above the beam shed, and spends eight years teaching him what no book holds. How long a hide sits in the lime. How to read a pelt by its smell. Which knife for the flesh side.

The boy is thirty now and good at it. A customer asks where he learned the trade. He says he taught himself.

That is the exact shape of the word used here, and the shape is in the root. Kufr pictures a farmer pressing earth over seed. To cover. It is used for covering a truth you refuse, and for covering a favour you will not thank for. The Arabic puts both under one word because they are one act.

And notice what the ayah says they covered. Not "disbelieved in God". They disbelieved in their Lord. One commentary adds the plain gloss: their Lord, the One who created them in this world. The word Rabb is the owner, and the master whose word is obeyed. It is also the one who raises a thing and keeps it sound, the way a guardian raises a child.

So the charge in this ayah is not a failure of philosophy. It is the apprentice at the counter.

That is where pride actually lives, and it is worth being honest about how comfortable the lie is. Nobody says out loud that they made themselves. We simply never finish the sentence about who did. The ego does not argue; it just leaves the credit line blank and lets people assume.

And there is no cost to Him in any of it. Someone might ask why it should matter to the Lord of the worlds whether one tanner gives him his due. It does not add to Him. What it does is settle whether you are a man who can say thank you. That turns out to decide a great deal more than you would think.

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.