Al-Haqqah · Makki · ayah 45 of 52

Al-Haqqah 69:45

لَأَخَذْنَا مِنْهُ بِٱلْيَمِينِ

“We would have seized him by the right hand;[1745]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The response to fabrication is not described vaguely as destruction in general; it is described precisely, down to the exact hand used to carry it out.

A reflection

Three readings, one shared certainty

The commentators read bi-l-yamīn several honest ways rather than settling on one and hiding the rest. Many take it literally: his own right hand seized, the posture an executioner used before a strike, taking hold of the hand so the blow could land cleanly. Others read yamīn here as power itself, since the Arabs located a thing's strength in its right side, so the phrase means his strength would be stripped from him entirely. A third reading takes it as ḥaqq, truth or justice, so the sense becomes retribution carried out in full justice rather than arbitrarily.

What holds across all three readings, left honestly open rather than forced into one, is that nothing about the response is vague or merely symbolic. Whether a hand, a power or a justice is named, each reading describes something total and specific rather than a general threat left to the imagination.

A reader does not need to resolve which single reading is correct to feel the weight all three share: this was never going to be a soft consequence dressed in frightening language. Every honest option on the table describes something complete.

That is itself a useful model for handling genuine uncertainty elsewhere. The commentators did not force an artificial agreement where the language honestly allows more than one reading. They named the real options plainly, let each stand on its own merit without favouritism, and moved on once the shared conclusion underneath them all was secure regardless of which particular detail eventually turned out to be the correct one.

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.