An-Naba · Makki · ayah 28 of 40

An-Naba 78:28

وَكَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا كِذَّابًا

“And denied Our verses with [emphatic] denial.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They did not merely doubt the signs; they called them lies, again and again, with all their strength, until denial was who they were.

A reflection

A charge that pulls up short

On a market stall, a row of phone cases looks like fine leather: stitching round the edge, a soft brown grain. Pick one up and the illusion falls apart. The stitching is printed. The grain is a photograph. It looked like one thing and was another.

The lexicons give the root of kadhdhabū exactly that kind of picture. It means falling short of the truth, not reaching the end of what should be said. A warrior who charged his opponent and then pulled up was said to have 'lied': his charge kadhaba. A she-camel's milk 'lied' when it was expected to last and dried up. A cloth painted to look embroidered was called a kadhdhāba: it lied by its appearance. So a lie is a promise that gives way, in word, in deed or in look. These are established senses.

A lexicon of near-synonyms adds a precise distinction. Takdhīb, the form used here, is not simply telling a lie. It is insisting that a true report is false. It is a word of blame for one who denies the truth.

Then the ayah adds kidhdhābā, an intensive verbal noun. The sources explain it as denial carried to excess, and describe it as a fluent dialect form from Yemen. One commentator says the deniers met Allah's arguments and proofs with denial and obstinacy. Others note a reading that makes it mutual. They called the believers liars, and the believers saw them as liars: a contest of denial.

So this is not a picture of honest confusion. It is a charge that could have reached the truth and deliberately pulled up. The signs were there; the stitching was real. They insisted, with everything they had, that it was painted on.

It is worth asking where we pull up just short of a truth we can see. Usually it is because reaching it would cost us something.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.