At-Takwir · Makki · ayah 8 of 29

At-Takwir 81:8

وَإِذَا ٱلْمَوْءُۥدَةُ سُئِلَتْ

“And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked”

Saheeh International

Essence

Amid the collapse of the universe, the Quran stops for one small girl whom no one heard, and it is she who is asked.

A reflection

The judge comes down from the bench

The surah has just wound up the sun, scattered the stars and set the seas ablaze. Then, in the middle of the collapse of the universe, it stops for one small girl. Of all the scenes it could have chosen, it chooses her.

She was buried alive. The ayah could have said the killer is questioned. Instead it says she is asked. Commentators noticed the strangeness and explained it with care. Asking the victim, in front of the one who harmed her, is a way of consoling her. It also shows such anger at the killer that he is not even addressed. Standing there while she is questioned, he is forced to see her innocence and his own guilt.

They compare it with another scene. Allah asks ʿĪsā (as), 'Did you tell people to take you and your mother as gods?' (5:116). The question is put to the innocent one, and it condemns those who claimed him. An early commentator put it plainly: if the wronged one is asked like this, imagine what awaits the wrongdoer.

Picture a family court. An eight-year-old has been through things no child should. The judge leaves the bench, crouches to her height and speaks to her gently. The adults who failed her sit a few feet away. Nobody speaks to them yet. They can only watch the one they wronged being heard first.

In her lifetime, this girl had no voice at all. The ayah keeps her in the passive, as she was: she 'is asked', she 'was killed'. But on that Day, the passive becomes a platform. Everything else waits while she is heard.

That is a warning to every person with power over someone weaker, at home, at work or anywhere else. The one you silence may be the first one called. And it is comfort to everyone who was never listened to. Your voice was not lost. It is being kept for a Court that will hear you before it hears them.

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.