At-Takwir · Makki · ayah 9 of 29

At-Takwir 81:9

بِأَىِّ ذَنۢبٍ قُتِلَتْ

“For what sin she was killed”

Saheeh International

Essence

'For what sin was she killed?' has one answer, none, and it still sounds wherever the weak pay for others' choices.

A reflection

A question with only one answer

Some questions are asked to learn something. This one is asked to expose something. 'For what sin was she killed?' Everyone present already knows the answer. A concise early commentary supplies it in her voice: 'I was killed for no sin'.

The classical commentators drew a principle from that. Killing, and every kind of punishment, can only be justified by a wrong done. Where there is no wrong, there can be no penalty. The girl had done nothing. So the question turns back on the one who acted, and there is nowhere for him to stand.

The same principle runs through the whole Quran. 'Allah does not wrong anyone even the weight of an atom' (4:40). 'No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another' (6:164). Nobody is punished for someone else's choice.

Humans break that principle all the time, often without violence. Picture a nine-year-old in the middle of a bitter divorce. Each parent tells her the other one is the reason for everything. She is taken out of school for hearings and asked to choose sides in a solicitor's office. She has done nothing. Yet she is paying more than anyone in the room.

If she were asked, one day, 'for what sin did you lose your childhood?', the answer would be the same as the buried girl's. None. The ayah hands that question to every child caught in adult wars. It belongs to every worker sacked to cover a manager's mistake, and every weak person made to absorb someone else's cost.

On that Day, the question will be asked in front of the One who never wrongs anyone. Before then, it can be asked in front of a mirror. Is anyone in my life paying for a choice that was mine? If so, the time to put it right is while the question is still mine to answer.

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.