Al-Mutaffifin · Makki · ayah 29 of 36

Al-Mutaffifin 83:29

إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ أَجْرَمُوا۟ كَانُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ يَضْحَكُونَ

“Indeed, those who committed crimes used to laugh at those who believed.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The surah's last scene turns from the scales to the street, where the powerful laughed at the poorest believers and thought the joke was final.

A reflection

Laughed at, and not alone

The commentaries name the people in this scene. The ones laughing were the leading men of Makka, the powerful and the comfortable. The ones laughed at were the poorest believers: ʿAmmār, Khabbāb, Ṣuhayb, Bilāl and others like them. They had no tribe to protect them, no wealth to impress anyone, and they had chosen a faith that cost them everything.

One classical commentator explains why the passage is here at all. Its purpose, he says, is to console the believers and strengthen their hearts. Allah records the mockery so that those who suffer it will know it was seen.

That is worth hearing if you have ever been laughed at for your faith. Picture a young nurse who has recently started wearing a headscarf. At the staff Christmas party, a senior colleague does an impression of her 'praying in the linen cupboard'. The room roars. She laughs along, goes home early and sits in the car outside her flat for a long time.

The ayah tells her three things. First, she is in company. The best generation of believers was laughed at before her, and by far more powerful people. Second, it was noticed. The Quran preserves the laughter in the words of Allah, to be recited for ever. Third, it was not the last word. The surah is about to reverse the scene entirely (83:34).

None of this makes mockery painless. But it changes what it means. Being laughed at for believing is not a sign that you are on the wrong road. Very often it is a sign that you are walking where the best walked.

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.