Al-Mutaffifin · Makki · ayah 32 of 36

Al-Mutaffifin 83:32

وَإِذَا رَأَوْهُمْ قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّ هَـٰٓؤُلَآءِ لَضَآلُّونَ

“And when they saw them, they would say, "Indeed, those are truly lost."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The ones who had lost the road looked at the only people on it and called them lost.

A reflection

Calling the road-walkers lost

Ḍalāl is losing the way. Picture a traveller in open country who can find no road to where he is going. The Arabs said, 'my camel went astray', and 'my baggage went astray'. They also said the milk was lost in the water: poured in, swallowed up, and impossible to find again.

Now notice the irony in this ayah. The mockers looked at the believers and said, 'These people are lost'. Yet the surah has just shown whose record was sunk in sijjīn and whose heart was rusted over (83:7, 83:14). The people issuing the verdict were the ones with no road.

Picture a motorway in thick fog. A driver is furious with the car in front, which is going slowly and carefully. He flashes his lights and mutters that the other driver has no idea what he is doing. In fact, the car in front is the only one following the white lines. The angry driver is simply following the car in front.

It is often like that. The loudest accusation of being lost comes from someone who has not checked his own map. The Quran has already explained why. One scholar of the heart said it of the rusted heart at 83:14. Such a heart 'sees falsehood as truth and truth as falsehood'.

The lesson cuts both ways. If you are called lost for following the road, keep your eyes on the lines. And before you call anyone else lost, check whether you are simply following the car in front.

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.