At-Tariq · Makki · ayah 15 of 17

At-Tariq 86:15

إِنَّهُمْ يَكِيدُونَ كَيْدًا

“Indeed, they are planning a plan,”

Saheeh International

Essence

They are labouring at a plot with all the strength they have, and the surah names it calmly before saying a word about the answer.

A reflection

Doubt, label, isolate, remove

What did the plotting actually look like? One classical commentary lists it, and the list is worth reading slowly.

First, doubts dropped into people's minds. This is only our worldly life (23:37). Who will give life to bones that have crumbled (36:78)? Has he made the gods one God (38:5)? Why was this Quran not sent down to some great man of the two towns (43:31)? Then labels: sorcerer, poet, madman. Finally, the plan to confine the Prophet ﷺ, kill him or drive him out (8:30). Other early explanations add a quieter tactic. They showed him one face, and worked against him with another.

Picture a young nurse who reports a colleague's unsafe practice. Within a month, questions start about her own competence. Then a word attaches itself to her name: difficult. Then she notices that conversations in the break room stop when she walks in. Then a formal complaint appears, about something small, from someone she barely knows. Doubt, label, isolate, remove. The stages have hardly changed in fourteen centuries.

The ayah does something strategically wise. It names the plot plainly, without panic and without insult: they are plotting a plot. Seeing a tactic clearly takes much of its power away. You stop being surprised by each stage, and you stop mistaking a campaign for the truth about yourself.

Notice, too, what the surah does not do next. It does not answer with a counter-plot. The reply comes in two short ayat: and I am planning a plan; so give them time, gently (86:16–17). The first lesson is to see clearly. The second is to refuse to become what you are facing.

If you are on the receiving end of a campaign, name the stage you are in, calmly, to yourself. Then remember whose plan the surah sets above it.

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.