Al-Ghashiyah · Makki · ayah 22 of 26

Al-Ghashiyah 88:22

لَّسْتَ عَلَيْهِم بِمُصَيْطِرٍ

“You are not over them a controller.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Remind, but do not stand over people keeping their record: hearts were never placed in your hands, not even the hearts you love most.

A reflection

Put down the chart

A mother pins a chart to the fridge for her fifteen-year-old son. Five columns a day, one for each prayer. A green tick if he prays on time, a red cross if he does not. For a month she checks it every evening. The chart fills with red. The boy stops eating breakfast in the kitchen.

Muṣayṭir has a revealing root. It comes from saṭr, a line of writing. One classical dictionary, quoted in a commentary here, defines the word precisely. It is one set over something to watch it, oversee its states, and write down its deeds. The lexicons also give the muṣayṭir as the one set over people to record their doings.

So the ayah removes a specific role from the Prophet ﷺ. He is not the recorder of people's deeds. That task belongs elsewhere: to noble scribes who know whatever you do (82:10–12), and in the end to Allah. An early commentator gives the divine side of it in four words: leave My servants to Me.

Parents, managers and religious teachers can slide into the recorder's role without noticing. The mental list of a spouse's failings. The software that counts an employee's keystrokes. The chart on the fridge. Each is a small attempt to hold the pen that was never handed to us.

The ayah does not say stop caring, stop teaching or stop reminding. The previous ayah commands reminding. It says: do not stand over them with the ledger. Say what is true. Live it in front of them. Then leave the writing to the One who writes.

The mother might take the chart down, pray beside her son when she can, and tell him she is praying for him. Many people find that a heart which will not be recorded can still be reached.

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.