Al-Balad · Makki · ayah 19 of 20

Al-Balad 90:19

وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا هُمْ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْمَشْـَٔمَةِ

“But they who disbelieved in Our signs - those are the companions of the left.[1928]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who covered Our signs are named for the left: the side the Arabs dreaded for bad luck, now a misfortune earned, not feared.

A reflection

Isn't right and left just superstition?

Some aircraft have no row 13. Passengers step from row 12 to row 14 without a second thought. Nobody believes the number itself can bring a plane down. But the old fear lingers in the seat map.

A reader who knows Arabian history might raise an eyebrow at this ayah. The Arabs read omens from the right and the left. A bird or a gazelle crossing from the right meant blessing. From the left, it meant shuʾm, ill luck. Syria, al-Shām, was even named for lying on the Kaʿba's left, as Yemen lay on its right. Isn't the Quran just borrowing an old superstition?

Look at what it does with the word. The commentators give several meanings for the people of al-mashʾamah. Most simply, the people of the left side, taken leftwards on the Day towards the Fire. But two commentators add a sharper reading. They are mashāʾīm: an ill omen to themselves, and to others.

That is a complete reversal of the old belief. The Arabs thought ill luck flew in from outside, on a bird's wing. The Quran says the misfortune is what a person makes of himself. Elsewhere it puts this plainly. When people blamed their prophets for bad luck, the prophets answered: 'Your omen is with you' (36:19).

The Prophet ﷺ was equally direct. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari denies that bird omens have any power. Nothing flies in from the left to decide your fate.

So the ayah keeps the old words but empties them of superstition. Right and left remain, as sides of a real Day and of a real path. But no bird chose anyone's side. Their own deeds did.

What remains open is how literally to picture the two sides on the Day. The Quran describes them in more detail elsewhere (56:27–56). What it makes unmistakable here is the cause. The left was not their luck. It was their choice.

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.