Al-'Alaq · Makki · ayah 12 of 19

Al-'Alaq 96:12

أَوْ أَمَرَ بِٱلتَّقْوَىٰٓ

“Or enjoins righteousness?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Prayer was his quiet call and urging taqwa his spoken one, and the man who forbade him could bear neither.

A reflection

The call made without a word

The captain of a women's netball team is always the first to arrive. Before anyone else is changed, she has set out the cones, pumped the balls and swept the leaves off the court. She rarely gives speeches. She hardly needs to. By the third week of the season, two others are arriving early to help.

The passage names two things the forbidden man did. Idhā ṣallā, when he prays (96:10). And here: aw amara bi-l-taqwā, or urges taqwa.

One classical commentator draws a simple observation from the pair. Whenever you found the Prophet ﷺ, he was doing one of two things. He was mending himself, in prayer, or mending others, by urging taqwa. His days had no third occupation.

The same commentator then adds something deeper. Even his prayer was a call. Whoever saw him praying, he says, felt his heart soften and lean towards faith. So the prayer itself was an invitation in the language of action, and that language is stronger than words. A later commentator explains why. When the person others follow does something, it is as if he says to them: do this.

Order matters here. Prayer is named first, urging second. The private comes before the public. The call made without a word comes before the call made with one.

Every leader knows this in theory and forgets it in practice. We give instructions about punctuality while arriving late. We ask for patience while snapping at people. The team hears both messages and obeys the louder one, which is almost always the action.

The netball captain never said 'come early'. Her cones said it for her. So the question for anyone who leads is what their private habits are already announcing. When the habits and the words agree, the words carry. When they do not, the words sound like noise.

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.