Al-'Alaq · Makki · ayah 6 of 19

Al-'Alaq 96:6

كَلَّآ إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لَيَطْغَىٰٓ

“No! [But] indeed, man transgresses”

Saheeh International

Essence

Five ayat of gifts, then a sudden No: the danger was never the gifts, but a human who forgets their Giver and spills over.

A reflection

When the river leaves its banks

A riverside town loves its river. There is a rowing club, a towpath for the dog walkers, swans under the bridge in spring. Then one February night it rises over the wall at two in the morning. By dawn it is in the bakery, the surgery and forty front rooms. It is the same water. It has simply left its banks.

The Arabs had a word for that night. A torrent ṭaghā when it came down with more water than its bed could hold. The sea ṭaghā when its waves rose and heaved. The Quran uses the word for Nūḥ's (as) flood: 'when the water overflowed, We carried you in the ship' (69:11). That is the picture inside la-yaṭghā in this ayah: a good thing rising past its measure, and sweeping others along with it.

One lexicon draws a careful line. Going to extremes in something hateful is one word. Ṭughyān goes further: crossing the limit while overpowering others, the way floodwater overwhelms whatever stands in its path.

The river was never the enemy. Confidence, ambition, wealth and influence can all water a life, and other lives too. The damage begins at the bank. The founder whose vision no one else may touch. The preacher whose zeal leaves no room for a single question. The friend whose opinions fill every silence.

We tend to picture ṭughyān as something only dictators do. The ayah does not say 'the king'. It says al-insān, the human. Anyone who has a little more than before, a little power over someone else, can rise over the wall.

A river held by its walls can power a mill and water a town. The walls are not its prison; they are what make it useful. In the rest of this surah, the banks have a name: knowing that your Lord sees, and that to Him is the return.

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.