Surah Al-Baqarah 2:44
سُورَةُ البَقَرَةِ · Medinan · Verse 44 of 286
۞ أَتَأْمُرُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ بِٱلْبِرِّ وَتَنسَوْنَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَتْلُونَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ ۚ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ
Translation
How can you tell people to do what is right and forget to do it yourselves, even though you recite the Scripture? Have you no sense?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Do you order people to righteousness while you forget yourselves, though you recite the Book? Will you not then reason?' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the piercing rebuke of the preacher who does not practise, 'atansawna anfusakum', forgetting your own selves while directing others, reciting the guidance without living it. Ask yourself: it is far easier to prescribe good for others than to apply it to myself, to see everyone else's faults clearly and advise them earnestly, while my own life quietly contradicts every word. The verse's question, 'will you not reason?', exposes the absurdity: I recite the Book, I know better, yet I exempt myself. Where do I hold others to a standard I've stopped holding myself to, quick to counsel, correct, and post about righteousness, while 'forgetting myself'? The reminder I most need to hear is usually the one I'm busy giving everyone else.
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Baqarah 2:44 is discussed in 11 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
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