Tafseer of The Prophets · Al-Anbiyaa · 21:36
And when those who disbelieve see you, [O Muhammad], they take you not except in ridicule, [saying], "Is this the one who insults your gods?" And they are, at the mention of the Most Merciful, disbelievers.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
Allah, exalted be His praise, says to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: وَإِذَا رَآكَ — "And when they see you" — O Muḥammad — الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا — "those who have disbelieved (kufr) in Allah" — إِنْ يَتَّخِذُونَكَ إِلَّا هُزُوًا — "they take you only in mockery" — that is to say: they mock you, after which some of them say to others: أَهَذَا الَّذِي يَذْكُرُ آلِهَتَكُمْ — meaning: he mentions your gods with evil and reviles them — while they are astonished at all this.
Allah, exalted be His praise, says: they are astonished that you, O Muḥammad, mention their gods — which neither harm nor benefit — with evil. وَهُمْ بِذِكْرِ الرَّحْمَنِ — "while they, regarding the remembrance of the Most Merciful (al-Raḥmān)" — the One Who created them and Whose favor rests upon them and from Whom their benefit comes and in Whose hand lies their harm and to Whom they shall return, with what is due to Him from them — that they should mention Him with what is due to Him — كَافِرُونَ — "are disbelievers."
The Arabs use the word "to mention" (dhikr) for both praise and blame; they say: "We heard So-and-so mention So-and-so" while they mean: we heard him mention him with evil and revile him. An example of this is the verse of ʿAntara:
"Speak not ill (lā tadhkurī) of my horse and what I fed it — else your skin will become like the skin of the mangy one."
By this he means: do not revile my horse. And one also says: "We heard him mention with good."
