يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ ضُرِبَ مَثَلٌ فَٱسْتَمِعُوا۟ لَهُۥٓ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ لَن يَخْلُقُوا۟ ذُبَابًا وَلَوِ ٱجْتَمَعُوا۟ لَهُۥ وَإِن يَسْلُبْهُمُ ٱلذُّبَابُ شَيْـًٔا لَّا يَسْتَنقِذُوهُ مِنْهُ ضَعُفَ ٱلطَّالِبُ وَٱلْمَطْلُوبُ
Yā ayyuha'n-nāsu ḍuriba mathalun fa'stamiʿū lah · Inna'lladhīna tadʿūna min dūni'llāhi lan yakhluqū dhubāban wa lawi'jtamaʿū lah · Wa in yaslubhumu'dh-dhubābu shayʾan lā yastanqidhūhu minh · Ḍaʿufa'ṭ-ṭālibu wa'l-maṭlūb
"O people! A parable has been struck; listen to it. Those you call upon besides God could not create a fly even if they all gathered for it. And if the fly were to snatch something from them, they could not recover it from it. Weak is the seeker, and weak the sought."
Parables in the Qurʾān are generally given directly. Here a warning comes first: ḍuriba mathalun fa'stamiʿū lah.
I record this as an observation about word order: a call to attention has been set before the parable. And the verb is istamaʿa — Form VIII: to lend an ear, to listen with attention (unlike samiʿa: not to hear but to listen).
And this is directly connected with the matter treated at al-Baqara 2/26. There the example of the gnat (baʿūḍa) is given, and it was recorded, with the report that this example was objected to, as follows:
It is transmitted in the classical commentaries that this verse was revealed upon the mockery of the Qurʾān's giving as examples creatures that look small and insignificant. The answer is to the effect that the size of the example is of no consequence: the worth of a comparison comes not from the dimensions of the thing compared but from the truth of what it shows.
| al-Baqara 2/26 | al-Ḥajj 22/73 | |
|---|---|---|
| The creature | Baʿūḍa — a gnat | Dhubāb — a fly |
| The work of the verse | To defend the giving of small examples | To use the small example |
| The stress | Lā yastaḥyī an yaḍriba mathalan — He does not shrink | Fa'stamiʿū lah — listen |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the function of the two verses: al-Baqara legitimates the method, al-Ḥajj applies it. And al-Ḥajj, by setting a command to listen before it, forestalls from the outset any making light of the smallness of the example.
| Step | The claim | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lan yakhluqū dhubāban wa lawi'jtamaʿū lah | They cannot create — even if they all combine |
| 2 | Wa in yaslubhumu'dh-dhubābu shayʾan lā yastanqidhūhu minh | They cannot recover what is taken from them |
And the second step is heavier than the first. I give this as my own reading, its ground being the comparison of the two claims:
The first step refuses a claim to create — and creating is in any case an extraordinary work. The second step refuses an ordinary work: to take back something snatched from oneself. This is a work any living thing can do.
The parable, therefore, does not raise the claim; it lowers it. And the lower it goes, the more decisive it becomes.
وَلَوِ ٱجْتَمَعُوا۟ لَهُۥ — "even if they all gathered for it." The note also puts number out of play: multitude does not change the outcome.
لَّا يَسْتَنقِذُوهُ — root ن-ق-ذ: to save, to pull free. In Form X: istinqādh — to try to rescue, to get back.
The sentence consists of two words, both from the same root (ط-ل-ب), one an active participle and one a passive participle:
| Word | Pattern | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| ٱلطَّالِب | Active participle | The one who seeks, who searches, who pursues |
| ٱلْمَطْلُوب | Passive participle | The one sought, searched for, pursued |
| View | Ṭālib | Maṭlūb |
|---|---|---|
| A | The idol — seeking back what the fly took from it | The fly |
| B | The one who serves — seeking something from the idol | The idol |
| C | Both general — the sentence covers both parties at once |
But the work the sentence does is the same whichever reading is taken, and I give this as my own reading:
The sentence builds a symmetry and places the same ruling at both its ends. The seeker and the sought, the searcher and the searched for — both are qualified by the same attribute.
The consequence is this: there is no power at any side of the relationship. Usually in a relation of demand one of the parties is strong — either the one who asks (who takes by force) or the one asked (who has the power to give). The sentence eliminates both.
And that the words are chosen from the same root shows this at the level of sound as well: ṭālib and maṭlūb are built from the same letters. The sentence thus says by the very structure of the word that the two parties are of the same stuff.
This is of the same kind as the parable of the spider treated at al-ʿAnkabūt 29/41: there we had awhana'l-buyūti la-baytu'l-ʿankabūt — the frailest of houses. In both parables a small creature is chosen, and in both the matter is not strength but weakness. I rely on that treatment.
The measure the parable chooses is worth recording: a fly is a creature a man can drive off but cannot finally master. It is harmless, but persistent.
By lowering the claim to this level the verse ends the argument. It makes no lofty comparison — it does not say the sun, the mountain, the sea. It takes the smallest thing and shows that even there the outcome does not change.