HE FROWNED

VERSE OF THE DAY:

HE FROWNED


“He (the Prophet) frowned and turned away because there came to him a blind man (interrupting his conversation). But what could tell thee but that perchance (the man) might grow (in spiritual understanding)? Or that he might receive admonition and the teaching might profit him?”

The Holy Quran, 80:1-4


Commentary by Muhammad Asad: One day, as recorded in many well-authenticated traditions, the Prophet was engrossed in a conversation with some of the most influential chieftains of pagan Mecca, hoping to convince them - and, through them, the Meccan community at large - of the truth of his message. At that point, he was approached by one of his followers, the blind Abd Allah ibn Shurayh - known after his grandmother's name as Ibn Umm Maktum - with the request for a repetition or elucidation of certain earlier passages of the Qur'an. Annoyed by this interruption of what he momentarily regarded as a more important endeavor, Muhammad "frowned and turned away" from the blind man - and was immediately, there and then, reproved by the revelation of the first ten verses of this surah. In later years he often greeted Ibn Umm Maktum with these words of humility:

"Welcome unto him on whose account my Sustainer has rebuked me (atabani)!"