ۖ
And if they had believed and guarded themselves, a reward from The God would certainly have been better for them, if only they knew.
This verse sets another path against the choice described in the preceding verse. Had they believed instead of following the devils, and exercised mindful self-restraint with the knowledge placed at their disposal, they could have guarded themselves against rejecting truth and using that knowledge for magic, harm, and their own desires. Learning had given them capability, but possessing a capability is one thing; the purpose for which it is used is another. Before teaching, Harut and Marut warned: “Do not reject truth.” This verse expresses the same path from the human side through two verbs: “believed and guarded themselves”—faith accompanied by self-restraint.
Mindful guarding (taqwa) here is not merely fear. The Arabic word derives from W Q Y and carries the meanings of guarding, protecting, and taking a shield. Someone who has the power to do something but restrains themselves from misusing it demonstrates this mindful guarding in practice. This gives the concept particular significance after the account of Harut and Marut’s knowledge and power. For a fuller examination, see Taqwa in the Qur’an.
In the preceding verse, they bought something for which they sold themselves: “How evil was that for which they sold themselves.” Here, set against that transaction, stands “a reward from The God.” The Arabic word for reward here, mathūbah, comes from TH W B and is connected with returning. The same root gives thawāb, also meaning reward: something that returns to a person in response to their action. Instead of a transaction in which they themselves suffered loss, they could have chosen a path whose return came from The God and was better for them.
If, in place of Solomon’s dominion, we set before ourselves Muhammad’s dominion and the inheritance that remained after him, the verse speaks to us as well. Covering truth does not always begin with destroying it. Sometimes truth is retained, but buried so deeply beneath outward display, transmitted accounts, and ceremony that its original purpose can no longer be seen. The Kaaba was originally a simple house of earth and stone; its value did not lie in architectural splendor, gold, silk, or feats of engineering. The God had made it “a support for people” and had established the Sacred Mosque for people, so that they might gather from distant places, meet one another, witness benefits for themselves, learn from one another, and remember Him. But outward appearance can take the place of meaning: the House may be covered in silk and gold, magnificent buildings and state ceremonies may surround it, and its custodianship may become a title and a source of political prestige, while the central question fades—what was this House established for in the first place? Even the gathering of followers of different denominations in a single pilgrimage season does not, by itself, mean a return to the House’s purpose. Everyone may circle it in the same direction, yet continue to keep the family of believers torn apart by denomination, sect, ethnicity, borders, and inherited divisions. In Solomon’s dominion, the verse speaks of knowledge used to separate a person from their spouse. In Muhammad’s dominion, we can see the same reversal of purpose when the House that should be a place of connection remains, but the family of faith is broken apart. The building is then preserved, its covering has become more splendid, and the ceremonies continue; yet part of the truth for which all these things existed has been concealed beneath those very outward forms. This is the danger that the concept of covering truth (kufr) places before us.
The verse again ends with the same sentence:
“If only they knew.”
The preceding verse had said, “They certainly knew.” The issue, then, is not a lack of information. A person sometimes knows something, yet that knowledge has no part in their choice. These people knew the outcome but chose what would harm them. Had that knowledge been alive in their faith, mindful guarding, and conduct, they would have chosen differently.