Al-Qur'an Surah An-Nahl Verse 125

Mufti Taqi Usmani

Invite (people) to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good counsel. And argue with them in the best of manners. Surely, your Lord knows best the one who deviates from His way, and He knows best the ones who are on the right path.

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

Invite ˹all˺ to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice, and only debate with them in the best manner. Surely your Lord ˹alone˺ knows best who has strayed from His Way and who is ˹rightly˺ guided.

Ruwwad Translation Center

Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and reason with them in the best manner. Your Lord knows best who has strayed from His way and knows best those who are rightly guided.

A. J. Arberry

Call thou to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and good admonition, and dispute with them in the better way. Surely thy Lord knows very well those who have gone astray from His way, and He knows very well those who are guided.

Abdul Haleem

[Prophet], call [people] to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good teaching. Argue with them in the most courteous way, for your Lord knows best who has strayed from His way and who is rightly guided.

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

Call them unto the way of thy Lord with Wisdom and goodly exhortation, and argue with them with that which is best. Verily thy Lord! He is the Best Knower of him who hath strayed from His way, and He is the Best Knower of the guided ones.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious; for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance.

Abul Ala Maududi

(O Prophet), call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and reason with them in the best manner possible. Surely your Lord knows best who has strayed away from His path, and He also knows well those who are guided to the Right Way.

Ahmed Ali

Call them to the path of your Lord with wisdom and words of good advice; and reason with them in the best way possible. Your Lord surely knows who strays from His path, and He knows those who are guided the right way.

Ahmed Raza Khan

Call towards the path of your Lord with sound planning and good advice, and debate with them in the best possible way; indeed your Lord well knows him who has strayed from His path, and He well knows the guided.

Ali Quli Qarai

Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good advice and dispute with them in a manner that is best. Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are guided.

Ali Ünal

Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and argue with them in the best way possible. Your Lord surely knows best who has gone astray from His way, and He knows best who are the rightly guided.

Amatul Rahman Omar

(Prophet!) call the people to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly and kind exhortation, and argue with them in the most pleasant and best manner. Surely, your Lord knows very well who has gone astray from His path, and He knows very well the guided ones to the right path.

English Literal

Call to your Lord`s way/path with the wisdom, and the good sermon/advise/warning, and argue/dispute with them with which it is best , that your Lord He is more knowledgeable with (of) who misguided from His path/way , and He is more knowledgeable with the guided.

Faridul Haque

Call towards the path of your Lord with sound planning and good advice, and debate with them in the best possible way; indeed your Lord well knows him who has strayed from His path, and He well knows the guided.

Hamid S. Aziz

Call unto the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and reason with them in the best (kindest, most gracious, elegant, persuasive) way; verily, your Lord He knows best who has erred from His way, and He is best aware of those who receive guidance.

Hilali & Khan

Invite (mankind, O Muhammad SAW) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Quran) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.

Maulana Mohammad Ali

The Sabbath was ordained only against those who differed about it. And surely thy Lord will judge between them on the day of Resurrection concerning that wherein they differed.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and goodly exhortation, and have disputations with them in the best manner; surely your Lord best knows those who go astray from His path, and He knows best those who follow the right way.

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

Call unto the way of thy Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation, and reason with them in the better way. Lo! thy Lord is Best Aware of him who strayeth from His way, and He is Best Aware of those who go aright.

Muhammad Sarwar

Call (the pagans) to the path of your Lord through wisdom and good advice and argue with them in the best manner. God knows well about those who stray from His path and those who seek guidance.

Qaribullah & Darwish

Call to the Path of your Lord with wisdom and fine admonition. Dispute with them in the best manner. Your Lord is well aware of those who have gone astray from His Path and He is well aware of those who are guided.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching, and argue with them with that which is best. Truly, your Lord best knows who has strayed from His path, and He best knows those who are guided.

Wahiduddin Khan

Call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair exhortation and reason with them in a way that is best. Your Lord knows best those who have strayed away from His path, and He knows best those who are rightly guided.

Talal Itani

Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good advice, and debate with them in the most dignified manner. Your Lord is aware of those who stray from His path, and He is aware of those who are guided.

Tafsir jalalayn

Call, mankind, O Muhammad (s), to the way of your Lord, [to] His religion, with wisdom, [with] the Qur'n, and fair exhortation, its [the Qur'n's] fair exhortations, or with gentle words, and dispute with them by way of that which, that is, by way of that [manner of] disputation which, is best, such as calling [them] to God by way of His signs and calling [them] to His definitive arguments. Truly your Lord knows best, that is, He is fully knowledgeable [of], those who stray from His way and He knows best those who are guided, and will requite them -- this was [revealed] before the command to fight [them].

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

The Command to invite people to Allah with Wisdom and Good Preaching

Allah says;

ادْعُ إِلِى سَبِيلِ رَبِّكَ بِالْحِكْمَةِ

Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom,

Allah commands His Messenger Muhammad to invite the people to Allah with Hikmah (wisdom).

Ibn Jarir said;

"That is what was revealed to him from the Book and the Sunnah."

وَالْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ

and fair preaching,

meaning, with exhortation and stories of the events that happened to people that are mentioned in the Qur'an, which he is to tell them about in order to warn them of the punishment of Allah.

وَجَادِلْهُم بِالَّتِي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ

and argue with them with that which is best.

meaning, if any of them want to debate and argue, then let that be in the best manner, with kindness, gentleness and good speech, as Allah says elsewhere;

وَلَا تُجَـدِلُواْ أَهْلَ الْكِتَـبِ إِلاَّ بِالَّتِى هِىَ أَحْسَنُ إِلاَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ مِنْهُمْ

And do not argue with the People of the Book, unless it be with that which is best, except for those who purposefully do wrong. (29;46)

Allah commanded him to speak gently, as He commanded Musa and Harun to do when he sent them to Pharaoh, as He said;

فَقُولَا لَهُ قَوْلاً لَّيِّناً لَّعَلَّهُ يَتَذَكَّرُ أَوْ يَخْشَى

And speak to him mildly, perhaps he may accept admonition or fear (Allah). (20;44)

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ

Truly, your Lord best knows who has strayed from His path,

meaning, Allah already knows who is doomed (destined for Hell) and who is blessed (destined for Paradise).

وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ



and He best knows those who are guided.

This has already been written with Him and the matter is finished, so call them to Allah, but do not exhaust yourself with regret over those who go astray, for it is not your task to guide them. You are just a warner, and all you have to do is convey the Message, and it is He Who will bring them to account.

إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِى مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ

You cannot guide whom you love. (28;56)

لَّيْسَ عَلَيْكَ هُدَاهُمْ وَلَـكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَأءُ

It is not up to you to guide them, but Allah guides whom He wills. (2;72)