Conjecture does not suffice in place of the truth
إِنَّ ٱلظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِى مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ شَيْـًٔا
inna l-ẓanna lā yughnī mina l-ḥaqqi shayʾan — indeed conjecture does not suffice in place of the truth in any way
The clause appears identically in (10:36) and (53:28), but each verse frames it differently: (10:36) caps it with a statement of Allah's knowledge of what 'they do', while (53:28) precedes it with a denial that 'they' have any knowledge of the matter at hand.
The sentence إِنَّ ٱلظَّنَّ لَا يُغْنِى مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ شَيْـًٔا occurs word for word in both (10:36) and (53:28). What surrounds it differs. In (10:36) the preceding clause is وَمَا يَتَّبِعُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ إِلَّا ظَنًّا, 'most of them follow nothing but conjecture', with the subject أَكْثَرُهُم ('most of them', 10:36) and the object ظَنًّا indefinite. The verse then closes with إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ, 'Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing of what they do', a closing statement absent from (53:28). Its context, (10:35), poses the question 'how do you judge?', so the clause stands between a challenge to the hearers' judgment and (10:37)'s claim about the Qur'an. In (53:28) the framing clause is وَمَا لَهُم بِهِۦ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ, 'they have no knowledge of it; they follow nothing but conjecture', where the negative is إِن with a verb in the imperfect 3MP (يَتَّبِعُونَ) rather than وَمَا with the singular verb يَتَّبِعُ, and the object is the definite ٱلظَّنَّ rather than the indefinite ظَنًّا. The subject here is simply 'they', not 'most of them'. The verse ends at the clause itself, with no closing statement; the following verse (53:29) turns to the addressee: 'So turn away from whoever has turned away from Our reminder'. So in the verses given, the shared sentence serves once as the conclusion to a dispute about judgment and guidance, and once as the ground for disengaging from those who follow conjecture.
Where it occurs
- 10:36 States that most of them follow nothing but conjecture, asserts the shared clause, and closes with 'Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing of what they do.'
- 53:28 Denies that they have any knowledge of it, then asserts the shared clause as the verse's final statement.
All Qur'anic expressions