رَبَّنَا لَا تَجْعَلْنَا فِتْنَةً لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ وَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا رَبَّنَآ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
"Our Lord! Do not make us a fitna for those who disbelieve. And forgive us, our Lord. You are indeed al-ʿAzīz, al-Ḥakīm."
This verse is the continuation of the prayer at the end of the fourth verse — and this matters for the word order. That is, the prayer that follows the declaration of separation is not a single sentence; it runs on for two verses. After the severity, the sūra lengthens the prayer.
The root ف-ت-ن. And its concrete sense explains all the uses of the word: to put gold into the fire and separate it from what is mixed with it.
- فَتَنَ الذَّهَبَ — he threw the gold into the fire; when it is melted the pure is separated from the alloyed.
- الفَتِين — burnt, blackened stony ground.
From here all the senses of the word are derived: trial (the thing that distinguishes), torment (casting into fire — indeed the Qurʾān says to those in the Fire "taste your fitna", al-Dhāriyāt 51/14), turmoil (the thing that splits a community apart), and the attractive thing that leads astray (the pull that divides a person).
The usual English renderings show the same narrowing: "sedition", "strife", "temptation" each take one slice of it. The use in the Qurʾān is far wider, and at its centre stands a trial that separates.
What, then, does "do not make us a fitna for those who disbelieve" mean? In the classical exegesis there are two readings, and both can be defended:
| Reading | Its meaning | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Do not let us fall into their hands and be tormented by them; do not make us the instrument of their trial." | The sense of fitna as "torment, affliction". And the actual situation of those addressed: in verse 2 it was described what the other side would do if they got the upper hand. |
| 2 | "Do not make us the cause of their going astray; do not let something that befalls us lead them to say 'so these people were not on the truth after all'." | The sense of fitna as "the thing that leads astray". And the context of the verse: a barāʾa has just been declared, the connection with the other side has been cut. |
The second reading seems to me the stronger, and my ground is this: the prayer is about the situation of the other side — it says "a fitna for them", not "a fitna for us". That is, the subject of the prayer is not so much what befalls the believers as what what befalls them will produce on the other side.
This is a preference, and it is not binding; and the two readings do not exclude one another — the first coming about leads in any case to the second.
The idea carried by the second reading is worth noting: the condition of a community is, for the other side, either a proof or an obstacle. To be defeated, to fall apart, to become inconsistent does not harm oneself alone; it also strengthens the other side's hand. That is, the believer is held responsible for his own condition on behalf of another's belief as well. This is a sentence of responsibility built by way of a prayer.
The same idea is seen elsewhere in the Qurʾān too. The people of Moses (Mūsā) say "Our Lord, do not make us a fitna for the wrongdoing people" (Yūnus 10/85) — the same pattern, the same word.
عَزِيز — the root ع-ز-ز: to be firm, hard, difficult of access. Its concrete sense is hard ground that does not give way when trodden on (arḍun ʿazāz). From this come the senses "unconquerable, superior, precious". For a thing to be ʿazīz is for it not to be easily reached — and English keeps the same link in the word dear, which means both "beloved" and "costly".
حَكِيم — the root ح-ك-م: to prevent, to bridle. The bit put in a horse's mouth is called ḥakama. From the same root come ḥukm (a decision that binds a matter), ḥikma (knowledge that holds one back from error), iḥkām (making firm). That is, ḥikma, in the logic of the word itself, is not an accumulation of knowledge but an understanding that holds one back from doing wrong.
That these two names should come at the end of this prayer is meaningful. al-ʿAzīz: the power is Yours. al-Ḥakīm: and there is a measure in the way that power is used. At the moment a community feels itself defenceless, the first name tells it of security, the second that what befalls it is not random.