What does “wa man azlamu mimman” mean (Qur’an 2:140)?
Wa man aẓlamu mimman means “and who does greater wrong than the one who…”, a question the Qur’an puts with its answer already carried inside it: no one does. The words sit in a verse of Surah al-Baqarah: “Or do you claim that Ibrahim, Isma'il, Ishaq, Ya'qub, and the tribes were Jews or Christians? Say: do you know better, or does God? And who is more unjust than someone who conceals a testimony he has from God? And God is not unaware of what you do.” [Qur’an 2:140]. In Arabic the phrase is وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّن. Word by word, wa is “and”, man is “who”, and aẓlamu is the elative of the root ẓ-l-m, whose basic sense in Arabic is putting a thing where it does not belong, so ẓulm is wrongdoing understood as displacement and a ẓālim is the one who displaces what is due. Mimman is min joined to man, “than the one who”. Nine of the fifteen occurrences open with wa-, and six open with fa- instead, giving fa-man aẓlamu mimman, “so who does greater wrong…”, which is why the phrase reaches people in two spellings.
In 2:140 the formula lands on one specific act. The passage is an argument about Ibrahim and the prophets after him, and the verse before it answers the claim being made: “Do you argue with us about God, when he is our Lord and your Lord?” (2:139). Then 2:140 asks whether the people making the claim know better than God, and names what they are doing with what they already know: concealing a testimony they hold from God. The wrong here belongs to someone in possession of the evidence, which is why the verse closes on being watched rather than on being ignorant.
The same formula runs through the Qur’an fifteen times, and thirteen of them turn on lying about God or turning away from his signs. Surah al-An‘am gives the shortest form, “Who does greater wrong than the one who invents a lie against God or denies his signs? The wrongdoers will never succeed.” (6:21), and Surah al-A‘raf (7:37) and Surah Yunus (10:17) repeat it almost word for word, the second closing instead with “Indeed, the guilty will not succeed.” Elsewhere in the same surah the wrong is aimed at other people: “Who, then, is more wrong than the one who invents a lie against God to lead people astray without knowledge?” (6:144), and “So who does greater wrong than one who denies the signs of God and turns away from them?” (6:157). Surah as-Sajdah names the one “who is reminded of the signs of his Lord and then turns away from them” (32:22), and Surah al-Kahf says the same at greater length, adding “forgetting what his own hands have sent ahead” (18:57). Surah as-Saff has the case of a person “who invents lies against God while being called to surrender to him” (61:7). Two occurrences name something other than lying, and both sit in Surah al-Baqarah: “Who is more unjust than those who bar God's places of worship from having his name remembered in them, and strive for their ruin?” (2:114), and the concealed testimony of 2:140.
Commentators raise the question a superlative used of several different groups invites, and they answer it in more than one way. One reading takes each occurrence inside its own class, so a verse names the worst among those who lie about God, another the worst among those who turn from the signs, another the worst among those who hide what they know, with no ranking of the classes against each other. Another reading treats the formula as marking one rank that all of them enter, so what the verses establish is membership in the highest degree of wrongdoing. Both are transmitted and both leave the verses intact; for a settled position a knowledgeable scholar you trust can take you through the tafsir. English translations also render the one Arabic formula in several ways, as “who is more unjust”, “who does greater wrong”, and “who, then, is more wrong”, so a reader who met it in one translation can search for it in another and find nothing.
Surah al-Baqarah returns to concealment more than once, which is what gives 2:140 its weight. It speaks of “Those who conceal the clear signs and the guidance we have sent down, after we made it plain to people in the scripture” (2:159) and of “Those who conceal what God has sent down of the scripture and trade it for a small price” (2:174), and it brings the same word down into ordinary dealings between people: “Do not conceal testimony — whoever conceals it, their heart is sinful. And God knows what you do.” (2:283). Read together, the formula asks what a person does with knowledge already in their hands, and 2:140 ends where it began, with “And God is not unaware of what you do.”
📖 Source: Qur’an 2:114; 2:139–141; 2:159; 2:174; 2:283; 6:21; 6:144; 6:157; 7:37; 10:17; 18:57; 32:22; 61:7
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