Al-'Adiyat · Makki · ayah 6 of 11

Al-'Adiyat 100:6

إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ لِرَبِّهِۦ لَكَنُودٌ

“Indeed mankind, to his Lord, is ungrateful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Here is the point of the whole oath: the horse gives everything to the one who feeds it, while the human being cuts off the thanks he owes his Lord.

A reflection

Land that drinks the rain and grows nothing

A young couple move into a new-build house. The garden looks fine: a neat square of topsoil. They sow grass seed, and the rain falls all spring. Nothing grows beyond a few thin patches. When they finally dig down, they find the builders' rubble a few inches below the surface. The rain has been soaking in all along. It simply has nowhere to go.

That is the picture inside the word the ayah uses. Kanūd, the lexicons record, was said of land: arḍ kanūd is ground that grows nothing. The rain comes, the sun comes, and nothing comes back. That image is established.

The root's first idea, several lexicons say, is cutting: kanada al-ḥabl, he cut the rope. The kanūd is someone who cuts off what should stay joined, above all the thanks that should keep flowing back to the giver. One old poet used the word for a woman who broke off affection with a visitor who kept coming faithfully. Another source defines it simply: the one who withholds what he owes.

The sources also record that the word meant slightly different things in different tribes. In one dialect it meant disobedient. In another it meant a miser who treats those in his care badly. In the speech of the great northern tribes it meant ungrateful. Most commentators take the last sense here, while noting that every sense carries some ingratitude inside it.

Now the whole surah falls into place. Five ayat of horses running until their chests heave, striking fire from rock, charging into the enemy's centre, all for the rider who feeds them. Then: inna al-insāna li-rabbihi la-kanūd. 'Truly the human being, to his Lord, is ungrateful.' The words 'to his Lord' come first in the Arabic, for emphasis. Ingratitude to people is bad. Ingratitude to Him, who gave everything, is the heart of the charge.

The couple's garden recovered once the rubble was cleared. So can the heart. The rain has never stopped falling.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.