At-Takathur · Makki · ayah 8 of 8

At-Takathur 102:8

ثُمَّ لَتُسْـَٔلُنَّ يَوْمَئِذٍ عَنِ ٱلنَّعِيمِ

“Then you will surely be asked that Day about pleasure.[1983]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The race for more ends with a question about cool water, shade and health: every blessing is a trust, and gratitude is the answer.

A reflection

Dates, water and shade

Sahih Muslim tells the story. One day the Prophet ﷺ went out and found Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. What brought you out at this hour? Hunger, they said. By the One in whose hand my soul is, he said, the same brought me out.

They went to the house of a man of the Ansar. He was out fetching sweet water. When he returned and saw his guests he said: praise be to Allah, no one today has more honoured guests than I. He brought a cluster of dates, ripe and half-ripe, and slaughtered a sheep. They ate and drank until they were full. Then the Prophet ﷺ said: you will be asked about this blessing on the Day of Resurrection. Hunger drove you from your homes, and you did not return until this blessing reached you.

That was the naʿīm: a meal after hunger and a drink of water. Another narration of the same visit adds cool shade. The Arabs even called a shade built on a mountaintop a naʿāma, from this root of ease and good living.

When this ayah came down, one Companion asked: what blessing will we be asked about? We have only the two black things, dates and water. The reply: it will come. Al-Tirmidhi records it and grades it ḥasan.

It has come. Cold water from a tap. Shade at the touch of a switch. A supermarket of plenty. The question has grown with it.

Notice who was being told. Not a rich man at a banquet, but three men whom hunger had driven from their homes. If their dates were a blessing to be asked about, then very little in our kitchens is too small to count.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.