Al-Humazah · Makki · ayah 3 of 9

Al-Humazah 104:3

يَحْسَبُ أَنَّ مَالَهُۥٓ أَخْلَدَهُۥ

“He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nobody says "my money will keep me alive for ever", yet the will never written and the charity always postponed say it for us.

A reflection

Nobody really thinks that

The objection: no one, rich or poor, actually believes money makes them immortal. Is this not a straw man?

Look at the verb. Yaḥsabu is to reckon or suppose. It can describe an assumption a person never states, even to himself. The ayah is not quoting a creed; it is exposing a posture. Classical commentators describe it in practical terms. Wealth lengthened his hopes and filled him with distant wishes. So he builds with brick and plaster, plants trees and digs water channels, like someone who will stay. He lives as though the money has kept him alive.

Then the tense. Akhladahu is past: 'has made him last'. One commentary says the past tense shows how he sees it: immortality already secured, a matter settled and filed. Another compares an Arab saying. When a man did something reckless, people would say he was ruined. He is not ruined yet, but the outcome is so certain it is spoken of as done.

You have met this posture. The thirty-year investment plan, and no will. The second extension, and no time to pray properly 'until things calm down'. The generous donation promised for retirement. None of these people would sign a statement saying 'I will not die'. They simply arrange their lives around it.

A well-known early saying puts it perfectly: there is no certainty that looks more like doubt than death. Everyone is sure of it. Almost no one behaves as if they were.

What remains open is not whether to plan; planning is not the fault here. The fault is the hidden assumption underneath the plan. A good test is to read your own diary for next year and ask what it assumes. If every page takes the next one for granted, the ayah has found you.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.