Quraysh · Makki · ayah 4 of 4

Quraysh 106:4

ٱلَّذِىٓ أَطْعَمَهُم مِّن جُوعٍ وَءَامَنَهُم مِّنْ خَوْفٍۭ

“Who has fed them, [saving them] from hunger and made them safe, [saving them] from fear.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every meal you have eaten and every night you slept safely came from the same Hand; worship begins with noticing whose it was.

A reflection

He fed them

Picture a restaurant owner at closing time, looking over a full dining room. I built this, he thinks. Every plate on those tables came from me.

The ayah uses a different verb. Aṭʿamahum: He fed them. Not 'they earned their food', though Quraysh were famous traders. The caravans, the markets and the profit were real. But it was He who met their hunger. Even the report that credits a leader of Makkah with organising those caravans says Allah fed them through his work.

In a hadith qudsi in Sahih Muslim, Allah says: My servants, all of you are hungry except those I feed. So ask Me for food, and I will feed you. Read that at your next meal. The farmer, the driver and the shop were all real. They were also the hands through which He fed you.

One classical commentator widens the picture until it is almost dizzying. Think of everything that must exist before a meal is ready, he says. The heavens and their stars, the elements, the rain and soil. Then think of everything needed after you eat for the food to do you any good: every organ, in its exact shape. The whole universe is involved in a single mouthful. Only its Maker can be said to have fed you.

That undoes a particular pride: the person who thinks he owes no one. Nobody feeds himself. The self-made man ate breakfast this morning from a chain of gifts he did not make and could not list.

The same hadith says that if all humanity were as devout as the most devout heart, it would add nothing to His dominion. He does not feed you to gain from you. He feeds you because He is generous, and asks only that you know it, and turn to Him.

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.