Al-Ma'un · Makki · ayah 4 of 7

Al-Ma'un 107:4

فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْمُصَلِّينَ

“So woe to those who pray”

Saheeh International

Essence

After the man who shoves the orphan, you brace for a curse on the unbelievers; instead the word of woe falls on people who pray.

A reflection

The two halves of worship

Read the surah aloud and feel the jolt. A man who pushes orphans away. A man who will not urge anyone to feed the poor. Then: so woe to those who pray. Not to the atheists. To the people on the prayer mats.

Many picture worship as ritual: prayer, fasting, a checklist completed. This surah will not allow it. One classical reading explains the link in three ways, and each one widens the picture.

First: if harming an orphan is a sign of a false heart, prayer without humility is an even clearer sign. Harming people is a dealing with creation. Prayer is service to the Creator. Second: someone might object that prayer is supposed to keep a person from indecency and wrong (29:45). The answer is that a prayer made of showing off and heedlessness cannot keep anyone from anything. Third, and most searching: harming the orphan and ignoring the poor fall short in compassion for Allah's creation. Heedless prayer falls short in reverence for Allah's command. When both halves fail, the misery is complete.

The Quran joins the two halves elsewhere too. The word muṣallīn comes only three times in the Quran, and each time prayer sits beside the poor. In one passage, the true praying ones are described by their wealth. In it is a known right for the one who asks and the one deprived (70:22–25).

Think of the man who never misses dawn prayer in congregation, then shouts at the cleaner in the car park. Think of the aunt who fasts every Monday and Thursday and has not spoken to her sister in eleven years. The surah does not call them hypocrites for praying. It says their prayer has not yet reached their hands.

Worship, in this surah's picture, has two wings: reverence for His command and compassion for His creation. A bird with one wing does not fly. It only flaps, loudly, in one place.

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.