Ar-Ra'd · Madani · ayah 18 of 43

Ar-Ra'd 13:18

لِلَّذِينَ ٱسْتَجَابُوا۟ لِرَبِّهِمُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَمْ يَسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لَهُۥ لَوْ أَنَّ لَهُم مَّا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا وَمِثْلَهُۥ مَعَهُۥ لَٱفْتَدَوْا۟ بِهِۦٓ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ لَهُمْ سُوٓءُ ٱلْحِسَابِ وَمَأْوَىٰهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ ۖ وَبِئْسَ ٱلْمِهَادُ

“For those who have responded to their Lord is the best [reward], but those who did not respond to Him - if they had all that is in the earth entirely and the like of it with it, they would [attempt to] ransom themselves thereby. Those will have the worst account, and their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the resting place.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who answered their Lord receive the best, left undescribed; those who did not would offer the whole earth twice over, and find no taker.

A reflection

Who answers whom?

Most of us meet the word istajāba travelling in one direction. Call on Me and I will answer you (40:60). It is the word for Allah answering our duʿāʾ. So it is startling to find it here pointing the other way. Here the servant is the one who answers.

The root pictures cutting through. Thamūd cut through the rock to make their homes (89:9). A desert guide who crossed the wastes was a jawwāb. A reply, jawāb, is speech that crosses the distance back from the one addressed. The tenth form, istajāba, adds readiness: getting yourself ready to answer, then answering.

So the picture is of a call that has already come, across a great distance, and a person who gets up and crosses back. One commentator says the call was to His oneness and to obedience. Another lists what answering includes: obeying Allah and His Messenger, following His commands, and believing what He told of past and future.

One verse joins both directions. When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls Me. So let them answer Me, and believe in Me (2:186). He answers; let them answer. The two belong together.

Think about how lopsided our habits are. A woman's phone shows forty unread messages. She answers her manager in a minute, the courier in two, the group chat between meetings. The one message she keeps leaving is from her grandmother. It says only: 'When are you coming?' She loves her. But the call that matters most asks the most, so it waits.

Many of us treat Allah's call like that message. We expect Him to answer ours at once, and leave His on 'seen'. The ayah reverses the expectation. The best is promised to those who answered. Not to those who agreed in principle, or meant to reply.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.