Ar-Ra'd · Madani · ayah 26 of 43

Ar-Ra'd 13:26

ٱللَّهُ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيَقْدِرُ ۚ وَفَرِحُوا۟ بِٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ إِلَّا مَتَـٰعٌ

“Allāh extends provision for whom He wills and restricts [it]. And they rejoice in the worldly life, while the worldly life is not, compared to the Hereafter, except [brief] enjoyment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah alone spreads and measures provision, so wealth proves nothing about His love; beside the Hereafter, this life is a shepherd's bundle for the road.

A reflection

The sentence that starts with His name

Arabic could have said simply: He spreads provision. Instead the ayah sets the name first. Allāh, and only then, yabsuṭu: Allah, He spreads. One classical commentator reads the fronted name as a claim of exclusivity. Allah alone spreads provision and measures it, and nobody else.

That sentence goes straight for one of the ego's favourite beliefs. My income is mine. I earned it. My comfort is the sum of my cleverness and my hours.

Picture a street musician who plays the same corner every Saturday for six years, for enough to cover the bus fare home. One afternoon a passer-by films him, and the clip is shared around the world. For three weeks he earns more than in the six years before. Same songs, same corner, same tired fingers. Then the attention moves on, and he is back to the bus fare. If he is honest, he knows his effort did not change. Something else spread, and then measured again.

The ayah's two verbs carry pictures. Basaṭa is to spread a thing out: a carpet, the wide earth, a generous man's open hand. Qadara is to measure. The Arabs praised a horse whose hind hooves landed exactly where its forefeet had stepped, as if each stride were measured. And qadara ʿalayhi rizqahu meant measuring someone's provision out narrowly. Restriction, in this language, is not carelessness. It is a stride placed exactly.

This is where pride has to shrink. Nobody is self-spreading. The person with plenty did not lay the carpet, and the person with little was not forgotten. Both are under the same hand, which measures each life to the step. One classical scholar records an early saying that sounds strange at first: His withholding is itself a giving. He does not hold back from His believing servant out of meanness or lack. He looks to that servant's good.

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.