Ar-Ra'd · Madani · ayah 5 of 43

Ar-Ra'd 13:5

۞ وَإِن تَعْجَبْ فَعَجَبٌ قَوْلُهُمْ أَءِذَا كُنَّا تُرَٰبًا أَءِنَّا لَفِى خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ ۗ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِرَبِّهِمْ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ ٱلْأَغْلَـٰلُ فِىٓ أَعْنَاقِهِمْ ۖ وَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلنَّارِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَـٰلِدُونَ

“And if you are astonished,[626] [O Muḥammad] - then astonishing is their saying, "When we are dust, will we indeed be [brought] into a new creation?" Those are the ones who have disbelieved in their Lord, and those will have shackles[627] upon their necks, and those are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally.”

Saheeh International

Essence

After sky, earth and fruit, the truly astonishing thing is people who accept the first creation and laugh at the second.

A reflection

Point your astonishment the right way

In a hospital café, a new father scrolls through photos of his daughter, born an hour ago. Seven pounds, two ounces, a full head of hair. He cannot stop saying it: nine months ago she was nothing. Later, over a second coffee, his brother mentions their late grandmother. 'When you're gone, you're gone,' the father says. His brother glances at the phone, still glowing on the table, and says nothing.

The surah has just spent four ayat on wonders. A sky without pillars, a sun and moon on schedule, earth, mountains, rivers, fruit from one water in many tastes. Now it says: wa-in taʿjab fa-ʿajabun qawluhum. If you are going to be astonished, here is the astonishing thing. Their saying.

The lexicons define wonder as what comes over a person who does not know a thing's cause. That makes this ayah sharp. The deniers were not short of a cause. One commentary notes that they admitted Allah began creation. It is settled in every heart, it adds, that doing something again is easier than doing it the first time. That is exactly where the wonder lies.

An early commentator pressed the point with a question. Do they not see that We created them from a drop of fluid? Which is harder: creation from a drop, or creation from dust and bones?

The new father did not doubt that a person can be made from almost nothing. He was holding the evidence. What he doubted was that it could happen twice. The Quran does not call that a hard question. It calls it a strange one.

One later commentator suggests the address may be wider than the Prophet ﷺ. Whoever you are, if these signs have filled you with wonder, keep some of it back. Keep it for this: that anyone could see them and still say, 'when we are dust?'

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.