Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 24 of 111

Al-Isra 17:24

وَٱخْفِضْ لَهُمَا جَنَاحَ ٱلذُّلِّ مِنَ ٱلرَّحْمَةِ وَقُل رَّبِّ ٱرْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِى صَغِيرًا

“And lower to them the wing of humility out of mercy and say, "My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up [when I was] small."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Fold your wing down over the two who once sheltered you, and ask the Lord who raised you all to raise them in mercy.

A reflection

Not a line for the funeral

For many people, the second half of this ayah lives in one setting. Rabbi irḥamhumā kamā rabbayānī ṣaghīrā is said at gravesides and written in condolence messages. The first half, the wing, is heard as poetry: a lovely image, not quite an instruction.

Read in place, both assumptions slip. The ayah continues the one before it, which is about parents in old age in your care. The wing is lowered over the living. The concise commentaries gloss it plainly: humble yourself before them, out of mercy for them. The prayer, they say, is for them alive and dead. One adds: in their old age, and at their death.

So the ayah gives three instructions for the same afternoon. A posture of the body: lower your wing. A source in the heart: from mercy. A sentence to Allah: my Lord, have mercy on them. None of them waits for a funeral.

The previous ayah dealt with the mouth. This one moves inward and upward. It is easy to stop at not sighing and call that kindness. The ayah keeps going until it reaches the heart, and then hands the parents to their Lord.

There is a quiet warning in the funeral habit, too. A prayer said only at the grave can become a way of settling accounts once the person is gone. The ayah wants it said while they can still be served, while the wing can still be lowered over someone who feels it.

Say it at the bedside, not only at the graveside. They may never hear you. Their Lord will.

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.