Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 68 of 111

Al-Isra 17:68

أَفَأَمِنتُمْ أَن يَخْسِفَ بِكُمْ جَانِبَ ٱلْبَرِّ أَوْ يُرْسِلَ عَلَيْكُمْ حَاصِبًا ثُمَّ لَا تَجِدُوا۟ لَكُمْ وَكِيلًا

“Then do you feel secure that [instead] He will not cause a part of the land to swallow you or send against you a storm of stones? Then you would not find for yourselves an advocate.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Saved from the sea, you feel safe on land; but every side of the earth, below you and above you, is equally in His hand.

A reflection

Solid ground is just another side

After a vicious night off the coast, a fishing boat limps into harbour at dawn. The skipper climbs the ladder to the quay and stamps his boots on the concrete, twice. 'Solid ground,' he mutters to nobody. The danger, he is sure, is behind him.

The ayah asks him a quiet question. A-fa-amintum an yakhsifa bikum jāniba l-barr: do you feel secure that He will not cause the side of the land to swallow you? The commentators dwell on one word, jānib, side. Why not simply 'the land'? One answer is that the sea is one side and the land is another. All sides and all directions are the same to His power. On every side, land or sea, He has a means of ruin ready if He wills. The land is not a place beyond His reach. It is the other side of the same hand.

One commentator draws out the symmetry. Drowning is being hidden under water. Khasf is being hidden under the earth. If He could do the first, He can do the second. Another concludes that the wise person's fear of Allah should be the same on every side, wherever he is.

That is a direct challenge to the ego's favourite feeling, which is control. On solid ground we feel in charge again. We plan, we own, we stamp our boots. The ayah does not mock the relief. It removes the illusion inside it. The concrete was never ours.

Is a God who reminds us of this insecure, needing us to tremble? No. He is the Free of need (35:15), and our trembling adds nothing to Him. The warning is not for His comfort. It is to protect us from a false comfort that would let us turn away.

The skipper walks home. The ground holds, as it held yesterday. It holds because it is held.

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.