Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 83 of 111

Al-Isra 17:83

وَإِذَآ أَنْعَمْنَا عَلَى ٱلْإِنسَـٰنِ أَعْرَضَ وَنَـَٔا بِجَانِبِهِۦ ۖ وَإِذَا مَسَّهُ ٱلشَّرُّ كَانَ يَـُٔوسًا

“And when We bestow favor upon man [i.e., the disbeliever], he turns away and distances himself; and when evil touches him, he is ever despairing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Given a blessing, we turn our side to the Giver; merely touched by harm, we cut the rope of hope.

A reflection

Given by Him, merely touched by harm

Read the two halves of this ayah side by side and something in the grammar stands out. Idhā anʿamnā: when We bestow favour. The giving is Allah's own act, in His own voice. Then the other half: idhā massahu al-sharr, when evil touches him. No 'We' at all. Harm simply touches.

One later commentary dwells on this. The good is named as Allah's doing and the harm is not, it says, as a signal that good is what He intends in itself. It ties this to words the Prophet ﷺ used when opening his prayer, recorded in Sahih Muslim. All good is in Your hands, and evil is not to You. The schools explain that last phrase in more than one way, and the ayah's grammar keeps the same courtesy.

Then notice the verb for harm. Massa: touch. The lexicons say it is used of contact that is actually felt, a hand laid on a thing. It is not a flood or a blow. It is a touch.

So the proportions are startling. A lifetime of blessing, given in Allah's own name, produces turning away. A touch of harm produces despair.

Picture a woman on a station platform when the board flips to cancelled. Nothing ever goes right for me, she says aloud, to nobody. For twelve years the 7.42 has run on time almost every morning. It never once made her say alhamdulillah. One cancelled train has made her a person to whom nothing goes right.

That is the ayah in miniature. The ledger we keep is lopsided. Blessings are entered in pencil and rubbed out. Harms are carved in stone.

The cure begins with the grammar itself. Name the good as His, out loud, when it comes. Then a touch of harm will feel like what it is: a touch, inside a life already crowded with gifts.

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.