Maryam · Makki · ayah 25 of 98

Maryam 19:25

وَهُزِّىٓ إِلَيْكِ بِجِذْعِ ٱلنَّخْلَةِ تُسَـٰقِطْ عَلَيْكِ رُطَبًا جَنِيًّا

“And shake toward you the trunk of the palm tree; it will drop upon you ripe, fresh dates.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah could have bent the trunk to her, but He told a weak, exhausted mother to shake it, and fresh dates fell.

A reflection

A miracle that began with a command to act

Many believers carry a quiet assumption. If Allah wants to give me something, I need only wait. Real trust, they feel, means doing nothing.

Then read this ayah. Maryam is exhausted, newly delivered, alone at a dry trunk. Allah is about to give her fruit out of season. And the first word is a command: wa-huzzī. Shake.

He did not need her hands. One commentator draws the lesson directly. Provision is decreed, he says, yet Allah has entrusted the son of Adam with some effort towards it. She was told to shake the trunk to see a sign, though the sign could have come without the shaking. He adds that requiring effort is Allah's way with His servants. It does not damage reliance on Him, whatever some ignorant ascetics claim.

Another commentator makes the same point and quotes two lines of poetry. Do you not see that Allah told Maryam: shake the trunk, and the dates will fall? Had He willed, He would have bent the trunk down to her without a shake. But everything has its cause.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, gave the same balance in an image. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī records it with a strong chain. If you relied on Allah as He deserves, you would be provided for as the birds are. They go out hungry in the morning and return full in the evening. The birds go out.

Picture a graduate who tells his mother that if a job is written for him, it will find him. She smiles, and hands him his coat.

Trust and effort were never rivals. The shake is yours. The fruit is His.

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.