Maryam · Makki · ayah 40 of 98

Maryam 19:40

إِنَّا نَحْنُ نَرِثُ ٱلْأَرْضَ وَمَنْ عَلَيْهَا وَإِلَيْنَا يُرْجَعُونَ

“Indeed, it is We who will inherit the earth and whoever is on it, and to Us they will be returned.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everyone who owns anything on earth will leave it, and the One who remains inherits the whole of it, and them.

A reflection

Everything you call yours is on its way back

Inheritance is the most human of transactions. Someone dies, and what they called theirs passes to someone still alive. Whole families are shaped, and broken, by who inherits what.

This ayah turns inheritance upward. Innā naḥnu narithu l-arḍa wa-man ʿalayhā: it is We who inherit the earth and whoever is on it. One commentary explains the picture. No dominion and no king will remain to anyone but Allah. Everything passes to Him the way an estate passes from the one who died to the one who remains. It sets beside this the question asked on the Last Day: 'To whom is the dominion today? To Allah, the One, the Subduer' (40:16).

That is where the ego shrinks. Picture a man in a hospital bed signing a power of attorney. Within an afternoon, the house, the car and the accounts he called his are being managed by his son. He is still alive, still himself, and already his ownership has thinned to a signature. The ayah says that thinning is coming for everything, for everyone.

Sahih al-Bukhari records the Prophet ﷺ describing that Day. Allah grasps the earth and folds the heavens in His right hand, then says: I am the King; where are the kings of the earth?

Is it vanity for Allah to say this? A boast needs an audience to impress. This sentence is said for the benefit of those who will lose everything: so that they hold it lightly now. One commentary adds that on that Day no soul is wronged in the least.

Our pride in possessions is the pride of tenants. This ayah names the Landlord.

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.