Maryam · Makki · ayah 52 of 98

Maryam 19:52

وَنَـٰدَيْنَـٰهُ مِن جَانِبِ ٱلطُّورِ ٱلْأَيْمَنِ وَقَرَّبْنَـٰهُ نَجِيًّا

“And We called him from the side of the mount[818] at [his] right and brought him near, confiding [to him].”

Saheeh International

Essence

He went towards a fire to fetch a burning stick for his family, and was called by name and drawn near to confide.

A reflection

He was not climbing towards Allah

The picture most readers carry into this ayah is a summit. A holy man ascends a mountain in search of God, and at the top, after great effort, he is rewarded with a voice. Nearness, in that picture, is a prize for spiritual climbers.

The commentaries place this call somewhere much plainer. Musa was coming back from Madyan with his family, on a dark road. He saw a fire glinting on the side of the mountain and went towards it. Elsewhere the Qur'an gives his own words: perhaps I can bring you a burning stick from it, so that you may warm yourselves. Perhaps I will find someone there to guide us.

He was not climbing. He was fetching. A cold family, a lost road, a man going to get fire for the people he was responsible for. That is the errand he was on when he heard his name.

Now look at the verbs. Nādaynāhu: We called him. Qarrabnāhu: We brought him near. Both belong to Allah. In the ayah before, Musa was described; in this one, he does nothing at all. Even the nearness is causative in form: he did not come near, he was made near. The distance was crossed from the other side.

That is not a small correction. It means nearness is not a ladder only the gifted can climb. It can arrive in the middle of an ordinary duty, on the way to something else. It came to a man whose hands were full of other people's needs.

It also means the reader is spared a particular kind of despair. If closeness had to be climbed to, most of us would know we will never get there. If it is given, the question changes. Not: how high can I get? But: what am I walking towards, and would I stop if I were called?

Musa went for a burning stick. He came back with the fire that lit the rest of his life.

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.