Maryam · Makki · ayah 76 of 98

Maryam 19:76

وَيَزِيدُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱهْتَدَوْا۟ هُدًى ۗ وَٱلْبَـٰقِيَـٰتُ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتُ خَيْرٌ عِندَ رَبِّكَ ثَوَابًا وَخَيْرٌ مَّرَدًّا

“And Allāh increases those who were guided, in guidance, and the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord[825] for reward and better for recourse.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Answering a boast about whose gathering looked finer, the ayah names two things that keep growing: guidance itself, and the deeds still standing afterwards.

A reflection

Guidance is not a place you arrive

Most readers carry a quiet picture of guidance as an arrival. A person was lost, found the way, and now stands on the right side of a line. The ayah's own grammar refuses that picture.

The verb for the guided is in the past: those who were guided, who took the way. Then the sentence keeps going. Allah increases them in guidance. The arrival is where the account begins, not where it ends. Being guided turns out to be the condition for receiving more guidance, not a substitute for it.

The commentaries agree on how the increase comes, and none of their answers is mysterious. New revelation kept arriving, and each ayah that came down was something more to believe and act on. Every duty taken up added to the guidance already held. One long commentary frames it as knowledge built on knowledge. Faith is guidance, and sincerity in faith is a further guidance that cannot come before it. Nobody can be sincere in a faith they do not yet have.

Think of a hill-walker who reaches the top she could see from the car park. It turns out to be a false summit. From there a further ridge shows, one that was invisible from below. She is not lost. She is exactly where she meant to be, and the view has simply grown.

That is the shape of guidance here. The person who has come furthest sees the most road still ahead. Someone who feels there is nothing left to learn about their faith may be standing in the car park, not on the top.

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.