Maryam · Makki · ayah 97 of 98

Maryam 19:97

فَإِنَّمَا يَسَّرْنَـٰهُ بِلِسَانِكَ لِتُبَشِّرَ بِهِ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ وَتُنذِرَ بِهِۦ قَوْمًا لُّدًّا

“So, [O Muḥammad], We have only made it [i.e., the Qur’ān] easy in your tongue [i.e., the Arabic language] that you may give good tidings thereby to the righteous and warn thereby a hostile people.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The surah names its own purpose: a revelation made easy in the Prophet's tongue, to bring good news to the God-conscious and warn the stiff-necked.

A reflection

The surah hands over its commission

A rhetorical commentary introduces this ayah with five words: this is the seal of the surah, and its close. It reads the opening fa, so, as pointing to an unspoken command. Convey what has been sent down; give good news with it and warn with it. For We have only made it easy in your tongue.

A linguistic commentary reads it the same way: after the revelation of this surah, convey it, give good news, and warn. A theological commentary adds that the ayah shows how great this surah is. It holds the oneness of Allah, prophethood, the gathering and the raising, and a reply to every misguided group.

So the surah ends by naming its own job. And look at how its last three ayat are arranged. The first, 19:96, is good news: love from the Most Merciful. The second, 19:97, names the two tasks. The third, 19:98, is the warning: generations destroyed, without a whisper left.

The ayah that names the commission is placed exactly between the two halves of it.

The theological commentary notices one more thing. The surah has told the stories of Zakariyya, Yaḥyā, Maryam, ʿĪsā, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā, Hārūn, Ismāʿīl and Idrīs. Had Allah not carried those stories into Arabic, it says, they would not have been easy for the Prophet ﷺ to convey. The surah was a library of earlier prophets, made portable in one language.

That is the inheritance passed to every reader. The surah has been heard. Now it is to be carried.

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.