Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 162 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:162

خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا ۖ لَا يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ وَلَا هُمْ يُنظَرُونَ

“Abiding eternally therein. The punishment will not be lightened for them, nor will they be reprieved.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who die rejecting get no lightening and no more waiting; the reprieve they lack then is the one we live in now.

A reflection

The reprieve we are living in

A research student is given a six-month extension on her thesis after a family illness. The relief is enormous. Then the months slide by. Four of them go on recovering, catching up with friends and meaning to start. In the fifth she opens the file and finds the deadline is no longer far away.

The ayah ends: 'nor will they be reprieved'. The commentators give the word yunẓarūn more than one sense. They will not be given more time. They will not be waited for while they make excuses. One early authority puts it plainly: no time will be granted for an apology.

Read it from the other side. If there will be no reprieve then, what is now? Now is the reprieve. The same root appears when Iblīs asks Allah for respite until the Day of raising. He is told, 'You are among those given respite' (7:14–15). Even he was given time. So are we, every morning we wake.

The ayah before speaks of those who 'die while they are disbelievers' (2:161). The whole tragedy of this ayah is a reprieve that was spent and not used. The door of return stood open (2:160). There was time for the excuse, the apology and the change. It simply ran out.

This is not a call to panic. It is a call to notice. The extension you are living in has no date printed on it. That is exactly why it is precious. The student who opens the file in month one does not work in fear. She works in relief.

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.