Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 281 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:281

وَٱتَّقُوا۟ يَوْمًا تُرْجَعُونَ فِيهِ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ ۖ ثُمَّ تُوَفَّىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ مَّا كَسَبَتْ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ

“And fear a Day when you will be returned to Allāh. Then every soul will be compensated for what it earned, and they will not be wronged [i.e., treated unjustly].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Guard yourselves against a Day when you are returned to Allah, and every soul is paid in full for what it earned, wronged by nothing.

A reflection

Alone in the scanner

A chief executive travels with a driver, two assistants and a security guard. Then he needs a heart scan. In the machine he lies alone, in a paper gown, told not to move. Nobody from his entourage can come in.

'Guard yourselves against a Day when you will be returned to Allah'. A classical commentator notes who this was aimed at in its setting. It came at the end of the ribā passage. It addressed the powerful who dealt in ribā: people of wealth and standing, with supporters and helpers, who used their riches to dominate others. They needed, he says, a further warning.

The warning is simple. You will be returned. The lexicons picture the root as going back to where you started: the traveller coming home, rain coming round again. Every soul returns to its Lord. The staff, the contracts and the lawyers stay behind.

This is where the ego meets its true size. Power on earth is always surrounded: by money, by people, by systems. The Day described here strips the surroundings away. Each person stands alone, carrying only 'what it earned'.

Someone may ask whether a God who summons every soul to account is simply asserting His dominance. But the ayah's last words answer that: 'and they will not be wronged'. The summons is not for His benefit. He is free of all need (35:15). It is so that every wrong done in the dark finally meets the light.

The executive came out of the scanner shaken, though his heart was fine. For forty minutes he had been nobody's boss. He might remember that.

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.