Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 47 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:47

يَـٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتِىَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّى فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

“O Children of Israel, remember My favor that I have bestowed upon you and that I preferred you over the worlds [i.e., peoples].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah repeats His call to remember His favour, and how He preferred them in their time: a gift that asks for gratitude.

A reflection

Cups from 1956

A village cricket club has a trophy cabinet in its pavilion. Silver cups from 1956, 1958, 1961, polished every spring. Members show them proudly to visitors. The club has not won a match this season, and half the team does not turn up to practise.

'Remember that I preferred you over the worlds.' What did this favour mean? The early authorities were careful. One said they were preferred over the people of their own time: every age has its 'world'. Another said it was through what they were given: kingship, messengers and scriptures. The Quran records Mūsā reminding his people of exactly this. He made prophets among you and made you kings, and gave you what He had given no one else (5:20).

A major early commentator adds an important detail. The favour was given to their forefathers, and is addressed to the descendants. The honours of the fathers are counted as honours to the sons, because the sons come from them.

That is a generous way to speak. It is also a demanding one. An inherited honour is like the cups in the cabinet. It tells you what your forebears did. It does not win this season's matches.

The word faḍḍala comes from faḍl, which the lexicons define as increase, something over and above. The same root names a person who claims to rise above his peers. A favour is an excess of gift. It is not a statement that the receiver is made of better stuff.

The very next ayah makes the point unmissable. 'Guard yourselves against a Day when no soul will avail another in the least' (2:48). Preference in history does not carry anyone through the Judgement. The cups stay in the pavilion. Each player still has to bat.

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.