Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 58 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:58

وَإِذْ قُلْنَا ٱدْخُلُوا۟ هَـٰذِهِ ٱلْقَرْيَةَ فَكُلُوا۟ مِنْهَا حَيْثُ شِئْتُمْ رَغَدًا وَٱدْخُلُوا۟ ٱلْبَابَ سُجَّدًا وَقُولُوا۟ حِطَّةٌ نَّغْفِرْ لَكُمْ خَطَـٰيَـٰكُمْ ۚ وَسَنَزِيدُ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ

“And [recall] when We said, "Enter this city [i.e., Jerusalem] and eat from it wherever you will in [ease and] abundance, and enter the gate bowing humbly[28] and say, 'Relieve us of our burdens [i.e., sins].' We will [then] forgive your sins for you, and We will increase the doers of good [in goodness and reward]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

A city of plenty opened for almost nothing: bow at the gate, and ask in one word for your sins to be set down.

A reflection

Set the load down

A delivery driver carries a fridge-freezer up five flights of stairs in a building with a broken lift. At the top he sets it down, straightens his back, and lets out a long breath. For a moment, all he feels is the absence of the weight.

That is the picture inside the one word the people were asked to say: ḥiṭṭa. The lexicons say the root means bringing a thing down from above. Travellers ḥaṭṭū their loads when they lifted the packs from their camels at a halt. People prayed for each other: 'May Allah set down your burden, and not let it break your back'. Ḥiṭṭa is the plea in a single word: set our sins down.

The commentaries record several readings of what the word carried. Some said it meant 'forgive us'. Some said it meant 'there is no god but Allah', because those words set sins down. Others said it was simply to admit the wrong. A linguistic commentary notes the grammar: the word stands in the nominative. That gives it the sense of something settled and lasting: our standing request is that You unburden us.

The Quran uses almost the same picture of the Prophet ﷺ himself. 'Did We not remove from you your burden, which weighed down your back?' (94:2–3).

Notice how small the request was. Not a speech, not a ritual, not a penalty. One word and a bowed head. Many people carry the weight of old sins for years because they imagine the way out must be elaborate. This ayah suggests otherwise. The door was open, the city was full of food, and the password was a plea to be unloaded. Say it today, in any language: set this down, my Lord.

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.