Al-Baqarah · Madani · ayah 96 of 286

Al-Baqarah 2:96

وَلَتَجِدَنَّهُمْ أَحْرَصَ ٱلنَّاسِ عَلَىٰ حَيَوٰةٍ وَمِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا۟ ۚ يَوَدُّ أَحَدُهُمْ لَوْ يُعَمَّرُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ وَمَا هُوَ بِمُزَحْزِحِهِۦ مِنَ ٱلْعَذَابِ أَن يُعَمَّرَ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ بَصِيرٌۢ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ

“And you will surely find them the most greedy of people for life - [even] more than those who associate others with Allāh. One of them wishes that he could be granted life a thousand years, but it would not remove him in the least from the [coming] punishment that he should be granted life. And Allāh is Seeing of what they do.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They cling to any life and wish for a thousand years, yet long life will not move them an inch from the punishment.

A reflection

Years lent, and every one of them seen

An old vet watches a horse walk ten paces across a yard. 'Near hind,' she says. The owner has ridden it for months and never noticed the limp.

The ayah ends: 'And Allah is Baṣīr of what they do.' The word means All-Seeing. A classical jurist adds what it carried in Arabic speech. Baṣīr was said of the expert: a man baṣīr in medicine, or in law. It is sight that understands what it sees.

Notice what He sees here. The ayah has just described a man wishing for a thousand years. But the closing line does not say Allah sees how long they live. It says He sees what they do. A classical commentator explains that nothing of their deeds is hidden from Him. He encompasses them, keeps them, and remembers them.

This is where pride has to bow. We speak of 'my life' and 'my years' as if we owned them. We are proud of good health, careful diets, the long-lived side of the family. But every year is lent, by the One who sees what each was spent on. Length is not the measure. Use is.

Some reciters read the last word as taʿmalūn, 'what you do'. A later commentator notes it as a turn of address. The sentence stops describing others and faces the listener.

Is it self-praise, then, for Allah to keep telling us He sees? He is not made greater by our knowing it, and He needs no one's notice. The line is for us. It warns that years spent on wrong are not unseen. And it promises that years spent quietly on good are not lost.

The vet saw the limp because she was an expert. Allah sees every step of every year, with a sight no expert has. Walk accordingly.

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.