Taha · Makki · ayah 107 of 135

Taha 20:107

لَّا تَرَىٰ فِيهَا عِوَجًا وَلَآ أَمْتًا

“You will not see therein a depression or an elevation."”

Saheeh International

Essence

No dip and no rise, not even the bend only a surveyor's instruments could find: the earth of that Day is level beyond measuring.

A reflection

Level even to the surveyor's eye

You will see in it no crookedness. A rhetorical commentary noticed something remarkable about the word chosen here.

Arabic has two forms. ʿAwaj, with an a, is used for crookedness in physical things, the bend you can see in a wall or a stick. ʿIwaj, with an i, is used for crookedness in meanings and ideas. The earth is a physical thing, so one would expect ʿawaj. Why does the ayah use ʿiwaj?

The commentary answers with an image. Suppose you take a piece of land and level it as carefully as you can. You and the most experienced farmers agree that not the slightest bend remains. Then you call a surveyor and ask him to test it with his instruments. He will find unevenness in more than one place, not visible to the eye but only to measurement. Because that kind of crookedness is known by reasoning and not by sight, it belongs with meanings, and takes the form ʿiwaj. A linguistic commentary repeats the explanation.

So the ayah denies even that. On the Day, the earth will be level beyond the reach of the finest instrument.

Picture a contractor laying the floor of a new sports hall. To the eye it is perfect. Then the surveyor sets up a laser level and walks the floor with a staff. Every few metres he marks a tiny dip or rise, two millimetres here, three there. The contractor groans. No human floor is ever truly flat.

That is the measure of the ayah's claim. What human hands cannot achieve with the best tools, Allah does to the entire surface of the earth. The ego takes pride in precision, in craftsmanship, in getting things exactly right. This ayah sets all our precision beside His. Our best work has hidden bends. His has none. That is not a boast. It is a fact that teaches humility to every perfectionist.

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.