Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 106 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:106

إِنَّ فِى هَـٰذَا لَبَلَـٰغًا لِّقَوْمٍ عَـٰبِدِينَ

“Indeed, in this [Qur’ān] is notification for a worshipping people.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everything this surah has said is enough to carry someone all the way, if they are a people whose concern is worship, not habit.

A reflection

Worship, not habit

Who is the 'people who worship' in this ayah? One classical commentator gives a phrase that is hard to forget. They are a people whose concern is ʿibādah, not ʿādah: worship, not habit. The two Arabic words are one letter apart. The difference between them is everything.

Other early authorities named those who keep the five daily prayers. One early commentator explained 'worshippers' simply as 'those who act'. The commentators treat these as examples of a wider meaning, not limits on it.

Habit is not the enemy. A prayer kept up by habit through a hard season is still a prayer kept. But habit alone can hollow worship out until the movements remain and the person has left.

Picture a man of fifty who has prayed five times a day since he was twelve. One Ramadan night he realises, with a jolt, that he cannot remember the last prayer in which he noticed what he was saying. He is not careless. He is efficient. So he chooses one prayer a day, the sunset prayer, and says it slowly, listening to every word. Within a month the other four begin to change too.

Allah needs none of these prayers. 'O people, you are the ones in need of Allah' (35:15). The worship is for the worshipper. And the ayah says that, for such people, this surah is enough: enough guidance, enough warning, enough hope.

The modern hunger for meaning often looks for something new. This ayah suggests something older. Take what you already do, and turn it from habit back into worship.

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.