Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 42 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:42

قُلْ مَن يَكْلَؤُكُم بِٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ مِنَ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ۗ بَلْ هُمْ عَن ذِكْرِ رَبِّهِم مُّعْرِضُونَ

“Say, "Who can protect you at night or by day from the Most Merciful?" But they are, from the remembrance of their Lord, turning away.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ask them who keeps them safe through every night and day, if not the Most Merciful; yet they turn from even thinking of Him.

A reflection

Kept while you slept

Qul man yaklaʾukum bil-layli wal-nahār: say, who guards you by night and by day? A narration-based commentary reads the ayah as a reminder of a blessing. It speaks of His guarding of His servants by night and day, His watch over them with His eye that does not sleep.

A great narration-based commentator divides the hours with care. By night, when you sleep. By day, when you go about your affairs. Both halves of your life are named, the one in which you are helpless and the one in which you think you are not.

Picture a young father at three in the morning. His baby has a cold, so he has been checking the monitor app on his phone every half hour. The little graph of the baby's breathing rises and falls on the screen. Satisfied, he lies back in the dark, and a thought arrives that he did not expect. Who has been checking on his own breathing? For thirty-four years his heart has beaten through every night without a single monitor. He has never once kept it going himself.

That is where the ayah wants our pride to land. We install alarms and cameras, lock doors and set apps. They are sensible and good. But underneath all of them is a guarding we never arranged and could not perform. The breath, the heartbeat, the roof of the sky held up through the night.

A sceptic might ask whether this question is a God asking for credit. But a classical commentator explains its purpose differently. The question is put to them so that they will not be deceived by the blessings that cover them. It is a waking, not a demand. He needs no thanks. The ones who never notice their Guardian are the ones in danger.

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.