Al-Hajj · Madani · ayah 10 of 78

Al-Hajj 22:10

ذَٰلِكَ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ يَدَاكَ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَيْسَ بِظَلَّـٰمٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ

“"That is for what your hands have put forth and because Allāh is not ever unjust to [His] servants."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The proud arguer is told to his face: this is what your own two hands sent ahead, and Allah never wrongs His servants.

A reflection

Suddenly, it is 'your hands'

Until now the man of 22:8-9 has been described from a distance: he argues, he turns his neck, he will taste the burning. Then the speech turns and addresses him directly. Yadāka: your two hands. Commentators explain that this is said to him as the punishment begins. The shift to 'you' sharpens the warning.

Notice which part of him is named. He sinned with his tongue and his neck, yet the ayah says hands. One classical commentator explains that the hand stands for the whole person, because the hand is what acts and earns. Qaddamat comes from a root of going ahead, as a foot steps forward. Everything he did had been walking on ahead of him, and now it is waiting.

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