Al-Hajj · Madani · ayah 76 of 78

Al-Hajj 22:76

يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ ۗ وَإِلَى ٱللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ ٱلْأُمُورُ

“He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them.[945] And to Allāh will be returned [all] matters.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He chose His messengers with their whole story already in view, and every matter, from every hand, is on its way back to Him.

A reflection

Chosen with the whole story in view

Yaʿlamu mā bayna aydīhim wa mā khalfahum: He knows what is before them and what is behind them. Who are 'they'? Coming straight after the choosing of messengers, several commentaries read it of the messengers themselves. Allah knew all that lay before His angels and prophets before He created them. He knows all that will come after they are gone.

That makes the previous ayah's choosing look very different. Allah did not select His messengers on promise. He chose them with every day of their lives already in view, from first breath to last, and beyond.

Compare the best human selection. An interview panel has two hours to fill a consultant's post. They have a CV, two references and a presentation. They know a sliver of the past and nothing of the future. Within five years the brilliant candidate may burn out, and the quiet runner-up may build a department elsewhere. The panel did its best. Its best was a guess.

The ayah's verb carries an image. The lexicons trace ʿilm, knowledge, to a mark that sets a thing apart. A horseman would wear a sign in battle, so that in the dust he was known from the rest. To know is to see the mark by which a thing stands out. Nothing in the whole sweep of time is unmarked to Him.

That is a hard truth for human pride. We are confident about people on very little evidence, and about ourselves on even less. Most of us cannot say where we will be in ten years, or who we will be. The ego likes to think it sees the whole board. It sees a corner.

Why does the Quran keep reminding us that Allah knows everything? Is it to impress us? He gains nothing from our being impressed. The reminder is for the reader, who keeps forgetting where real knowledge lies. It loosens the grip of anxious planning. It warns the self-assured. And it explains why His choices sometimes confound ours.

When someone is raised up whom you would have passed over, remember this ayah. The One who chose had already read the last page.

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.