Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 111 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:111

إِنِّى جَزَيْتُهُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ بِمَا صَبَرُوٓا۟ أَنَّهُمْ هُمُ ٱلْفَآئِزُونَ

“Indeed, I have rewarded them this Day for their patient endurance - that they are the attainers [of success]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those laughed at for their prayers are paid in full for every hour they held on, and named before their mockers as the winners.

A reflection

Patience is taking hold of yourself

A first-year student is fasting Ramadan alone in a shared house. Every evening at seven the others cook together in the small kitchen. The smell fills the stairs. He sits in his room with a date and a glass of water, waiting for sunset. Nobody is unkind. He simply holds on, each evening, by himself.

Bimā ṣabarū: because they were patient. The lexicons say the first picture in ṣabr is confinement, holding something in place. From there the Arabs spoke of holding their own soul. An old battle poem says: I held there a free soul that stays anchored when the coward's soul strains to run. The same root names the guarantor, ṣabīr, who binds himself to another's debt. So ṣabr is an act, not a mood. It is taking hold of yourself.

The commentaries say what these believers held on through. They were patient under the mockers' harm. One adds: and patient in obeying Allah. Both are acts of holding. The first holds the tongue and the temper when insulted. The second holds the body to prayer, fasting and honesty when it would rather let go.

Allah does not need anyone's patience. He is free of all need (35:15). The ayah shows who benefits. It is the patient themselves, hum al-fāʾizūn, the ones who win. Patience feels like loss while it is happening. The ayah reveals its account at the end.

There is something here for anyone tired of being blown about by every mood and provocation. Modern life rewards reaction: the instant reply, the immediate purchase, the sharp comeback. Ṣabr is the opposite skill, and it is a kind of freedom. The person who can hold their own soul cannot be owned by anyone who pushes their buttons.

Start small. Hold one reply you want to send in anger. Hold one prayer on time when you would rather delay it. Each is a hand on the reins of your own soul.

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.