Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 19 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:19

فَأَنشَأْنَا لَكُم بِهِۦ جَنَّـٰتٍ مِّن نَّخِيلٍ وَأَعْنَـٰبٍ لَّكُمْ فِيهَا فَوَٰكِهُ كَثِيرَةٌ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ

“And We brought forth for you thereby gardens of palm trees and grapevines in which for you are abundant fruits and from which you eat.”

Saheeh International

Essence

From that measured rain Allah raises gardens of palms and vines for you, with fruit for delight as well as food, and a livelihood besides.

A reflection

Fresh oranges on the space station

Fa-anshaʾnā lakum bihi jannātin: so with it We brought into being gardens for you. Three small words carry the weight. Anshaʾnā: We raised them up, from the root used for cloud rising on the horizon and a child growing to his full height. Bihi: by means of that water, just described. And lakum: for you. The phrase lakum appears twice in this one ayah. Whatever grows is grown with someone in mind.

Picture a crew on a space station, six months from home. A resupply capsule docks, and among the equipment and dried rations they find a small net bag of fresh oranges. Someone on the ground thought of it. The astronauts, highly trained and used to controlling every system around them, float in a circle and peel them slowly, saying very little. The smell fills the module.

Human beings tend to forget, at ground level, that everything they eat is a delivery. The rain, the soil, the sun, the seed and the slow growing are all outside their power. Even the most skilled farmer only arranges the conditions. The raising up is done by Another.

The ayah does not humiliate the farmer or the eater. It simply returns the credit to where it belongs. Pride says: I earned this food, I bought it, it is mine. The ayah says: We raised it, by water We sent, for you.

The right response is the one the astronauts showed without being told. A moment of quiet before eating, an awareness that someone thought of you, and gratitude to the One who did.

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.