Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 31 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:31

ثُمَّ أَنشَأْنَا مِنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ قَرْنًا ءَاخَرِينَ

“Then We produced after them a generation of others.”

Saheeh International

Essence

After the flood emptied the earth, Allah raised a new generation like cloud rising into an empty sky, and the old story began again.

A reflection

Raised like a cloud

An old man finds his school-leavers' photograph in a drawer. Sixty faces in four rows, all of them seventeen and certain of everything. He counts slowly how many are still alive. Then he puts the photograph back, very carefully.

The ayah has one verb for an entire people coming into the world: anshaʾnā, We raised up. The lexicons tie the root to rising. Cloud nashaʾa when it came up and showed itself on the horizon. The young are the nashʾ, and a nāshiʾ is a boy who has grown to a man's height. That image is established.

So after the flood, the earth was an empty sky. Then, generation by generation, Allah raised people across it, the way cloud gathers where there was none. The commentators identify this generation as ʿĀd, the people of Hud, on the view of most. Some say Thamud.

This cuts pride down at the root. Every generation feels like the culmination of history. Ours too: our technology, our knowledge, our sense that we have finally understood. But we did not raise ourselves. We were brought up from nothing, by stages, like cloud. And cloud, however vast, moves on.

This is not Allah boasting for an audience; He needs none (35:15). It is said for our sake. A creature who knows it was raised cannot strut for long.

One humble thought is enough to carry from this ayah. Somebody will one day look at a photograph of your generation, as the old man looked at his. Ask what you want them to see in your row.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.