Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 36 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:36

۞ هَيْهَاتَ هَيْهَاتَ لِمَا تُوعَدُونَ

“How far, how far, is that which you are promised.[953]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Far, far, the chiefs said of the promised life after death, using a poet's word for a lost and unreachable place.

A reflection

A lover's sigh used as a sneer

A woman drives past the street where she grew up. The house is gone; there is a car park where the garden was. She says nothing for a long time. Then, almost to herself: all of that is so far away now.

The chiefs' answer to the promise of resurrection is two repeated words: hayhāta hayhāta. A companion of the Prophet ﷺ, explaining it, said simply: far, far. One commentator says it was originally a sound-word, an exclamation, used as a name for "it is far". He adds that it usually comes doubled, to stress the distance, and that the Arabs had over forty ways of saying it.

What is striking is where the first hearers had met this word before. The commentators quote it from poetry. One poet sighs: far, far is the valley of al-ʿAqīq and those who live in it, and far a friend there we used to meet. Another remembers the days of his youth: far, far is their return to you. One commentator explains why the poet repeats it: for emphasis, and to deepen the grief.

So hayhāt was a word of longing. It was the word for a beloved place you cannot go back to, a friend you will not meet again, a youth that is gone.

The chiefs took that tender word and used it as a sneer. Far, far, they said, is this promise of being brought out.

There is a quiet irony in that. The day would come when they would want to say hayhāt in its true sense, about the chance they had thrown away. Then it really would be far.

Save this word for its proper use. Let it be your sigh for what you have truly lost, never your verdict on what Allah has promised.

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.