Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 40 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:40

قَالَ عَمَّا قَلِيلٍ لَّيُصْبِحُنَّ نَـٰدِمِينَ

“[Allāh] said, "After a little, they will surely become regretful."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah answers the rejected messenger at once: in a very little while, they will wake up full of regret.

A reflection

Their "far, far" and His "a little while"

A pundit on a television panel leans back and smiles. The housing market, he says, will not turn for at least a decade. The other guests nod. A month later, it turns. Nobody replays the clip, but he remembers it.

Four ayat earlier, the chiefs passed their verdict on the promised Day. Hayhāta hayhāta: far, far. Now Allah gives His verdict on their future, and it uses the opposite measure. ʿAmmā qalīlin: in a very little while. Two commentators note that the small word mā is added to stress how short the time is. Not "after a little" but "after very little indeed".

The chiefs had confidently measured time in one direction. Everything they feared was far off. Everything they enjoyed would last. Allah measures it in the other. Their comfort had very little time left.

This is a sharp blow to a particular kind of pride: the pride of the person who feels in control of time. We plan in decades. We assume the bad outcome is distant and the good one is secure. We speak as if the calendar were ours to fill.

The ayah does not tell us how short "a little while" is in days. It tells us whose measure counts. When the One who made time says "soon", every human estimate of "far" collapses.

And He swears to it. The commentators read the opening la- and closing -nna of the verb as the marks of an oath: by Allah, they will surely become regretful. A human pundit hedges. The Lord of time does not need to. Nor is the oath for His satisfaction; He needs nothing from anyone (35:15). It is for the messenger's heart, and for every reader tempted to think the chiefs got away with it.

This is humbling and freeing at once. You cannot control the clock. You can stop pretending you do.

Look at one thing you have been calling "years away". Say quietly: it is in His hands, and it may be a little while.

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.