Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 56 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:56

نُسَارِعُ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلْخَيْرَٰتِ ۚ بَل لَّا يَشْعُرُونَ

“Is [because] We hasten for them good things? Rather, they do not perceive.[961]”

Saheeh International

Essence

They thought good things were racing towards them as a reward; they could not feel that the gifts were drawing them on.

A reflection

The sense as fine as a hair

At a dinner party, the oven starts to smoke. Guests cough and open windows. The smoke alarm on the ceiling says nothing. Its battery died two years ago, and nobody noticed the silence.

Bal lā yashʿurūn: rather, they do not perceive. The lexicons give shuʿūr a beautiful established image. The root has two branches, hair and knowing, and one lexicon joins them. Shaʿartu first meant "I touched the hair". From it came "I knew": a knowing as fine as touching a single hair. The senses are mashāʿir.

So shuʿūr is not knowledge in general. It is the finest layer of noticing, the one that registers what is subtle before the mind has named it. That is what the deniers lacked. They had information. They did not have the hairline sensor that says something is wrong.

Two modern commentaries gloss it: they do not sense it, lā yuḥissūn. The trap was invisible to them because it felt exactly like reward.

One classical commentator is blunter. He says they are like beasts, with no discernment and no perception. So they never stop to ask whether this is a drawing-on or a hastening of good. Another adds: it is simply not their way to perceive.

The image is sobering because the sensor can fail quietly. Nobody decides to stop feeling. The battery runs down. Each year of blessing without gratitude, of comfort without reflection, dulls the finest sense a little further. Eventually the smoke can fill the room and nothing sounds.

The remedy is maintenance. Test the alarm. Ask regularly, in plain words: is my life drawing me towards Allah or away from Him? If the question makes you uncomfortable, the sensor is still working. If it bores you, change the battery.

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.