Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 72 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:72

أَمْ تَسْـَٔلُهُمْ خَرْجًا فَخَرَاجُ رَبِّكَ خَيْرٌ ۖ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ ٱلرَّٰزِقِينَ

“Or do you, [O Muḥammad], ask them for payment? But the reward of your Lord is best, and He is the best of providers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Messenger asked nothing of them for his message; what his Lord pays is far better, and He is the best of all who provide.

A reflection

The ration that arrives on its day

At the end-of-year party, a business owner raises his glass of juice and tells his staff that he keeps forty families fed. He means it kindly. A few of them glance at each other.

Wa huwa khayru al-rāziqīn: and He is the best of providers. The lexicons give rizq an established and moving picture. A gift given at a set time. A commander handing out his soldiers' rations, month by month. A bird dropping food into its chick's mouth. Rain, too, was rizq, because provision comes from it.

Two commentators gloss the phrase plainly. No one is able to provide as He provides, or to bestow as He bestows. Another says He is the best of any who give a reward for work, or provide a provision.

One commentator records a classical theologian drawing two points from the wording. No servant can equal Allah in His generosity. And yet servants do provide for one another, or the phrase "best of providers" would make no sense.

That is the exact balance the ego needs. The business owner does pay wages. He is a channel of provision, and that is a real honour. But he is not the source. The best of providers is the One who gave him the business, the customers, the health and the forty employees.

Pride slides easily from "I am a channel" to "I am the source". The ayah gently corrects it, without belittling anyone's work.

Allah does not call Himself the best of providers to be praised for it. He needs nothing (35:15). He says it so the provider can stop carrying the weight as if it were all his. The ration arrives on its day, from the commander, through whatever hand He chooses.

The owner could say it better next year. Allah feeds forty families, and lets me be the hand that carries it. That sentence is both true and lighter to hold.

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.