Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 76 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:76

وَلَقَدْ أَخَذْنَـٰهُم بِٱلْعَذَابِ فَمَا ٱسْتَكَانُوا۟ لِرَبِّهِمْ وَمَا يَتَضَرَّعُونَ

“And We had gripped them with suffering [as a warning], but they did not yield to their Lord, nor did they humbly supplicate, [and will continue thus]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Hardship knocks at the heart's door; the tragedy is not the knock but a heart that will not bend or ask.

A reflection

No private exemption from a dry year

A hosepipe ban is announced in a dry summer. The notice lands on the mat of a mansion with a sprinkler system. It lands on a council flat with one window box. The same paper, the same date, the same rule.

The ayah opens with a hand closing. Akhadhnāhum: We seized them. The lexicons say the root has one core meaning, gathering a thing into your grip. The Arabs used it of taking a camel's rein, and of a captive being led away. Here the grip is famine. The commentaries name it plainly: hunger, drought, the land gone barren.

The people seized were the proudest in Arabia. They had caravans, wells, idols and long genealogies. None of it bought them an exemption. Rain does not check anyone's lineage before it falls, or before it stops.

This is the first thing the ayah does to the ego. Your money can insulate you from a hundred small discomforts. It cannot buy rain, or health, or sleep, or the heartbeat of a child. At some point, the hand that holds the rein closes, and every human being discovers they were never holding it.

Then comes the shock. Fa-mā istakānū li-rabbihim: yet they did not yield to their Lord. The arrogance survived the famine. They were hungry and still proud.

So the ayah is a warning about a pride that can outlast even hardship. It is not enough to be humbled by events. Events humble everyone eventually. The question is whether the humbling reaches the heart, and turns it towards the One who holds the rein. A drought that leaves you merely thirsty has been wasted. A drought that leaves you humble has done its work.

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.