Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 8 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:8

وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ لِأَمَـٰنَـٰتِهِمْ وَعَهْدِهِمْ رَٰعُونَ

“And they who are to their trusts and their promises attentive”

Saheeh International

Essence

The believers named in the surah's first line carry trust in their very name, and here they are shown tending every trust and promise like a shepherd.

A reflection

The same root as the surah's first word about them

This ayah repeats one in Surah al-Ma'arij (70:32), where the shepherd's tending in rāʿūn is explored in full. In this surah, something extra sounds through it.

The surah opened with al-muʾminūn, the believers. The word here for trusts, amānāt, comes from exactly the same root, ʾ-m-n. The lexicons give that root two close meanings: believing, and trustworthiness, the opposite of betrayal. Its core is a heart at rest, safe from fear. A believer, in this language, is someone who has found safety in the truth, and so becomes someone others are safe with.

So when the list reaches this ayah, it is not adding a new topic. It is spelling out what the surah's first word already meant. The muʾminūn are, by their very name, the people of amānāt. Faith that does not make a person trustworthy has not yet become what its own name describes.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.