Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 95 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:95

وَإِنَّا عَلَىٰٓ أَن نُّرِيَكَ مَا نَعِدُهُمْ لَقَـٰدِرُونَ

“And indeed, We are Able to show you what We have promised them.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah is fully able to show His Prophet the promised reckoning now; that He waits is not weakness but a mercy measured to a purpose.

A reflection

Power that does not need to prove itself

A newly promoted manager is insulted in a meeting by a junior colleague. He could discipline him that afternoon. Instead he waits. A week later he calls the young man in, quietly, and asks what is going on at home. The answer explains everything. The power was always there. It did not need to be shown that day.

The ayah is a statement of power. Wa-innā ʿalā an nuriyaka mā naʿiduhum la-qādirūn: and indeed, We are able to show you what We promise them. It is doubly emphatic, with inna and la-. A concise commentary adds: We are not incapable of that, or of anything else.

But one commentary draws out the hidden half of the sentence. We are able, and yet We do not do it now. We delay it. Why? Because We know that some of them, or some of their descendants, will believe. Or because We do not punish them while you are among them (8:33).

That is majesty of a kind human beings rarely show. Insecure power acts at once, to prove it exists. A small boss shouts. A petty official refuses. A proud person retaliates the moment he is crossed. The ego is always in a hurry to be seen as strong.

Allah's power needs no proving. He can wait, because nothing escapes Him and nothing hurries Him. His restraint is not a lack of power but its fullest expression.

Let the ego hear that. The urge to answer every slight immediately is not strength. It is fear of looking weak. Real strength can afford to wait, and to wait for someone's good.

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.