Al-Mu'minun · Makki · ayah 99 of 118

Al-Mu'minun 23:99

حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءَ أَحَدَهُمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ قَالَ رَبِّ ٱرْجِعُونِ

“[For such is the state of the disbelievers] until, when death comes to one of them, he says, "My Lord, send me back”

Saheeh International

Essence

At death, the one who mocked any return begs to be sent back; the believer is invited to live now as if already sent back.

A reflection

Not only about them

At a funeral, a man stands in the back row while the imam recites this ayah over a relative who rarely prayed. He nods. He thinks of the deceased, and of a few other people he knows. He does not think of himself.

That is the usual way this ayah is heard. When death comes to one of them, he says: my Lord, send me back. It is filed as a scene about disbelievers, true and terrible, and safely about someone else.

The commentaries do read it first of the deniers this surah has been arguing with. But several refuse to let it stop there. Two commentaries describe the dying person as one of the disbelievers or those negligent in Allah's commands. One commentator states plainly that asking to be sent back is not exclusive to the disbeliever. A believer may ask it too, as the end of another surah shows.

That other surah is unambiguous, and it is addressed to believers. Spend from what We have provided you before death comes to one of you. Then comes the plea: my Lord, if only You would delay me a little, so that I could give charity and be among the righteous (63:10). The same scene. The same plea. A different kind of person.

One major commentator records an early report taking the point further. Whoever withheld obligatory charity, or skipped the pilgrimage when able, will ask to be sent back at death. He prefers to read our ayah of disbelievers, but he does not dismiss the warning.

So the honest reading is uncomfortable. The plea for a return is not reserved for villains. It is the plea of anyone who reached the end with something left undone. The man in the back row is not exempt.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.