Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 20 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:20

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنَ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلَّآ إِنَّهُمْ لَيَأْكُلُونَ ٱلطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشُونَ فِى ٱلْأَسْوَاقِ ۗ وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضَكُمْ لِبَعْضٍ فِتْنَةً أَتَصْبِرُونَ ۗ وَكَانَ رَبُّكَ بَصِيرًا

“And We did not send before you, [O Muḥammad], any of the messengers except that they ate food and walked in the markets. And We have made some of you [people] as trial for others - will you have patience? And ever is your Lord, Seeing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Messengers ate and walked the markets, and each of us is a testing fire for others: will you hold firm, while your Lord sees?

A reflection

The only gaze that settles every comparison

The ayah ends on four words: wa-kāna rabbuka baṣīrā, and your Lord is ever Seeing. After a sentence about people testing one another, the last word belongs to the One who watches the test.

The root carries two pictures. A newborn pup was said to baṣṣara when it first opened its eyes. And a baṣīra was a spot of blood on the ground, which a hunter read to track wounded quarry. So the word holds sight that sees and sight that understands. He does not only see what happens. He reads it.

The commentators fill in what He sees. Who is patient and who panics. Who gives thanks and who denies. Who deserves to carry revelation, and who deserves to be guided.

Let that shrink the ego. Most of our comparing runs on being seen by people. We want our success noticed, our struggle acknowledged, our goodness applauded. The rich man wants to be seen as rich. The poor man wants to be seen as wronged. Both are performing for an audience that cannot see the heart.

Here is the only audience whose verdict counts, and He already sees everything.

Why, then, does He test at all? Not to learn. A carpenter knocks on a plank with his knuckle before a customer. He already knows the wood is sound. He knocks so the customer can hear it.

So it is with our trials. He sees already. The test lets us hear our own hearts ring, true or hollow. He needs nothing from it, and loses nothing if we fail.

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.