Al-Furqan · Makki · ayah 22 of 77

Al-Furqan 25:22

يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةَ لَا بُشْرَىٰ يَوْمَئِذٍ لِّلْمُجْرِمِينَ وَيَقُولُونَ حِجْرًا مَّحْجُورًا

“The day they see the angels[1014] - no good tidings will there be that day for the criminals, and [the angels] will say, "Prevented and inaccessible."[1015]”

Saheeh International

Essence

They asked to see angels; they will, on a day without good news, when an old word for 'you cannot touch me' fails.

A reflection

Granted, but not as asked

The previous ayah ended on a demand: why are the angels not sent down to us? This one answers it, and the answer is unsettling. One classical commentator puts it plainly. What they asked for will happen. But they will meet in it exactly what they hate.

Another commentator notices the choice of verb. The ayah does not say 'the day the angels are sent down', which would sound like a request granted. It says yawma yarawna, the day they see them. From its first word, the sentence signals that this is no answer to their wish. It is something that never crossed their minds.

They wanted angels as character witnesses for their own verdict. The angels come as officers of a court they denied.

A man rings the council every week about his neighbour's new extension. Send someone out, he says, measure it, see for yourselves. At last an inspector comes, with a tape and a plan of the plots. She measures the extension; it is within the rules. Then she measures his own garage. It stands a metre over the boundary.

He asked for an inspection, and he got one. It simply did not stop where he wanted it to.

That is the quiet logic running through these ayat. Demands made in arrogance are not always refused. Sometimes they are granted in full, at a time and in a form the one demanding did not choose.

For a believer this is a sobering kind of mercy, because it arrives as a warning while there is still time. Be careful what you ask Allah to show you about other people. What He reveals tends to include you. Better to ask for the truth with a heart already willing to be found wanting.

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.