Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 102 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:102

فَلَوْ أَنَّ لَنَا كَرَّةً فَنَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“Then if we only had a return [to the world] and could be of the believers..."[1053]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The lost beg for one more turn at life so they can believe, a wish too late for them and just in time for us.

A reflection

One more charge after the field has closed

The word the lost reach for is karra. English gives 'a return' or 'another chance'. Both are right. Neither carries the picture.

The lexicons state the image plainly. Karr was the horseman's return in battle. He wheeled his horse away, then turned and charged again. A good horse was praised for karr and farr, the charge and the wheeling away. A karra is one such turn: one more run at the line.

So the wish in this ayah is a rider's wish. Let me wheel round. Let me ride at it again, and this time I will not pull up.

Watch a show-jumping round. A horse refuses a fence, skidding to a stop at the poles. The rider is allowed to circle and come again. Many clear it on the second approach. But the rules allow only so many refusals. After that a bell rings, and the round is over. However willing the horse is now, the course is closed.

The Quran records this wish three times in almost the same words. Followers wish for a karra to disown the leaders who disowned them (2:167). A single soul, seeing the punishment, wishes for one to be among the doers of good (39:58). Here the misled wish for one to be among the believers.

What is striking is that the rider in this ayah had many approaches. Every day of a life is a wheeling round to face the fence again. Every warning, every prayer call, every death in the family was another run at the line. The karra they beg for is the very thing they spent.

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.