Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 109 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:109

وَمَآ أَسْـَٔلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْرٍ ۖ إِنْ أَجْرِىَ إِلَّا عَلَىٰ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

“And I do not ask you for it any payment. My payment is only from the Lord of the worlds.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Nuh asks his people for nothing; his wage is owed by the Lord of all the worlds, and no one else can pay it.

A reflection

Owed by the Lord of all the worlds

Nuh does not simply say his wage is with Allah. He says it is owed by Rabb al-ʿālamīn, the Lord of all the worlds. The Rabb is the owner who also tends and governs what he owns. Al-ʿālamīn takes in everything besides Allah: every people, every creature, every age. A village, however rich, can pay only in its own small coin. The One who owes Nuh his wage owns every treasury there is. Notice that Nuh does not complain about being unpaid. He simply names the Payer.

Sit with that scale and something in the ego shrinks. Most of us still want part of our wage in the local currency. Picture a man who quietly pays his neighbour's rent arrears for three months. No one knows, and the act is beautiful. Then he notices himself steering conversations at the school gate, hoping she will thank him in front of the others. The gift was for Allah. His vanity wants a small cut paid here, in public, by a woman who could barely pay her rent.

The appetite for praise is not so much wicked as tiny. It trades an account held by the Lord of the worlds for a few seconds of being seen. Why ask a village for change when your payment is guaranteed by the One who owns the villages?

A sceptic may turn the point round: does a Lord who is named 'Lord of the worlds' not want praise Himself? The title here serves the worker, not the One named. It tells Nuh his pay is secure. Allah is free of all need and praised in Himself (35:15). He gains nothing from being acknowledged; His servants gain everything from knowing whose account they are on.

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.