Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 127 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:127

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

Hud asks nothing of the wealthiest people of his age; his wage rests with the Lord of all the worlds.

A reflection

The same refusal, heard by a rich people

This sentence appears five times in this surah, from Nuh to Shuʿayb. Its full treatment lives at 26:109, where the picture inside the word ajr and the meaning of refusing payment are drawn out. Here it is enough to notice what changes when Hud says it.

ʿĀd were not a poor people who could not have paid. They had herds, sons, gardens and springs (26:133-134). They raised towers on every height. A messenger who asked them for money would have been asking the one thing they had plenty of. Hud asks for none of it.

In Surah Hud the same man says it with a twist. 'My wage is only from the One who brought me into being. Will you not use your reason?' (11:51). The One who made him is the One who pays him. A people proud of what they had made are told that the true Maker keeps the accounts.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.