Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 164 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:164

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

Lut asks no wage of a town that will soon threaten to drive him out; his reward rests with the Lord of all the worlds.

A reflection

No wage, and then no home

This sentence appears five times in the surah, and its full treatment lives at 26:109. Here it is enough to see what it cost Lut in particular.

He asked his people for nothing. What they offered him in return, three ayat later, was exile. 'If you do not stop, Lut, you will be one of those driven out' (26:167). In the end he did leave, at night, with his family, at Allah's command.

So for Lut, refusing a wage was only the start. His message did not merely earn him nothing. It cost him the town he had made his home. He still did not trade it for their approval.

That is the true test of in ajriya illā ʿalā rabbi al-ʿālamīn. It is easy to say your reward is with Allah when nothing is being lost. Lut said it while he was losing everything.

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.