An-Naml · Makki · ayah 2 of 93

An-Naml 27:2

هُدًى وَبُشْرَىٰ لِلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

“As guidance and good tidings for the believers”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Book leads and it gladdens, with guidance for the road and good news that reaches the face of whoever takes hold of it.

A reflection

The same glasses, two drawers

Here is an honest objection. If the Quran is guidance, why say it is guidance for believers? Believers already have some guidance. Surely the people who need it most are the ones who do not believe yet.

The classical commentaries took the question seriously and gave more than one answer.

One answer reads guidance here as being led all the way to the end: brought into Paradise. That arrival belongs only to those who walk the road. A second notes that guidance is paired with good news, and good news of reward can only be addressed to those who will receive it.

A third answer is the most searching. The guidance is offered to everyone, but only some take hold of it, so the ayah names those for whom it actually works. The Quran says the same of the Prophet's warning: 'You are only a warner to whoever fears it' (79:45). The warning reached all of Makkah. It changed only those who let it in.

A family pays for two pairs of reading glasses at the same optician, on the same afternoon. The grandfather's pair goes into a kitchen drawer and stays there. He says the print is too small these days and gives up the newspaper. His granddaughter wears hers, and reads everything she can reach. Nobody would say the glasses were made only for her. They simply only work on the face that wears them.

A fourth answer adds that the Book keeps increasing those already guided (19:76). It is not a single dose.

What stays open is why some reach for the glasses and others leave them in the drawer. The ayah does not explain that here. It only tells you honestly where the light lands.

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.