An-Naml · Makki · ayah 52 of 93

An-Naml 27:52

فَتِلْكَ بُيُوتُهُمْ خَاوِيَةًۢ بِمَا ظَلَمُوٓا۟ ۗ إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ

“So those are their houses, desolate because of the wrong they had done. Indeed in that is a sign for people who know.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Thamūd's houses stood emptied and fallen in because of their wrongdoing, a sign that only those who know how to read will read.

A reflection

A roof that has fallen into an empty room

On a hill road there is an old farmhouse whose roof gave way some winters ago. Slates and beams lie across the kitchen floor. A painted dresser still stands against the back wall, plates on its shelves, open to the sky. Nobody has lived there for years, and the house looks it from the road.

Khāwiya holds both halves of that picture. One commentary glosses it simply as empty: no one left inside. An early report gives a harder sense: fallen in, its upper parts collapsed onto its lower. A concise modern commentary joins them. The walls came down onto the roofs, and the house stood emptied of its people.

The lexicons gather the root under emptiness and falling. A house khawat when it stood empty and caved in. A star khawā when it set and no rain followed it, a promise that came to nothing. Camels khawat when their bellies went hollow with hunger.

Then comes a surprising use. A man khawā in prostration when he held his arms clear of his sides, leaving that space empty beneath him. The same root that describes a ruined house describes a worshipper's posture.

Put the two pictures side by side. Thamūd carved homes into mountains, solid and confident. They left no space in their lives for their Lord, and their houses were emptied for them. The one who prostrates does the opposite. He makes a small, deliberate emptiness, low on the ground, and that space is filled.

Every life has some emptiness in it. The question this word raises is whether it is the emptiness of a fallen roof, or the emptiness of a bowed head.

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.