An-Naml · Makki · ayah 89 of 93

An-Naml 27:89

مَن جَآءَ بِٱلْحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُۥ خَيْرٌ مِّنْهَا وَهُم مِّن فَزَعٍ يَوْمَئِذٍ ءَامِنُونَ

“Whoever comes [at Judgement] with a good deed will have better than it, and they, from the terror of that Day, will be safe.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Whoever brings a good deed receives more than they brought, and is kept safe from the terror that seizes everyone else on that Day.

A reflection

Better than the deed, or born from it

A primary teacher spends one patient year with a boy who stammers. She lets him finish every sentence, however long it takes. She never lets the class laugh. Thirty years later the boy, now grown, gives the address at a crowded memorial. His voice is steady. Her patience took a few minutes a day. What grew from it is larger than anything she did.

The ayah promises exactly that shape: fa-lahu khayrun minhā, 'he will have better than it'. The commentaries read the small word minhā in two ways.

On one reading it compares. The reward is better than the deed. A classical rhetorician gives two reasons. The deed comes to an end, while the reward lasts. And the deed is the servant's act, while the reward is the Master's, and the two are worlds apart. Another commentator adds a third. The reward for knowing Allah in this life is a fuller knowledge in the next, and the sight of His Face.

On the other reading it does not compare at all. Several early authorities, taking the good deed as the testimony of faith, refuse the comparison. Nothing, they say, is better than 'there is no god but Allah'. So the phrase means good that comes from it, its fruit. A concise commentary agrees: reward because of it, not better than it.

The root of khayr has a quiet picture behind it. The lexicons say its first sense is leaning towards. Khayr is what every heart inclines to, which is why it is the opposite of evil. To choose, ikhtāra, is to take the khayr of two things.

Both readings land in the same place. Whatever you bring, you will not be paid back at its own size. The teacher's few minutes became a man's steady voice. What comes back from a deed done for Allah is always larger than what was given.

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.