An-Naml · Makki · ayah 90 of 93

An-Naml 27:90

وَمَن جَآءَ بِٱلسَّيِّئَةِ فَكُبَّتْ وُجُوهُهُمْ فِى ٱلنَّارِ هَلْ تُجْزَوْنَ إِلَّا مَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

“And whoever comes with an evil deed[1090] - their faces will be overturned into the Fire, [and it will be said], "Are you recompensed except for what you used to do?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

Whoever arrives carrying the evil deed is tipped face-first into the Fire, and hears that nothing has been added: this is what they did.

A reflection

The face that would not turn

The ayah could have said simply that they were thrown into the Fire. It names their faces instead. One classical explanation is that the face is the seat of honour, where the noblest senses gather. If the face is overturned, the rest of the body is already included. Another reading takes 'faces' as a way of saying the whole person, as a neck or a hand can stand for a self. Either way, the ayah picks the part of us we guard most.

Think of a man in a lift on his way to a board meeting. He checks his face in the mirror and sets his expression. That face has been photographed for the annual report. It has never once been lowered to the ground for anyone.

In this life the face is what we turn. We turn it towards people and away from them, up in pride or down in shame. Many of the Companions and those after them read 'the evil deed' here as associating partners with Allah. At root, that is a matter of the face: turning it towards something other than its Maker.

The very next ayah has the Prophet ﷺ say he was commanded to be 'of the Muslims'. One commentary explains that phrase through another ayah: those who submit their faces wholly to Allah (4:125).

So the two ayat sit like two sides of a coin. One face is laid on the ground in prostration now, by choice. The other refuses, and is laid down later, without choice. The recompense has the shape of the deed. Pride kept the face raised; the Fire turns it over.

This is not a picture meant to frighten you into numbness. It is a question about where your face points today. What, or whom, does it turn towards first each morning?

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.