Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 82 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:82

وَأَصْبَحَ ٱلَّذِينَ تَمَنَّوْا۟ مَكَانَهُۥ بِٱلْأَمْسِ يَقُولُونَ وَيْكَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ وَيَقْدِرُ ۖ لَوْلَآ أَن مَّنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْنَا لَخَسَفَ بِنَا ۖ وَيْكَأَنَّهُۥ لَا يُفْلِحُ ٱلْكَـٰفِرُونَ

“And those who had wished for his position the previous day began to say, "Oh, how Allāh extends provision to whom He wills of His servants and restricts it! If not that Allāh had conferred favor on us, He would have caused it to swallow us. Oh, how the disbelievers do not succeed!"”

Saheeh International

Essence

By morning the people who had envied Qarun were thanking Allah for the fortune they never got, and saying aloud that they had been wrong.

A reflection

Spread like a carpet, measured like a stride

The first thing the wishers say, once they can speak, is about Allah. He spreads provision for whom He wills of His servants, and He measures it.

The two verbs carry pictures. Basaṭa is to spread a thing out in breadth. A bisāṭ is a carpet unrolled, and a generous man's hand was called 'spread'. Qadara is to measure a thing to its exact extent. The lexicons say a horse was aqdar when its hind hooves landed exactly where its forefeet had stepped. Every stride measured. When said of provision, it means measured out narrowly.

So one hand unrolls, and the same hand measures. Neither is careless.

Think of a ship's mate loading cargo before a long voyage. Some holds are packed to the beams. Others carry a few heavy blocks of ballast and nothing more. The mate is not rewarding the full holds or punishing the empty ones. He is loading for the voyage, for the sea ahead that only he can see.

One classical commentator draws the lesson the wishers had just learned. Allah widens for one person, not for any rank that person holds with Him. He narrows for another, not because He holds them cheap. Both are called ʿibādihi, His servants, in the same breath.

This is where the ego is cut down to size from both sides. The rich cannot read their bank balance as a certificate of worth. The poor need not read theirs as a verdict.

Is it unfair that the holds are loaded differently? Another commentator answers that the spreading and the measuring both follow wisdom and decree, as a test. Qarun's hold was the fullest in the land. It was also the one that sank.

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.