Al-'Ankabut · Makki · ayah 34 of 69

Al-'Ankabut 29:34

إِنَّا مُنزِلُونَ عَلَىٰٓ أَهْلِ هَـٰذِهِ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ رِجْزًا مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْسُقُونَ

“Indeed, we will bring down on the people of this city punishment from the sky because they have been defiantly disobedient."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The angels tell Lut that a shaking ruin is coming on his town, and name its cause, though his rescue came with none.

A reflection

Rescue came without a reason; ruin came with one

Read the angels' words to Lut in their order. First comes the rescue: 'We will save you and your family' (29:33). Then comes the ruin, a punishment brought down from the sky on the people of this town. Only the second sentence carries a reason. Bimā kānū yafsuqūn: because they kept on breaking out.

One classical commentator noticed the gap. The angels did not say, we will save you because you are a prophet, or because you worship well. The rescue stands bare, with no 'because' attached. The ruin is given its cause at once. He saw the same pattern a few ayat earlier, in their words to Ibrahim, where the town's end is tied to its wrongdoing (29:31).

The pattern runs through the Quran. Allah's mercy needs no reason outside itself, so it is often given without one. His punishment never arrives unexplained. It always points back to something the people did, named in their own deeds. 'Your Lord does not wrong anyone' (18:49).

Turn that on your own life and it becomes very personal. Try listing the reasons you were given your eyesight, the hands that fed you as a baby, the language you first prayed in. You will not find a 'because' for most of them. You earned none of it.

Now list the hard consequences you have faced. Many of them, honestly traced, lead back to a choice. Not all, but many.

That is not a cause for despair. It is the shape of a Lord whose mercy comes first, as the same commentator puts it a few lines later. The good in your life is mostly gift. The harm is mostly traceable, which means much of it can be avoided. The ayah is grim, yet its grammar is generous. It tells you exactly where ruin comes from, so that you need not walk there.

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.