Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 14 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:14

زُيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ حُبُّ ٱلشَّهَوَٰتِ مِنَ ٱلنِّسَآءِ وَٱلْبَنِينَ وَٱلْقَنَـٰطِيرِ ٱلْمُقَنطَرَةِ مِنَ ٱلذَّهَبِ وَٱلْفِضَّةِ وَٱلْخَيْلِ ٱلْمُسَوَّمَةِ وَٱلْأَنْعَـٰمِ وَٱلْحَرْثِ ۗ ذَٰلِكَ مَتَـٰعُ ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ وَٱللَّهُ عِندَهُۥ حُسْنُ ٱلْمَـَٔابِ

“Beautified for people is the love of that which they desire - of women and sons, heaped-up sums of gold and silver, fine branded horses, and cattle and tilled land. That is the enjoyment of worldly life, but Allāh has with Him the best return [i.e., Paradise].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everything we chase is real and lovely and climbing towards its noon; the ayah asks only where we will be when the sun declines.

A reflection

The window dresser's night

The night before a big sale, a window dresser works until three in the morning. Each coat is angled to catch the light. Each price is tucked out of sight. By nine, people are stopping on the pavement without knowing why.

Zuyyina li-l-nāsi ḥubbu al-shahawāt: the love of desires has been made beautiful to people. The root pictured the earth after rain, decked in new grass. A lexicon adds a sharp test. True adornment never disfigures a person in any state, in this world or the next. What beautifies only for a while is, from another side, a blemish.

Who dressed the window? The verb is passive, and the commentaries give both answers. Some say Allah made these things attractive as a test. Others say Satan. Both can be true at different depths. The pull itself is built into creation; the exaggeration of it is whispered.

An honest question follows. Why would Allah make desires attractive and then test us with them? Look at the list: spouses, children, savings, horses, herds, farmland. It is the whole economy of human life. Without these pulls nobody would marry, raise children, work or plant. The desire is the engine. The test is the steering.

One classical commentary goes through the list item by item. Each one can be loved for pride, for showing off, for lording it over the weak. Or the same love can serve chastity, family, charity and the ties of kinship. The window is the same. What you do on the pavement differs.

Next time you stop at a window, of any kind, ask who dressed it and what it is for. Then decide whether you are buying, or being bought.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.