Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 148 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:148

فَـَٔاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ ثَوَابَ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَحُسْنَ ثَوَابِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ

“So Allāh gave them the reward of this world and the good reward of the Hereafter. And Allāh loves the doers of good.”

Saheeh International

Essence

So Allah gave them the reward of this world and the goodness of the reward of the Hereafter, and Allah loves those who do well.

A reflection

Grace above what was owed

A woman buys a second-hand pushchair from an advert. When she collects it the covers have been washed, the wheels oiled, and the rain cover folded inside. None of that was in the price.

The ayah says Allah gave them the reward of this world, and then does something odd with the second half. It does not say He gave them the reward of the Hereafter. It says the goodness of the reward of the Hereafter.

One concise commentary explains that extra word in four: its goodness is the favour above what is deserved.

Read that slowly. There is a reward that is owed. Then there is a surplus poured over it that nobody earned, and the ayah names that surplus on purpose.

And the word itself carries that. The lexicons give the root a single meaning, beauty, the opposite of ugliness. Ḥusn is everything that delights and draws desire. The Arabs even divided the forearm by it, calling the half nearest the wrist the beautiful one. The moon was called by this root. That is established.

So the Hereafter's reward is not described as larger. It is described as beautiful.

Now the part that quietly flattens a certain kind of pride.

We keep accounts, and we keep them in our own favour. The hours given. The patience shown. The things we did not have to do. And underneath religious effort there is often a very old human instinct, which is to establish a claim. If I have done this, something is now owed to me.

The ayah does not deny that a reward is owed. It says the best part of what arrives was never owed at all.

Which means the ledger you have been keeping, however honest, cannot account for most of what you will receive. And a man who understands that stops presenting his invoice, because the invoice turns out to be the smaller document.

And a reader may fairly ask whether a Lord who announces His own generosity wants it noticed. Look at where the sentence stands. It is the end of an account of people who had just lost their prophet and were praying for forgiveness. They had asked for pardon and firm feet. They are told what was given, including what they never thought to ask for.

A boast lists what the boaster has. This lists what other people were given, to people who are afraid they have nothing coming.

So stop reckoning. Write down, tonight, one thing you have received this year that was not owed to you by anybody, and thank Him for it by name.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.