Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 164 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:164

لَقَدْ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَإِن كَانُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ لَفِى ضَلَـٰلٍ مُّبِينٍ

“Certainly did Allāh confer [great] favor upon the believers when He sent among them a Messenger from themselves, reciting to them His verses and purifying them and teaching them the Book [i.e., the Qur’ān] and wisdom,[149] although they had been before in manifest error.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah did a great favour to the believers when He raised among them a Messenger from themselves, to recite, to purify and to teach.

A reflection

The word for a favour means a cut

A firm pays for an apprentice's night-school course. For the next decade, every pay review opens with the same four words: we invested in you.

The verb at the start of this ayah is the verb for exactly that sentence, and the lexicons say its root means cutting.

A rope worn through is manīn. Death is al-manūn, because it cuts the span short. And a blessing is called a minna, one commentary explains, because by it you are cut away from affliction. The same commentary gives the other side. Counting a favour over somebody is also called mann, because it cuts the favour off from the gratitude that was owed for it. That is established.

So the word holds both the rescue and the ruin of a gift.

One theological commentary lists the senses in Arabic usage. The food that fell from the sky on the Children of Israel. Reminding a person of what you gave him, as in: do not cancel your charity by reminders and injury (2:264). And cutting, as in a reward not cut off.

Which raises the obvious objection to this ayah, and it should be put bluntly.

Allah here does precisely what the Quran condemns in people. He reminds them what He gave them. If reminding demolishes a gift, why does He do it, and why in a passage where the audience has just been beaten in battle?

The answer is in why the human version spoils. A man reminds you of his favour because he needs something back: standing, leverage, a hold. The reminder is a bill. He created jinn and mankind only to worship Him, and He asks them for no provision (51:57). If you disbelieve, Allah has no need of you (35:15). Nothing is being invoiced.

And notice the direction of the sentence. The favour is on the believers. One commentary notes they are singled out although the sending was a mercy to all, because they are the ones who benefit. A reminder aimed at the person who gains from remembering is instruction, not a demand.

This is also where a certain pride in us is exposed. Most of us keep a quiet ledger of what we have given and who has not acknowledged it. We call it fairness. The ego is not hurt by giving; it is hurt by giving unrecorded.

So find one favour you have reminded somebody of, more than once. Decide today to close that line in the ledger, and never raise it again. That is what it looks like to give the way the word's better half means.

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.