Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 170 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:170

فَرِحِينَ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِۦ وَيَسْتَبْشِرُونَ بِٱلَّذِينَ لَمْ يَلْحَقُوا۟ بِهِم مِّنْ خَلْفِهِمْ أَلَّا خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ

“Rejoicing in what Allāh has bestowed upon them of His bounty, and they receive good tidings about those [to be martyred] after them who have not yet joined them - that there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Rejoicing in what Allah gave them of His bounty, glad for those behind who have not yet caught up with them.

A reflection

Paid to the penny, then told to take the offcuts

A joiner is paid to the penny on Friday. Then the client tells him to take the offcuts of oak home for his own shelves. The wage was owed. The oak was not.

The ayah does not say they are rejoicing in what they earned.

It says: in what Allah gave them of His bounty. And the word chosen is precise. One lexicon gives the root one meaning, an increase in something. Another defines faḍl as what goes beyond the measured amount. Then comes the line that decides it: every gift the giver was not bound to give is called faḍl. That is established.

So men who had given their lives are described as receiving a surplus.

Not a settlement. Not a wage calculated against what was handed over. If anybody in human history had a claim, it was these men. The ayah still calls what they got an overflow that nobody owed them.

This is where the ego has to put something down, and it is not pride in achievement. It is the sense of being owed.

Most of us carry a quiet invoice. The years of praying. The sacrifice nobody acknowledged. The decency maintained at cost. We do not usually say the word deserve, because we know better. We simply feel, when things go badly, that an arrangement has been broken. That feeling is the invoice, and this ayah does not honour it.

And notice how much more generous the ayah is than the invoice would have been. An invoice has a total. It can be paid, and then the relationship is closed. Bounty has no total, which is why the next ayah can add that Allah does not let the reward of the believers go to waste.

So does He insist on the word bounty because He wants the credit? Look at the effect of the word on the ones described. They are rejoicing. A man who thinks he has been paid is satisfied. A man who knows he has been given more than his due is glad, which is a different state and a better one. The word is not protecting His position. It is the reason for their joy.

So take your own invoice out, with its items. Write at the bottom: none of this was owed to me. Then notice whether your mood about the last hard year shifts, and thank Him for one specific thing you had logged as earned.

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.