Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 193 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:193

رَّبَّنَآ إِنَّنَا سَمِعْنَا مُنَادِيًا يُنَادِى لِلْإِيمَـٰنِ أَنْ ءَامِنُوا۟ بِرَبِّكُمْ فَـَٔامَنَّا ۚ رَبَّنَا فَٱغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا وَكَفِّرْ عَنَّا سَيِّـَٔاتِنَا وَتَوَفَّنَا مَعَ ٱلْأَبْرَارِ

“Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller [i.e., Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ)] calling to faith, [saying], 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed. Our Lord, so forgive us our sins and remove from us our misdeeds and cause us to die among the righteous.”

Saheeh International

Essence

We heard a call and answered it: now cover what we have done, and let our last breath be in the company of the good.

A reflection

Which calls actually get you out of bed

The ayah says it twice: we heard a caller, calling. Why both words.

The sources answer with a point about expectation. Say "a caller" on its own and the mind supplies the usual business. A crier calling men to battle. Someone shouting to put out a feud. A voice calling for help for a person in trouble. A summons about some emergency, or some advantage to be had. Those are the calls a town knows. Then the ayah adds what this one was calling to, and the whole figure is lifted. There is no greater caller than one calling to faith. The sources compare it to saying: I passed a guide, guiding to Islam. The guide is ordinary until you hear where he is pointing.

So the test of a call is not its volume. It is what it calls you to.

A man carries the on-call pager for a water company. When it goes at ten past three he is out of bed before he is properly awake. Dressed, and in the van within four minutes, because a main has burst. He has done this for nine years. He is good at it and he is proud of it.

He has never once risen that fast for the dawn prayer. The call is older, it is five times a day, and it is addressed to him by name in the only sense that matters.

That is not a comfortable comparison, and it is not meant to be. We have trained our bodies to leap at the calls with consequences attached that we can picture. A flooded street. A text from the school. The particular ringtone of a certain relative.

The people in this duʿāʾ are not boasting about a religious experience. They are reporting that they heard a call and treated it as real. Then they open their hands and ask.

Ask yourself which calls get your feet on the floor, and in what order. The order is an honest account of what you believe.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.