Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 37 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:37

فَتَقَبَّلَهَا رَبُّهَا بِقَبُولٍ حَسَنٍ وَأَنۢبَتَهَا نَبَاتًا حَسَنًا وَكَفَّلَهَا زَكَرِيَّا ۖ كُلَّمَا دَخَلَ عَلَيْهَا زَكَرِيَّا ٱلْمِحْرَابَ وَجَدَ عِندَهَا رِزْقًا ۖ قَالَ يَـٰمَرْيَمُ أَنَّىٰ لَكِ هَـٰذَا ۖ قَالَتْ هُوَ مِنْ عِندِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

“So her Lord accepted her with good acceptance and caused her to grow in a good manner and put her in the care of Zechariah. Every time Zechariah entered upon her in the prayer chamber, he found with her provision. He said, "O Mary, from where is this [coming] to you?" She said, "It is from Allāh. Indeed, Allāh provides for whom He wills without account."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah accepted the girl, grew her like a good plant, placed her with Zakariyyā, and fed her from His own hand, without reckoning.

A reflection

Provision you cannot trace

A widowed mother of three keeps her bills in a biscuit tin. Every month the sums on the back of an envelope say she should come up short. Every month, somehow, she does not. She has stopped trying to explain it.

Zakariyyā was a prophet and the head of the scholars of the House. Yet each time he entered Maryam's chamber, he found food he had not brought. The commentators report that many early authorities said it was summer fruit in winter and winter fruit in summer. So he asked the obvious question: 'Maryam, where does this come to you from?'

Her answer is the ayah's centre. 'It is from Allah. Allah provides for whom He wills without reckoning'.

The lexicons picture rizq, provision, as a soldier's ration handed out on its set day, or a bird dropping food into its chick's mouth. It is a gift that keeps arriving at its appointed time. And ḥisāb, reckoning, comes from the root of counting. A concise commentary explains 'without reckoning' as abundantly, with nothing owed in return.

This is where the ego loses its favourite story. We like to believe that what reaches us is earned, counted and controlled. Salary, contacts, cleverness. Those are real means, and Allah uses them. But the ayah says the source is not the means. He provides for whom He wills, and He keeps no ledger of what you owe Him for it.

Does He need to tell us He is the Provider? He needs nothing at all (35:15). We need to know it, because the alternative is to worship the means. People who think their own hands feed them grow either arrogant or terrified.

The mother with the biscuit tin is neither. She has learned Maryam's sentence without ever studying it. It is from Allah.

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.