Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 57 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:57

وَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ فَيُوَفِّيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“But as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will give them in full their rewards, and Allāh does not like the wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who believed and did good will be paid in full, nothing missing; and Allah does not love the wrongdoers.

A reflection

Paid in full, every Saturday counted

For twenty years a retired postman has been the unpaid assistant referee at a children's football league. Every Saturday, in rain and frost, he runs the touchline with a flag. At his leaving do there is a cake and a single card. He is grateful for both. But he once admitted that he sometimes wondered whether any of it had been counted.

'As for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will pay them their rewards in full.' The verb is yuwaffīhim. The lexicons picture the root as a measure filled to the brim, a coin of full weight, a debt collected with nothing left owing. A modern commentary says simply: their reward complete, not diminished.

And the word for reward, ajr, has its own picture. The lexicons say the root joins a worker's wage with a broken bone knitting back together: ujirat yaduhu, his hand was set. One lexicon joins them. A wage is what restores the worker after the strain of his work, as a setting restores a broken bone. Reward is not a bonus. It mends the one who spent himself.

Allah needs none of our deeds. He is free of all need (35:15), and whoever strives does so for himself (29:6). The deeds are for us, and so is the payment. In a world where so much good goes unseen and unpaid, this ayah answers a quiet ache. Nothing is lost. No Saturday on a cold touchline is missing from the measure.

'Truly, in the remembrance of Allah hearts find rest' (13:28). The card at the leaving do was kind. The ayah promises something fuller: a reward measured to the brim, by the One who saw every Saturday.

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.