Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 74 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:74

يَخْتَصُّ بِرَحْمَتِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ ذُو ٱلْفَضْلِ ٱلْعَظِيمِ

“He selects for His mercy whom He wills. And Allāh is the possessor of great bounty.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah singles out for His mercy whom He wills, and His bounty is immense, beyond any measure of ours.

A reflection

The moon through a gap in the clouds

A woman walks home over a dark hill on an overcast night. For a moment the clouds part. The moon lights the path just in front of her, and nowhere else. Then the gap closes.

Yakhtaṣṣu, He singles out, has that picture in its root. The lexicons give the root as a gap. The Arabs said the moon appeared from the khaṣāṣa of the clouds, the gap between them. To single someone out is to open a gap between him and others, and let light fall there.

What light? The early commentators name several. Some say prophethood. Others say Islam and the Quran. One Companion is reported to have added: much remembrance of Allah. All of them are mercy, and all of them fall where He wills.

This should humble anyone who has received guidance. If you pray, if you love the Quran, if your heart turns to Allah, you did not make the gap in the clouds. You were walking on the same dark hill as everyone else. The light found you.

The ego loves to treat favour as merit. It quietly concludes that we were chosen because we were better. The ayah says only that we were chosen because He willed it, out of His mercy. That leaves no room for looking down on anyone still walking in the dark.

And He is dhū l-faḍli l-ʿaẓīm: possessor of immense bounty. The root of ʿaẓīm is bone, the hard frame that holds a body up. His bounty is not decoration. It is the frame on which every good thing in your life is built.

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.