As-Sajdah · Makki · ayah 21 of 30

As-Sajdah 32:21

وَلَنُذِيقَنَّهُم مِّنَ ٱلْعَذَابِ ٱلْأَدْنَىٰ دُونَ ٱلْعَذَابِ ٱلْأَكْبَرِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

“And We will surely let them taste the nearer punishment[1175] short of the greater punishment that perhaps they will return [i.e., repent].”

Saheeh International

Essence

The hardships of this life are a taste, measured and partial, sent ahead of the full portion while there is still time to turn back.

A reflection

Who measures out the dose

A logistics director has spent ten years making his supply chain lean. Nothing sits in a warehouse a day longer than it must. Then a single ship wedges itself sideways across a canal on the far side of the world. For a month his shelves are bare, and every clever spreadsheet he owns is suddenly decorative.

The ayah opens on a verb with Allah as its subject. La-nudhīqannahum, 'We will surely make them taste'. The Arabic doubles its certainty, with an emphatic la- at the front and an emphatic -nna at the end. And the verb is causative. Nobody stumbles into this taste. It is served.

That is the part the ego resists. We like to think our setbacks are weather: random, impersonal, nobody's decision. Or we think they were ours to prevent, if only the plan had been better. The ayah takes both stories away. The near hardships of this life are handed out by measure, by the One who also holds the greater thing behind them.

Notice the small word min, 'some of' the nearer punishment. Not all of it. One classical reading dwells on exactly this. They taste only part of the near punishment in this life, and the remainder waits beyond it. Even the hardship is portioned. The hand that serves it is holding back far more than it gives.

Someone will ask whether a God who announces His power to make people suffer is simply demanding to be feared. Does He need the attention? The ayah answers in its last two words: laʿallahum yarjiʿūn, 'so that perhaps they return.' The whole point lies outside Himself. He is free of all need (35:15). Their return adds nothing to Him, and their refusal takes nothing away. A ruler who punishes for his own pride wants the punished to stay down. This taste is sent so that they get up and come back.

The logistics director cannot order a ship to float free. He can notice, perhaps for the first time, that he was never the one keeping his shelves full. That is a humbling thought. It is also the beginning of the return this ayah is hoping for.

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.