Al-Ahzab · Madani · ayah 35 of 73

Al-Ahzab 33:35

إِنَّ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ وَٱلْمُسْلِمَـٰتِ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتِ وَٱلْقَـٰنِتِينَ وَٱلْقَـٰنِتَـٰتِ وَٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ وَٱلصَّـٰدِقَـٰتِ وَٱلصَّـٰبِرِينَ وَٱلصَّـٰبِرَٰتِ وَٱلْخَـٰشِعِينَ وَٱلْخَـٰشِعَـٰتِ وَٱلْمُتَصَدِّقِينَ وَٱلْمُتَصَدِّقَـٰتِ وَٱلصَّـٰٓئِمِينَ وَٱلصَّـٰٓئِمَـٰتِ وَٱلْحَـٰفِظِينَ فُرُوجَهُمْ وَٱلْحَـٰفِظَـٰتِ وَٱلذَّٰكِرِينَ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرًا وَٱلذَّٰكِرَٰتِ أَعَدَّ ٱللَّهُ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةً وَأَجْرًا عَظِيمًا

“Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women, the believing men and believing women, the obedient men and obedient women, the truthful men and truthful women, the patient men and patient women, the humble men and humble women, the charitable men and charitable women, the fasting men and fasting women, the men who guard their private parts and the women who do so, and the men who remember Allāh often and the women who do so - for them Allāh has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked why women went unnamed, Allah answered with ten pairs: every quality of faith spoken twice, so nobody need wonder whether they were seen.

A reflection

Not ten kinds of people, but one kind of person

Many people hold this ayah in their heads as a list. Ten good qualities, like the bullet points of a job advert. Submission, faith, devotion, truthfulness, patience, humility, charity, fasting, chastity, remembrance. You find the one that fits you, and you are in.

Read the grammar and the list closes up into a portrait.

One commentary asks a precise question about the ayah's twenty uses of and. Why, it asks, does and join the women to the men, and then and join each pair to the next? Are these the same and?

They are not, it answers. The first and joins two different kinds who share one ruling: men, and women. Neither is folded into the other. Each is named in its own right. The second and joins one description to another, as you might say: the kind, the brave, the honest. It means the same people carry them all. So the sense is: the men and women who gather all these acts of obedience, for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward.

That changes the whole ayah. It is not a menu with ten dishes. It is a description of one kind of person, drawn ten times over. The Muslim here is also the believer, who is also devout, also truthful, also patient, and so on to the end.

Another commentary agrees in its own way. It reads the ten as stages that build on each other, each protecting the one before. Nothing in the list stands alone.

This is uncomfortable, and useful. Most of us are strong in one or two of these. Someone gives generously but cannot hold her tongue. Someone fasts every Monday and Thursday but is not truthful in business. Someone prays at night but has no patience with his children.

The ayah gently refuses to let any one virtue stand in for the rest. It holds up a whole person. And then, crucially, it does not say: and only the perfect will be rewarded. It says aʿadda: Allah has already prepared forgiveness. The forgiveness comes first in the promise, because nobody gathers all ten without needing it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.