Al-Ahzab · Madani · ayah 44 of 73

Al-Ahzab 33:44

تَحِيَّتُهُمْ يَوْمَ يَلْقَوْنَهُۥ سَلَـٰمٌ ۚ وَأَعَدَّ لَهُمْ أَجْرًا كَرِيمًا

“Their greeting the Day they meet Him will be, "Peace." And He has prepared for them a noble reward.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The meeting you may dread is described as a homecoming: its first word is Peace, and the reward was made ready long before you arrive.

A reflection

Who speaks the first word

Taḥiyyatuhum yawma yalqawnahu salām: their greeting, on the Day they meet Him, is peace. The sentence is short, and it leaves one question open on purpose. Whose greeting is it?

The commentaries hear several voices in it. One reading, which several of them favour, is that Allah Himself greets them. Another ayah says it outright: peace, a word from a merciful Lord (36:58). One classical writer argues that this must be the meaning. The believers know their Lord too well to greet Him as if He needed safety from them. So the greeting comes from Him, he says, the way one who loves greets the beloved on meeting.

A second reading has the believers greeting one another. In the Garden, says another surah, their greeting is peace (10:10). An early reader and a great classical commentator preferred this sense. A third has the angels greeting them as they rise from their graves, or as they enter the Garden. Peace be upon you, they say, through every gate (13:23-24). A fourth links it to the angel of death greeting the believer as he takes the soul. That report's chain was weakened by classical critics, so it is held lightly.

You need not choose between them all. Read together they describe one atmosphere. Every voice in that meeting, His, the angels' and your companions', says the same word.

Think about how rare that is. Most meetings with authority open with a question. Where were you, why is this late, explain this. The first word you will hear on the Day you meet your Lord, for those this ayah describes, is not a question. It is peace.

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.