Saba · Makki · ayah 52 of 54

Saba 34:52

وَقَالُوٓا۟ ءَامَنَّا بِهِۦ وَأَنَّىٰ لَهُمُ ٱلتَّنَاوُشُ مِن مَّكَانٍۭ بَعِيدٍ

“And they will [then] say, "We believe in it!" But how for them will be the taking[1239] [of faith] from a place far away?[1240]”

Saheeh International

Essence

On that Day they reach for the faith they could once have taken with an easy hand, but it now lies a whole world away.

A reflection

Easy to take, once

Tanāwush is a vivid word, and the Quran uses it only here. The lexicons picture its root, nawsh, as reaching out to take something with the hand or the mouth. Gazelles stretch up to the leaves of the arak tree. A tall camel reaches down into the trough. This is established usage.

One commentator adds a sharp detail. Tanāwush is an easy taking of something close. So the ayah sets two pictures side by side. One is a man taking a thing from an arm's length away. The other is a man trying to take it from a bow-shot's distance. Their we believe is the second picture. All their lives, faith was the first.

Picture a woman running for the last train of the night. She reaches the platform as the doors begin to slide. For three seconds the gap is a hand's width; she could step through. Then it closes, and the same door, now moving, is as far away as the moon.

A fair question follows. If faith was so near, why do so many thoughtful people never take it? Doesn't that show it was never close at all?

Nearness has never guaranteed taking. The nearest things are often the ones we overlook: a parent's advice, a book on our own shelf, the prayer mat folded in the corner. Reaching still needs a hand stretched out. The gazelle must lift its own neck. Nobody can do that for another.

So the sorrow of this ayah is not the distance. It is how close it all was. The one reading these words is still on the platform, and the doors are still open. That is why the warning is given now.

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.