Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 66 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:66

وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَىٰٓ أَعْيُنِهِمْ فَٱسْتَبَقُوا۟ ٱلصِّرَٰطَ فَأَنَّىٰ يُبْصِرُونَ

“And if We willed, We could have obliterated their eyes, and they would race to [find] the path, and how could they see?[1277]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Your eyes are open this morning because He has, so far, not willed otherwise; the ayah is less a threat than a description of restraint.

A reflection

Sight held open by a will that has not closed it

Picture a windowless shopping centre on a Saturday in December. Thousands of people are moving fast, each sure of the way to the car park. Then every light fails at once. In the half-second of silence, nobody moves. The people who were racing a moment ago stand still in the dark. They are holding bags they can no longer see.

That is the scene this ayah sketches. If We willed, We would wipe out their eyes. Then they would race to the road, but how would they see? The concise commentary describes them heading out along the road as was their habit, suddenly unable to see it.

One commentator draws out a quiet detail in the grammar. The verb nashāʾu, We will, is in a form that can carry continuity. The point, he says, is that their eyes have not been wiped because the not-willing continues. They are, right now, in the grip of His power. They deserve what is described. He has not willed it, out of His wisdom.

Sit with what that means for anyone who reads it. Sight is not a possession. It is a permission, renewed moment by moment. Every glance you have taken today happened inside a decision not to withdraw it.

That is the cure for a particular kind of pride: the pride of the observer. The one who sees what others miss, judges quickly, and admires his own perception. The insight he is proud of runs on borrowed light. Arrogance about one's vision is arrogance about something that could be switched off without warning, and has not been, out of mercy.

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.