Ya-Sin · Makki · ayah 68 of 83

Ya-Sin 36:68

وَمَن نُّعَمِّرْهُ نُنَكِّسْهُ فِى ٱلْخَلْقِ ۖ أَفَلَا يَعْقِلُونَ

“And he to whom We grant long life We reverse in creation;[1279] so will they not understand?”

Saheeh International

Essence

A long life turns a person round like an arrow with a broken nock; the ayah asks what that should teach while there is strength.

A reflection

The proof you are already watching

This ayah closes an argument, and the commentators read it as evidence. Two ayat earlier the surah said: if We willed, We could blind them, or fix them where they stand. Someone might reply that this is only talk.

The answer is this ayah. One commentator explains its logic. Think of the One who moves people from youth to old age, from strength to weakness, from knowledge to confusion. He is plainly able to blind and to transform. He can do with them whatever He wills. Another adds that the reversal is offered as a witness to what came before. Its not happening yet is only because He has not willed it.

The concise commentaries take the argument one step further. The One who can do this, which you all know and watch, is able to raise you after death. Will they not, then, reason?

That is the majesty of this ayah, and it is unusual. It does not point to the sky or the stars. It points to the mirror. Every human being who lives long enough becomes the evidence. The hands that were strong become unsteady. The memory that held whole conversations lets go of names. Nobody arranges this. Nobody can stop it.

The pride that thinks itself the master of its own body has to face this one fact. You did not grant yourself your strength, and you cannot keep it. A person who has watched a parent grow old has already seen the argument. The ayah only asks them to finish thinking it through. It is not asked because He needs the acknowledgement. The one who gains by reasoning it out is the one who reasons.

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.