As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 113 of 182

As-Saffat 37:113

وَبَـٰرَكْنَا عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَىٰٓ إِسْحَـٰقَ ۚ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِهِمَا مُحْسِنٌ وَظَالِمٌ لِّنَفْسِهِۦ مُبِينٌ

“And We blessed him and Isaac. But among their descendants is the doer of good and the clearly unjust to himself [i.e., sinner].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah blessed Ibrahim and Ishaq, yet their descendants split into the good and the self-wronging: blessing can be inherited, character cannot.

A reflection

The camel that kneels and stays

Wa-bāraknā ʿalayhi wa-ʿalā Isḥāq: and We blessed him and Ishaq.

The first hearers knew the root of 'blessing' from their camels. A classical lexicon says its single core is a thing settling firmly. A camel baraka when it knelt and stayed put, chest to the ground, at the water or in the open desert. The chest itself was called birk. This picture is established.

Another lexicon carries the image further. A pool where water is held is a birka. And baraka, blessing, is the firm settling of divine good in a thing, as water settles in a pool. Because this good comes in ways that cannot be felt or counted, people call blessed anything that shows an increase no one can explain.

So baraka is not simply more. It is good that stays. One classical commentary explains this ayah in exactly that way: blessing means permanence and constancy. He gives two readings. Allah brought the prophets of the Children of Israel from Ishaq's line. And He kept the praise of Ibrahim and Ishaq alive to the end of time.

The word is often heard as luck or abundance. Picture a widow who has run a small sewing business from her front room for thirty years. She never advertises. She has the same few dozen customers. By any spreadsheet it is a tiny income. Yet it has paid for two weddings, a roof, and her pilgrimage. Her children cannot work out how. That is baraka: not size, but staying power.

The Prophet taught that charity does not decrease wealth. Muslim records it. Seen through this root, the saying makes sense. Blessing is not measured by what is taken away, but by what remains.

Ask where you are chasing 'more' when what you need is 'blessed'. A larger salary, or a sufficient one that settles? A busier diary, or hours that bear fruit? Ask Allah for the kneeling camel's kind of good: the good that arrives, and stays.

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.