As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 114 of 182

As-Saffat 37:114

وَلَقَدْ مَنَنَّا عَلَىٰ مُوسَىٰ وَهَـٰرُونَ

“And We did certainly confer favor upon Moses and Aaron.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah declares, with emphasis, that He conferred a weighty favour on Musa and Harun: everything they became was given, and the Giver says so plainly.

A reflection

Only One can truly confer a favour

Wa-laqad manannā: and indeed We conferred favour. The ayah opens with two words of emphasis, la and qad, as if to say: be in no doubt about this. And the subject is Allah, speaking of Himself in the plural of majesty.

A classical lexicon makes a remarkable observation about this verb. A favour conferred in deed, it says, belongs in reality to Allah alone. When a human being does someone a kindness, he gives from what Allah first gave him. The money, the time, the strength, the idea: none of it began with him. Only Allah gives from what is truly His own.

That is humbling, even for prophets. Musa had been a foundling in a basket on the river. Harun was a man of a subject people under Pharaoh. Neither of them earned prophethood or seized it. One classical commentary says plainly that the favour here was prophethood itself, along with the other benefits of religion and of this world.

The ego does not like this. It wants credit. It tells our story as a series of achievements: my effort, my talent, my resilience. The ayah quietly corrects the grammar. 'We conferred favour.' The subject of the sentence is not Musa. It is Allah.

Someone may object. Why would Allah remind people of His favours? Among humans, the same lexicon says, reminding someone of your favours is ugly; it spoils the gift. Does Allah need our gratitude?

The answer is in what the reminder does. A human who reminds you of his favour is asking for something back. Allah asks nothing for Himself. 'Whoever is grateful is grateful for his own good. Whoever is ungrateful, Allah is free of need, worthy of all praise' (31:12). The reminder is not for His pride. It is for our sight. It lets us see the hand behind our lives, and that seeing is our gain.

So today, name one thing you think you earned. Then say, honestly, who conferred it.

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.