As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 153 of 182

As-Saffat 37:153

أَصْطَفَى ٱلْبَنَاتِ عَلَى ٱلْبَنِينَ

“Has He chosen daughters over sons?”

Saheeh International

Essence

'Did He pick daughters over sons?': the question turns their own ranking against them, and leaves them to hear how it sounds.

A reflection

Skimming the clearest part for yourself

Iṣṭafā: to choose. The root carries an established image from everyday life. Water was left to stand until the silt sank, and then the clear part at the top was drawn off. That clear part was its ṣafwa. To skim a pot was to take its ṣafwa. A cloudless day was 'clear'. And a war leader's ṣafī was the pick of the spoils, taken for himself before the sharing began.

A linguistic commentary defines the verb in this ayah exactly that way: iṣṭifāʾ is taking the purest part of a thing for oneself.

Now hear the question with that picture in mind. Aṣṭafā al-banāti ʿalā al-banīn? Did He take as His pick the daughters over the sons? In the Quraysh's own world, the pick was obvious. They wanted sons, and kept them for themselves. So their theology imagined Allah skimming the cloudy water and leaving them the clear. Even by their own measure, they had imagined God taking second best.

The question is not saying their measure is right. It is saying: listen to what your own belief implies about Him.

Picture two brothers sharing out their late father's tools. The older one says he will let the younger choose first, out of respect. Then he quietly takes the new drill and the good saw before his brother arrives, and leaves him a box of rusty spanners. Asked about it, he says, 'He had first pick, really'. Nobody believes him, and he does not quite believe himself.

The Quraysh claimed to honour Allah above all. Their own sharing-out said otherwise.

The ayah leaves a question for every believer too. When we say Allah comes first, what does the pick of our time, money and attention actually go to? The clear water, or the silt?

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.