As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 179 of 182

As-Saffat 37:179

وَأَبْصِرْ فَسَوْفَ يُبْصِرُونَ

“And see, for they are going to see.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Just see, and they will see: this time the ayah names no object, as if what will be seen is too large for any word.

A reflection

'Look,' with nothing after it

Set this ayah beside its twin four ayat earlier. There, the Prophet ﷺ was told wa abṣirhum, 'and see them'. Here he is told only wa abṣir, 'and see'. The object has gone.

Two commentators notice the change and explain it. Leaving both verbs without an object, they say, hints at something beyond description. What the Prophet ﷺ will see of joys, and what they will see of harms, cannot be contained in words. So the ayah does not try. It just says: see.

Picture a group of walkers on a mountain path before dawn. They have climbed in the dark by torchlight, cold and tired, grumbling a little. Near the top their guide stops, turns off his torch and says one word: 'Look.' He does not say look at the valley, or the clouds, or the sun. The sky to the east is beginning to burn. Ridges they never knew were there are appearing one by one. Nobody speaks. Anything the guide had added would have made it smaller.

That is the effect of the missing object. Some realities are diminished by being named too precisely. The ayah leaves a silence where the object should be, and the silence is larger than any word.

It also widens the scope. 'See them' focuses on the mockers. 'See' alone could include everything: their end, his vindication, the spread of the message, and the Day itself.

For a believer, this teaches a posture before what Allah has promised. Not to shrink it into a list we can manage, but to stand at the edge of it and look. The promises of Allah in the Quran are often stated briefly, and their briefness is not poverty. It is the guide turning off his torch.

Next time you read of what Allah has prepared, do not hurry past. Stop on the path. Let the word 'see' do its work.

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.