As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 22 of 182

As-Saffat 37:22

۞ ٱحْشُرُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ وَأَزْوَٰجَهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْبُدُونَ

“[The angels will be ordered], "Gather those who committed wrong, their kinds,[1289] and what they used to worship”

Saheeh International

Essence

On the Day of Sorting the command goes out to gather the wrongdoers with their likes, and with whatever they used to worship.

A reflection

Two sandals of a pair

Azwāj usually means spouses. But one commentator explains the root's first picture. A zawj is one of a pair, like the two sandals of a pair, right and left. From there it came to mean what goes with a thing, its match, its like. Most of the early commentators read it that way here. A Companion said: their likes, those who were like them. Others said: their peers, their followers, their kind.

So on that Day, people are gathered with their pairs. Not their family by blood. Their match by deed and by choice.

Picture a young man in the first week of a new job. At lunch there are three tables in the canteen. He sits, more or less by chance, with a group who spend the hour mocking the management and planning how to do as little as possible. Five years later he is one of them: the same jokes, the same shortcuts, the same tired cynicism. He never decided to become like them. He just kept sitting at that table.

We become like the people we pair ourselves with. The Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said that a man is on the way of his close friend, so let each of you look at whom he befriends. Whether or not you hold that exact report, this ayah carries the same truth to its end. The pairing we choose here is the pairing we are gathered in there.

It is worth asking, honestly, who your sandals are matched with. Whom do you sit with by habit? Whose way of talking is becoming yours? There is still time to change tables.

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.