As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 48 of 182

As-Saffat 37:48

وَعِندَهُمْ قَـٰصِرَٰتُ ٱلطَّرْفِ عِينٌ

“And with them will be women limiting [their] glances,[1292] with large, [beautiful] eyes,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The eyes described here are the widest and loveliest there are, and the first thing said of them is that they do not wander.

A reflection

A gaze held by contentment, not by a rule

A man has been on dating apps for six years. On the bus he swipes through faces with his thumb, quickly, the way you flick through a catalogue. He has met kind people. Each time, a small voice has asked whether there might be someone slightly better one more swipe away. He is not unfaithful. He is just never finished looking.

This ayah describes the opposite of that thumb. Qāṣirātu al-ṭarfi: those who hold their gaze in. The commentaries explain that their eyes rest on their spouses and do not stray to anyone else. One early reading adds a phrase that changes everything. They restrict their eyes and their hearts to their husbands, and want no one besides them.

That addition matters. The restraint is not a rule imposed from outside, like a guard at a door. It comes from inside. One commentary traces the word to the verb iqtaṣara ʿalā: to be content with something and turn away from everything else. The lexicons give the root a related picture. A prized horse was called qaṣīr because it was kept close and never let roam.

So the gaze here is held by satisfaction, not by prohibition. The eye stops travelling because the heart has stopped searching.

Modern life is built to keep the thumb moving. More choice is sold as more freedom, and sometimes it is. But a person who can never stop comparing is not free. He is employed by his own restlessness.

The ayah offers a picture of love as arrival. Not the end of seeing, but the end of shopping.

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.