As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 58 of 182

As-Saffat 37:58

أَفَمَا نَحْنُ بِمَيِّتِينَ

“Then, are we not to die”

Saheeh International

Essence

Three words, asked in wonder rather than doubt: so we are not going to die?

A reflection

Too good to be sure of

A man has waited eleven years for his residency to be settled. The letter finally arrives. He reads it six times standing in the hallway. Then he hands it to his wife and asks her to read it aloud, slowly, in case he has misunderstood. He knows what it says. He just cannot quite believe it yet.

The man in the Garden turns back to his friends with a question that sounds almost like that. A-fa-mā naḥnu bi-mayyitīna: so we are not going to die?

The commentaries offer two ways of hearing it. One suggests that the people of the Garden may not know at first that they will never die, and learn it only later. The other is subtler. A person whose happiness is complete, one theologian says, may well ask: will this last for me? Will it stay mine? He asks even though he is certain. The question is not doubt. It is amazement spilling over.

Another commentary describes the tone as a question of delight: speaking of Allah's favour, savouring it, saying it aloud to make it real.

There is a lesson in that for how we receive good things now. Many of us rush past them. The results come back clear, the child arrives safely, the debt is paid off, and within a day we are on to the next worry. The man in the Garden does the opposite. He stops, and says the good news aloud to his friends, as a question, so that they can all say yes together.

Some joys deserve to be said twice. Not because we doubt them, but because saying them is part of receiving them.

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.