As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 60 of 182

As-Saffat 37:60

إِنَّ هَـٰذَا لَهُوَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْعَظِيمُ

“Indeed, this is the great attainment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The word for this triumph was born in the waterless desert: it means you crossed the place that kills people, and reached the water.

A reflection

Across the desert, alive

The first hearers knew a particular kind of land. The lexicons call it the mafāza: a desert with no water for two nights or more. Many said it was named in hope. Whoever crossed it had fāza, come through safe. Others said it was named for the dying it caused, the way a dangerous thing is sometimes given a lucky name. Either way, everyone knew what the word meant in the body: thirst, fear, the long night, and then the well.

The root had another use too. In a game of lots, the arrow that came out first had fāza: it won. So fawz joins two things the lexicons describe together. Escape from what you feared, and arrival at what you longed for. This is established in the sources.

One early commentary explains the ayah in exactly those two halves. This, it says, is the great rescue from the punishment we feared in the world. It is also the reaching of what we hoped for through our faith and obedience.

That is why the word fits this moment so precisely. The man has just looked across into the Fire and seen where he nearly went. He has just said: we will not die again, we will not be punished. The desert is behind him. Now he names what he has reached. Inna hādhā la-huwa al-fawzu al-ʿaẓīm. This, truly, is the great triumph.

Most of the victories we chase in life are only half of fawz. We arrive somewhere, but we are not safe there. Or we escape something, but arrive nowhere. The ayah describes the only crossing where both halves are complete.

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.