As-Saffat · Makki · ayah 84 of 182

As-Saffat 37:84

إِذْ جَآءَ رَبَّهُۥ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ

“When he came to his Lord with a sound heart”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ibrahim came to his Lord carrying one thing worth bringing: a heart with nothing hidden rotting inside it, sincere to Allah and sound towards people.

A reflection

A heart with no hidden rot

Qalbin salīm: a sound heart. The root of salīm is soundness, being whole and free of every defect, outward and inward. The Quran first uses it for a cow musallama, without a single blemish (2:71). A sound heart is like that animal: nothing wrong with it anywhere.

The commentaries list what a heart must be free of. Some name shirk, giving Allah partners. Others add doubt. Others add the quieter ills: rancour, deceit, envy. One classical commentary points out that the ayah does not restrict the word, so it covers every disease of the heart. Another lists corrupt beliefs, bad intentions and ugly traits together.

Picture a joiner restoring an old barn. The great oak beams look perfect: freshly painted, square, solid. He does not trust the paint. He walks the length of the barn tapping each beam with a mallet. Most ring dense and dull. One gives back a hollow note. Beneath the paint, the heartwood has rotted. That beam will be the one that fails.

That is why salīm matters. A heart can look fine from outside. It can pray, smile and give. And still something can be hollowing it from within: a grudge kept warm for years, a jealousy never admitted, a doubt never faced.

The root of qalb, heart, adds its own warning. It means turning: bread turned on the fire, a buyer turning goods over to find the flaw. The heart is the best part of us and the part most given to turning.

So tap your own beams. Which grudge sounds hollow when you knock on it? Which envy have you painted over? Ibrahim came to his Lord with a heart that rang true all the way through. That is not a gift for prophets alone. It is a beam-by-beam repair anyone can begin.

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.