Sad · Makki · ayah 28 of 88

Sad 38:28

أَمْ نَجْعَلُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ كَٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ أَمْ نَجْعَلُ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ كَٱلْفُجَّارِ

“Or should We treat those who believe and do righteous deeds like corrupters in the land? Or should We treat those who fear Allāh like the wicked?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Asking whether those who set things right could end like those who spoil them, the ayah lets your own conscience give the answer.

A reflection

A bowl of fruit, a shield and a breached dam

The ayah sets out two pairs, and each word in them carries a picture.

The first pair is about what people do to the world. On one side, those who believe and do al-ṣāliḥāt, deeds that set things right. The root ṣ-l-ḥ means soundness, a thing in its proper working order. On the other side, al-mufsidīn fī al-arḍ. The lexicons picture fasād as fruit going bad in the bowl, or milk turning sour. Something has slipped out of its balance and stopped doing good. A mufsid is one who makes things go off: a marriage, a workplace, a town, a stretch of countryside. 'In the earth' makes it public. This is damage that other people have to live with.

The second pair is about what people are inside. Al-muttaqīn comes from a root whose first picture is a shield raised between you and a blow. Taqwā is not trembling. It is carrying protection through life, stepping with care, keeping something between yourself and what would harm you before Allah. Against them stand al-fujjār. The root f-j-r is the bursting open of a thing: a dam breached so the water floods out, night split by the dawn. Fujūr is a life that has broken its banks.

So the shield is set against the breach. One holds; the other has given way.

One commentary notices how the ayah moves between the pairs. It turns from one impossibility to a still more obvious one. Someone might just about imagine that ordinary believers and corrupters end alike. But that the guarded should end like the burst-open? The conscience refuses even faster.

A reader can find himself in these pictures without much effort. Somewhere this week you were either setting something right or letting it go off. Somewhere you were either holding up the shield or letting the bank give way. The ayah does not ask which group you belong to on paper. It asks which picture your week resembles.

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.