Sad · Makki · ayah 32 of 88

Sad 38:32

فَقَالَ إِنِّىٓ أَحْبَبْتُ حُبَّ ٱلْخَيْرِ عَن ذِكْرِ رَبِّى حَتَّىٰ تَوَارَتْ بِٱلْحِجَابِ

“And he said, "Indeed, I gave preference to the love of good [things] over the remembrance of my Lord until it [i.e., the sun] disappeared into the curtain [of darkness]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Sulayman names his own failure without excuse: love for a good thing pushed out the remembrance of his Lord, until the sun had gone.

A reflection

The distraction was called 'good'

Notice what Sulayman calls the thing that distracted him. Not sin, not temptation, not folly. Al-khayr: the good.

The commentators explain why. The Arabs called horses al-khayr. A classical grammarian said that in their speech khayr and khayl, horses, were one. Others say khayr here means wealth, as when the Quran says that man is intense in his love of al-khayr (100:8). One commentator adds that wealth is only called khayr when it is plentiful and well gained. And the Prophet ﷺ said that goodness is tied to the forelocks of horses until the Day of Resurrection (Sahih al-Bukhari).

So this was not a man caught by something shameful. It was a man absorbed in something noble, which he had every right to love.

That is the more common danger for people who are trying. A man who runs a weekend Quran school spends all Saturday afternoon on its fundraising spreadsheet. Roof repairs, a new boiler, the teachers' expenses. At Maghrib he realises he has not prayed ʿAsr. He missed it while serving the very cause the prayer belongs to.

Many imagine that what pulls a believer away from Allah is mainly forbidden things. Those are obvious, and so easier to guard against. The subtler pull is the good project, the family need, the urgent kindness, the beautiful thing. None of it feels like turning away.

Sulayman's sentence gives you a test. Ask not only whether a thing is good. Ask whether it has begun to come ʿan dhikri rabbī: in place of the remembrance of your Lord.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.