Sad · Makki · ayah 61 of 88

Sad 38:61

قَالُوا۟ رَبَّنَا مَن قَدَّمَ لَنَا هَـٰذَا فَزِدْهُ عَذَابًا ضِعْفًا فِى ٱلنَّارِ

“They will say, "Our Lord, whoever brought this upon us - increase for him double punishment in the Fire."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their first 'Our Lord' here is not a plea for mercy, but a request that whoever led them in should suffer twice as much.

A reflection

Two prayers about the people who came before

This is the first time in the scene that anyone says Rabbanā, our Lord. One classical commentary notes the turn. The followers leave off quarrelling with their chiefs and address Allah in entreaty. And what do they ask for? Not forgiveness. Not relief. More pain for someone else.

Now place beside it another prayer in the Quran, also about the people who came before. 'Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith' (59:10). It goes on: 'put no resentment in our hearts towards those who have believed'.

The two prayers have the same shape. Both begin Rabbanā. Both look back at an earlier generation. Both concern what was handed down. One says: whoever sent this ahead for us, double his punishment. The other says: forgive those who went before us, and wash the resentment out of our hearts.

One is the prayer of people who inherited ruin and can only want it multiplied. The other is the prayer of people who inherited faith, with all its imperfect carriers, and want them forgiven.

Most of us inherit a mixture. A temper from a father. A way with money from an uncle. Habits of speech we never chose. It is easy to pray like the people of the Fire about those who handed us our troubles. It is harder, and far more freeing, to pray like the people of 59:10.

Sahih Muslim records the second kind of prayer in the life of the Prophet ﷺ. He once told his wife about the hardest day he had faced from his people. He had invited a chief who rejected him, and walked away so grieved that he only came to himself far along the road. Then the angel of the mountains was sent to him. If you wish, he said, I will bring the two mountains together on them. The Prophet ﷺ refused. 'Rather, I hope that Allah will bring out from their descendants people who worship Allah alone'.

He prayed for the next generation of the very people who had turned him away. The test of a heart, this ayah suggests, is how it prays about its predecessors and its opponents. When you think of what was handed down to you, whose name comes to your lips? And is the word that follows it 'forgive', or 'double'?

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.