Sad · Makki · ayah 62 of 88

Sad 38:62

وَقَالُوا۟ مَا لَنَا لَا نَرَىٰ رِجَالًا كُنَّا نَعُدُّهُم مِّنَ ٱلْأَشْرَارِ

“And they will say, "Why do we not see men whom we used to count among the worst?[1331]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Looking around the Fire, the mockers notice who is missing: the poor believers they had always counted among the worst.

A reflection

They looked for Bilāl in the wrong place

The early explanations put names to these 'men'. One report has the chiefs of Makkah asking: where is Bilāl, where is Ṣuhayb, where is ʿAmmār? Others add Khabbāb and Salmān. The commentaries describe them as the poor of the Muslims, people nobody paid attention to. The chiefs despised them for their poverty and for leaving the old religion.

Picture the irony of the search. Men who never once went looking for Bilāl in life now crane their necks to find him. They assume he must be in the Fire with them. Where else would such a man end up?

Sahih al-Bukhari records an answer to their question, given years before they ask it. One morning at the dawn prayer, the Prophet ﷺ turned to Bilāl. Tell me, he said, the deed you have done in Islam that you hope in most. I heard the sound of your sandals ahead of me in Paradise. Bilāl's answer was simple. Whenever he purified himself, at any hour of night or day, he prayed with that purification whatever was written for him to pray.

So the man they are searching for in the Fire had already been heard walking in the Garden. And the deed behind it was small and constant. A few units of prayer after each washing, kept up for years, seen by almost no one.

One commentary insists that this is a parable for every age, not only for Makkah. Those who despise the believers expect to find them in the Fire. When the curtain lifts, the search party is in the wrong place.

There is a hope here for anyone who has been overlooked for their faith. The people who looked down on you did not have the last word on where you were going. And there is an invitation for all of us. Bilāl's sandals were heard because of something nobody in Makkah could see.

Is there one small thing you could do after every wuḍūʾ, every day, that only Allah would know about?

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.