Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 10 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:10

قُلْ يَـٰعِبَادِ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمْ ۚ لِلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا۟ فِى هَـٰذِهِ ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةٌ ۗ وَأَرْضُ ٱللَّهِ وَٰسِعَةٌ ۗ إِنَّمَا يُوَفَّى ٱلصَّـٰبِرُونَ أَجْرَهُم بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

“Say,[1345] "O My servants who have believed, fear your Lord. For those who do good in this world is good, and the earth of Allāh is spacious. Indeed, the patient will be given their reward without account [i.e., limit]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Guard yourselves with mindfulness of your Lord: good awaits those who do good, His earth is wide, and the patient are paid without measure.

A reflection

No city owns you

And the earth of Allah is wide. Notice whose earth it is. Not the earth of Quraysh, who controlled Makkah and made life hard for the believers there. Not the earth of any government, landlord or employer. The earth of Allah.

The root of wāsiʿa paints a generous picture. A vessel was wāsiʿ when it held everything put in it with room to spare. A gathering was wide when people tawassaʿū, shifted along to make space for someone arriving.

One commentary draws a sharp conclusion. No one who falls short in doing good has any excuse at all. Someone may plead that his homeland or his town prevents him from giving himself to good. He is told: Allah's earth is wide, and His lands are many. Move to where you can worship and obey. Follow the prophets and the righteous, who left their homelands.

That shrinks something in us. The ego likes to make its own circumstances absolute. My job, my family, my city, my generation: these become the walls of what is possible, and the walls become the excuse. Picture a talented young architect who has told himself for ten years that nothing can change because 'this is how it is here'. The truth is that his corner of the earth is small. The earth itself is not.

A sceptic may hear 'His earth' as a claim of possession meant to impress. It does the opposite of tying us down. Because the earth is His, no one else owns us. The believers in Makkah were not property of their persecutors. Whoever is cornered anywhere has a whole earth beyond the corner, and a Lord who owns all of it.

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.