Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 22 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:22

أَفَمَن شَرَحَ ٱللَّهُ صَدْرَهُۥ لِلْإِسْلَـٰمِ فَهُوَ عَلَىٰ نُورٍ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦ ۚ فَوَيْلٌ لِّلْقَـٰسِيَةِ قُلُوبُهُم مِّن ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ فِى ضَلَـٰلٍ مُّبِينٍ

“So is one whose breast Allāh has expanded to [accept] Islām and he is upon [i.e., guided by] a light from his Lord [like one whose heart rejects it]? Then woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the remembrance of Allāh. Those are in manifest error.”

Saheeh International

Essence

One chest opened wide to Islam walks on a light from its Lord, while another heart hardens at the very mention of Allah.

A reflection

Meat spread so thin the light shows through

Sharaḥa, opened, has one of the most vivid root pictures in the Quran. The lexicons describe meat being made ready at the fire. The cook slits a piece open and spreads it into a broad, thin sheet. Pared thin enough, the light shows through it. That is sharḥ. From opening and spreading, the word moved to making plain: to sharḥ a hard question is to open it until its meaning shows.

One commentary confirms the root sense: sharḥ is spreading and stretching meat and the like, used figuratively for widening. Other commentaries gloss the phrase: Allah widened his chest for Islam until it settled there; or, widened it with joy in Islam and calm.

Put the picture together. A chest that Allah opens is not merely a mind persuaded. It is a self spread open so that light passes through it. Nothing is hidden in a fold. Nothing is thick and closed.

One commentary notices a further detail. The ayah speaks of the chest, not just the heart. The chest is wider; it holds the heart. Islam is described as filling not only the heart but overflowing to fill the chest around it.

Picture a man who has carried resentment against his brother for eleven years. One Ramadan night, after the prayer, something in him gives way. He phones his brother at midnight and they talk for two hours. The next morning he says to his wife that his chest feels as if a window has been opened in it. He means it physically.

That is the image. An opened chest has room, light and calm for whatever comes. A closed one has none.

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.