Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 49 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:49

فَإِذَا مَسَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ ضُرٌّ دَعَانَا ثُمَّ إِذَا خَوَّلْنَـٰهُ نِعْمَةً مِّنَّا قَالَ إِنَّمَآ أُوتِيتُهُۥ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍۭ ۚ بَلْ هِىَ فِتْنَةٌ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

“And when adversity touches man, he calls upon Us; then when We bestow on him a favor from Us, he says, "I have only been given it because of [my] knowledge." Rather, it is a trial, but most of them do not know.”

Saheeh International

Essence

We call on Allah in trouble and claim the credit in relief, but every gift He grants is a test.

A reflection

A gift you think you invoiced for

Look at how Allah describes His giving. Khawwalnāhu niʿmatan minnā: We granted him a blessing from Us. Several commentaries note that the verb khawwala is used only of giving as a favour. It is never used of paying what is owed. You do not khawwala someone their wages. You khawwala them a gift.

And then the man's reply: innamā ūtītuhu ʿalā ʿilm, I was given it only because of knowledge. The commentaries record several readings of whose knowledge he means. Perhaps his own expertise in earning. Perhaps Allah's knowledge that he deserved it. Either way, he has turned a gift into an invoice.

This is the ego's favourite manoeuvre. It does not deny the blessing. It simply reassigns the credit. A promotion becomes proof of my talent. Recovery becomes proof of my discipline. A full fridge becomes proof of my planning.

One commentary puts the contrast bluntly. We give him freely, and he imagines he found it by deserving it.

The ayah does not argue. It simply calls the blessing what it is: niʿmatan minnā, from Us. The King gives; the servant receives. Nobody sends the King an invoice.

A sceptic might ask whether insisting on credit for every good thing is a kind of divine vanity. But think about what the reverse does to a person. Someone who believes he earned everything becomes brittle and proud, and contemptuous of those with less. Someone who knows he was given becomes grateful, generous and light. The insistence is not for Allah's sake. It protects the receiver from the poison of his own pride.

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.