Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 58 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:58

أَوْ تَقُولَ حِينَ تَرَى ٱلْعَذَابَ لَوْ أَنَّ لِى كَرَّةً فَأَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ

“Or [lest] it say when it sees the punishment, "If only I had another turn[1356] so I could be among the doers of good."”

Saheeh International

Essence

The third regret is the wish for one more turn at life; the reader of this ayah is living inside that turn right now.

A reflection

You are already in the second chance

The third regretful soul does not blame anyone. It simply asks for one thing: law anna lī karratan, if only I had another turn. Several commentaries explain it as a return to the life of this world. Then, it says, I would be among those who do good.

Read that slowly, and something strange happens. Everything the soul is begging for, the reader of this ayah already has. A life still running. Days still open. Good deeds still possible. The wish on the Day is for exactly the situation you are in this morning.

Picture a man waking in a hospital recovery room after emergency surgery on a burst appendix. He hears the monitor beeping and feels the dull ache in his side. His first clear thought is: I've been given another go. For a week he is gentler with everyone. He calls his brother. He prays on time from the hospital bed.

That feeling of a returned life is available every day, without the surgery. This surah has already said that Allah takes souls in sleep and sends back the ones whose time has not come (39:42). Every waking is a small karra, a turn handed back.

Allah needs none of what we do with it. He is free of all need (35:15). The second chance is for us. Think of the good we can do with it: the prayer, the apology, the gift. That is the very thing the regretful soul will beg to be allowed to do.

So here is the ayah's quiet invitation. Do today what that soul will wish it had done. You are living in the answer to its prayer.

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.