Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 65 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:65

وَلَقَدْ أُوحِىَ إِلَيْكَ وَإِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكَ لَئِنْ أَشْرَكْتَ لَيَحْبَطَنَّ عَمَلُكَ وَلَتَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِينَ

“And it was already revealed to you and to those before you that if you should associate [anything] with Allāh, your work would surely become worthless, and you would surely be among the losers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every prophet was told the same: set up a partner with Allah and all your work collapses from within, however full it looked.

A reflection

The camel that grazed until it burst

The verb for what happens to the deeds is yaḥbaṭanna. Several commentaries explain it simply: it becomes void, and earns no reward. But the root carries a vivid picture from the pasture.

The lexicons say ḥabaṭ is when an animal eats so much that its belly swells. One lexicon says the root has two senses, coming to nothing and pain, and both meet here. Sahih al-Bukhari records the Prophet ﷺ describing the danger of worldly abundance in exactly these terms. Among what the spring brings up, he said, is what kills by swelling, or nearly kills.

Picture a camel let loose in a green valley after the rains. It eats and eats. Its sides grow round; it looks healthier than ever. Then, from the inside, the swelling turns deadly. The fullness itself was the sickness.

That is the image applied to a person's deeds. A life can look full of good works: prayers, gifts, efforts, years of service. But if a partner has been set up beside Allah, the whole accumulation swells from within and collapses. It looked substantial. It was hollow.

The word makes a sobering point about appearances. Deeds are not judged by their bulk. A modest life of sincere worship outweighs a crowded life built around a false centre.

It also suggests why the Quran treats this so seriously. Most wrongs are like wounds: painful, but survivable and healable. Associating partners with Allah is more like the swelling. It attacks the very thing that was supposed to give life, from inside. The remedy is not to do less. It is to keep the centre true, so that everything built around it stays sound, whether small or great.

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.