An-Nisa · Madani · ayah 78 of 176

An-Nisa 4:78

أَيْنَمَا تَكُونُوا۟ يُدْرِككُّمُ ٱلْمَوْتُ وَلَوْ كُنتُمْ فِى بُرُوجٍ مُّشَيَّدَةٍ ۗ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ حَسَنَةٌ يَقُولُوا۟ هَـٰذِهِۦ مِنْ عِندِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌ يَقُولُوا۟ هَـٰذِهِۦ مِنْ عِندِكَ ۚ قُلْ كُلٌّ مِّنْ عِندِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ فَمَالِ هَـٰٓؤُلَآءِ ٱلْقَوْمِ لَا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ حَدِيثًا

“Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you should be within towers of lofty construction. But if good comes to them, they say, "This is from Allāh"; and if evil befalls them, they say,[200] "This is from you." Say, "All [things] are from Allāh." So what is [the matter] with those people that they can hardly understand any statement?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Death reaches you even in the highest tower, and all that comes to you, good or hard, is from Allah, not from whoever you blame.

A reflection

Good is mine, bad is yours

Watch how the people in this ayah sort their lives. When good comes, they say: this is from Allah. When hardship comes, they turn to the Prophet ﷺ and say: this is from you. One early authority records the words they used. He managed it badly. He misjudged.

Then comes the reply, short and total. Qul kullun min ʿindi Allāh. Say: all of it is from Allah. Commentators gloss it: ease and hardship, victory and defeat, all by His decree.

This is a majestic sentence. It takes every event in a life, the welcome and the unwelcome, and returns it to one source. No luck. No ill omen. No scapegoat. Allah is the One from whom everything comes.

The ego hates this. It wants to sort events into two piles. Successes go in my pile: my effort, my talent. Failures go in someone else's: the boss, the economy, the partner, the new person in the family. That sorting keeps pride intact. It also keeps us from ever learning.

Picture a restaurant owner. A packed Saturday is down to his menu and his flair. An empty Tuesday is the council's roadworks, or the new chef. Over five years, he has never once asked Allah what the empty Tuesdays were for.

Does Allah need us to credit Him? He is the Free of need (35:15). Nothing is added to Him by our acknowledgement. But something is added to us. A person who says 'all of it is from Allah' stops hunting for people to blame. He turns, in good and bad alike, to the only One who can explain it, or change it.

Pride assumes it is the author of its successes. Humility receives everything, and asks what it is for.

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.