Ghafir · Makki · ayah 60 of 85

Ghafir 40:60

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ٱدْعُونِىٓ أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِى سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ

“And your Lord says, "Call upon Me; I will respond to you." Indeed, those who disdain My worship will enter Hell [rendered] contemptible.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Your Lord Himself says: call on Me and I will answer you; and the only ones shut out are those too proud to call.

A reflection

Too proud to ask

Wa-qāla rabbukum. And your Lord said. The ayah does not begin with a report about Allah. It begins with His own voice, turned directly to you.

Then it does something unexpected. After the invitation, call on Me and I will answer you, it names the one kind of person who will be shut out. Not the sinner. Not the person who has fallen short. Alladhīna yastakbirūna: those who are too proud.

The root k-b-r pictures something too big to fit: a self swollen past its real size. Pride is precisely what stops a person from asking. To ask is to admit need. And a self that thinks itself large cannot bear to admit it needs anything.

The ayah ends with a word that answers that pride exactly. Dākhirīn. The lexicons describe the dākhir as one made small, who does what he is told whether he wills it or not. The established picture is humiliation without choice.

So the ayah sets two kinds of smallness side by side. One is chosen: the smallness of the person who raises empty hands and asks. The other is forced: the smallness of the person who refused to ask, and is made small anyway, with no reward in it. Everyone becomes small before Allah. The only question is whether we choose it.

A self-made businessman tells everyone he has never asked anyone for anything. After a stroke, he lies in a hospital bed, unable to reach the water jug. For an hour he will not ring the bell. A nurse notices, pours the water and holds the cup to his lips. He weeps, not from thirst.

Some may ask: does Allah want us to grovel? One narration-based commentary answers that this command is from His generosity. He urged His servants to call on Him and guaranteed them an answer. An old Arabic verse puts the contrast plainly. Allah is angered if you stop asking Him; the son of Adam is angered when he is asked.

He gains nothing from our asking. We gain everything. Pride is the one thing that can keep that gift out of our hands.

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.