Ghafir · Makki · ayah 75 of 85

Ghafir 40:75

ذَٰلِكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَفْرَحُونَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ وَبِمَا كُنتُمْ تَمْرَحُونَ

“[The angels will say], "That was because you used to exult upon the earth without right and you used to behave insolently.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their punishment is traced to joy taken on earth in what had no right to bring joy, and a swagger that would not stay still.

A reflection

Not joy, but joy without right

Bimā kuntum tafraḥūna fī al-arḍi bi-ghayri al-ḥaqq. Because you used to rejoice on earth without right.

Read quickly, this ayah can sound like a condemnation of happiness itself. Some believers carry a vague sense that joy is suspicious, that laughter is close to sin, that a serious Muslim should always be sombre.

The ayah does not say that. It says bi-ghayri al-ḥaqq: without right. The joy condemned is joy in what has no right to bring joy. A concise commentary specifies: rejoicing in associating partners with Allah and denying the resurrection. A modern commentary adds: rejoicing in the sins and wrongs they committed.

The Quran elsewhere commands joy. Say: in the bounty of Allah and in His mercy, in that let them rejoice; it is better than all they gather (10:58). The same verb, yafraḥū. Joy is not the problem. Its object is.

A young woman attends her cousin's wedding a month after her grandmother's death. During the dancing, she catches herself laughing and stops, guilty. Her aunt notices and squeezes her hand. Your grandmother would have been the first on the floor, she says. She loved weddings.

That guilt was misplaced. A wedding is a rightful joy. A good meal, a child's first steps, a prayer answered, a friend's success: all are joys the Quran blesses.

What the ayah warns against is joy that feeds on wrong. Delight in a sin. Satisfaction at someone else's fall. Pleasure in getting away with something.

The question for any reader is not whether to be joyful. It is what we rejoice in. A heart that rejoices in Allah's mercy is doing exactly what the Quran asks. A heart that rejoices in what Allah hates is storing up the ayah's verdict.

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.