Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 22 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:22

تَرَى ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ مُشْفِقِينَ مِمَّا كَسَبُوا۟ وَهُوَ وَاقِعٌۢ بِهِمْ ۗ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ فِى رَوْضَاتِ ٱلْجَنَّاتِ ۖ لَهُم مَّا يَشَآءُونَ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ ٱلْفَضْلُ ٱلْكَبِيرُ

“You will see the wrongdoers fearful of what they have earned, and it will [certainly] befall them. And those who have believed and done righteous deeds will be in lush regions of the gardens [in Paradise] having whatever they will in the presence of their Lord. That is what is the great bounty.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Fear that saves a believer now comes too late for the wrongdoer then, while the faithful rest in green meadows with whatever they wish.

A reflection

The same word, too late

Four ayat earlier, the surah described the believers as mushfiqūn of the Hour: apprehensive, careful, aware that it is real (42:18). Now the same word returns. You will see the wrongdoers mushfiqīn, fearful of what they earned.

The word is the same. The timing is not. The believers felt it in this life, while there was still time to act on it. The wrongdoers feel it on the Day itself, when nothing can be changed.

The commentaries make this sharp. One explains: what they fear will befall them, whether they fear it or not. Another notes the grammar of "it will befall them": a participle, wāqiʿ, rather than a future verb, to show that the outcome is already certain. Their fear does not help them.

Picture a yachtsman who walks past the harbour noticeboard one Saturday morning. A small-craft warning is pinned to it. He laughs; the sea looks calm. Three hours later, three miles out, the squall arrives. Now he is afraid, deeply and honestly afraid. He reefs the sails and radios for help. But the fear that would have kept him in harbour that morning is no use to him now. It has simply come at the wrong time.

That is the quiet logic connecting 42:18 and 42:22. Fear is not the problem. Fear that comes too late is.

This turns the believer's apprehension into a gift. Think of the unease you feel about meeting Allah, the sense that you are falling short. It is not a sign that something is wrong with your faith. It is the right fear arriving at the right time. It is the small-craft warning read in harbour.

So do not try to silence that unease. Let it do its work: a repentance made, a prayer kept, a wrong put right. The same feeling, felt now, is mercy. Felt then, it is only pain.

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.