Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 37 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:37

وَٱلَّذِينَ يَجْتَنِبُونَ كَبَـٰٓئِرَ ٱلْإِثْمِ وَٱلْفَوَٰحِشَ وَإِذَا مَا غَضِبُوا۟ هُمْ يَغْفِرُونَ

“And those who avoid the major sins and immoralities, and when they are angry, they forgive,”

Saheeh International

Essence

They step well clear of the great sins, and when anger rises in them, they are the ones who forgive.

A reflection

Thirty seconds in the cold store

Forty covers are waiting on a Saturday night. An apprentice drops the pan of sauce the whole service depends on. The head chef feels the heat climb up his neck. He walks into the cold store, stands there for thirty seconds, then comes back out. Again, he says. With me. Quickly.

The ayah does not say: they never get angry. It says wa-idhā mā ghaḍibū: and whenever they are angry. Anger is assumed. These are not people without feelings. They are people who do something particular inside the feeling.

Then comes a striking piece of grammar: hum yaghfirūn, they, they forgive. The pronoun is placed first for emphasis. One commentator explains: they are the ones especially marked by forgiving in the state of anger. Anger does not seize their judgement as it seizes other people's. Another notes that forgiving in the heat of anger is rare. He adds that the wording hints they forgive even before being asked.

One classical commentator explains why forgiveness is tied so closely to anger here. Anger, he says, has the nature of fire. When it takes hold it is fierce, and resisting it is hard.

The Prophet ﷺ put it in a way everyone remembers. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī records his words. The strong man is not the one who throws others in wrestling. The strong man is the one who controls himself when he is angry.

The chef's thirty seconds were that wrestling match. Nobody in the dining room saw it. The apprentice saw only the result: a second chance, given quickly.

That is the shape the ayah praises. Not a person without fire, but a person who keeps hold of it. The anger is real. The forgiveness is stronger.

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.