Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 40 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:40

وَجَزَٰٓؤُا۟ سَيِّئَةٍ سَيِّئَةٌ مِّثْلُهَا ۖ فَمَنْ عَفَا وَأَصْلَحَ فَأَجْرُهُۥ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

“And the retribution for an evil act is an evil one like it, but whoever pardons and makes reconciliation - his reward is [due] from Allāh. Indeed, He does not like wrongdoers.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A wrong may be answered with its exact equal and no more; whoever pardons and mends the bond has a reward Allah Himself owes.

A reflection

A ceiling, not a target

A van clips a cyclist at a junction and drives on. At the next lights she catches up. Her friend, riding beside her, wants to kick the door in. She takes a photograph of the number plate instead, checks her bike, and reports it. That evening she feels steady, not cheated.

Many people hear the opening of this ayah as permission for revenge, or even a demand for it: an eye for an eye. The wording says something more careful. Wa-jazāʾu sayyiʾatin sayyiʾatun mithluhā: the recompense of a wrong is a wrong like it. The key word is mithluhā, its like. The root's image is a figure set up facing another as its exact match.

So the first clause is a ceiling, not a target. One classical commentator states it in three steps. Less than the wrong is unfairness to the victim. More than it is injustice. Equality is justice, and by justice the heavens and the earth stand.

Then the ayah climbs. Fa-man ʿafā wa-aṣlaḥa fa-ajruhu ʿalā allāh: whoever pardons and mends things, his reward is with Allah. Then it closes with a warning: He does not love the wrongdoers.

One commentator sees all three kinds of people in this single ayah. The fair one, who takes exactly his due. The one who races ahead in good, who pardons and reconciles. And the wrongdoer, whom Allah does not love. He sums it up: Allah prescribed justice, encouraged excellence, and forbade wrongdoing.

The cyclist chose the fair rung. She did not take more than her due, and she did not pretend nothing had happened. Many days that is the most a wounded person can manage, and the ayah honours it.

But the ladder has a higher rung, and the ayah points straight at it.

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.