Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 45 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:45

وَتَرَىٰهُمْ يُعْرَضُونَ عَلَيْهَا خَـٰشِعِينَ مِنَ ٱلذُّلِّ يَنظُرُونَ مِن طَرْفٍ خَفِىٍّ ۗ وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِنَّ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِينَ ٱلَّذِينَ خَسِرُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَهْلِيهِمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ ۗ أَلَآ إِنَّ ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ فِى عَذَابٍ مُّقِيمٍ

“And you will see them being exposed to it [i.e., the Fire], humbled from humiliation, looking from [behind] a covert glance. And those who had believed will say, "Indeed, the [true] losers are the ones who lost themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection. Unquestionably, the wrongdoers are in an enduring punishment."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who would not lower their eyes before Allah will one day glance at the Fire through half-shut lids, having lost themselves and their families.

A reflection

Looking through half-closed eyes

A nervous patient lies back in the dentist's chair. When the needle comes towards him, he cannot bring himself to look at it fully. He watches through half-closed eyes, glancing and looking away, glancing again.

The ayah describes the wrongdoers brought before the Fire in exactly that posture. Yanẓurūna min ṭarfin khafiyy: they look with a hidden, weak glance. Two commentators describe it closely. Their look begins with a faint movement of the eyelids, stolen glances, like a man held for execution looking at the sword. That, they add, is how anyone looks at what they dread. He cannot open his eyes fully on it and fill his sight with it, as he does with what he loves.

The root of ṭarf has an established image: the eyelids moving, and so the glance itself. The blink, ṭarfat ʿayn, was the measure of the shortest time. Several early authorities explained khafiyy here as humbled, abased. Others explained it as stealing glances out of fear.

The detail is psychologically exact. People look fully at what delights them: a child's face, a view, a gift. They half-look at what they fear: a diagnosis, a debt, a reckoning.

The ayah shows people who spent their lives refusing to look at the reality of judgement. Now they cannot look away from it, and cannot look at it either.

There is a mercy in reading this now. The reality the wrongdoers half-glance at then is something we can look at fully today, calmly, while there is time to prepare. A believer who faces the thought of the reckoning in this life will not need to steal glances at it in the next.

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.