Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 47 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:47

ٱسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لِرَبِّكُم مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِىَ يَوْمٌ لَّا مَرَدَّ لَهُۥ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ مَا لَكُم مِّن مَّلْجَإٍ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَمَا لَكُم مِّن نَّكِيرٍ

“Respond to your Lord before a Day comes from Allāh of which there is no repelling. No refuge will you have that Day, nor for you will there be any denial.[1427]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Answer your Lord now, before a Day arrives that no one can postpone, with no shelter to run to and nothing left to deny.

A reflection

The one deadline that will not move

A project manager is proud that she has never missed a deadline she could not renegotiate. Clients, suppliers and directors all eventually agree to a new date. She has a gift for moving time. Then her father is given weeks to live, and for the first time in her career she meets a date that will not shift.

The ayah speaks of yawmun lā maradda lahu mina allāh: a Day from Allah that cannot be turned back. The commentators read the phrase two ways. Either no one can turn it back once Allah has decreed it, or it comes from Allah and none can push it away. One commentator adds: when He commands it to be, it comes like the blink of an eye, with nothing to repel or prevent it.

Human pride lives partly in our ability to reschedule. We extend, postpone, renegotiate, ask for more time. Much of modern life is built on the assumption that dates are flexible.

This ayah names one that is not. It does not ask for our agreement. It will not be moved to suit us.

A sceptic might hear this as the harshness of a ruler setting terms. But the ayah opens with an invitation, not a sentence: istajībū li-rabbikum, answer your Lord. The fixed Day is stated so that the invitation is taken seriously. It is mercy to tell someone the true deadline.

The project manager spent those weeks differently from any weeks before. She cancelled meetings without apology and sat with her father. Later she said the immovable date had shown her which of her other dates had ever truly mattered. That is the humility this ayah offers: to know which deadline is real.

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.