Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 48 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:48

فَإِنْ أَعْرَضُوا۟ فَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَـٰكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَفِيظًا ۖ إِنْ عَلَيْكَ إِلَّا ٱلْبَلَـٰغُ ۗ وَإِنَّآ إِذَآ أَذَقْنَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ مِنَّا رَحْمَةً فَرِحَ بِهَا ۖ وَإِن تُصِبْهُمْ سَيِّئَةٌۢ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ فَإِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ كَفُورٌ

“But if they turn away - then We have not sent you, [O Muḥammad], over them as a guardian; upon you is only [the duty of] notification. And indeed, when We let man taste mercy from Us, he rejoices in it; but if evil afflicts him for what his hands have put forth, then indeed, man is ungrateful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Your task is only to deliver the message; and people swing between exulting at a taste of mercy and forgetting every gift when hardship comes.

A reflection

Good is His intention; hardship is the exception

A man's business booms for ten years. At every dinner he says: I built this from nothing. Then a hard year comes. Now he says: I don't know why God is doing this to me.

The ayah describes exactly this habit, and its grammar quietly corrects it. One commentator unpacks the two halves. The blessing is introduced with idhā, a word for what is certain and frequent. It is in the past tense, and Allah attributes it to Himself with the majestic We: adhaqnā, We let him taste, minnā, from Us.

The hardship is introduced differently. It begins with in, a word for what is less likely. Its verb is in another tense, and its subject is the misfortune itself, not Allah: in tuṣibhum sayyiʾatun, if a hardship strikes them. And it is tied to their own deeds: bi-mā qaddamat aydīhim, for what their hands sent ahead.

The commentator draws the conclusion. The wording signals that granting blessing is certain, frequent and intended by the Generous in itself. Hardship is rarer and not His primary aim.

Human pride reverses this exactly. It credits itself with the good and credits Allah with the bad. The ayah puts each where it belongs. The good comes from Him, by His will and generosity. The hard often comes through what our own hands did.

A sceptic may suspect self-praise in the majestic We. But the ayah uses it to claim the giving, not to claim credit for harm. That is generosity, not vanity.

The businessman's hard year did not erase ten good ones. The ayah invites him to read both years honestly. The decade of growth was a gift. The bad year, perhaps, a consequence. Humility lies in seeing which is which.

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.