Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 29 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:29

بَلْ مَتَّعْتُ هَـٰٓؤُلَآءِ وَءَابَآءَهُمْ حَتَّىٰ جَآءَهُمُ ٱلْحَقُّ وَرَسُولٌ مُّبِينٌ

“However, I gave enjoyment to these [people of Makkah] and their fathers[1437] until there came to them the truth and a clear Messenger.[1438]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Instead of returning, Ibrahim's descendants were given long life and comfort, until the truth arrived with a messenger who made it plain.

A reflection

'I gave them their comforts'

Bal mattaʿtu hāʾulāʾi wa ābāʾahum: rather, I gave these people and their fathers enjoyment. The voice is first person singular, and it is striking. I gave them. The long lives, the trade, the security of Makkah, the ease of their homes: Allah claims all of it as His giving.

The commentaries explain what it means. I gave them life and did not hasten punishment for their disbelief. One adds: long life and wide provision. Another: they were deceived by the respite, and busied with pleasures, away from the word of oneness.

The ego quietly assumes that its comforts are its own. We earned the salary, chose the house, built the career. Picture a retired couple on their tenth cruise. Every evening, a beautifully set table; every morning, a new port. One night on deck the husband realises something. In years of such holidays, he has not once thanked anyone for any of it, not even in his heart. Not the crew, not each other, not the One who gave him the years and the health to sail.

The ayah humbles that forgetting. Every comfort is matāʿ given, and given by Him.

Someone may ask why Allah gives comforts to those who deny Him at all. Does He reward disbelief? One commentary on this ayah answers through a contrast. The gift should have increased their thanks and their firmness on His oneness. Instead it became a distraction. The surah soon explains how little such worldly goods weigh with Him (43:33–35). They are given widely precisely because they are not the measure of His love.

The question for us is what our own comforts are doing to us.

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.