Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 33 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:33

وَلَوْلَآ أَن يَكُونَ ٱلنَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَٰحِدَةً لَّجَعَلْنَا لِمَن يَكْفُرُ بِٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ لِبُيُوتِهِمْ سُقُفًا مِّن فِضَّةٍ وَمَعَارِجَ عَلَيْهَا يَظْهَرُونَ

“And if it were not that the people would become one community [of disbelievers],[1440] We would have made for those who disbelieve in the Most Merciful - for their houses - ceilings and stairways of silver upon which to mount.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Silver roofs and stairs are so slight to Allah that He would give them to those who reject Him, except that we would all follow.

A reflection

What He would give away

Picture the most luxurious house you have ever seen. Now picture its roof made of silver, and the staircase to that roof made of silver too. The ayah says Allah would give such houses to those who reject the Most Merciful, if one thing did not hold Him back.

One commentary is careful about what that one thing is. It is not that worldly goods have any weight with Allah. They are so slight in His sight that He would give them in full to the worst of creation. What holds Him back is mercy towards everyone else. People would see the silver and rush to unbelief to get some.

The Prophet ﷺ put the same scale into words. If this world weighed as much as a gnat's wing with Allah, He would not give an unbeliever a single drink of water from it. Al-Tirmidhi recorded it and judged it sound; another grading considers it weaker.

This is where the ego quietly shrinks. Much of what we are proud of sits on the silver side of that scale. The kitchen, the car, the postcode, the title. We polish them and hope they say something about us. The ayah says they are the sort of thing He would hand to anyone.

A collector spends a decade assembling rare trainers in glass cases. A visiting nephew, aged six, glances at the wall and asks to go and play in the garden instead.

Allah does not say this to belittle His creatures. He has no need of their praise and no rivalry with their possessions. He says it to free us. If the silver is that small to Him, it need not be that large 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.