Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 69 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:69

ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا وَكَانُوا۟ مُسْلِمِينَ

“[You] who believed in Our verses and were Muslims.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The ones called 'My servants' are named in two strokes: a heart that rested its weight on Allah's signs, and a life that stayed handed over to Him.

A reflection

Inside and outside, both

The previous ayah called out: O My servants. This ayah says who they are, in two phrases. Alladhīna āmanū bi-āyātinā: those who believed in Our signs. Wa-kānū muslimīn: and were submitting.

One narration-based commentator explains the pairing simply. Their hearts and inner selves believed. Their limbs and outer selves yielded to Allah's law. A concise modern commentary says the same: they submitted to Allah with their hearts and their limbs.

So the ayah closes two easy exits at once.

The first exit says: faith is a private feeling. What I do is my business, so long as I believe in my heart. The ayah answers: believing was half. They were also muslimīn, yielding in practice.

The second exit says: religion is what you do. Pray, fast, dress the part, and the inside will look after itself. The ayah answers: the doing was the other half. It rested on belief in Allah's signs.

Picture a husband who has been married for twenty-six years. When his wife says she feels unloved, he is genuinely puzzled. 'You know I love you. I've never looked at anyone else.' She answers: 'Knowing it isn't the same as being shown it.' A few doors down, another couple has the opposite problem. Every anniversary card, every gift, is perfect. But she cannot remember the last time he asked how she really was.

Neither marriage is dead. Both are lopsided. Love, like faith, needs an inside and an outside.

The Quran's word for the outside is islām, from a root meaning to hand something over whole. Its word for the inside is īmān, from a root meaning safety and trust. The servants called on that Day had both.

The question for the reader is which half is thinner in me. Then it is to give that half some attention this week, without letting the other half go.

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.