Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 71 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:71

يُطَافُ عَلَيْهِم بِصِحَافٍ مِّن ذَهَبٍ وَأَكْوَابٍ ۖ وَفِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِيهِ ٱلْأَنفُسُ وَتَلَذُّ ٱلْأَعْيُنُ ۖ وَأَنتُمْ فِيهَا خَـٰلِدُونَ

“Circulated among them will be plates and vessels of gold. And therein is whatever the souls desire and [what] delights the eyes, and you will abide therein eternally.”

Saheeh International

Essence

In a surah that exposed gold as a false measure, gold now circles the believers, with all the soul wants and the eye loves.

A reflection

Gold, redeemed

This surah is named Az-Zukhruf: gold ornament. And gold has run through it like a thread.

In 43:33–35, Allah says He could have given the deniers houses with roofs of silver, stairways, doors and couches. He would have, were it not that all people would then become one community of disbelief. And He adds: wa-zukhrufā, and gold ornament. Then the verdict: all of that is only the enjoyment of this worldly life, and the Hereafter with your Lord is for the mindful.

In 43:53 Pharaoh mocks Mūsā: why have bracelets of gold not been put on him? Gold was Pharaoh's proof of who deserves to lead.

Throughout the surah, gold is the false measure. The thing people use to judge worth, which turns out to be nothing.

And now, here, gold appears again. Yuṭāfu ʿalayhim bi-ṣiḥāfin min dhahab: dishes of gold are passed among them. The same metal. But no longer a measure of anyone. Simply a vessel for food, carried round to people who never treated it as their god.

The root dh-h-b holds two pictures. One is gold and brightness. The other is going, passing away. The Arabs said a man dhahiba when he struck a great vein of gold in a mine. He stood staring, unable to blink, and his reason left him.

That is the surah's warning in one word. Gold can take your mind. Those who lived for it in this world lost their wits to it. Those who refused to worship it are given it, in the Garden, when it can no longer harm them.

In a narration in al-Bukhārī, the Prophet ﷺ spoke of vessels of gold and silver. They are theirs in this world, he said, and yours in the next.

So the gold dishes of this ayah are not a contradiction of the surah's message. They are its conclusion. Gold was never the problem. Worshipping it was.

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.