Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 79 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:79

أَمْ أَبْرَمُوٓا۟ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّا مُبْرِمُونَ

“Or have they devised [some] affair?[1450] But indeed, We are devising [a plan].”

Saheeh International

Essence

However tightly people twist their plans, Allah's settling is tighter: no rope of human scheming holds against His.

A reflection

We are the ones who settle

Am abramū amran fa-innā mubrimūn: or have they settled a matter firmly? Then We are settling. Allah answers their plan with His own, in the same word, and with a calm that is itself majestic.

The commentators explain the exchange simply. Have the idolaters of Makkah firmly settled a plot against the truth We brought them, or against the Prophet ﷺ? Then We are firmly settling what will disgrace them. One concise commentary says: We are arranging for them a plan that surpasses theirs.

Notice what Allah does not do here. He does not describe their plan, or argue with it, or warn about its dangers. He simply places His mubrimūn beside their abramū. Their verb is past: they settled. His word is a continuous participle: We are the ones settling. Their plan is a finished thing. His settling never stops.

That should shrink the ego of every planner, and most of us are planners. We build careers, family strategies, five-year targets. We are tempted to believe that a plan carefully enough made is a plan secured.

Picture the organiser of a city marathon who has spent three years on a single route. Every road closure is licensed, every water station mapped, every first-aid tent placed. The night before the race, a storm brings a construction crane down across the main avenue. By dawn the road is closed for days. Twenty thousand runners are waiting. Her plan was excellent. It was not the final word.

That is the humility the ayah teaches. Plan, and plan well; that is wisdom. But never mistake your plan for the settling. The settling belongs to Him.

Does Allah need to answer plots against Him? No one can harm Him. The answer is for the believers, to steady them. And for the plotters, while there is still time, it is a warning to unpick their rope.

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.