Ad-Dukhan · Makki · ayah 27 of 59

Ad-Dukhan 44:27

وَنَعْمَةٍ كَانُوا۟ فِيهَا فَـٰكِهِينَ

“And comfort wherein they were amused.”

Saheeh International

Essence

They relished their easy comfort like fruit, enjoying the gift, forgetting the Giver, laughing while the warning stood at the door.

A reflection

One vowel between comfort and gift

The word here is naʿma, with an a after the first letter. Change one vowel, and it becomes niʿma. The commentaries are careful to separate them. Naʿma, one explains, is from enjoying: the softness and ease of a comfortable life. Niʿma is from bestowing: the favour, the kindness given by one to another.

The lexicons sharpen the second word. A niʿma is a benefit done to someone as kindness. If it is given for the giver's own gain, it is not a niʿma at all.

So the drowned were described with the first word, not the second. They had naʿma, the easy life. They lived in it, relished it, took it as their natural condition. What they did not have, or would not admit, was the niʿma behind it: the Giver whose kindness made their ease possible.

Picture a wedding guest at a lavish feast. He eats every course with pleasure. He dances. He takes photographs of the dessert table. At the end of the night he collects his coat and goes home, without once finding the bride's parents to thank them. He has had the naʿma of the evening. He never noticed the niʿma.

That is an easy mistake, and a deadly one when it becomes a way of life. A person can enjoy health, home, family and safety for decades, and never once trace them back to the One who gave them.

The Qur'an's cure is simple and daily. Name the gift, and name the Giver. Do it over small things as well as large: a cup of tea, a dry coat, a child home safe. Al-ḥamdu li-llāh is the move from naʿma to niʿma: from enjoying the feast to finding the Host.

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.