Ad-Dukhan · Makki · ayah 5 of 59

Ad-Dukhan 44:5

أَمْرًا مِّنْ عِندِنَآ ۚ إِنَّا كُنَّا مُرْسِلِينَ

“[Every] matter [proceeding] from Us. Indeed, We were to send [a messenger]”

Saheeh International

Essence

What is set out on that night comes from His own presence, and sending messengers to people is something He has always done.

A reflection

From Our presence, not from the applause

Picture an awards dinner. A young manager walks up to collect the prize for a project her team carried through a hard year. At the microphone she thanks her own vision, her own long nights, her own resilience. Her team sits at table nine, clapping politely. Nobody says anything. Everybody notices.

The ego wants things to come from itself. It wants the year's good to be traced back to its own effort and cleverness. This ayah answers that instinct with three words: amran min ʿindinā, a matter from Our presence.

The commentaries dwell on the phrasing. One explains that the word amr is made indefinite to show its grandeur. The ayah has already called every matter wise. Now it adds more weight: I mean by this a matter coming from Our own presence, exactly as Our knowledge and design required. Another says that everything that happens, everything Allah decrees and reveals, is by His command, His permission and His knowledge.

The word ʿind, 'with' or 'in the presence of', carries a hint of closeness. One classical suggestion ties it to a root meaning to turn aside from the road. To be 'with' someone, on that view, is to have turned from everyone else to stand beside him. What comes 'from His presence' comes from nearest to Him.

That should humble us in a particular way. The best things in our year did not originate in our planning. The provision we earned, the health we enjoyed, the guidance that reached us, all came from His presence first. Our part was to receive and carry.

Some readers hear 'from Us' as a boast. But the source being Allah is reassurance, not vanity. It means the year's matters did not come from chaos, from luck or from whoever shouts loudest at the microphone.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.