Muhammad · Madani · ayah 12 of 38

Muhammad 47:12

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُدْخِلُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ جَنَّـٰتٍ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۖ وَٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ يَتَمَتَّعُونَ وَيَأْكُلُونَ كَمَا تَأْكُلُ ٱلْأَنْعَـٰمُ وَٱلنَّارُ مَثْوًى لَّهُمْ

“Indeed, Allāh will admit those who have believed and done righteous deeds to gardens beneath which rivers flow, but those who disbelieve enjoy themselves and eat as grazing livestock eat, and the Fire will be a residence for them.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Two ways to live: one heads for gardens with their own springs; the other grazes heedlessly, until the herd is brought to its fold.

A reflection

Cattle at the trough, unaware of the morning

"They enjoy themselves and eat as cattle eat." The comparison is not about table manners. One classical commentator explains it exactly. They eat heedless, not thinking about the end, as livestock eat in their pastures and at their troughs. The animals are unaware of what they are being kept for: the knife.

That is a hard picture, and it is meant to be. Think of a herd in a well-run yard. The feed is good and plentiful. The water is clean. Nobody goes hungry. From inside the herd, life looks excellent. Every day is like the last, and the last was fine.

Another commentary sharpens the point. The likeness, it says, is not in eating as such. It is in eating stripped of thought and reflection. People say to a careless person, "you live like an animal", meaning not that he breathes and eats, but that he never asks why.

Picture a large poultry farm in late November. The birds are fed at the same hour every day. Each morning confirms what every bird has learned: the farmer brings food. Then one morning in December he comes with a different purpose. Nothing in the birds' experience prepared them for it, because they never once asked what the feeding was for.

The ayah does not mock enjoyment. It mocks a life that never lifts its head from the trough. The deepest human question is not what to eat next. It is what I am being kept for. Those who never ask it are, in the plainest sense, being fattened for a day they did not expect.

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.