Muhammad · Madani · ayah 27 of 38

Muhammad 47:27

فَكَيْفَ إِذَا تَوَفَّتْهُمُ ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةُ يَضْرِبُونَ وُجُوهَهُمْ وَأَدْبَـٰرَهُمْ

“Then how [will it be] when the angels take them in death, striking their faces and their backs?”

Saheeh International

Essence

They schemed to dodge the blows of battle; the ayah asks what scheme will help when the angels take them, striking faces and backs alike.

A reflection

Taken in full

"How will it be when the angels take them?" The verb is tawaffat, from a root whose first meaning is completing.

The lexicons describe it. A silver coin was wāfin when it weighed its full weight. A measure was wāfin when nothing was missing. Keeping a promise was wafāʾ, finishing what you pledged. Collecting a debt in full, leaving nothing owed, was istawfā. So the Arabs said of the dead: tawaffāhu Allāh, Allah took him in full. One lexicon explains that He took the complete span counted for him: every day, month and year.

The commentaries say who carries this out: the angel of death and his helpers.

Death, in this picture, is not an accident that interrupts a life. It is the moment a life is collected in full, exactly as measured. Not a day early, not a day late. Nothing missing from the count.

Picture a corner-shop owner at closing time on a Saturday night. He counts the day's takings into a cloth bag, note by note, coin by coin. The total matches the till to the penny. He ties the bag and switches off the light. The day is complete.

That is the quiet weight of this word. Every life has a total. Every day of it is counted and kept. When the count is complete, it is collected.

The ayah then asks its unsettling question. What state will a person be in at that moment of collection? For the people described here, it was a state of secret double-dealing. The tally of their lives would be taken in full, with nothing hidden from it.

A wise reader turns the question inward. If my count were completed tonight, what would the bag contain?

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.