Muhammad · Madani · ayah 7 of 38

Muhammad 47:7

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِن تَنصُرُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ يَنصُرْكُمْ وَيُثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَكُمْ

“O you who have believed, if you support Allāh, He will support you and plant firmly your feet.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Stand up for what Allah has asked of you, and He Himself will stand you up: help returned, and feet that do not give way.

A reflection

How do you help the One who needs no help?

"If you help Allah, He will help you." Read too quickly, the sentence sounds as if Allah were short of supporters. The commentators move at once to close that door.

One commentary puts it carefully. Allah is the One who helps; everyone else is the one helped. To "help Allah" is a way of speaking. It means helping His religion and His Messenger. Another classical commentator draws a finer line. Nobody can bring about what Allah wills; only He does that. What a believer can do is carry out what Allah has asked. The believer helps by stepping forward. Allah helps by strengthening him and planting his feet.

A third commentator notices a detail in the wording. In an earlier battle, Allah told the angels to make the believers firm (8:12). Here He says He Himself will do it, with no one in between. His conclusion is blunt: there is no doer but Allah alone.

All of this is medicine for an ego that grows easily in religious work. Picture a speaker at a youth conference who ends every talk the same way. "Without people like us, this religion would die out". The audience applauds. He believes it. He has quietly cast himself as the hero of the story and Allah as the one in need.

The ayah turns that picture round. Allah does not need defending. He honours people by letting them take part in what He has already decided to do. The help you give is small, borrowed and received. The help you get back is His. The right response is not pride in being useful. It is humility at being included.

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.