At-Tur · Makki · ayah 18 of 49

At-Tur 52:18

فَـٰكِهِينَ بِمَآ ءَاتَىٰهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ وَوَقَىٰهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ عَذَابَ ٱلْجَحِيمِ

“Enjoying what their Lord has given them, and their Lord protected them from the punishment of Hellfire.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their joy is real joy, inside and out, because it comes from their Lord, and part of what they savour is the Fire they were spared.

A reflection

Luxury with the mind elsewhere

A wealthy man lies beside a villa pool on the holiday of a lifetime. The sea is turquoise, lunch is coming, and everything around him says luxury. His phone is in his hand. His mind is three thousand miles away, on a deal that might fall through. Anyone photographing him would say he was in paradise. He is not enjoying a minute of it.

A classical theologian draws out exactly this in the word fākihīn. The ayah has already said the mindful are in gardens and bliss (52:17). Why add that they are fākihīn, delighting? Because, he says, a person can show all the outward marks of luxury while his heart is occupied elsewhere. Fākihīn says the joy has reached the inside. Their hearts are as at ease as their surroundings.

He adds a second, finer point. Someone who is easily delighted can be small-souled, pleased by the slightest thing. So the ayah adds bimā ātāhum rabbuhum: by what their Lord has given them. They are delighted not because their aims are low, but because their gifts are high. The source of the gift is the measure of the joy.

Another classical scholar describes this ayah as joining two kinds of bliss: the bliss of the heart, which is this inner delight, and the bliss of the body, which the next ayat describe in food, drink and companionship.

This is a quiet critique of how we chase happiness now. We assemble the outward marks: the holiday, the kitchen, the car. We assume the inside will follow. Very often it does not. The heart stays on the deal, the worry, the comparison.

The ayah suggests that real delight needs a source deep enough to reach the heart. Today, when you enjoy something good, put the phone down and remember who gave it. Let the joy go all the way in.

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.