At-Tur · Makki · ayah 24 of 49

At-Tur 52:24

۞ وَيَطُوفُ عَلَيْهِمْ غِلْمَانٌ لَّهُمْ كَأَنَّهُمْ لُؤْلُؤٌ مَّكْنُونٌ

“There will circulate among them [servant] boys [especially] for them, as if they were pearls well-protected.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who circled Allah's House are themselves circled in the Garden, by youths like pearls kept in the shell, whose service never wears their beauty away.

A reflection

Circled, after a lifetime of circling

For thirty years an old man walked the circuits round the Kaaba every pilgrimage season, seven times, on his own feet. This year his knees have failed. A young porter pushes him round in a wheelchair, threading through the crowd. The old man weeps quietly the whole way. Afterwards he says it felt like being carried by the House itself.

The verb in this ayah is yaṭūfu: they go round, they circle. The first hearers knew the root as a ring closing round one point. Ṭāfa bi-l-bayt is to go round the House. The night watchman is a ṭāʾif because he keeps going round the houses, and a household servant is a ṭawwāf for the same reason. That picture is established.

So the same word names the most familiar act of Muslim worship and the service of the Garden. In this world, the believer circles. Round the Kaaba, in the heat, among the crowds, seven times. In the Garden, the believer is circled. Youths go round them with cups, as one commentary explains, and as another ayah says: there circle them youths who stay ever young, with goblets and jugs and a cup from a flowing spring (56:17-18).

It is a beautiful reversal, and a gentle one. Those who spent their lives turning round Allah's House, and round His commands, find themselves at the still centre at last, with service turning round them.

Even those who never reached the Kaaba circle in their own way. Every prayer is a turning towards it. Every act of worship is a going round the One who is at the centre of a believer's life.

Next time you pray, or if you are ever blessed to circle the House, remember this ayah. The circling is not forever. One day you will be the one at rest, and others will go round you.

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.