At-Tur · Makki · ayah 47 of 49

At-Tur 52:47

وَإِنَّ لِلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ عَذَابًا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

“And indeed, for those who have wronged is a punishment[1560] before that, but most of them do not know.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Before the great reckoning come smaller ones, in this life and in the grave, and most people never recognise them for what they are.

A reflection

Alarms that were never heard

The ayah says there is a punishment before the great one, and then adds a sad line: but most of them do not know.

A commentator explained what they do not know. Allah tests them in this world with hardships, hoping they will return and turn back. But they do not understand what is intended by it. When the hardship lifts, they go back to worse than before.

A scholar of the inner life recorded a related saying from an early teacher. If you see Allah continuing His blessings on you while you disobey Him, beware. A blessing that does not bring you closer to Allah, he said, is a trial.

So people can miss the meaning of events in both directions. A hardship comes, and they see only bad luck. A blessing comes, and they see only their own success.

Picture four students sharing a flat. One evening a pan of oil catches fire while one of them is in the shower. The fire brigade comes, the kitchen is scorched, nobody is hurt. Afterwards they laugh about it, post photographs, buy a new pan. A week later the same student puts oil on the hob and goes to take another shower. The fire did its job as a warning. Nobody read it.

The ayah describes that, on a larger scale. Famine, defeat, loss: one early commentator said these were the punishments before the great one. Each could have been a turning point. Most treated them as weather.

The lesson is not to read every misfortune as a verdict. It is to ask, when something shakes your life, what it might be asking of you. 'Most of them do not know' is a description, not a destiny. Anyone can become one of the few who notice.

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.