An-Najm · Makki · ayah 55 of 62

An-Najm 53:55

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكَ تَتَمَارَىٰ

“Then which of the favors of your Lord do you doubt?”

Saheeh International

Essence

After His gifts and His warnings, one question is put to you alone: which of your Lord’s favours will you keep arguing with?

A reflection

The person who argues with every gift

A fourteen-year-old opens a present from her aunt: a good coat, exactly the colour she wanted. Instead of thanking her, she says the aunt only bought it because Mum told her to. When her father praises her exam results, she says the paper was easy. When a friend saves her a seat, she asks what he wants. Every gift is met with an argument.

Most of us know someone like that. Many of us have been them. Accepting a gift plainly can feel like losing a little ground. Arguing with it keeps us in control.

Fa-bi-ayyi ālāʾi rabbika tatamārā: so which of your Lord's favours do you dispute? The verb tatamārā is the language of argument: doubting, contesting, going back and forth. The commentators explain it as doubting, disputing, and, in one early report, denying.

Look at what has just been listed. He made you laugh and weep. He gave you life. He created you from a drop, male or female. He gave you enough, and something to keep. The surah lays these out one after another, like gifts on a table. Then it asks: which one will you argue with?

Here is the ego at its most stubborn. To argue with a gift is to put yourself on the same level as the giver. It says: I will decide whether this counts. It turns a receiver into a judge. That is exactly the posture this question dismantles. You are not in a position to contest what your Lord has given. You can only receive it, or refuse it.

Is it vain for Allah to ask this? A question is not a demand for praise. It is an invitation to look honestly. He does not need your thanks. But you need to stop arguing with the hand that feeds you.

The teenager will grow out of it, probably. Many adults never do. The question in this ayah is for the adult still contesting every blessing: which one, exactly, do you dispute?

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.