Al-Qamar · Makki · ayah 35 of 55

Al-Qamar 54:35

نِّعْمَةً مِّنْ عِندِنَا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى مَن شَكَرَ

“As favor from Us. Thus do We reward he who is grateful.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The rescue was a gift from Allah's presence, not a wage, and the same answer waits for anyone whose gratitude shows in their life.

A reflection

Grace, not wages

A volunteer lifeboat crew pulls a family off a sandbank as the tide comes in. Afterwards the father keeps trying to pay them. They refuse every time. Eventually one of them says, gently, "You don't owe us. It was never a transaction." The father finds that harder to accept than the rescue itself.

The ayah describes the rescue of Lūṭ's family as niʿmatan min ʿindinā, a favour from Us. One classical commentator draws a sharp line. The rescue was grace, faḍl, just as the destruction was justice, ʿadl. And had the believers been destroyed along with the rest, he adds, that too would have been justice. The rescue was not owed. It was given.

The word niʿma itself carries this. One lexicon defines it as a benefit done to another for their good, as kindness. If it is given for the giver's own gain, it is not a niʿma. Allah gains nothing from rescuing anyone. And the phrase min ʿindinā, from Us, uses a little word, ʿind. One classical suggestion links it to a camel that leaves the herd to graze close beside one. That is one view, not settled. But it gives the gift an intimacy: from right beside Us.

This is where the ego shrinks. Pride wants to have earned everything. It prefers a wage to a gift, because a wage leaves us owing nothing. But nothing we have is owed to us: not breath, not safety, not the night we wake from. Every one of them is niʿma.

Why would Allah point out that His rescue was a favour? Not to collect thanks for His own sake; He needs none. It is to free us from the exhausting idea that we hold our lives up by our own merit.

Tonight, name three things you would normally say you earned. Then say over each one: niʿmatan min ʿindik, a favour from 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.