Al-Qamar · Makki · ayah 48 of 55

Al-Qamar 54:48

يَوْمَ يُسْحَبُونَ فِى ٱلنَّارِ عَلَىٰ وُجُوهِهِمْ ذُوقُوا۟ مَسَّ سَقَرَ

“The Day they are dragged into the Fire on their faces [it will be said], "Taste the touch of Saqar."[1589]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Faces that turned away from every sign are dragged face-down into the Fire, and told: taste even the first touch of Saqar.

A reflection

The face that would not bow

A dry-stone waller on a hillside picks up a rough stone and turns it in his hands. One side is jagged, one side is flat and true. He turns it until the good face looks outward, then sets it in the wall. Every stone, he says, has a face. The skill is finding it and setting it right.

The lexicons draw the root of wujūh, faces, from exactly that sense. The wajh is the face: the first thing that meets you, and the noblest part of the body you can see. The front of a house, the first hours of a day, the leading men of a tribe are all its wajh. Builders had a saying: turn the stone to its proper face. A stone that would not sit true was turned until it did. This picture is established.

The ayah describes the deniers dragged ʿalā wujūhihim, on their faces. The noblest part of a person, the part he presents to the world, now scraping the ground.

There is another way for a face to touch the ground. Every believer does it many times a day. In prostration, the forehead is placed on the earth freely, before the One who made it. It is the moment the Prophet ﷺ described as the nearest a servant is to his Lord, a hadith in Sahih Muslim.

So every face will meet the ground. The only question is how. Willingly, in worship, now; or by force, later. The stone either turns to its proper face in the builder's hands, or it is rolled.

The next time you go down into prostration, feel the floor under your forehead. Thank Allah that your face is there by choice. Linger a breath longer than usual.

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.