Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 20 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:20

بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ لَّا يَبْغِيَانِ

“Between them is a barrier so neither of them transgresses.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The barrier between the two waters is invisible, and its name, barzakh, is the same word that stands between this life and the next.

A reflection

A wall without stones

A homeowner spends a small fortune sealing his basement against groundwater. Membranes, pumps, a sump with an alarm. Every spring a damp line still creeps up one corner. Keeping two kinds of water apart, or keeping water away from where people live, is one of the hardest things human beings try to engineer.

This ayah describes it done on the scale of oceans, without a single stone. Between them is a barzakh; they do not transgress. One concise commentary calls it a barrier from His power. Another explains that the two waters meet as far as the eye can tell, with nothing visible between them. Still neither overwhelms the other or destroys its nature. The sweet stays sweet; the salt stays salt.

One major commentary is careful here. Sometimes, it says, the barrier between two seas is a tangible strip of land. Sometimes there is none to be seen, and it is His power alone.

That should humble every engineer's pride, and every homeowner's. We spend enormous effort keeping one thing from spoiling another, and still fail at the corners. The barrier in this ayah has held, unmaintained, for as long as there have been rivers and seas. Nobody inspects it. Nobody pays for it.

A sceptic might say a God who points out His own barriers is boasting about plumbing. But the barrier serves the creatures, not Him (35:15). He gains nothing from fresh water staying fresh. You gain every glass you have ever drunk.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.