Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 25 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:25

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

“So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?”

Saheeh International

Essence

The sixth time, after the ships, the question asks for more than not denying: the opposite of denial is a favour that shows on you.

A reflection

The passenger who thinks the sea owes him

A ferry is two hours late because of weather. One passenger spends the delay at the purser's desk, red-faced, demanding compensation as if the sea had broken a contract with him. He has made the crossing a hundred times without incident. He has never once thought about why the ship floats, why the wind fills its course, why it arrives at all.

The refrain comes straight after the ships. One major commentary paraphrases it. Which favours will you deny, of those He gave in making these ships run on the sea, carrying your benefits? Every safe crossing is in that sentence. So is every cargo that arrived, every journey that ended at the right harbour.

The word the surah keeps returning to, ālāʾ, favours, is close in meaning to niʿma. The commentaries define a niʿma as a benefit done to another as pure kindness, not for the giver's own gain. A favour, by definition, is not a wage. Nobody earns the sea.

That is the quiet ego this sixth refrain confronts: entitlement. Not the loud pride of the self-made man, but the background assumption that things are owed. The crossing should be smooth. The delivery should be on time. The body should work. When anything fails, the complaint is instant, because the favour had long since been filed as a right.

He gains nothing from our thanks and loses nothing from our complaints (35:15). But the passenger at the purser's desk loses a great deal. He has turned a hundred gifts into a grievance, and does not know it.

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.