Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 32 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:32

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

Right after 'We will attend to you', the refrain calls the warning itself a favour: being told, years ahead, while there is time to act.

A reflection

A threat, and then the word "favours"

The ayah before this is a warning. We will attend to you, O two weighty ones. Then, immediately, the refrain: so which of the favours of your Lord will you two deny?

Most of us hold a simple assumption without ever stating it. A threat and a favour are opposites. One is what you dread; the other is what you give thanks for. So the pairing here seems odd. Why would the surah count a warning among the gifts?

The commentaries answer directly, and their answer changes how the whole of the next passage reads.

One early commentary glosses the favour here as His rewarding those who obey Him and punishing those who disobey. A world in which the obedient and the disobedient end the same way would be a world without justice. The reckoning is the guarantee that it is not.

Another commentary names the favour more precisely. Among His favours, it says, is the alert about what you will meet on the Day of Rising. It is given to warn you away from whatever leads to a bad reckoning.

That is the favour: being told.

Think of a dentist who shows a fifteen-year-old the X-ray of a cavity that does not hurt yet. She is irritated. It doesn't hurt, she says. He says: that is exactly why I am telling you now. In a year, she would have known about it without needing him.

The surah is about to describe a flame of fire, a sky splitting, criminals seized by the forelock. Every one of those descriptions will be followed by the same question. This first one sets the terms. The warning is not the opposite of the gifts. It is one of them, and possibly the most practical.

A reckoning you were never told about would be an ambush. A reckoning you were told about, years in advance, in beautiful language, repeatedly, is mercy.

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.