Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 41 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:41

يُعْرَفُ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ بِسِيمَـٰهُمْ فَيُؤْخَذُ بِٱلنَّوَٰصِى وَٱلْأَقْدَامِ

“The criminals will be known by their marks, and they will be seized by the forelocks and the feet.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every face will carry its mark on that Day, and the criminals are known by theirs; the mark is being written now.

A reflection

Two kinds of marked face, and the white blaze of wudu

Most readers picture this ayah as a kind of branding. On that Day the guilty are stamped with a sign, from outside, so that they can be picked out of the crowd. Something done to them at the end.

The word the ayah uses tells a different story. Sīmā, mark, is the same word the Quran uses of the believers. Their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration (48:29). The criminals are known by their marks here. The worshippers are known by theirs there.

One great commentary makes the pairing explicit at this very ayah. The criminals are known by blackened faces, it says. The believers are known by the shining blaze and white limbs left by the traces of wudu.

That refers to a hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari. The Prophet ﷺ said: my community will be called on the Day of Rising ghurran muḥajjalīn from the traces of wudu.

Those two words are horsemen's words. A ghurra is the white blaze on a horse's forehead. Taḥjīl is the white on its legs, its stockings. A horse marked like that stood out from far off. The believers, the Prophet ﷺ said, will be like that. They will be lit at the brow and the limbs by the water they washed with.

So no face arrives unmarked. Every one carries the trace of what it did. The blaze of wudu, or the darkness of a life spent turned away. Neither is added from outside at the end. Each is the residue of a thousand ordinary days, made visible.

That changes the ayah from a threat about others into a question about yourself. What is being written on your face this week?

The next wudu you make, picture the water on your forehead leaving light where it runs.

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.