Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 47 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:47

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

At the first refrain of the gardens, the easiest favour to deny is a promise you have decided is not meant for you.

A reflection

"That promise is for better people than me"

There is a quiet way of denying a favour that looks like humility. A person hears "for whoever fears the standing of his Lord, two gardens" and thinks: that is for the saints. For people who pray all night and weep at every ayah. Not for someone like me.

It sounds modest. It is, in effect, a denial. It takes a promise addressed to them and returns it unopened.

The commentaries make the promise much nearer than that.

One great early commentary records many narrations from an early authority, all saying the same thing. The one who fears the standing of his Lord is the man who is about to commit a sin, remembers his Lord, and leaves it. That is not a saint's description. It is a description of an ordinary person on an ordinary day, catching himself.

The same commentary glosses this very refrain. Which of the favours of your Lord will you deny, it asks: His rewarding whoever among you does good, as described in these ayat?

Whoever among you does good. Not whoever among you is extraordinary.

Think of the last time you stopped yourself from something you knew was wrong. A word held back in an argument. A screen closed. A small dishonesty not committed. In that moment, according to the plainest early reading of 55:46, you were the person this ayah describes.

So the refrain is asking something specific here. Will you deny the promise by disqualifying yourself from it? Will you hear "two gardens" and assume it means somebody else?

That is not humility. It is a failure to believe your Lord means what He says.

Receive the promise as addressed to you. Then live as the kind of person it describes, one moment of stepping back at a time.

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.