Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 51 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:51

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

After two flowing springs, the refrain asks which favour you deny; one quiet denial is the anxious grip that fears the Giver might stop.

A reflection

Had she left it, it would have flowed

Most of us believe that holding on tightly is how you keep a gift. Loosen your grip, and it will slip away.

Sahih al-Bukhari preserves a long account of how water first came to the valley of Makkah. Ibrāhīm left Hājar and her nursing son there with a bag of dates and a skin of water. There was no one in the valley, and no water. She asked him whether Allah had commanded this. He said yes. She said: then He will not abandon us.

The water ran out. She grew thirsty, and her baby began to twist on the ground. She could not bear to watch him. She stood on Ṣafā, the nearest hill, and looked for anyone. Then she came down and ran across the valley floor to Marwa. She did this seven times. The Prophet ﷺ said: that is why people run between them.

At Marwa she heard a voice. An angel was at the place of Zamzam. He struck the ground with his heel, or his wing, until water appeared. She began to shape a basin around it with her hands. She scooped water into her waterskin, and it welled up again after each scoop.

Then comes a line from the Prophet ﷺ that this ayah brings into focus. May Allah have mercy on the mother of Ismāʿīl. Had she left Zamzam alone, or not scooped from it, Zamzam would have been a spring flowing on the surface.

Notice the first words. May Allah have mercy on her. There is no blame in them. She was a mother alone with a dying child in an empty valley. Her hands did what any hands would do.

But the line also shows what a spring does when no one holds it. It flows.

The ayah before this refrain describes the two gardens: in both, two springs flowing. No one there builds a wall of sand around the water. No one scoops in a hurry before it stops. The springs run, and nobody fears that the running will end.

Then the refrain asks: which of your Lord's favours will you deny?

There is a loud denial, which says the favour is not from Him. There is also a quiet one, which lives in the hands. It grips each gift as though the Giver might change His mind. It says with the body what the tongue would never say.

The surah does not shame that grip. It shows a Garden where the grip is no longer needed, and asks us to begin loosening it now.

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.