Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 60 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:60

هَلْ جَزَآءُ ٱلْإِحْسَـٰنِ إِلَّا ٱلْإِحْسَـٰنُ

“Is the reward for good [anything] but good?”

Saheeh International

Essence

One word, iḥsān, stands on both sides of the question: doing a thing beautifully, as if you see Him, and receiving the same from Him.

A reflection

Not tit for tat: a mirror

This ayah is quoted so often that it has been worn into a slogan. Do good, and good will come back to you. A fair trade, a kind of spiritual karma.

That reading is not wrong, but it is thin, and the word at its centre is far richer than 'good'.

Iḥsān comes from a root the lexicons say has one meaning: beauty, the opposite of ugliness. When the Arabs said a man yuḥsinu his writing, they meant he did it beautifully, without faltering. So iḥsān is not merely doing good. It is doing a thing beautifully.

The Prophet ﷺ was asked directly what iḥsān is, by a stranger whom he later said was Jibril. He answered: that you worship Allah as though you see Him, and if you do not see Him, He sees you. Both Sahihs record it.

Now read the ayah again.

The same word sits on both sides of the question, like a face and its reflection in a mirror.

One commentary draws out what the reflection means. The beauty asked of the servant was to do what Allah wanted, the way He wanted it. The beauty returned is that Allah gives the servant what he wants, the way he wants it. It points to another ayah: there will be whatever souls desire and eyes delight in (43:71).

That is not a trade. A trade swaps different things of equal value. This is a mirror, and the reflection is brighter than the face.

And the ayah does not state it. It asks it, as a question. Is the reward of beauty anything but beauty? You are meant to answer, from your own sense of what is fitting. Of course not. The question trusts you to know.

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.