Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 61 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:61

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

After 'is the reward of beauty anything but beauty', the question turns round: He was beautiful first, so which favour will you leave unanswered?

A reflection

A crayon drawing in a toolbox lid

Most readers hear the ayah before this refrain in one direction. We do good; Allah repays it. The refrain then asks us not to deny His reward.

One classical reading turns the ayah round, and it changes the refrain completely. Is the reward of the One who was beautiful to you, it asks, anything but that you are beautiful back? He gave you favours in this world and promises bliss in the next. The fitting reply is worship and mindfulness of Him.

On that reading, Allah's iḥsān comes first. Ours is the answer.

Picture a father who works two jobs for most of his daughter's childhood. When she is five she draws him in crayon: a tall stick man with a huge smile, holding her hand, under a yellow sun. He tapes it inside the lid of his toolbox. It is still there thirty years later, faded, the tape gone brown.

She could never repay what he gave. He never asked her to. He needed nothing from that drawing. And yet it was the most precious thing in the box.

That is roughly the shape of our iḥsān towards Allah. He is rich beyond need. 'You are the ones in need of Allah; He is the Rich, the Praised' (35:15). Nothing we do adds to Him. And still the Quran asks for it, and calls it beautiful, and promises to answer it.

So the refrain after this ayah has a new edge. Which of your Lord's favours will you deny? The deepest denial is not saying the favours are false. It is receiving them for a lifetime and never once drawing the picture.

The drawing does not have to be grand. A prayer done with presence. A kindness done for His sake. It is small, and it is kept.

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.