Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 63 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:63

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

Asked straight after 'and below them, two gardens', the question catches a quiet denial: despising a second garden because it is not the first.

A reflection

A place through clearing

A girl misses the grades for the university she has dreamt of since she was twelve. On results morning she sits on the kitchen floor and cries. By the afternoon, on the phone to a clearing line, she has a place at another university. She takes it, but for the whole of the first term she tells nobody how she got in. It feels like a second prize.

By the second year she loves the place. By the third she cannot imagine having gone anywhere else.

This refrain comes right after the surah opens a second, lower pair of gardens. And it catches a denial that is surprisingly common among sincere people: all or nothing. If I cannot be among the foremost, it does not count.

Some believers live like this. They aim for the very top, fall short, and then give up altogether, because anything less than the first garden feels like failure.

The ayah says the second garden is a garden. It is lower, yes. The early authorities are clear about the ranking. But it is the Garden, with springs and fruit and companions and a Lord who asks, eight more times, which of these you will deny.

The refrain here asks the all-or-nothing heart a specific question. Will you deny the second garden because it is second?

There is nothing humble about despising a gift for not being a bigger one. It is a kind of pride wearing the clothes of ambition.

Aim for the highest, as the Prophet ﷺ taught. But if you fall short of it in some part of your life, do not throw away the rest. Take the place you were given, and thank Him for it. The girl on the kitchen floor would tell you that the second choice often becomes the one you would not trade.

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.