Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 69 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:69

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

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

Saheeh International

Essence

After the Garden's palms, the question reaches the palm in our own lives: plain food we complain about, and the trunk Maryam held in pain.

A reflection

'This again?'

A boy of fifteen comes home from school, lifts the lid of the pan and groans. 'Lentils again?' He eats a little, pushes the bowl away and opens the fridge in search of something better. His mother says nothing. She has made that soup on Tuesdays for nineteen years.

Most people would never call that a denial of Allah's favours. Denial sounds like unbelief, like a loud refusal to accept the Garden.

The Prophet ﷺ treated food differently. His Companions report that he never once criticised food. If he liked it, he ate it. If he did not, he left it. Both Sahihs record it.

Never once. Not the bread that was stale, not the dish that was over-salted. Not even the plain dates and water his household lived on for weeks at a time.

Now hear the refrain after 'fruit, and palms, and pomegranates'. The ayah has just named the ordinary food of the first hearers' land, honoured in the Garden. The refrain asks which favour you would deny.

The boy at the pan has an answer, though he does not know it. 'This again' is a small, daily denial. Not of the Garden, but of the plain provision that keeps a household alive, and of the mother who stood at the stove.

The Prophet's silence about food was not indifference. It was a refusal to insult a gift. Food was from Allah, and complaining about it, even lightly, sat badly with him.

The practice is small and difficult. For one week, say nothing negative about any food you are given. If you like it, eat it and thank the cook. If you do not, leave it, quietly. Then notice how often the complaint rose to your lips.

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.