Al-Waqi'ah · Makki · ayah 87 of 96

Al-Waqi'ah 56:87

تَرْجِعُونَهَآ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ

“Bring it back,[1620] if you should be truthful?”

Saheeh International

Essence

The sentence begun five ayat ago finishes here, and it finishes by handing the room one thing to do.

A reflection

The one instruction given to the deniers

Across the whole closing argument the deniers are given questions. Have you considered. Is it you. Do you then go soft. Nowhere are they told to do anything.

Here they are, and it is the only time.

Send it back.

Most readers hear that as sarcasm, and it is not. The commentaries treat it as a real instruction with a real condition attached, and one of them spells out why the condition makes it serious. One who disposes of himself and rules his own soul is not prevented from doing that.

So the logic is not: go on, try. It is: this follows from what you have said about yourselves.

And a hand held over a chest that cannot make it rise is the whole of the reply. Nothing has to be said. The instruction is carried out, or it is not, in front of everybody.

That is why this is the strongest place in the passage, and also the gentlest. No punishment has been mentioned. No threat. The surah has handed the room a task consistent with their own position and then stood back.

One commentary draws the conclusion without raising its voice. When it is not possible for you by any means at all, what follows? Has that not shown you that the matter belongs to an Owner who is able, subduing, disposing of you?

And the honest form of that for a reader today is not about deathbeds at all. It is a question about what you can actually do. Pick the thing in your life you most want changed, and ask which part of it is in your hands. Then look at the rest, which is where this ayah is pointing.

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.