Al-Hadid · Madani · ayah 16 of 29

Al-Hadid 57:16

۞ أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ وَلَا يَكُونُوا۟ كَٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ مِن قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْأَمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۖ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَـٰسِقُونَ

“Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allāh and what has come down of the truth? And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before, and a long period passed over them, so their hearts hardened; and many of them are defiantly disobedient.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A tender reproach to believers: the time has come for your hearts to soften before His word, before long years quietly turn them to stone.

A reflection

Four years was already long enough

In her first Ramadan, a convert could not get through the night prayer without crying. Every recited line felt addressed to her. By her fourth Ramadan the same reciter plays in the kitchen while she checks her phone. Nothing has gone wrong, exactly. She still fasts. She still prays. Something has simply gone quiet.

This ayah was sent for that quiet. Sahih Muslim preserves the words of Ibn Masʿud: between our becoming Muslim and Allah reproaching us with this ayah, there were only four years. Four years. These were the first believers, the people who had heard the Quran fresh from the Prophet's mouth. A report in the commentaries adds that they began looking at one another and asking: what have we done?

One early voice, quoted in two commentaries, put it sharply. He found them slow, though they were the most beloved of His creation. And they were reading far less of the Quran than you read. So look at how much you have read, and at what has appeared in you.

Another report has Abu Bakr listening as this ayah was recited to visitors from Yamama. They wept heavily. He looked at them and said: this is how we were, until hearts hardened. One commentator reads that as humility, a man lowering himself. Either way, the first generation did not assume they were immune.

That is the mirror. If hearts that had seen revelation descend could cool in four years, mine can cool in four months. The question alam yaʾni, has it not come time, is not addressed to unbelievers. It is addressed li-lladhīna āmanū, to those who believe. It assumes faith is present and asks whether it still reaches the heart.

The convert need not be ashamed of her quiet fourth Ramadan. She needs only to notice it, and to hear the question as the first believers heard it. It was a reproach from One who expected more of them, because He loved them.

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.