Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 44 of 165

Al-An'am 6:44

فَلَمَّا نَسُوا۟ مَا ذُكِّرُوا۟ بِهِۦ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَٰبَ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا فَرِحُوا۟ بِمَآ أُوتُوٓا۟ أَخَذْنَـٰهُم بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْلِسُونَ

“So when they forgot that by which they had been reminded,[304] We opened to them the doors of every [good] thing until, when they rejoiced in that which they were given, We seized them suddenly, and they were [then] in despair.”

Saheeh International

Essence

When they left the reminder lying behind them, every shut gate swung open, and through the gates they were celebrating, the seizing walked in.

A reflection

Every gate says 'We opened'

Picture a walled town after a long siege. For a year its gates have been barred. Bread is rationed, the sick lie untreated, the markets are empty. Then one morning the gates swing open. Caravans roll in, the stalls fill, and the town throws a feast in the square by the gate.

That is the shape of this ayah. The doors of 'everything' open at once. Yet look at who opens them: fataḥnā, We opened. And look at who takes: akhadhnāhum, We seized them. The same speaker stands at both ends of the sentence. The people in the middle believed they were the authors of their plenty.

One classical commentary says exactly this about them. When the good arrived, they thought it had come because they deserved it. Another says they took it as proof that Allah was pleased with them, and assumed it would never end.

A fund manager writes his annual letter to investors after a record year. The letter praises his discipline, his research, his nerve. It does not mention that nearly every fund in the market rose that year. He has mistaken a tide for his own swimming.

This is where the ego shrinks. Nothing in our open season was opened by us. Every opportunity, every recovery, every good year is a gate someone else unbarred. Allah does not say so because He needs our acknowledgement; He needs nothing from anyone. He says so because credit decides everything that follows. The one who knows who opened the gate stays watchful at it. The one who thinks he opened it himself throws a party in the gateway, and never looks out at the road.

The full entry has 7 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.