Al-Jumu'ah · Madani · ayah 9 of 11

Al-Jumu'ah 62:9

يَـٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا نُودِىَ لِلصَّلَوٰةِ مِن يَوْمِ ٱلْجُمُعَةِ فَٱسْعَوْا۟ إِلَىٰ ذِكْرِ ٱللَّهِ وَذَرُوا۟ ٱلْبَيْعَ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ

“O you who have believed, when [the adhān] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumuʿah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allāh and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew.”

Saheeh International

Essence

When the call sounds, leave the deal half-made and go with purpose to the remembrance of Allah; it is better for you than any sale.

A reflection

Shears laid down mid-cut

A fabric wholesaler is measuring forty metres of cotton for a customer when the call sounds from the mosque across the street. He sets the shears down mid-cut. He folds the cloth back on the bolt and says he will finish at half past one. The customer, a regular, simply nods.

Wa-dharū al-bayʿ: and leave the trade. The verb is unusual. The lexicons note that dharū has no past tense in use, and no verbal noun. Arabic can say 'leave it' and 'he leaves it'. In ordinary speech it does not say 'he left it'. The word only ever points from now on.

There is a lesson folded into that grammar. Leaving the trade for Allah is never something you did once, last Friday or ten years ago. It is always now, at this call, with this half-cut cloth.

And notice which activity is named. Not sleep, not chores, not leisure, but bayʿ: two hands meeting over a deal. One commentary explains why. Friday was when people came down from the villages into town. By late morning the markets were packed, and trade was at its height. That was exactly the hour when a person was most likely to forget everything else. So the message was: hurry to the trade of the next life, and leave the trade of this world, whose profit is small.

Another commentary adds that the market is where heedlessness is thickest. Naming the sale wakes up the heedless.

That is the image to hold from this ayah. A hand is withdrawn from a handshake, a deal is left half-made, shears are laid down on the cutting table. It is not contempt for trade; the next ayah sends you straight back to it. It is a statement of order. For this short time, something else comes first.

The wholesaler does finish at half past one. He cuts more carefully than before.

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.