Al-Qalam · Makki · ayah 25 of 52

Al-Qalam 68:25

وَغَدَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ حَرْدٍ قَـٰدِرِينَ

“And they went early in determination, [assuming themselves] able.[1728]”

Saheeh International

Essence

They walked out that morning certain of their own power to withhold, using the very word for power that only Allah ever truly holds.

A reflection

Borrowing a word that was never truly theirs

Qādirīn, capable, able, comes from the same root as qudra, power, and qadar, the measure and decree by which Allah brings everything to its determined end. The root's core sense is measuring a thing out completely, its amount, its extent, where it stops, and from that comes the specific sense of having the power to bring about exactly the measure one intends. These men believed themselves qādirīn, capable of carrying out precisely the plan they had measured out the night before.

The same root carries another sense worth setting directly beside this one: to measure out someone's provision narrowly, to restrict and limit what reaches them. These men were qādirīn in exactly that sense too, confident in their power to narrow what reached the poor. Both senses of the word converge on this single moment: a claim to capability, and a plan to restrict provision, using the very vocabulary that belongs, in its fullest and truest sense, only to the One who actually measures out every provision that exists.

A junior trader convinced he has found a flawless, risk-free strategy describes himself, to colleagues, as having finally 'solved' the market, using language of total mastery and control the market itself is about to make a fool of within the week.

These men claimed a power that was never genuinely theirs to claim, borrowing the vocabulary of true capability to describe an ability that had, unknown to them, already been cancelled overnight by the only Capability that actually holds.

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.