Al-Qiyamah · Makki · ayah 23 of 40

Al-Qiyamah 75:23

إِلَىٰ رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ

“Looking at their Lord.[1805]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The highest joy of the Garden is not anything in it but its Lord, seen when the veil is lifted by faces turned to Him.

A reflection

Nothing between them but His grandeur

A hadith in both Sahihs describes the Garden with almost unbearable restraint. There are two gardens of silver, their vessels and everything in them. There are two gardens of gold, their vessels and everything in them. And nothing stands between the people and their looking at their Lord except the cloak of grandeur over His face, in the Garden of ʿAdn.

Notice what the hadith does with all that gold. It hurries past it. The real description begins where the treasure ends. One thing only stands between the servant and the sight: His kibriyāʾ, His grandeur, like a cloak.

Now set that beside the ego's deepest appetite. Most of us want, above almost anything, to be looked at. A newly promoted manager rehearses in the lift mirror how he will look walking into his first meeting. He adjusts his collar twice. Then the doors open, and he enters the room already watching himself being watched.

The ayah turns that hunger inside out. In the Garden, the supreme joy is not being seen. It is seeing. The faces do not look at the crowd, or at their own reflections, or at the gold. They look at their Lord.

Someone may ask whether this pictures a God who needs to be gazed at. It does not. He is free of all need (35:15). In a hadith qudsi He tells His servants they can never reach the point of benefiting Him (Sahih Muslim). The looking adds nothing to Him. It is their delight, granted to them.

And that cloak is the one garment pride tries to steal. In another hadith qudsi, Allah says that might is His lower garment and grandeur His cloak. Whoever contends with Him for either will be punished (Sahih Muslim). Pride is the creature dressing in a garment that is not his. On that Day, the only grandeur left in view will be the real one. Those who never needed to be looked at will be free to look.

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.