Al-Insan · Madani · ayah 12 of 31

Al-Insan 76:12

وَجَزَىٰهُم بِمَا صَبَرُوا۟ جَنَّةً وَحَرِيرًا

“And will reward them for what they patiently endured [with] a garden [in Paradise] and silk [garments].”

Saheeh International

Essence

They refused reward and thanks from the people they fed; Allah gives them both, and writes the cost of their patience into the gift itself.

A reflection

The two words they refused

Three ayat earlier, the people of this passage said something unusual to the hungry stranger at their door. 'We feed you only for the face of Allah. We want from you no reward and no thanks' (76:9). The word for reward there is jazāʾ. The word for thanks is shukūr.

Now read on. 'And He rewarded them', jazāhum, 'for what they endured, with a garden and silk'. Ten ayat of gifts follow, and then the list closes: 'This is a reward for you, and your striving has been thanked' (76:22). Reward is jazāʾ again. Thanked is mashkūr.

The two words they refused from people are the two words Allah gives them. Not similar words: the same roots, placed at the start and the end of the description like two hands holding it.

Picture a roofer who patches a pensioner's leaking roof in the rain. She holds out a folded note; he closes her fingers back round it. She tries again at the van, but he is already reversing. He wanted nothing from her, and he meant it. But Someone saw the ladder in the rain.

Here is the strangeness the first hearers met. The poor man at the door could never have paid. The captive (76:8) had nothing at all. So the generous lost nothing by refusing payment. They left the account with the only One who could settle it.

The root j-z-y pictured a debt paid off in full. In Madina the man who came to collect what was owed was called the mutajāzī. And jāzīka meant 'he is enough for you; you need no one else'. That is the reward here: a settling so complete that no other account is left open.

This unhooks something in us. Most generosity carries a small invoice: a hoped-for thank-you, a mention online, a favour remembered. The people of this passage tore up the invoice. Allah did not.

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.