Al-Insan · Madani · ayah 31 of 31

Al-Insan 76:31

يُدْخِلُ مَن يَشَآءُ فِى رَحْمَتِهِۦ ۚ وَٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ أَعَدَّ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًۢا

“He admits whom He wills into His mercy; but the wrongdoers - He has prepared for them a painful punishment.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The surah ends at two doors: mercy, which He opens to whom He wills, and a painful punishment made ready for those who did wrong.

A reflection

Nothing left but Him

A retired engineer keeps a spreadsheet of his worship. Prayers, fasts, charity, each with a running total. After a heart attack, lying on a ward at night, he realises what the total had become. It was the thing he trusted, more than the One he prayed to.

The last ayah of al-Insān takes the spreadsheet out of his hands. Yudkhilu man yashāʾu fī raḥmatihi: He brings whom He wills into His mercy.

One classical commentator calls the ending of this surah wondrous. The previous ayah showed that everything coming from the servant comes by Allah's will. This one shows that entering the Garden or the Fire is by His will too. At the end of this surah, he writes, nothing remains except Allah, and what is from Allah. That, he says, is pure oneness, the last stage of the journey of the truthful.

The Prophet ﷺ said the same in plainer words. 'None of you will be saved by his deeds.' They asked: not even you, Messenger of Allah? 'Not even me, unless Allah covers me with mercy' (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

That is the final blow to the ego. Not that deeds do not matter, but that they are not a purchase. The best of creation did not count himself in by his own total.

Someone may ask whether this makes Allah's choice cold or arbitrary. The ayah before ended 'Knowing, Wise'. And a hadith says that when Allah decreed creation, He wrote with Himself: 'My mercy has outstripped My anger' (Sahih al-Bukhari). The will that decides is the will that wrote that.

The engineer still prays and gives. He has deleted the totals column.

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.