An-Naba · Makki · ayah 27 of 40

An-Naba 78:27

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يَرْجُونَ حِسَابًا

“Indeed, they were not expecting an account”

Saheeh International

Essence

Their ruin began with one missing expectation: they never reckoned with a reckoning, so nothing they did seemed to count.

A reflection

Why would anyone 'hope' for a reckoning?

Three weeks before his wife's due date, a young man packs the hospital bag and puts it by the front door. He checks it twice a day. Nothing has happened yet, but everything is already on its way. That is not a wish. It is hope with its cause already in motion.

The root of yarjūn began with exactly that kind of waiting. The lexicons say that when a she-camel neared her time, the Arabs said arjat: she made her owner hope, because the birth was close. So rajāʾ is the expectation of a good whose cause has already come about. The same root names the side of a well, from its rim down to the water. These are established senses.

That raises a question the sources ask themselves. A reckoning is hard on a person. Why say they did not 'hope' for it, rather than that they did not fear it? One commentator gives four answers. Many early scholars said that here, as elsewhere, 'not hoping' means 'not fearing', not reckoning with it at all. Second, a believer must hope for Allah's mercy; not hoping shows they had no faith. Third, hope is the noblest kind of expectation, so the whole family is named after it.

The fourth answer is the most striking. In the reckoning with Allah, he says, hope weighs more than fear. Allah has made reward a promise, a right He has given His servant. Punishment is Allah's own right, and the Generous may waive what is His own. So the ayah speaks of the reckoning in the language of hope.

The deniers never packed a bag. They did not expect anything to arrive, good or bad. The believer lives more like the young man by the door. The cause is in motion and the day is coming. It is met with preparation and with hope.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.