'Abasa · Makki · ayah 17 of 42

'Abasa 80:17

قُتِلَ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ مَآ أَكْفَرَهُۥ

“Destroyed [i.e., cursed] is man;[1858] how disbelieving is he.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Four words of astonishment at the human being who buries every gift he has been given, and then looks down on others.

A reflection

The farmer who buries the seed

For many readers, kufr is simply a label: 'disbelief', a word for people outside the faith. That makes this ayah feel like a verdict on others. But the root has a far wider and more searching picture, and it is well established.

The lexicons say the root has one meaning: covering. The Arabs called a farmer kāfir because he hides the seed under the earth. The night is kāfir because its darkness covers everything. Ash buried by the wind under dust is makfūr. And so kufrān of a blessing is covering it up: denying it, hiding it, burying it under forgetfulness, the opposite of thanks.

One commentator explains mā akfarahu exactly this way: how intensely he covers over Allah's blessing, despite the sheer number of kindnesses done to him. The ayah is not only about creed. It is about gifts buried.

The word for the human being, insān, sharpens this. One lexical view derives it from warmth and company. Another, which is one view only, derives it from forgetting. On that reading, the human being is the creature who forgets. And what do we forget most easily? Kindnesses done to us.

Picture a man whose kidneys failed in his forties. His younger sister was tested, found to be a match, and gave him one of hers. For a year he could not thank her enough. Five years later, she rings to ask for help moving house. He says he is too busy, and does not call back. He has not forgotten the operation, exactly. He has simply buried it, the way a farmer buries a seed and walks away.

That is the human pattern this ayah exclaims over. Life, breath, sight, food and guidance are given freely. We cover them over and move on, and then we act as if we owe no one.

So the truer picture of kufr is not a label for outsiders. It is a tendency inside every human being: to cover the gift. Faith, in that light, is the daily act of uncovering it again, and saying thank you.

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.