'Abasa · Makki · ayah 22 of 42

'Abasa 80:22

ثُمَّ إِذَا شَآءَ أَنشَرَهُۥ

“Then when He wills, He will resurrect him.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The grave is not the last verb: when He wills, He will unfold the human being again, like a folded cloth spread open.

A reflection

The one event no one can book

Every stage so far has had a subject and a verb. He created, He measured, He eased, He caused to die, He gave a grave. Now comes the last stage, and it carries two extra words: idhā shāʾa, 'when He wills'.

One classical commentator notices why those words are there. The other stages, he says, have times we know in some way. Birth comes after a known term. Death, though its day is hidden, falls within a known span. But the raising has no time we can know at all. It is left entirely to Allah's will, to bring forward or hold back as He decides.

There is something deeply humbling in that. Modern life prides itself on scheduling. We plan our weeks in coloured blocks, our careers in five-year arcs, our retirements decades ahead.

Picture a wedding planner at the height of her season. For one Saturday she has scheduled every minute for three hundred guests. The bride's arrival at two, the photographs at half past three, the speeches at six, the first dance at nine. She has contingency plans for rain, late caterers and a missing ring. Her clipboard holds the whole day. Yet the most important day any of those guests will ever face is not on anyone's clipboard. No planner can book it, and no one can move it.

The ego wants to be in charge of time. This ayah removes the last and biggest appointment from our diaries and places it in His hands alone.

A sceptic may object that this sounds arbitrary, as if our fate hung on a whim. But the Quran says 'when', not 'if'. The raising is certain; only its hour is hidden. And the One whose will decides it is the same One who measured, eased and honoured us at every stage before. His will is not a whim. It is wisdom we cannot yet see.

The proper response is not anxiety about the date. It is readiness for the meeting. If you cannot know the hour, the only safe plan is to live every hour as one you would be glad to be raised from.

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.