'Abasa · Makki · ayah 34 of 42

'Abasa 80:34

يَوْمَ يَفِرُّ ٱلْمَرْءُ مِنْ أَخِيهِ

“On the Day a man will flee from his brother”

Saheeh International

Essence

On that Day a person runs even from his brother; the only tie that holds then is the one tied to Allah.

A reflection

The loop of rope that held firmest

The lexicons preserve a picture from the old Arab camp that may lie behind the word for brother, akh. Horses were tethered to an ākhiyya: a loop of rope with both ends buried in soft ground. It was kinder to the horse than a jutting peg, and it held more firmly. One classical derivation, which is one view, takes akh from this: one brother is tied to another as a horse to its loop. Another view takes it from aiming, because a brother aims where his brother aims.

Either way, the picture is of a tie that holds. Brotherhood was the rope you could rely on when everything else pulled loose. An old proverb adds a warm twist: many a brother your mother never bore.

Now hear the ayah: 'The Day a person will flee from his brother.' The strongest rope in the desert camp gives way. The loop that held the horse through every storm is pulled out of the ground.

That is meant to shock. It tells us how great the terror of that Day will be. But it also tells us something about the ties we rely on now. They are real, and precious. They are also not ultimate. No human tie, however firm, can hold a person on the Day when every soul is taken up with itself.

Picture a man whose older brother has stood behind him all his life. He co-signed his first mortgage, drove through the night when their father died, lent him money without a question. The man says, and means it, that his brother is the one person he can always count on. It is a beautiful thing. And this ayah quietly says: even he will not be able to hold you then.

The lesson is not to value our brothers less. It is to value them rightly, and to be tied, above all, to the One whose rope does not give. 'Hold fast, all of you, to the rope of Allah' (3:103). That rope is buried deeper than any loop in soft ground.

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.