'Abasa · Makki · ayah 38 of 42

'Abasa 80:38

وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ مُّسْفِرَةٌ

“[Some] faces, that Day, will be bright -”

Saheeh International

Essence

A surah that opened with one frowning face ends with faces uncovered like the dawn, shining with what their hearts carried all along.

A reflection

A face that shows the news before the words

Musfira, 'shining', comes from a root whose single meaning the lexicons describe as uncovering. The picture is well established. The dawn asfara when the dark was stripped from the sky and it shone so clearly that no one could doubt it. A woman safarat when she drew back her veil. And a face asfara when it lit up with joy.

One commentator explains the ayah exactly so. The faces are bright and radiant, because they have come to know what awaits them of success and bliss. Another notes that when a face becomes beautiful, the Arabs said it asfara, like the dawn.

So these faces are uncovered. Whatever was hidden inside them in this life, their faith, their hope, their quiet goodness, now shows on the surface, as plainly as daylight.

Picture a mother opening a letter at the kitchen table while her children eat breakfast. It is the result of a long appeal she has been fighting for months, over her disabled son's care. She reads the first line. Before she says a word, her face changes. It opens, softens and lights up. Her eldest daughter, across the table, puts down her spoon and says, 'We won, didn't we?' The mother has not spoken. Her face has already told them.

That is isfār: good news reaching the face before the tongue.

One commentator describes the believers on that Day in the same way. The joy in their hearts has come to the surface, and good news can be seen on their faces.

There is a hope in this for anyone whose goodness is hidden now. The carer no one thanks. The person who prays at night where no one sees. The one who gives without telling. Their faith is covered in this life by ordinary faces, tired faces, faces no one looks at twice. On that Day the covering will be lifted. What they carried inside will shine out, and no one will be able to doubt it.

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.