'Abasa · Makki · ayah 41 of 42

'Abasa 80:41

تَرْهَقُهَا قَتَرَةٌ

“Blackness will cover them.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A darkness like smoke catches up with these faces and covers them: what was put off and narrowed in life finally overtakes them.

A reflection

What we put off catches up

Tarhaquhā, 'it covers them', comes from a root with a picture of pursuit, and the lexicons describe it vividly; it is well established. Hounds were said to rahiqa the game when they caught it up and were upon it. A she-camel that strode so wide she almost trod on the one leading her was rahūq. Debt was said to 'come upon' a man. A boy on the edge of manhood was murāhiq: adulthood almost upon him.

The lexicons record one more use that is especially pointed. A prayer delayed until the next prayer is almost upon it was said to be murāhaq: overtaken.

So the darkness in this ayah does not simply appear. It catches up. It has been following, like hounds on the trail, and now it is upon these faces.

That picture fits how consequences work in ordinary life. We put things off: the apology, the prayer, the debt, the hard conversation. For a while nothing happens. Then they arrive all at once.

Picture a university student who kept postponing one essay. Then a second. Then a lab report. Each time, there seemed to be plenty of time. Then, in the last week of term, all three deadlines land on the same Thursday night. She sits at her desk at two in the morning, surrounded by everything she postponed. It feels as if the whole term has caught up with her at once.

That is rahaq in miniature. The things we delay do not disappear. They follow.

The ayah describes the final form of that overtaking, on the Day, for those who put off faith until it was too late. But the root carries a gentler lesson for now. Do not let your prayer become murāhaq, pushed back until the next is upon it. Do not let repentance be overtaken by death.

What is following you at the moment? Turn round and deal with it while you still can.

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.