At-Takwir · Makki · ayah 28 of 29

At-Takwir 81:28

لِمَن شَآءَ مِنكُمْ أَن يَسْتَقِيمَ

“For whoever wills among you to take a right course.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The reminder is for everyone, but it works for the one who wants to stand straight; the Quran will not walk for you.

A reflection

Straightening up

In an old house, the kitchen cupboard door has warped. Every morning it sticks. You shove it, it scrapes, it bounces back half open. Nobody thinks about it much; it is just how the door is. Then a carpenter takes it off its hinges, planes the edge, and rehangs it. Now it swings shut with one finger. Only then do you realise how much small daily effort the crookedness was costing.

The root of yastaqīm is q-w-m: standing up, and staying up. Establishing the prayer is named from straightening a bent stick. A market 'stands' when it is alive and busy. Istiqāma is the form of the verb that means seeking, and keeping, that upright state.

The Prophet ﷺ made it the heart of everything. Sahih Muslim reports that a man asked him for a word about Islam so complete he would never need to ask anyone else. He said: 'Say, I believe in Allah, and then be upright'.

Why does Allah ask it? Not because He needs anything. 'O people, you are the ones in need of Allah, and Allah is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy' (35:15). He does not gain from our straightness. We do.

Many people today feel strangely warped. They say one thing and do another, and live one self online and another at home. They carry small dishonesties that stick and scrape like that door. They buy books on authenticity and apps for wholeness. What they are hungry for is istiqāma: a life that stands up straight, the same inside and out.

Straightening takes effort at first; the plane has to bite. Then it becomes the easier way to live. 'Truly, in the remembrance of Allah hearts find rest' (13:28). An upright heart stops spending itself on holding up its own contradictions.

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.