Al-Infitar · Makki · ayah 3 of 19

Al-Infitar 82:3

وَإِذَا ٱلْبِحَارُ فُجِّرَتْ

“And when the seas are erupted”

Saheeh International

Essence

The seas, the widest thing humans have ever stood before, will burst open at a command, because even they are small before Him.

A reflection

The widest thing they knew

A shipping company launches a cruise liner and calls it the largest ever built. Its name is painted on the bow in letters taller than a man. Twenty decks, thousands of cabins, a theatre and a park on board. Then a satellite photographs it in the middle of the ocean. It is a white speck on a dark blue page.

The sea was the widest thing the first hearers knew. The lexicons say baḥr was named for its breadth and spread. So a man vast in generosity was called a baḥr, and so was a scholar whose learning had no shore. One night of alarm, the Prophet ﷺ rode out on a borrowed horse. He came back saying, 'We found him a sea' (Sahih al-Bukhari). He meant a running that did not give out.

Now read the verb: fujjirat. It is passive. The seas do not burst by themselves. It is done to them. The widest, deepest, oldest thing a human being can stand before is opened up like a ditch by the One who made it. One classical reading heard the verb differently: the seas 'overran', crossing a limit they had kept since they were made. Either way, the sea obeys a command it did not choose.

The Quran gives the scale in one image. If the sea were ink for the words of my Lord, 'the sea would run dry before the words of my Lord ran out'. It would, even if another sea like it were brought (18:109). The sea that dwarfs our largest ship is small before Him.

That is the cure for a certain kind of pride. We name our ships, our towers and our companies as if size could make them safe. The sea shrinks them, and He shrinks the sea.

Is this God showing off His power to intimidate? Look at why the Quran says He gave us the sea. From each sea 'you eat fresh meat and bring out ornaments to wear'. Ships plough through it, 'so that you may seek His bounty, and perhaps be grateful' (35:12). He needs none of it. The sea was held in place for our food, our trade and our journeys. The greatness is shown so that the small one knows whom to thank.

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.