Al-Mutaffifin · Makki · ayah 23 of 36

Al-Mutaffifin 83:23

عَلَى ٱلْأَرَآئِكِ يَنظُرُونَ

“On adorned couches, observing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Those who once stood in the sweat of the Day now recline, settled for good, with their eyes free to look.

A reflection

From standing to reclining

An arīka was not any couch. It was a raised couch inside a ḥajala, the curtained canopy set up for a bride. Some said a bare couch was not called an arīka at all. An early scholar of Basra admitted they did not know what the word meant until a man from Yemen explained it to them.

The root adds a second picture. Camels arakat when they settled among arāk trees and would not move on. A wound araka when it healed and settled. So the word carries staying put: the seat of someone who has arrived and is not leaving.

Now set that beside the surah's earlier scene. On the Day, 'the people stand for the Lord of the worlds' (83:6), some of them in sweat up to their ears. Standing is the posture of waiting, of being examined, of not yet knowing. Here the righteous are no longer standing. They are reclining, in the honoured seat of a wedding, settled for good.

Think of the end of a long hospital shift, or a wedding day for the family who organised it. For eighteen hours you are on your feet. Then, at last, someone brings a chair and says, 'Sit. It's done.' The body only then realises how tired it was.

The ayah describes that moment without an ending. Life in this world is mostly standing: working, waiting, answering. The promise is a seat that does not have to be given up. Those who stood honestly at the scales will one day sit down, and never be asked to stand again.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.