Al-Inshiqaq · Makki · ayah 14 of 25

Al-Inshiqaq 84:14

إِنَّهُۥ ظَنَّ أَن لَّن يَحُورَ

“Indeed, he had thought he would never return [to Allāh].”

Saheeh International

Essence

One unexamined assumption, that he would never be called back, quietly ran his whole life.

A reflection

Called home by name

On a windy hill, a grandfather teaches his grandson to fly a kite. The boy lets out line until the kite is a speck. He is thrilled, and a little frightened. Then his grandfather puts his hand over the boy's and shows him how to wind it in. However high it went, the line always ran back to one hand.

Lan yaḥūr: he would never return. The verb is plain, almost homely. One of the Companions most learned in the Quran admitted he did not know what yaḥūr meant. Then he heard a desert woman calling her little daughter: ḥūrī, come back to me. That was the word. It is the call of a mother to a child who has wandered too far.

The lexicons fill out the picture. Ḥawr is returning, and a turban being unwound was its ḥawr. The miḥwar is the axle a pulley turns round. And the same root gives ḥiwār, dialogue: words that go out and come back. The Arabs said, I spoke to him and he returned me no ḥawār, no answer.

Put those images together and the man in this ayah comes into focus. He thought the line had no hand at the other end. He thought his words would never come back to him for an answer. He thought no voice would ever call him by name and say: come back.

The explanations all agree on the plain meaning. He believed he would never return to his Lord, never be raised after death. One adds the consequence. Because of that, he did not care what wrongs he committed. He had no reward to hope for and no punishment to fear.

For the believer the same word carries comfort. We are not kites lost in the wind. There is a hand at the end of the line. The call to return, when it comes, is from the One who made us, and He calls each person by name.

So live as someone who will be called home. Let out as much line as your life needs. Just never forget whose hand it runs back to.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.