Al-Inshiqaq · Makki · ayah 24 of 25

Al-Inshiqaq 84:24

فَبَشِّرْهُم بِعَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

“So give them tidings of a painful punishment,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The word for news that lights up a face is used, with bitter irony, for a pain that takes every sweetness away.

A reflection

News reaches the skin first

On a video call, a man is chatting to his sister, who lives abroad. Her phone buzzes. She glances at it, and he watches her face drain of colour a full second before she speaks. Their father has been taken to hospital. He knew something was wrong before she said a word. The news reached her skin before it reached her voice.

Fa-bashshirhum: so give them tidings. The root of bashshir is the skin. Basharā is the outer surface of a person, what others see. Good news is called bishāra, the lexicons explain, because it changes that skin. When the heart is glad, blood spreads through the face like water through a tree, and the face shines. Human beings are bashar: the creature whose skin shows.

Normally the word is used only for good news. The first light of dawn is the sky's tabāshīr. The winds that bring rain are mubashshirāt. But one classical study of near-synonyms reports another view. If the word comes from the skin, then the skin changes with sorrow as much as with joy. On that view, bishāra can be any news that shows on the face.

Read this ayah with that picture and it becomes very physical. 'Give them tidings of a painful punishment.' News that will change their faces. The same faces that were joyful among their people (84:13), and that turned away when the Quran was recited (84:21).

There is a sobering thought in this for everyone. Every one of us will one day receive news that shows on the skin. The Quran describes faces on that Day as either 'bright, laughing, rejoicing at good news' or 'covered with dust' (80:38–40). The word for rejoicing at good news there, mustabshira, comes from this same root. The news is being prepared now, by what we do.

So ask what kind of news you are preparing for your own face. The tidings are not written by chance. They are written, deed by deed, in the book the surah has already described (84:7, 84:10).

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.