At-Tariq · Makki · ayah 10 of 17

At-Tariq 86:10

فَمَا لَهُۥ مِن قُوَّةٍ وَلَا نَاصِرٍ

“Then he [i.e., man] will have no power or any helper.”

Saheeh International

Essence

On that Day the two things people lean on, their own strength and their allies, are simply not there.

A reflection

No clan, no ally

An early scholar explained the two words with the desert in mind. Quwwa, strength, was a man's clan. Nāṣir, helper, was his sworn ally. In this world, one commentary says, a man fell back on his kin to shield him from anyone who meant him harm. He fell back on an ally to take his side against whoever wronged him.

A later commentator puts it more generally. A person's strength is either his own or borrowed from others, and the ayah denies both. The little word min sweeps away even the smallest amount: not a scrap of strength, not a single helper. One early reading makes it vivid: these kings, on that Day, with no strength and no helper.

Now bring it home. Picture a man who ends every dispute with the council by mentioning, casually, that his cousin sits on the planning committee. At the school gate he lets slip which headteacher he plays golf with. It usually works. People step back. The ego lives on two things: what I can do, and who will back me.

The ayah takes both away in six words. On that Day the cousin is busy with his own record. The golf partner does not know his name. Every connection that opened doors is suddenly a stranger.

Is it cruel or arrogant for God to strip people bare like this? He gains nothing from it: Allah is the Rich, and you are the poor (47:38). The ayah states a fact about that Day so that pride can be dropped today. Today, dropping it is still a choice and not a sentence.

The person who stops leaning on the cousin now has less to lose later. He also has more room to lean on the One whose help will still be there when every other door has closed.

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.