At-Tariq · Makki · ayah 5 of 17

At-Tariq 86:5

فَلْيَنظُرِ ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ مِمَّ خُلِقَ

“So let man observe from what he was created.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Before you judge anything else, look at what you were made from: the first study the ayah sets you is your own beginning.

A reflection

Pride starts its biography too late

Notice the grammar. Mimma khuliqa: from what was he created? The verb is passive, and the next ayah repeats it. The Maker is not named. One classical note says this is itself a way of honouring Him. No other creator could possibly be meant, so there is no need to say.

The Arabs used khalq first for a leatherworker measuring a hide before he cut it: this much for a water-skin, this much for a boot. You were measured before you were made. You did not attend the measuring, choose the material or approve the design.

Now watch what pride does with beginnings. A man in a smart suit bristles when a colleague mentions at lunch that he grew up above a chip shop. For years he has been telling a cleaner version of his story. Pride nearly always starts its biography too late: at the first success, never at the beginning.

This ayah starts it earlier than anyone would dare. Before the chip shop, before the first breath, at a drop of fluid. It asks a question, and the question does the humbling by itself. From what was he created?

Is it demeaning to point people to such a beginning? One classical commentary gives the purpose plainly. It alerts a person to the weakness of the origin he came from, and guides him to accept the return. Whoever could begin him can bring him back. And the same Quran that points to the drop also says: We have honoured the children of Adam (17:70). The two sit together. The honour is real. It was simply never self-made.

Allah loses nothing if we tell our stories wrongly. Whoever strives, strives only for himself, and Allah is free of need of all the worlds (29:6). We are the ones who lose. A person who has seen the true beginning of their story stops needing to hide the chip shop. There is nothing to be ashamed of in a beginning you did not choose, and nothing to boast of in one you did not make.

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.