Al-A'la · Makki · ayah 11 of 19

Al-A'la 87:11

وَيَتَجَنَّبُهَا ٱلْأَشْقَى

“But the wretched one will avoid it –”

Saheeh International

Essence

The one who loses most is not the one who never heard the reminder, but the one who works hard to keep walking round it.

A reflection

Eleven minutes round the cemetery

For nine years, a man has driven home the long way round the ring road. It adds eleven minutes. The short way passes the cemetery where his father is buried. He tells his wife the ring road has less traffic.

Yatajannabuhā: he steers clear of it. The root is the side, and distance. A spare horse led at a rider's flank was a janīb. To ijtanaba a thing is to step to one side of it and keep it there. The form of this verb adds effort. One commentary glosses it: he keeps away from the reminder and shields himself from it. This is not missing the reminder. It is working to avoid it.

We know this behaviour well, because it feels like relief. With the reminder of Allah, it has its own habits. Changing the subject when talk turns to death. Letting the Quran on the shelf gather dust while the phone never does. Filling every silence with sound, so that the question cannot arrive.

An early commentator put it bluntly. No servant turns aside from this reminder, out of distaste for it and dislike of its people, except one plainly wretched. The wretchedness is not in hearing hard news. It is in the lifelong effort spent never hearing it.

Notice the cost. Eleven minutes a day, for nine years, comes to weeks of a man's life spent steering round one gate. Avoidance always costs more than facing, only in smaller coins.

The kindest thing the ayah does is name the detour. Once you see it, you can choose the short road. Stop at the gate. Say a prayer for the one you have been avoiding. Then drive home the ordinary way, lighter than you expected.

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.