Al-A'la · Makki · ayah 6 of 19

Al-A'la 87:6

سَنُقْرِئُكَ فَلَا تَنسَىٰٓ

“We will make you recite, [O Muḥammad], and you will not forget,”

Saheeh International

Essence

He rushed to hold each word before it slipped away, until the promise came: We will make you recite, and you will not forget.

A reflection

Rehearsing so hard you cannot hear

A newly qualified nurse is taking her first handover. The nurse going off shift talks fast: bed four, bed five, doses, times. The new nurse mouths every drug name back under her breath, terrified of losing one. She keeps them all. She misses the one sentence about bed five's allergy.

The commentaries describe a scene like that in the early days of revelation. When Jibrīl brought a passage, the Prophet ﷺ would begin reciting its opening before the angel had reached its end. He was afraid a single word would slip away, and he rehearsed it inside himself. Sahih al-Bukhari keeps a vivid memory of it. Ibn ʿAbbās moved his own lips for his students, to show how the Prophet ﷺ used to move his.

Then came this ayah. Sanuqriʾuka fa-lā tansā: We will make you recite, and you will not forget. One early report puts the reassurance in a few words: I have taken care of it for you. Other ayat carry the same gentleness. Do not move your tongue with it to hurry it; its gathering and its recitation are on Us (75:16–17). Do not rush the Quran before its revelation is complete (20:114).

The commentaries describe how the promise worked. Some say Jibrīl would recite it to him again and again until it was held. Others say his chest was opened so that he held it the first time. The report in Sahih al-Bukhari ends with the change. After that, when Jibrīl came, he listened. When Jibrīl left, he recited it as it had been recited.

Most readers take fa-lā tansā as news, not an order: you will not forget. One commentator explains why that matters. As an order, it would be a task. As news, it is good news, a promise that honours him.

With the keeping taken care of, he could listen. Many of us live like the new nurse with the things that matter most. We rehearse so anxiously that we cannot receive. The ayah's gift, for us too, is this: what Allah has promised to keep, you do not have to clutch.

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.