Al-A'la · Makki · ayah 8 of 19

Al-A'la 87:8

وَنُيَسِّرُكَ لِلْيُسْرَىٰ

“And We will ease you toward ease.[1907]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The promise is not only an easier road: He will make you into the kind of walker the road of ease was made for.

A reflection

The hills are no lower

In his first month on a hilly delivery round, the postman's calves burn at every slope. He stops twice on the long climb to the farm at the top. By his second winter he whistles up the same hill with a full bag. The hills are no lower. He is different.

Read this ayah's wording slowly. You would expect: We will make the way easy for you. It says nuyassiruka li-l-yusrā: We will make you easy for the way of ease.

The commentators noticed. Normally ease is attached to the task. Mūsā prays: make my affair easy for me (20:26). Here it is attached to the person, as a settled trait, one commentary says, as if he had been made for it. Another points out that the Prophet ﷺ spoke the same way: each person is eased towards what he was created for. The doer is made ready for the deed.

The root gives the picture. A good mare has yasarāt: light, sure legs that step easily over rough ground. The ground is no smoother for her. She has been made for it. Flocks were said to yassara when they gave birth easily, with no young lost and milk flowing.

This answers a quiet complaint many believers carry. If the religion is easy, why does it feel so hard? Because the ease the ayah describes grows in the walker, and it grows by walking. The early dawn prayers feel like the farm hill in the first month. The fast feels endless on the second day. Then, without a ceremony, you notice you are whistling.

So do not measure your faith only by how hard it feels today. Ask whether you are still on the hill. The promise is that the One who made the road is also making you.

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.