Al-A'la · Makki · ayah 9 of 19

Al-A'la 87:9

فَذَكِّرْ إِن نَّفَعَتِ ٱلذِّكْرَىٰ

“So remind, if the reminder should benefit;[1908]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Pass on what you were given, placed where it can be heard; your task is to remind well, not to force anyone to remember.

A reflection

Remind each person with what they need

A man who took his shahāda last month asks a volunteer at the mosque a question he has carried for weeks. Can God forgive what I did before? The volunteer answers by spending forty minutes on the correct way to sit in prayer. The man thanks him politely, and does not come back for a long time.

Fa-dhakkir: so remind. The command comes straight after the gifts of the last ayat: the revelation held, the way made easy. What you have been given, pass on. Then comes a surprising condition: in nafaʿati al-dhikrā, if the reminder benefits.

One commentary draws a lesson about teaching from it. Do not place knowledge where it cannot be received. It quotes ʿAlī: speak to people in terms they can understand; do you want Allah and His Messenger to be denied? And another saying of his: you never tell people something beyond their understanding without it becoming a trial for some of them.

Another commentary records a later scholar's reading that fits the new Muslim exactly. Remind each person with what matters for him and suits him. Speak to the one without faith about faith, not about the details of prayer. Speak to the believer who has dropped his prayer about prayer. The same truth has an order, and the listener's need decides where to start.

The Prophet ﷺ taught that order himself when he sent Muʿādh to Yemen, as both Sahihs report. You are going to a people of the Book, he said. Let the first thing you call them to be the worship of Allah alone. When they know that, tell them He has made five prayers obligatory each day and night. When they pray, tell them of the charity taken from their rich and returned to their poor. One truth, given in the order a listener can carry it.

The volunteer said nothing false. He simply answered a question nobody had asked, and left the real one standing in the doorway.

A reminder is judged by what it does, not only by what it says. So before you post, advise or correct, ask two questions. Who is this for? And what do they need to hear first?

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.