Al-Ghashiyah · Makki · ayah 13 of 26

Al-Ghashiyah 88:13

فِيهَا سُرُرٌ مَّرْفُوعَةٌ

“Within it are couches raised high”

Saheeh International

Essence

Couches raised high, named from the root of secrets and deep joy: a place to rest at last, and to see everything you were given.

A reflection

From a reed mat to a raised couch

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb once went in to see the Prophet ﷺ in his room. He found him lying on a mat woven from reeds, with nothing between his body and the mat. It had pressed its pattern into his side. There was a handful of barley in one corner and a tanned hide hanging on the wall. ʿUmar's eyes filled with tears.

Why are you weeping, the Prophet ﷺ asked. ʿUmar said: how can I not weep? This mat has marked your side, and this is all your store. Chosroes and Caesar live among fruit and rivers, and you are the Prophet of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ answered: are you not content that the Hereafter is ours, and this world is theirs? (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim.)

Read this ayah with that room in mind. The man who received it slept on reeds. The couches it describes are raised high, in a garden raised high. He was not indifferent to rest. He had simply decided where his rest would be.

Many people carry a long season with no soft place to sit. The carer who has not slept a full night in four years. The student working two jobs through her degree. The migrant sharing a room with five others to send money home. Their lives leave marks on the body, like the reeds on the Prophet's side.

This ayah is written for them. It does not tell them to love hardship. It tells them the hardship has an address it is heading towards. The marks will not be permanent. Somewhere a couch is already raised, waiting for the one whose side still bears the reeds.

And for the comfortable it asks ʿUmar's question in reverse. If this world is where all your softness is, what is waiting on the other side?

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.