Al-Ghashiyah · Makki · ayah 15 of 26

Al-Ghashiyah 88:15

وَنَمَارِقُ مَصْفُوفَةٌ

“And cushions lined up”

Saheeh International

Essence

Cushions set side by side: one to sit on, one to lean on, and room beside you for company with every grudge removed.

A reflection

Next to the people who wronged me?

Cushions in a row imply company. Old Arabic poetry used the same picture for a noble gathering: men young and old, handsome of face, on couches set in rows and cushions. You do not line cushions up for one person.

That raises a painful question for some believers. A woman whose former friend spread a rumour that cost her a job asks it quietly after a class. If we both end up in the Garden, will I have to sit beside her? Will I have to pretend it never happened?

The Quran and the Sunnah answer this more directly than people expect. The Prophet ﷺ said that when the believers are saved from the Fire, they are held on a bridge between the Garden and the Fire. There they settle, one with another, the wrongs that were between them in the world. When they have been cleansed and purified, they are given leave to enter. Then, he said, each of them will know his home in the Garden better than he knew his home in the world (Sahih al-Bukhari).

So no one is asked to pretend. The wrong is settled first, fully and justly, before anyone sits down. And then the Quran describes what is left in the heart. We will remove whatever rancour is in their breasts: brothers, on couches, facing one another (15:47).

That is the real miracle of the row of cushions. Not the fabric. The fact that people who once hurt each other can sit side by side and feel nothing but ease. Grudges are heavy to carry, even when they are justified. The Garden does not ask you to drop yours by force of will. It promises that justice will be done and then the weight will simply be taken away.

What remains is the choice of how much of that weight to carry until then.

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.