Al-Fajr · Makki · ayah 15 of 30

Al-Fajr 89:15

فَأَمَّا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ إِذَا مَا ٱبْتَلَىٰهُ رَبُّهُۥ فَأَكْرَمَهُۥ وَنَعَّمَهُۥ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّىٓ أَكْرَمَنِ

“And as for man, when his Lord tries him and [thus] is generous to him and favors him, he says, "My Lord has honored me."[1918]”

Saheeh International

Essence

When life is generous, a person says 'my Lord has honoured me', and mistakes an exam paper for a trophy.

A reflection

The trophy that was an exam

A woman's small bakery lands a contract to supply a chain of cafés. At her celebration dinner she raises a glass of juice and says: 'God clearly wants this for me.' Everyone agrees. Six months later the contract has doubled her hours. Her teenage daughter says she never sees her, and the prayers she used to keep on time have slid to the edges of the day.

Read the order of this ayah slowly. When his Lord tests him, and honours him, and gives him comfort. The honour sits inside the test. The contract, the promotion, the healthy children, the house with the garden: the ayah calls all of it ibtilāʾ, a trial. It is not a verdict on the person's worth. It is a question put to him.

The commentators gloss the man's words carefully. He thinks, one says, that this came because he is honoured by his Lord. Another adds his hidden premise: my Lord honoured me because I deserved it.

The Quran corrects that assumption elsewhere. Do they think that by the wealth and children We extend to them, We are hurrying good things to them? No, they do not perceive (23:55–56). One classical commentator puts the principle plainly. Allah gives wealth to those He loves and those He does not. He also withholds it from those He loves and those He does not. What matters is obedience in both states: gratitude when rich, patience when poor.

The Prophet ﷺ said the same in two sayings that Sahih Muslim preserves. Allah does not look at your forms or your wealth, he said, but at your hearts and your deeds. And the believer's affair is a wonder, for all of it is good. If ease reaches him he gives thanks, and that is good for him. If hardship reaches him he is patient, and that is good for him.

This is not a call to fear success. The bakery owner did nothing wrong in taking the contract. The question is how she holds it. A trophy goes on a shelf to be admired. An exam paper is something you keep working on until the time is up.

So when something good arrives, try a different first sentence. Not 'I must be doing something right', but: this is a question. How will I answer it?

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.