Al-Balad · Makki · ayah 15 of 20

Al-Balad 90:15

يَتِيمًا ذَا مَقْرَبَةٍ

“An orphan of near relationship”

Saheeh International

Essence

Of all the hungry, the ayah first points to the orphan in your own family: the one closest to you, and the easiest to overlook.

A reflection

The orphan at your own table

A woman's brother-in-law died four years ago. His son now comes to every family Eid in the same suit, three sizes too small at the wrists. The aunts coo over the cousins' new clothes. Nobody has noticed the suit. The boy has stopped taking off his jacket.

The ayah does not say simply 'an orphan'. It says yatīman dhā maqrabah: an orphan who is close to you, a relative. One early scholar explains why that doubles the weight. Two rights meet in one child: the right of the orphan and the right of kinship. Feeding him is the better deed. Another commentator draws the lesson more widely. Charity to relatives is better than charity to strangers, just as giving to an orphan with no guardian outranks giving to one who has one.

Why would the Quran need to point at relatives? Surely we look after our own. But a line of old Arabic poetry, quoted by one commentator, says otherwise. The stranger weeps for him without even knowing him. Meanwhile his own relative in the tribe is glad.

That is a painful truth about families. An orphan in the family is sometimes a complication. There are questions of inheritance, of who pays, of old resentments with the parent who died. Kinship can make it harder to give, not easier.

So the ayah deliberately names the hardest case. Not the orphan in a distant appeal, whom it costs nothing emotionally to help. The one at your own table, who reminds you of a brother you argued with, or a share of land you wanted.

One commentator adds that the nearness can include neighbours as well as blood relatives. The principle is the same. Start with the orphan closest to you.

Next Eid, the boy's aunt takes him shopping the week before. She does not make a speech about it. She simply buys a suit that fits, and a jacket he can take off.

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.