Al-Balad · Makki · ayah 9 of 20

Al-Balad 90:9

وَلِسَانًا وَشَفَتَيْنِ

“And a tongue and two lips?”

Saheeh International

Essence

One tongue and two lips: the tool he boasted with was a gift, and it came with its own doors.

A reflection

The voice that was never his

A celebrated after-dinner speaker, famous for his wit, wakes on the morning of his biggest engagement with laryngitis. He opens his mouth and nothing comes out but a whisper. Four hundred guests, a fee, a reputation. All of it hangs on a small muscle and two folds in his throat that have simply stopped working.

The man in this surah used his tongue to say one thing above all: 'I'. 'I destroyed a heap of wealth' (90:6). The ayah answers by pointing at the very instrument he boasted with. Did We not give him a tongue?

One commentator describes the tongue as the thing that translates what is hidden in a person. Another says it lets him express whatever he wishes about himself. That is an extraordinary gift. It turns a private thought into something another person can receive. Without it, the heart would be sealed inside the chest.

A classical writer draws out the argument in this list of gifts. A creature was given the tools of speech, to explain, command and forbid. How could the One who gave them be unable to speak and command? Whatever a creature has, it has from the One who made it.

The ego rarely thinks about this. We are proud of being articulate. We enjoy winning the argument and landing the clever line. We rarely stop to notice that the tongue doing all this was handed to us, and can be taken back in a morning.

Is it arrogant for God to remind a boaster that his tongue was a gift? The reminder costs Allah nothing and gives Him nothing. He is free of need (35:15). It is the boaster who needs to hear it. The one who knows his voice was lent speaks more carefully, and brags less.

The after-dinner speaker recovered in a week. He told friends afterwards that he had never once thanked Allah for his voice until he lost 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.