Al-Layl · Makki · ayah 13 of 21

Al-Layl 92:13

وَإِنَّ لَنَا لَلْـَٔاخِرَةَ وَٱلْأُولَىٰ

“And indeed, to us belongs the Hereafter and the first [life].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Both worlds already belong to Allah, so everything you are chasing in either belongs to Someone you may not yet have asked.

A reflection

The guard who said 'my paintings'

A museum guard has stood in the same gallery for twenty-two years. He knows every crack in every frame. Visitors notice that he says 'my paintings' without thinking. When the gallery is rehung for a new exhibition, nobody asks his permission. He watches the porters carry his paintings out on padded trolleys.

'And truly, to Us belong the last and the first'. The sentence uses the same heavy emphasis as the one before it, and the possessive is placed first: lanā, to Us. One early explanation: all of it is Our dominion, and I dispose of both as I will. Another: whoever seeks the good of either world from anyone but its Owner has lost the way.

The ego is a lifelong guard who forgets he does not own the gallery. My career, my future, my plans for retirement, my children's prospects: we speak of both worlds as though we hold the keys. This ayah does not argue. It simply states the deeds. The next life is His. This one is His too, including the parts we have spent years arranging.

Why would Allah announce what He owns? Does He need it acknowledged? One classical commentary draws the opposite conclusion from the same ayah. Everything in both worlds is His, so your refusal of guidance does Him no harm. Your accepting it adds nothing to His kingdom. The benefit and the loss both come back to you. An Owner who lacks nothing does not announce His ownership to gain anything. He announces it so that we know where to bring our requests.

There is relief in that, once pride has finished bristling. The guard did not need to own the paintings to love them. We do not need to own our lives to tend them well. We only need to remember whose gallery we are standing in.

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.