Surah Al-Baqara 2:47 — Meaning, Translation & Reflection
سُورَةُ البَقَرَةِ · Medinan · Verse 47 of 286
يَٰبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتِىَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأَنِّى فَضَّلْتُكُمْ عَلَى ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
English: Children of Israel, remember how I blessed you and favoured you over other people.
Bengali: হে বনী-ইসরাঈলগণ! তোমরা স্মরণ কর আমার অনুগ্রহের কথা, যা আমি তোমাদের উপর করেছি এবং (স্মরণ কর) সে বিষয়টি যে, আমি তোমাদেরকে উচ্চমর্যাদা দান করেছি সমগ্র বিশ্বের উপর।
Meaning & Reflection
'O Children of Israel, remember My favour which I bestowed upon you, and that I preferred you over the worlds [of your time].' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir note the reminder of a special favour — a people raised, chosen, and given prophets and scripture in their era — invoked precisely because privilege carries *responsibility*, and forgetting the favour led to squandering it. Ask yourself: being favoured is not a licence but a *trust*, and the repeated call to 'remember' warns how easily the favoured forget the Giver and grow entitled. It turns my gaze to my own favours — whatever I've been given more of than others: knowledge, guidance, opportunity, faith itself. The greater the gift, the greater the accountability for it. Am I holding my particular blessings as a trust that obligates me — or, like the people repeatedly reminded here, taking them as my due and forgetting the One who bestowed them?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Reflect with the Five Lenses
Maani's framework for Tadabbur (heart-centred reflection) on Surah Al-Baqara 2:47:
- Wording. Look closely at the specific words and structure. Which word stands out, and why might Allah have chosen it here?
- Quranic Worlds. Place the verse in its context — what is happening around it, and what world does it open up?
- Personal Experience. Ask not just what this means, but what it means TO me and FOR me, right now in my life.
- Connections. How does this verse connect to other verses, to the Sunnah, or to themes across the Quran?
- General Lessons. What timeless lesson or action point can I carry away and live by?