Surah Al-Baqarah 2:52
سُورَةُ البَقَرَةِ · Medinan · Verse 52 of 286
ثُمَّ عَفَوْنَا عَنكُم مِّنۢ بَعْدِ ذَٰلِكَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ
Translation
Even then We forgave you, so that you might be thankful.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Then We pardoned you after that, that you might be grateful.' Ibn Ashur and al-Saadi note the astonishing mercy, after so grave a betrayal as the golden calf, so soon after such deliverance, God still pardoned them, and the stated purpose was to draw out gratitude. Ask yourself: the response to their enormous ingratitude was not destruction but forgiveness, offered precisely to reawaken the gratitude they had abandoned. It reveals a God whose mercy answers even the worst betrayal with an open door, hoping to win the heart back rather than crush it. It also refuses my despair: if the calf-worshippers were pardoned, my own failures are not beyond forgiveness. And it clarifies the purpose of being forgiven, not to take mercy for granted and repeat the sin, but so 'that you might be grateful'. When I'm forgiven, do I let it soften me into gratitude, or forget it as fast as they forgot the sea?
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Baqarah 2:52 is discussed in 4 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Al-Baqarah 2:52 in Maani to reflect on it through the Five Lenses: its wording, its context, what it means for you, its connections across the Quran and its lessons, grounded in classical tafsir.