Surah Ya-Sin 36:35
سُورَةُ يسٓ · Meccan · Verse 35 of 83
لِيَأْكُلُوا۟ مِن ثَمَرِهِۦ وَمَا عَمِلَتْهُ أَيْدِيهِمْ ۖ أَفَلَا يَشْكُرُونَ
Translation
so that they could eat its fruit. It was not their own hands that made all this. How can they not give thanks?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'...so they may eat of its fruit, though it was not their hands that made it. Will they not then give thanks?' al-Saadi and Ibn Kathir stop at 'their hands did not make it': the food on the table was produced by a power that is not ours; we harvest, but we do not create. And the verse ends with the pointed question, will you not thank? Ask yourself: I speak of the meal I 'made', the crop I 'grew', as if the life inside the seed were my doing. My hands moved it, arranged it, cooked it, but I did not put the growth in it. Stripping my contribution down to its honest size, how much of what sustains me is genuinely 'mine', and does that shrink my pride, or grow my gratitude?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ashur.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Ya-Sin 36:35 is discussed in 3 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ya-Sin 36:35 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.