Surah Ar-Rahman 55:21
سُورَةُ الرَّحۡمَٰن · Medinan · Verse 21 of 78
فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ
Translation
Which, then, of your Lord’s blessings do you both deny?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'So which of the favours of your Lord will you two deny?' Here the refrain rests on the two seas and their unseen barrier, the boundaries that hold the world together without a visible wall. al-Saadi notes the wonder is meant to be counted, not passed over. Ask yourself: I only notice a boundary when it fails, the flood, the overstep, the collapse. The countless limits that quietly hold, in nature, in my body, in my relationships, go unthanked precisely because they work. Which of these silent, load-bearing mercies will I deny by never once acknowledging it? The refrain keeps forcing the same discipline on me: to name a specific gift instead of drowning it in a vague, ungrateful 'everything is fine'.
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
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