Surah Ar-Rahman 55:34
سُورَةُ الرَّحۡمَٰن · Medinan · Verse 34 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?' Even the impossibility of escape, al-Saadi notes, sits among the favours, for a universe wholly held by the Merciful is a universe where I am never lost, never beyond reach of the One who cares for me. Ask yourself: I read 'you cannot escape Him' as confinement. But the same fact means there is nowhere I can fall out of His sight or His mercy, no exile so remote that He is not already there. Which favour will I deny? The inescapability I feared is, seen rightly, the guarantee that I am always within reach of rescue. Do I experience His encompassing as a cage, or as the assurance that I can never be abandoned?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Reflect on this verse
Open Surah Ar-Rahman 55:34 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.