Surah Ar-Rahman 55:71
سُورَةُ الرَّحۡمَٰن · Medinan · Verse 71 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?' The refrain rests on companions 'good and beautiful', goodness paired with beauty as the honoured whole. al-Saadi notes the completeness of the gift: inner and outer good together. Ask yourself: I often feel I must choose, depth or delight, substance or joy, as if the good and the beautiful were rivals. This verse holds them together as a single favour. Which will I deny by cynically assuming that what is good must be dull, and what is beautiful must be shallow? The refrain keeps insisting on a generosity that unites what I've learned to split, and asks me to stop denying that wholeness is real, and promised.
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
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