Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:86
سُورَةُ الوَاقِعَةِ · Meccan · Verse 86 of 96
فَلَوْلَآ إِن كُنتُمْ غَيْرَ مَدِينِينَ
Translation
why, if you are not to be judged,
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Then why do you not, if you are not to be recompensed...' al-Saadi and Ibn Ashur note the challenge sharpening, 'in kuntum ghayra madinin': if you truly believe there is no reckoning, no Owner to whom you answer, no Master over life and death, then prove your claim at this decisive moment. Ask yourself: the whole edifice of a self-sufficient, unaccountable life is now put to its final test. If I really am my own master, owing nothing to anyone, then the moment of death is where that mastery should show. The verse sets up an impossible dare precisely to expose the emptiness of the claim. Every day I live as if I am ultimately in charge and answerable to no one, but this scene asks: is that true where it counts most? If I am truly the master, the next verse says, then do the one thing a master of life could do.
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Waqi'ah 56:86 is discussed in 2 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
Reflect on this verse
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