Surah Al-Mulk 67:22
سُورَةُ المُلۡكِ · Meccan · Verse 22 of 30
أَفَمَن يَمْشِى مُكِبًّا عَلَىٰ وَجْهِهِۦٓ أَهْدَىٰٓ أَمَّن يَمْشِى سَوِيًّا عَلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍۢ مُّسْتَقِيمٍۢ
Translation
Who is better guided: someone who falls on his face, or someone who walks steadily on a straight path?
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Is one who walks fallen on his face better guided, or one who walks upright on a straight path?' Ibn Ashur reads this as a vivid picture of two ways of moving through life: the one who denies gropes forward stumbling, face-down, seeing only the ground at his feet; the guided one walks erect on a clear road, seeing where he goes. Same act, walking, utterly different posture. Ask yourself: forget belief as a label for a moment and picture it as a gait. Am I moving through my days upright and clear-eyed, or bent over and stumbling from one thing to the next, unable to see past the next step? The verse asks me to feel the difference in my own walk.
Grounded in classical tafsir: Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i, Ibn Kathir.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Mulk 67:22 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 Al-Mulk 67:22 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.