All of Verses

The 365 · Verses · Day 88 · Family

The Quran's forty-year prayer: thanks, righteous work, righteous offspring, tawbah. Memorize it.


Qur'an Q 46:15

وَوَصَّيْنَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنَ بِوَٰلِدَيْهِ إِحْسَـٰنًا ۖ حَمَلَتْهُ أُمُّهُۥ كُرْهًا وَوَضَعَتْهُ كُرْهًا ۖ وَحَمْلُهُۥ وَفِصَـٰلُهُۥ ثَلَـٰثُونَ شَهْرًا ۚ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُۥ وَبَلَغَ أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً قَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِىٓ أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَىَّ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَىَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَـٰلِحًا تَرْضَىٰهُ وَأَصْلِحْ لِى فِى ذُرِّيَّتِىٓ ۖ إِنِّى تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَإِنِّى مِنَ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ

We have commanded man to be good to his parents: his mother struggled to carry him and struggled to give birth to him, his bearing and weaning took a full thirty months. When he has grown to manhood and reached the age of forty he [may] say, 'Lord, help me to be truly grateful for Your favours to me and to my parents; help me to do good work that pleases You; make my offspring good. I turn to You; I am one of those who devote themselves to You.' (Abdel Haleem)

Svenska: VI HAR förmanat människan att visa godhet mot sina föräldrar... Och när människan vid det fyrtionde levnadsåret når sin fulla mognad, ber hon: 'Herre! Gör att jag [alltid] visar tacksamhet mot Dig för Dina välgärningar mot mig och mot mina föräldrar och att jag gör det goda och det rätta och allt det som Du ser med välbehag; och gör mina efterkommande till goda och rättrådiga människor!' (Knut Bernström)

The story

The classical commentators note that the verse names forty as the age of full maturity in human development. The duʿāʾ is therefore specifically for the believer who has completed the major arc of growth and is now turning to the next generation. The verse is uniquely useful as the closing of the family-theme opener: it addresses the believer who is now becoming the parent, the head of household, the one being asked for the iḥsān they once received.

In the language

أَوْزِعْنِي (awziʿnī) is from w-z-ʿ, a verb that carries the meaning of 'compelling, inspiring, restraining.' The duʿāʾ is asking Allah to compel the soul to thankfulness, not just to grant the thankfulness as a gift. The construction is humble: the believer is acknowledging that without divine compulsion, the soul drifts away from gratitude. The four requests in the duʿāʾ form a complete package: thanks, righteous work, righteous offspring, tawbah.

Why this verse

Q 46:15 pairs the command to be good to parents (cited in 17:23, 31:14, 4:36) with a specific duʿāʾ to be made at the age of forty: a four-part request that asks for thanks to Allah and parents, righteous work, righteous offspring, and tawbah. The verse names forty as the age of full maturity (ashudd) in human development.

Bring it into today

Memorize 46:15 in Arabic. Recite it on your fortieth birthday if you are not yet forty, on every birthday if you are. The four requests are the believer's full life prayer. Use it.

A reflection to carry

The verse names forty as the age of full maturity. Whether you are 40 already or approaching it or past it, the duʿāʾ is for you. It packages four things the believer should ask for at every stage of family life: thanks (because the blessings are accumulated), righteous work (because the time remaining is shorter), righteous offspring (because the next generation is now your responsibility), and tawbah (because forty years of life accumulate forty years of slips). Memorize the Arabic; recite it weekly.

Read the longer reflection

There is a beautiful arc in the Quran's family-theme verses. 17:23-24 addresses the child relating to parents. 31:14 addresses the child remembering the mother. 4:36 expands the iḥsān map to the whole community. 30:21 addresses the spouse. 46:15 addresses the parent of the next generation. Together, the five verses form the Quran's full family life-cycle: child to adult to spouse to parent. Each stage has its own verse, its own command, its own duʿāʾ. Memorize all five. Recite them at the appropriate stages of your life. The Quran is the believer's family liturgy.

Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.

A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.

Subscribe, free