The 365 · Verses · Day 345 · Hope
In the whole Qur'an, 'al-fawz' (success, attainment) is qualified four times: ʿaẓīm (immense), kabīr (great), mubīn (clear), ḥasan (beautiful). Only once is it called al-kabīr, the great. And it occurs in a sūrah whose horror is unmatched: the burners of believers thrown into a trench. Right after Allah describes their crime, He turns and names what awaits the believers who endured: the great attainment.
Qur'an 85:11
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَهُمْ جَنَّـٰتٌ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْكَبِيرُ
“Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds will have gardens beneath which rivers flow. That is the great attainment. (al-Burūj 85:11)”
Svenska: Sannerligen, de som har trott och utfört rättfärdiga handlingar ska ha trädgårdar under vilka floder strömmar. Det är den stora vinningen. (al-Burūj 85:11)
The story
Sūrat al-Burūj recounts the story of the People of the Trench (Aṣḥāb al-Ukhdūd), believers who were thrown alive into burning pits because they would not abandon their faith. Allah swears by the sky, by the Day, by witness and witnessed. Then He turns to the believers' end: gardens with rivers. The verse is consolation in the form of a contract: those who lose their lives in fire here gain rivers there. The fawz is great because the loss was real.
In the language
'Al-fawz' carries the connotations of having broken through, escaped danger, arrived at a long-sought destination. The qualifier 'al-kabīr' (the great) is unique to this verse in the Qur'an; it stands alongside 'al-fawz al-ʿaẓīm' (the immense attainment) used elsewhere. Why kabīr here? Because the contrast in al-Burūj is with the wrath upon the burners; both wrath and attainment are absolute. The fronted 'lahum' (they shall have) emphasizes ownership: the gardens are specifically theirs.
Why this verse
Today's verse names the price of patience and the size of its reward in one short clause. Whatever fire is in your life, name it next to dhālika al-fawz al-kabīr. Allah's exchange rate is the most favorable in existence.
Bring it into today
In every age the believer is asked to endure something. Sometimes it is fire. Sometimes it is a slow social pressure. Sometimes it is the loneliness of holding to ḥalāl in a culture of ḥarām. The verse names what is on the other side: not just success but the greatest of attainments, named al-kabīr because what was lost was great.
A reflection to carry
The same Allah who named His mercy kabīrah named this attainment kabīr. Largeness on both sides: Allah is large enough to receive the believer who entered the fire, and the reward is large enough to drown that fire forever. To enter the trench is small. To enter the Gardens is great. Allah measures the exchange in His favor every time.
Read the longer reflection
A faith without endurance is a faith without al-fawz. The believers of Najrān threw themselves into the fire rather than disown the Beloved. Allah did not preserve them from the fire. He recorded their names and named their gardens. This is the second part of īmān we forget: faith is what you keep when fire is the cost of keeping it. The fawz al-kabīr is reserved for the moments when the cost is the soul. The Prophet ﷺ said that the believer with the most severe trial in this life is the one with the most beloved status with Allah. The trench is dark, but Allah is light. The fire is hot, but the rivers will run forever. May Allah, when our test arrives, make our exchange among those who hear: dhālika al-fawz al-kabīr.
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free