Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets)
Verse 87 - 89
Table of Contents
87. “And abase me not on the Day when (men) will be raised up;”
88. “The Day whereon neither wealth nor sons will avail,”
89. “Except for him who comes to Allah with a pure heart.”
Being abased and blamed in the Hereafter is the worst state of a person. Among all of the difficulties and problems of the Hereafter Day, Abraham points to ‘not being abased’ then.
In Hereafter, the worst punishment of the Hell is that a person becomes despised, abject, and disgraced.
Finally, Abraham expresses his sixth and last supplication unto the presence of Allah, which is also concerned to the Day of Resurrection, as follows:
“And abase me not on the Day when (men) will be raised up;”
The Qur’anic phrase /la tuxzini/ (do not abase me) is derived from the Arabic word /xizy/ and, as Raqib says In Mufradat, it means ‘spiritual failure’ which is either from the side of the person himself that appears in the form of excessive shame, or it is from the side of others which is imposed upon the person.
This meaning expressed by Abraham, besides being a lesson and practice for others, is the sign of his ultimate feeling of responsibility and his trust on the Grace of Allah.
In the next verse, it says:
“The Day whereon neither wealth nor sons will avail,”
In fact, these two important worldly capitals, properties and human abilities, will not have the least effect for their possessors. Thus, their other capitals of this world, which are located in a grade lower than these two, will not avail them either.
It is evident that the purpose of wealth and suns are not those properties and children that are applied in the way of gaining the pleasure of Allah, but the emphasis is on the material aspects of the subject.
The objective of it is that the material capitals will not solve any problem on that Day;but if they are used in the way of obeying Allah here they will not be counted material capitals, they will get the divine colour and then they will be counted as ‘the everlasting good deeds’.1
Some Islamic narrations indicate that the charity given from the wealth, the voluntary alms that will remain, and the righteous child who prays for the parents will be useful for man in Hereafter.
Then, in the next noble verse, it implies that the worldly arrangements are not effective in Hereafter and, except the pure heart, nothing is useful there. In other words, this exception is for the one who comes before Allah while he has a sound heart (that is, it is sound from any polytheism, disbelief, and pollution of sin).
The verse says:
“Except for him who comes to Allah with a pure heart.”
A tradition says that the sound and pure heart is the heart in which there is no polytheism.2
Thus, the only capital for salvation in Hereafter is a pure heart. What an interesting meaning it is! It is a meaning wherein there exist both the pure faith and sincere intention, and any righteous deed, since such a pure heart has no fruit save pure action.
In other words, as the man’s pure heart and spirit is effective in his deeds, his deeds have also a vast reflection in his heart and spirit, and change it into the same quality, irrespective of being godly or satanic.