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Four words carry this passage: the clothing that is best, the trial that tests what we are made of, worship made pure, and the limit on what we enjoy.
ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ
at-taqwā · 7:26 · ▶ hear ayah 26
Saheeh International: “righteousness” — But the clothing of righteousness - that is best.
- Meaning in context
- “Righteousness” gives the result but loses the picture. The root is about protection: taqwā is what you put between yourself and harm. That is why it can be called a clothing here — something that covers and protects, in a way cloth cannot. Indonesian keeps the word as takwa, and we hear it in every Friday khutbah. In everyday Indonesian it usually means devotion; the Arabic keeps the shield inside it.
- Root
- و ق ي w-q-y — to guard, to preserve. Lane: waqāhu Allāhu as-sūʾ, “God preserved him from evil”; and for the form in ittaqā, “he put a thing between him and another to preserve him.” Corpus root ↗ · Lane, وقى ↗
- For reflection
- What do you put between yourself and the things that harm you? And does it still cover you when nobody is looking?
- In this surah
- The root comes back again and again in Al-A'raf — for example 7:35, 7:96, 7:156 and 7:201.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Noun — genitive, masculine, with the definite article; the second half of the phrase libās at-taqwā. Corpus 7:26 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 258 times in eight derived forms. The noun taqwā occurs 17 times; the plain verb waqā, to protect, 16 times.
- 2:197 وَتَزَوَّدُوا۟ فَإِنَّ خَيْرَ ٱلزَّادِ ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ — take provision, and the best provision is taqwa. Clothing in 7:26, provision in 2:197.
- 2:201 وَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ — and protect us from the punishment of the Fire. The same root, in the du'a many of us say after every prayer.
On the tafsir page → Al-Qurtubi lists what the early scholars said the clothing of taqwa is — righteous deeds, fear of Allah, modesty — and prefers keeping Allah's command and prohibition in mind, which gathers all of them.
يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ
lā yaftinannakum · 7:27 · ▶ hear ayah 27
Saheeh International: “tempt you” — let not Satan tempt you
- Meaning in context
- “Tempt” is right, and there is a picture behind it. The root first meant to put gold or silver into the fire to separate the good metal from the bad. So fitnah is a trial that shows what something is really made of. Here the verb carries an extra -nna of emphasis: do not let him, by any means. Careful with Indonesian: fitnah in Indonesian means slander, a false accusation. That is only one small part of the Arabic word.
- Root
- ف ت ن f-t-n — Lane: “he burned it in the fire”; and “he melted it with fire, namely gold and silver, in order to separate the bad from the good.” Corpus root ↗ · Lane, فتن ↗
- For reflection
- If a test shows what we are made of, what did your last difficult week show about you?
- In this surah
- Again at 7:155, where Musa says to Allah: it is only Your trial.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Verb — 3rd person masculine singular, imperfect, with the emphatic suffix nūn and the 2nd person plural object pronoun. Corpus 7:27 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 60 times in five derived forms — 23 times as this verb and 34 times as the noun fitnah.
- 8:28 أَنَّمَآ أَمْوَٰلُكُمْ وَأَوْلَٰدُكُمْ فِتْنَةٌۭ — your wealth and your children are only a trial.
- 29:2 وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ — and they will not be tested?
- 51:13 يَوْمَ هُمْ عَلَى ٱلنَّارِ يُفْتَنُونَ — the Day they are tried over the Fire. Lane cites this ayah for the root's first sense.
On the tafsir page → Al-Jalalayn glosses the verb as “lead you astray,” and Ibn Kathir reads the whole ayah as a warning built on what Iblis already did to our parents.
مُخْلِصِينَ
mukhliṣīna · 7:29 · ▶ hear ayah 29
Saheeh International: “sincere” — and invoke Him, sincere to Him in religion
- Meaning in context
- “Sincere” is good, and the root makes it concrete: something made pure, with nothing else mixed in. Worship that is mukhliṣ is for Allah and nothing else. Indonesian has ikhlas from the same root, and uses it a little differently — often for letting something go, or accepting what happened. The Qur'an's word is about who the deed is for.
- Root
- خ ل ص kh-l-ṣ — Lane: to be “clear, pure, sheer, free from admixture”; he gives water that “became clear from turbidness,” and butter made clear from its sediment in cooking. Corpus root ↗ · Lane, خلص ↗
- For reflection
- Think of one good thing you do regularly. If nobody ever saw it again, would you still do it the same way?
- In this surah
- The root appears again at 7:32, khāliṣatan — the good things of this world will be purely for the believers on the Day of Resurrection.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Active participle — form IV, accusative, masculine plural. Corpus 7:29 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 31 times in seven derived forms; this participle, mukhliṣ, 11 times — often in the same phrase as here.
- 98:5 لِيَعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ — to worship Allah, sincere to Him in religion.
- 40:14 فَٱدْعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ — so call on Allah, sincere to Him in religion.
On the tafsir page → Ibn Kathir reads ayah 29 as the two conditions for any deed: that it follows what the messengers brought, and that it is sincere, free of shirk.
تُسْرِفُوٓا۟
wa-lā tusrifū · 7:31 · ▶ hear ayah 31
Saheeh International: “be not excessive” — and eat and drink, but be not excessive
- Meaning in context
- The verb is about going past the limit. The ayah closes with the same root as a noun for people: al-musrifīn, those who go past it, whom Allah does not love. Ibn Jarir reads it widely: overdoing what is allowed, and also forbidding what Allah allowed. So the word is not only about eating too much. It is about losing the balance in either direction.
- Root
- س ر ف s-r-f — Lane gives the first sense of the plain verb as being heedless, or missing the mark: “he passed by the people and left them behind him.” The Qur'an uses only form IV, asrafa: to go beyond the bound. Corpus root ↗ · Lane, سرف ↗
- For reflection
- Where in your week do you only notice the limit after you have already gone past it?
- In this surah
- Twice in this ayah, and again at 7:81, where the people of Lut are called musrifūn.
Grammar, counts and cross-references
- Grammar
- Verb — 2nd person masculine plural, form IV, imperfect, jussive after the prohibition lā. Corpus 7:31 word by word ↗
- Elsewhere in the Qur'an
- The root occurs 23 times in three derived forms — six times as this verb, twice as the noun isrāf, and 15 times as musrif.
- 6:141 وَلَا تُسْرِفُوٓا۟ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُسْرِفِينَ — the same words, after the harvest.
- 25:67 أَنفَقُوا۟ لَمْ يُسْرِفُوا۟ وَلَمْ يَقْتُرُوا۟ — when they spend, neither too much nor too little.
- 39:53 يَٰعِبَادِىَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا۟ — O My servants who have gone too far against themselves, do not despair of Allah's mercy.
On the tafsir page → Ibn Kathir reports Ibn ʿAbbas: eat what you wish and wear what you wish, as long as you avoid two things — extravagance and arrogance.
More words to notice
- رِيشًۭا rīsh · 7:26
- “Adornment.” The root ر ي ش occurs only once in the whole Qur'an, here. Lane: feathers, “constituting their clothing and ornament” for birds; from there, fine clothing, beauty and wealth. Ibn Kathir: the outer adornment, a thing beyond necessity.
- لِبَاسًۭا libās · 7:26
- “Clothing.” The root ل ب س occurs 23 times; the noun libās ten times — three of them in 7:26–27: the clothing sent down, the clothing of taqwa, and the clothing Shaytan stripped away. Heard in the sample circle.
- قَبِيلُهُۥ qabīluhu · 7:27
- “His tribe.” From ق ب ل; this noun occurs twice in the Qur'an. Al-Qurtubi reports Mujahid: the jinn and the devils. Indonesian kabilah comes from the same family of words.
- فَٰحِشَةًۭ fāḥishah · 7:28
- “An immorality.” The root ف ح ش occurs 24 times — 17 as fāḥishah and seven as faḥshāʾ. Ayah 28 uses both: what they did, and what Allah never commands.
- ٱلْقِسْطِ al-qisṭ · 7:29
- “Justice.” The root ق س ط occurs 25 times; this noun 15 times. In ayah 29 it is the first thing Allah is said to command, set against what He does not command in ayah 28.
- مَسْجِدٍۢ masjid · 7:29, 7:31
- “Place of prostration,” from س ج د, to prostrate — 92 occurrences; the noun masjid 28 times. Indonesian keeps the word as it is. In ayat 29 and 31 it is every place where we make sujud, not only a building. Heard in the sample circle.
- مُّهْتَدُونَ muhtadūn · 7:30
- “Guided ones,” from ه د ي, the root of hidāyah — 316 occurrences. This form VIII participle occurs 17 times. In ayah 30 it is what the astray think they are. Indonesian hidayah.
- ٱلضَّلَٰلَةُ aḍ-ḍalālah · 7:30
- “Error, going astray.” The root ض ل ل occurs 191 times; this noun nine times. The opposite of the guidance in the same ayah.
- زِينَتَكُمْ zīnatakum · 7:31
- “Your adornment.” The root ز ي ن occurs 46 times; the noun zīnah 19 times. Lane notes the verb is often used of Shaytan making things look attractive (as in 6:43). Many Indonesian names carry it: Zainal, Zainuddin — “the adornment of the religion.”
Self-check
Find the word in the ayah, then open the answer.
Which word in ayah 26 is the clothing that is best?
ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ
at-taqwā — the eleventh word, right after wa-libāsu.
Which word in ayah 27 means “let him tempt you”?
يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ
yaftinannakum — the fourth word, after lā.
Which word in ayah 29 describes how we call on Him?
مُخْلِصِينَ
mukhliṣīna — the eleventh word.
Which word in ayah 31 means “be excessive”?
تُسْرِفُوٓا۟
tusrifū — the eleventh word, after wa-lā.
| Word | Transliteration | Ayah |
|---|---|---|
| ٱلتَّقْوَىٰ | at-taqwā | 7:26 |
| يَفْتِنَنَّكُمُ | yaftinannakum | 7:27 |
| مُخْلِصِينَ | mukhliṣīna | 7:29 |
| تُسْرِفُوٓا۟ | tusrifū | 7:31 |