وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِى فَإِنَّ لَهُۥ مَعِيشَةًۭ ضَنكًۭا وَنَحْشُرُهُۥ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ أَعْمَىٰ
And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind."
Introduction
This is āyah 124 of Sūrat Taa-Haa (Ta-Ha), the 45th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 16. Meccan verses tend to address faith, the oneness of God, and the hereafter.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Meccan
- Order revealed
- 45 of 114
- Surah
- Taa-Haa (20)
And whosoever turns away from My remembrance, he shall have a life of narrowness, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall muster him blind. Concerning this verse Jaʿfar ṣādiq said, “Had they recognized Me, they would not have turned away from Me. When someone turns away from Me, I will restore him to turning toward the kinds and colors appropriate for him.” Whoever recognizes Him remembers Him in every state and turns away from remembering everything except Him. Whoever knows Him will always be remembering Him and persevere in performing the obligatory and supererogatory acts, putting aside his own steps and seeking every- thing rightfully due to Him. Whenever someone turns aside from remembering the Real for one instant in his life and turns to remembering the creatures, the veiled virgin of recognition will con- ceal her face from him and he will never have a portion of her beauty. This is the case of someone who turns away from His remembrance for one instant in his whole life. How about someone who does not turn toward the remembrance of the Real for one instant in his whole life? The paragon of the world, the center point of the circle of newly arrived things, was addressed by the Compeller of the engendered beings, “O master! It does not please Me that in the two worlds you should rely on any but Me, that on your tongue should be the remembrance of any but Me, that in your heart should be love for any but Me. I will bring everyone out against you and make them all your antagonists so that you will remember none but Me in the two worlds.” The first He brought out against him were his family, tribe, and relatives so that, when he saw disloyalty from his near ones, he would not place his heart in his far ones. The Real wanted to turn his heart away from the creatures and unbind his secret core from the whole world and join it with Himself, “for conjunction with the Real is in the measure of disjunction from the creatures.” WāsiṬī said, “Whoever looks at Him does not look at himself. Whoever remembers Him for- gets to remember himself.” Remembrance of self and remembrance of creatures are the seeds of sorrows.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
Community resources
No community resources for this verse yet.