مَّا لَكُمْ لَا تَرْجُونَ لِلَّهِ وَقَارًۭا
What is [the matter] with you that you do not attribute to Allah [due] grandeur
Introduction
This is āyah 13 of Sūrat Nooh (Noah), the 71st sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Meccan period and sits within Juzʾ 29. 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
- 71 of 114
- Surah
- Nooh (71)
What is it with you that you do not hope for God with dignity? And He created you in stages. “What has happened to you that you do not show gratitude for blessings and you do not recognize the rightful due of My nurturing, even though you know from what you were created and how you were created, state by state and stage by stage. First I brought a sperm drop from weak loins into a weak womb. I kept it in that firm settledness [77:21] and fortified place. Look at how I painted it with the pen of power. I turned that drop of water into blood and turned that blood into flesh. Then I brought forth bones and joined them together. When the formed and determined frame was completed, I commanded the subtle spirit to go into the body, like a sultan to a castle or a phoenix to its nest, so that it might give a robe of honor to each bodily part: seeing to the eye, speaking to the tongue, hearing to the ear, taking to the hand, walking to the feet. O servant, I adorned you beautifully, in the most beautiful stature [95:4]. I refined your stature, I created you more beautiful than all the beings, and I sculpted you more lovely than all the existent things.” No idol like your form is sculpted in the country, no cypress with your stature is planted in Kishmar. When your picture is painted before Azar's idol, Azar's painted idol shatters in shame. The wise Enactor, the generous Lord, added to the beauty of form and showed you the marvels of power in your own created disposition. He adorned your heart with tawḤīd, scouring away the rust of denial. What do you say about His wisdom and His mercy? Is it suitable that He burn what He himself adorned and trimmed? No, of course not. When you ponder this state and reflect on the artisanry of the Creator, you will say with the tongue of thanksgiving, “He sculpted me from a drop of sperm, He appointed me to serve Him in His bounty He lifted my head above all creatures- thanks be to God for acting so beautifully toward me!” Having reminded them of all the blessings and generosity of the Real, Noah heard no gratitude. It only increased them in unbelief and denial, so he turned his face away from them and said,
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
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