Long for what is better [87:16]

Today’s reflection is on one of my most favourite verses from a favourite Sura. Towards the end of Sura Ala, the Quran says: 

بَلْ تُؤْثِرُونَ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا 

[87:16] Nay! you prefer the life of this world,

وَالْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ وَأَبْقَى 

[87:17] While the hereafter is better and more lasting.

Yesterday we reflected on 2:216 which reminds us that we may dislike what is good for us and love what is harmful for us. That verse reminded us that our judgment is limited. Today’s verse widens the lens and shows us why: we are making judgments from within a temporary world while being created for something everlasting.

This earthly existence is called “dunya” in the Quran. The word dunyā refers to the temporal world and its earthly concerns and possessions, as opposed to the hereafter (ʾākhirah). In the Qur'an, dunyā and ākhira are sometimes used dichotomously, other times complementarily.

Quran refers to this eartly existence as al-Dunya (the nearer, lowly or ordinary life), and the life after death is called al-Akhira (the later life or the afterlife). They represent two stages or degrees of human existence inseparable from each other - one transient and changing, the other permanent and constant; one representing the zone of actions, and the other the zone of results.

This verse talks about how humans beings are so impressed and taken in with the immediate and apparent that is the dunya. 

It is sooo easy to be impressed with the dunya isn’t it? It has so many shiny sparkly objects, glamour, it stimulates the senses. It offers pleasure, status, comfort, beauty, success. It promises fulfillment. It allures us with its glitz and glamour.

Naturally it attracts us [and distracts us!]. As human beings, we crave perfection. We long for uninterrupted joy, secure love, complete satisfaction. We want the perfect home, the perfect relationship, the perfect body, the perfect career, the perfect moment. And when we get a glimpse of it such as on a beautiful holiday, in a romantic moment, from professional recognition it feels amazing.

But one of the issues with experiences in the dunya is that they does not last. 

The holiday ends. The house needs repairs. The relationship becomes layered and complicated. The achievement fades into memory. We buy things and we get used to them, no longer getting the pleasure that we did when we first bought them. Psychology calls this hedonic adaptation: what thrilled you yesterday becomes normal today. The high of novelty is inevitably met with the down of reality. The joy dulls. The chase resumes.

Even when we are happy, we are anxious. If you love something, you fear losing it. If you achieve something, you fear it slipping. If you attach to someone, you fear separation. The very structure of dunya prevents it from being fully satisfying.

Buddhism explains human suffering in this context: it says suffering [dukka] comes from craving what cannot last. Everything in this world is impermanent: youth fades, pleasure shifts, relationships change and when we cling to what is constantly changing, we inevitably suffer. There is truth in that observation. If we demand permanence from what is temporary, we will always be disappointed.

But Islam offers a slightly different lens. It does not tell us to extinguish longing. It tells us to redirect it. The deep human craving for permanence, perfection, and uninterrupted peace is not a flaw to be eliminated as much as it is a sign to be interpreted. It is evidence that we were created for something beyond this world. The problem is not that we long too much. It is that we attach our longing to the runway rather than the destination. 

Impermanence is not the only the issue with the dunya of course: 

It is also wildly imperfect. Even while we are going on that amazing holiday, the flight gets delayed, the baggage gets lost. There are mosquitoes at the resort. We work to get our health in order and then lose our job. We spend money on anti-aging but then get diagnosed with a concerning health condition. Do you know what I am talking about? Highs mixed with lows. Happiness mixed with anxiety. Joys and sorrows all together. Test after test. 

And then there is something more serious: the awareness of what is behind the glamour. The realization that the glitz hides ugliness and oppression and often comes at the expense of social justice. Think blood diamonds. Gold from Sudan. Cobalt. Fast fashion. The list is endless. The dunya dazzles and it hides structural injustice, environmental harm, and human exploitation.

When Allah says, “You prefer the life of this world,” part of that preference is being impressed by what glitters without asking what it cost. The glamour hides complexity. Often it hides oppression.

And this awareness distresses us. It reminds us that this world is not just temporary. It is wildly imperfect and it is morally mixed [at best]. Beauty intertwined with brokenness. Comfort intertwined with injustice. Progress intertwined with harm.

Do you understand what the Prophet [saw] said: “The world is the prison of the believer and the garden of the disbeliever”? 

For the believer, even at its best, this world feels constricting. Will all its beauty, the believer knows that it is not enough. The believer senses that there is a hidden and ugly cost to outward glamour. The believer senses that the soul was created for more. 

Let’s now consider what the verse tells us about the Akhirah: It gives us two criteria for evaluating the Hereafter: it is better (khayr) and it is more lasting (abqā). 

It is better because there is no behind-the-scenes ugliness, not built on someone else’s suffering. It is not powered by exploitation. It is pure justice. There is no joy mixed with sorrow, no inconveniences and disappointments. It is also Abqa so there is no anxiety about scarcity, loss or transience of blessings.    

Not only is it superior in quality but superior in duration. Structurally and qualitatively superior.

So the Quran is not asking us to become detached from desire. It is inviting us to desire wisely.

Allah [swt] does not condemn enjoyment of the world. Islam is not world-hating. It is world-aware. The problem is not enjoying dunya; the problem is preferring it, centering it, organizing our entire identity around it, sacrificing eternal good for temporary gain.

When we excessively prioritize dunya, there is a danger that our inner compass becomes distorted. We begin to live as residents rather than transients. We forget what is behind the veils of glitz. We begin measuring our worth by applause, income, appearance, comfort, comparison. We panic over worldly threats but remain strangely calm about spiritual decline. 

And so this verse invites us to re-rank our priorities.

Meditating on this verse reminds us that we were not created to squeeze permanence out of what perishes. That we will not find pure beauty or joy here. It reminds us that we were created to enjoy the world responsibly, without being deceived by it. To use it, not worship it. To pass through it, not cling to it. To keep our eyes on, and work towards what is “Khayr” and “Abqa”