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Never Despair of Mercy, and a Courtier Who Kept His Faith Hidden

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Never Despair of Mercy, and a Courtier Who Kept His Faith Hidden

Hizb 47 continues Az-Zumar with one of the Quran's most quoted verses of encouragement, telling those who have wronged themselves through excess never to despair of God's mercy, however great their sins have been. It describes two trumpet blasts marking the resurrection, and closes with the doors of Hell and Paradise each opened for the people already sorted toward them, judgment settled in full truth.

The hizb then opens Ghafir, the Forgiver, also known as Al-Mumin, praising God as one who forgives and accepts repentance while also being severe in punishment, holding both together as a single description rather than presenting them as opposed. It retells Moses and Pharaoh once more, but with a new figure this account has not yet met in the earlier retellings of this same story: a believing man from within Pharaoh's own court, who had kept his faith concealed, speaking up to defend Moses and urging his own people not to kill a man merely for stating what he believed to be true without proof of any actual wrongdoing.

The hizb closes as that believer's appeal continues, urging his people to weigh a difficult, brief life in this world against an eternal one that follows it.

The despair verse and the courtier's appeal, though separated by roughly a full sura's length within this same hizb, share an underlying reassurance that no failing, whether moral or social, places a person permanently beyond either God's mercy or a fair hearing among their own people.

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