Last 2 ayat of Surah Taubah: text, translation and meaning

Arabic text

لَقَدْ جَآءَكُمْ رَسُولٌۭ مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ عَزِيزٌ عَلَيْهِ مَا عَنِتُّمْ حَرِيصٌ عَلَيْكُم بِٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ رَءُوفٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ ﴿١٢٨﴾ فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا۟ فَقُلْ حَسْبِىَ ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ ۖ وَهُوَ رَبُّ ٱلْعَرْشِ ٱلْعَظِيمِ ﴿١٢٩﴾

English translation

9:128 “There has certainly come to you a Messenger from among yourselves. Your suffering weighs heavily on him; he is deeply concerned for you, and to the believers he is kind and merciful.”

9:129 “But if they turn away, say: ‘Allah is sufficient for me. There is no god but Him. In Him I have put my trust, and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.’”

Urdu translation

۱۲۸ یقیناً تمہارے پاس تم ہی میں سے ایک رسول آئے ہیں۔ تمہارا تکلیف میں پڑنا ان پر بہت بھاری ہے، وہ تمہاری بھلائی کے بہت خواہش مند ہیں، اور مومنوں کے لیے نہایت شفیق اور مہربان ہیں۔

۱۲۹ پھر اگر وہ منہ موڑیں تو کہہ دیجیے: مجھے اللہ کافی ہے، اس کے سوا کوئی معبود نہیں، میں نے اسی پر بھروسہ کیا اور وہی عرشِ عظیم کا رب ہے۔

Our own plain rendering of the meaning, not a published translation. For a printed Urdu translation, many families use those of Maulana Fateh Muhammad Jalandhari or Mufti Taqi Usmani.

Meaning

• “From among yourselves”: the Messenger ﷺ is human, from his people, and knows their life.
• “Your suffering weighs heavily on him”: he feels the hardship of his community as his own.
• “Kind and merciful” (ra’uf, rahim): two qualities the Quran elsewhere uses for Allah Himself, here describing the Prophet’s ﷺ mercy to the believers.
• “Allah is sufficient for me” (hasbiyallah): if people turn away, the believer’s reliance remains on Allah alone, Lord of the Throne.

What sources say about them

When the Quran was compiled in the time of Abu Bakr, Zayd ibn Thabit gathered every passage from written records and from the memories of the Companions. He reports that he found the end of Surah At-Tawbah, these two verses, with Abu Khuzaymah al-Ansari (Sahih al-Bukhari 4986). The story shows how carefully each verse was verified; see how and when the Quran was written.

The well-known practice of reciting the last part of verse 129 seven times morning and evening comes from a report whose attribution to the Prophet ﷺ is weak, as the FAQ explains.

Memorising them

Two verses can be memorised in a few days: listen to a reciter, learn verse 128 first, then 129, and recite both after a daily prayer. The other famous closing verses of a surah are the last two verses of Surah Al-Baqarah, recited at night. For the meaning of more passages in Urdu or English, see our tafseer classes, and for every surah, the list of surahs.