WajAAal lee lisana sidqin fee al-akhireen (surah Shuara: 84)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(26:84) and grant me true renown among posterity, *62

Waj`al lee lisaana sidqin fil aakhireen

*62) "Grant me true renown among posterity": "Grant me the grace that posterity should remember me as a good and pious man after my death and not as one of the unjust people, who were not only wicked themselves, but who left nothing but wickedness behind them in the world. Enable me to perform such high deeds that my life should become a source of light for others for all times to come, and I should be counted among the benefactors of humanity." This is not a prayer for worldly greatness and renown, but for true greatness and renown, which can be achieved only as a result of solid and valuable services. A person's achieving such true renown and glory has two good aspects:
(1) The people of the world get a good example to follow, as against bad examples, which inspires them with piety and encourages them to follow the right way; and
(2) The righteous person will not only get the rewards of works done by posterity who were guided aright by the good example left and set by him, but in addition to his own good works, he will have the evidence of the millions of people in his favour that he had left behind him in the world fountains of guidance, which went on benefiting people, generation after generation, till the Day of Resurrection.