رَجَعَ
to return
رَجَعَ : to return
#of times in Qur’an: 104 times in various forms
Sūra al-Muʾminūn 23:99
Our word today is intrinsically linked to yesterday’s word: mawt. It’s the verb رَجَعَ , which means ‘to return, to go back’.
Words from this root occur around 104 times in the Qur’an in various forms, for example, the word رَاجِعُوْن , which is a plural: we or they are going back, returning.
That’s why when someone passes away or we’re afflicted with a tribulation, we say: إنَّا للهِ وَإنَّا إلَيْهِ رَاجِعُوْنَ. We acknowledge and verbally state that we belong to Allah and we are returning back to Him. It’s an acknowledgment that this life is not the origin and it’s not permanent, but we are returning back where we came from.
Interestingly, at the time of death and in the Hereafter، this is the same word that people will use when they don’t want to leave this earth, and they'll beg Allah to send them back:
حَتَّى إذَا جَآءَ أَحَدُهُمُ الْمَوْتُ قَالَ رَبِّ ارْجِعُوْنِ
Until when death comes to any one of them, he says: My Lord, send me back.
It’s only when we’re mindful of which one our real home is deep down that we’ll know which place we want that raj’a to be towards. Are we going to automatically embrace the raj’a back to Allah, or will we beg for raj’a back to this life?