Al-'Adiyat · Makki · ayah 7 of 11

Al-'Adiyat 100:7

وَإِنَّهُۥ عَلَىٰ ذَٰلِكَ لَشَهِيدٌ

“And indeed, he is to that a witness.[1971]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Our ingratitude is never unseen: Allah is present at every moment of it, and our own lives testify to it louder than our words deny it.

A reflection

Covering your eyes in a game of hide-and-seek

A three-year-old is playing hide-and-seek with her grandfather. She stands in the middle of the living room, covers her eyes with both hands and shouts, 'You can't see me.' She is completely sure. Because she cannot see him, she believes he cannot see her.

This ayah has two readings in the sources, and the first, held by most commentators, is simple and vast. Wa innahu ʿalā dhālika la-shahīd: 'And He is, over all of that, a Witness.' Allah is present at every act of ingratitude the previous ayah described.

The root of shahīd joins three things, and the lexicons are clear on it. To shahida is to be present, to know by seeing, and to declare what one saw. A mashhad was a place where people gathered and were seen. The tongue was even called al-shāhid, the one that tells what the eye has seen. So shahīd is never hearsay. It is testimony from someone who was there.

One scholar argues from the grammar that Allah is meant. He points out that the phrase is 'witness over' something, as in 'Allah is witness over what they do' (10:46). Had the human been meant, a different preposition would be natural.

Much of our ego depends on the little girl's logic. We assume that what we do not look at, no one else sees. The complaint muttered in the car, the blessing we used and never acknowledged, the gift we took for granted: we think of these as private. But there is no private from Him. He was present.

Some people find this troubling, as if God were a nervous overseer who needs to monitor His creatures. But a witness is not a spy. He does not watch because He needs anything from us; He is the Free of need. His witnessing is simply what it means for Him to be the One who knows. And the same witness sees every hidden good, every private struggle, every tear no one else noticed.

The grandfather laughed and scooped the girl up. That is often how His seeing feels to those who turn to Him: not exposure, but being found.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.