Ar-Ra'd · Madani · ayah 15 of 43

Ar-Ra'd 13:15

وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَظِلَـٰلُهُم بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْـَٔاصَالِ ۩

“And to Allāh prostrates whoever is within the heavens and the earth, willingly or by compulsion, and their shadows [as well] in the mornings and the afternoons.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everyone in the heavens and earth bows to Allah, some gladly and some unwillingly, and their shadows lean to Him morning and late afternoon.

A reflection

The deadline, the keyboard and the forced bow

A doctoral student has promised herself she will finish the last chapter of her thesis before dawn. At twenty past three, mid-sentence, her head goes down onto the keyboard. She wakes forty minutes later to a page filled with the letter j. Her body had made a decision without her.

The ayah begins wa li-llāhi, 'and to Allah', placed first. One commentator explains the fronting: to Him alone, and to nothing else, the prostration goes. Then the ayah widens the circle to everyone in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly.

'Unwillingly' is where the ego is cornered. One classical commentator explains it through what we like and what we dislike. Some things in life the self leans towards, such as being alive and having enough. Others it recoils from: death, poverty, blindness, grief. All of them arrive by Allah's decree, and no one has the power to refuse them. The proudest man on earth still sleeps when sleep comes, ages when the years come, and dies when his term comes. That is a prostration too: the forehead of the will pressed to the ground.

The lexicons give sujūd a gentle first picture. A camel lowers its head so that its rider can climb on. The proud frame comes down, yielding to the one it serves. Some creatures yield like that by choice. Others yield because they cannot stay standing.

Does Allah need anyone's prostration? No. He is the Rich, beyond all need (35:15). The willing bow is for the one who makes it. The unwilling bow is simply the truth showing through.

So the question is never whether you will bow. You already do, every night, when sleep takes you whether you have finished or not. The question is whether you will also bow on purpose.

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.