Ar-Ra'd · Madani · ayah 16 of 43

Ar-Ra'd 13:16

قُلْ مَن رَّبُّ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ ۚ قُلْ أَفَٱتَّخَذْتُم مِّن دُونِهِۦٓ أَوْلِيَآءَ لَا يَمْلِكُونَ لِأَنفُسِهِمْ نَفْعًا وَلَا ضَرًّا ۚ قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِى ٱلْأَعْمَىٰ وَٱلْبَصِيرُ أَمْ هَلْ تَسْتَوِى ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتُ وَٱلنُّورُ ۗ أَمْ جَعَلُوا۟ لِلَّهِ شُرَكَآءَ خَلَقُوا۟ كَخَلْقِهِۦ فَتَشَـٰبَهَ ٱلْخَلْقُ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ قُلِ ٱللَّهُ خَـٰلِقُ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَهُوَ ٱلْوَٰحِدُ ٱلْقَهَّـٰرُ

“Say, "Who is Lord of the heavens and earth?" Say, "Allāh." Say, "Have you then taken besides Him allies not possessing [even] for themselves any benefit or any harm?" Say, "Is the blind equivalent to the seeing? Or is darkness equivalent to light? Or have they attributed to Allāh partners who created like His creation so that the creation [of each] seemed similar to them?"[635] Say, "Allāh is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Prevailing."[636]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The question is so plain that the questioner answers it himself, then asks why anyone leans on helpers who cannot even help themselves.

A reflection

A question that answers itself

Most questions wait for the other side to answer. This one does not. Who is Lord of the heavens and the earth? Then, at once: Say: Allah. The Prophet ﷺ is told to give the answer himself.

One classical reading explains why. It is an answer nobody in the audience denied; elsewhere they say it themselves (39:38). Another compares it to a debater who repeats his opponent's admission back to him. 'This is your position? Then here is what follows.' The question is not asked to find something out. It is asked so that everything after it rests on ground both sides already stand on.

The ayah closes with two names: al-Wāḥid, the One with no second, and al-Qahhār. The Arabs said meat was quhira when the fire took hold of it and its juices ran. Qahr is a force from above that nothing beneath it can resist. The ayah before says everything in the heavens and earth bows to Him, willingly or unwillingly, even its shadows (13:15).

That is where the ego is quietly measured. Picture the strongest man at the gym, unbeaten at arm-wrestling for years. He drives home at midnight after a double shift. On the motorway his eyelids win. He pulls into a lay-by and sleeps in the driver's seat until four. No opponent beat him. Sleep did, as it beats everyone, every night. We call ourselves self-made, and a yawn overrules us.

Someone may ask: why does God insist so hard on being the only One? Is that not the language of a ruler who needs loyalty? Read the argument the ayah actually makes. It is entirely about you. Those others cannot bring benefit or harm even to themselves.

Picture a sailing instructor at dusk telling a nervous student to steer by the lighthouse, never by the lights of other boats. Her insistence is not vanity. The other boats are drifting too. They cannot hold even their own position.

He is free of all need (35:15). The insistence is mercy, wearing the clothes of a command.

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.