Al-Isra · Makki · ayah 22 of 111

Al-Isra 17:22

لَّا تَجْعَلْ مَعَ ٱللَّهِ إِلَـٰهًا ءَاخَرَ فَتَقْعُدَ مَذْمُومًا مَّخْذُولًا

“Do not make [as equal] with Allāh another deity and [thereby] become censured and forsaken.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Set up no other god beside Allah, or you will be left sitting there, with no one to praise you and no one to help.

A reflection

Room for only One

At a managers' away-day, the facilitator hands out cards. Write down the one thing you can always rely on, she says. She collects them and reads them aloud. Myself. Myself. My own judgement. Me. Then she asks a question. Who here chose the year you were born, the language you think in, or the heart that has beaten all morning? Nobody raises a hand.

Lā tajʿal maʿa Allāhi ilāhan ākhar: do not set up another god with Allah. We tend to hear this as a warning about idols in distant places. But the nearest candidate for another god is often the self. The Quran describes the one who takes his own desire as his god (45:23).

One classical commentator gives three reasons why there is room for only One. The one who sets up a partner is saying something untrue, and untruth earns blame. Every blessing comes from Allah alone, so crediting any of it elsewhere answers His kindness with denial. And perfection lies in oneness, while many means lack. An early commentator put the second point sharply. Such a person shares out the praise to one who had no share in the favour.

That is what shrinks the ego here. My fate, my body, my next breath: I hold none of them alone. The cards at the away-day were not wicked. They were simply inaccurate. Every person in that room was being held, second by second, by a hand that was not their own.

Is a God who forbids rivals jealous, or insecure? Read the ayah's own wording. It does not say: or I will be diminished. It says: or you will sit, blamed and forsaken. The whole harm lands on the one who divides his worship. Allah is not made smaller by a rival who does not exist. The person is made smaller by trusting it.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.