Maryam · Makki · ayah 65 of 98

Maryam 19:65

رَّبُّ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا فَٱعْبُدْهُ وَٱصْطَبِرْ لِعِبَـٰدَتِهِۦ ۚ هَلْ تَعْلَمُ لَهُۥ سَمِيًّا

“Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them - so worship Him and have patience for His worship. Do you know of any similarity to Him?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Lord who holds the heavens cannot forget you, so worship Him, and hold your ground in it as a fighter holds against an opponent.

A reflection

The One who holds it all cannot forget

The ayah before ended: your Lord is never forgetful. This ayah gives the reason, in a single title. Rabbu al-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi wa-mā baynahumā: Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them.

The commentaries draw the connection explicitly. How could heedlessness or forgetting come anywhere near the One in whose hand is the dominion of the heavens and the earth? One early commentator puts it more starkly. If He were forgetful, nothing would hold together; it would perish without His keeping. Another says the Lord of all of it must hold it, moment after moment, or everything in it would fail.

That is a humbling picture. Every star, every cell, every breath taken today continues because it is held. Nothing is running on its own momentum. And the One holding it all is the One who has just been described as never forgetting a single servant.

The ego quietly behaves as if it holds its own world together. My plans, my effort, my vigilance keep things from falling apart. A few sleepless nights cure most people of that illusion.

Then comes the command: fa-ʿbudhu, so worship Him. The little word fa, so, matters. The worship follows from knowing who He is.

Is it vanity for Allah to command worship? Vanity is demanding admiration you have not earned, or need. One commentator gives the simplest answer. He alone gave the root of every blessing: the body, life, the mind. Responding to the sole Giver with the utmost honour is not flattery. It is simply the truth, acted out. And He needs none of it.

The heavens are held. You are held. Worship begins when the heart stops pretending otherwise.

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.