Taha · Makki · ayah 8 of 135

Taha 20:8

ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ

“Allāh - there is no deity except Him. To Him belong the best names.”

Saheeh International

Essence

At the top of the staircase stands one name, Allah: no one else deserves worship, and every name He holds is the most beautiful.

A reflection

The name at the top of the stairs

For four ayat the surah has been describing Someone. The One who sent down the Quran. The Creator of the earth and the lofty heavens. The Most Merciful over the Throne. The Owner of all that is above, below and between. The One who knows the secret and what is more hidden. Now, at last, the name: Allāh.

One commentator explains the movement. This ayah tells you that the One described by all those attributes is Allah, the true object of worship. And 'there is no god but He' states openly what the earlier ayat already implied. Whoever creates everything, rules everything, owns everything and knows everything cannot share worship with anyone.

That has a direct consequence for the ego. 'No god but He' does not only dethrone idols of wood and stone. It dethrones every rival we set up inside ourselves. The career that decides our mood. The opinion of others that decides our worth. The self that wants to be obeyed. None of these created the earth, sits over the Throne or knows the secret. None of them deserves the heart's final loyalty.

Someone may ask why Allah needs to declare His own uniqueness. Is it a demand for exclusive praise? The answer is in what the declaration does for us. A person who worships many things is pulled in many directions and owned by all of them. A person who worships One is free of the rest. Allah gains nothing from our lā ilāha illā Allāh. We gain our freedom from it.

There is a test in that. Ask what your heart runs to first when something goes wrong, and where it rests when things go well. Say lā ilāha illā Allāh today slowly, once. As you say 'no god', name to yourself one rival you are letting go of.

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.