Taha · Makki · ayah 98 of 135

Taha 20:98

إِنَّمَآ إِلَـٰهُكُمُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۚ وَسِعَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ عِلْمًا

“Your god is only Allāh, except for whom there is no deity. He has encompassed all things in knowledge."”

Saheeh International

Essence

With the calf in ashes, Musa says what remains: your god is Allah alone, whose knowledge holds everything and never overflows.

A reflection

A vessel that never overflows

He encompasses all things in knowledge. The verb is wasiʿa, and its picture, established in the lexicons, is a vessel with room to spare. Pour in whatever you like, and it still does not overflow.

A narration-based commentary draws out what the word adds. He has encompassed everything in knowledge, it says, so nothing of it is hidden from Him. And knowing all of it does not strain Him. The Arabs said someone yasaʿu a task when he was equal to it and strong enough for it. An early commentator put it in a single phrase: He has filled all things with knowledge.

Set that beside the calf, which was burnt a moment ago. A linguistic commentary notes that the calf, a byword for dullness, is the first thing excluded by this description. It knew nothing. It could not even know it was being burnt.

Now set it beside ourselves. Human knowledge is a cup, and a small one. A specialist spends thirty years mastering one corner of one field. A brilliant mind holds a few thousand facts at once, and forgets most of them by evening. We are proud of what we know, and our cup overflows with the first difficult question.

Picture an eminent professor who has published for forty years on a single disease. He is used to being the cleverest person in any room. Then his own grandson is born with a rare condition no one fully understands. Night after night he reads the literature, and he understands, for the first time, how small his cup has always been. He begins to pray in a way he never has.

That is the right response to this ayah. It is not a boast seeking our admiration; Allah needs nothing from us. It is a fact told for our sake. The ego shrinks, not into humiliation, but into relief. We do not have to hold everything. The One who does hold it has room to spare, and nothing we bring to Him will overflow His knowledge.

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.