Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 110 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:110

إِنَّهُۥ يَعْلَمُ ٱلْجَهْرَ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْلِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَكْتُمُونَ

“Indeed, He knows what is declared of speech, and He knows what you conceal.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He knows what is said aloud and what you keep silent; the shouted word and the hidden grudge are equally plain to Him.

A reflection

Nothing to manage

Innahu yaʿlamu al-jahra mina l-qawli wa-yaʿlamu mā taktumūn: He knows what is spoken aloud, and He knows what you conceal. The verb 'knows' is said twice, once for each. The open word and the hidden thought each get their own full sentence of His knowledge.

One major early commentator puts it plainly. Hidden and open, secret and public, are the same to Him. Nothing of it escapes Him. Sahih Muslim records the Prophet ﷺ saying that Allah does not look at your outward forms or your wealth. He looks at your hearts and your deeds. The part of us we polish for others is not the part He weighs.

Most of human social life runs on managing the gap between those two. We present a version of ourselves in public and keep another for private. We say generous things at the party and keep the less generous ones for the car home.

Picture a man who gives a warm, gracious toast at his brother-in-law's promotion dinner. Every word lands well. On the drive home he says nothing at all. His wife, beside him, knows that the silence is louder than the toast.

The ego works hard at that management. It curates the loud and guards the hidden. This ayah tells us that, before Allah, the effort is wasted. There is no audience to manage, because He hears the toast and the silence at once.

That is humbling, and it is also a strange relief. With people we must always calculate what to show. With Him there is nothing to calculate. He already knows the whole of it. The only sensible response is honesty: to bring Him the silence as well as the toast, and ask Him to make the two match.

He needs neither our praise nor our hiding. Both are plain to Him.

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.