Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 16 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:16

وَمَا خَلَقْنَا ٱلسَّمَآءَ وَٱلْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا لَـٰعِبِينَ

“And We did not create the heaven and earth and that between them in play.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Sky, earth and everything between were not made as a game; a world this deliberate cannot end in nothing.

A reflection

Not a toy box

We did not create the sky and the earth and all between them in play. The commentators fill in what it was for instead. To show Our power, says one, and to benefit Our servants. As a proof to you, says another, so that you take a lesson from it all. Then you will know that the One who made it is like nothing else, and that worship belongs to Him alone.

That should quiet a certain kind of pride. It is easy to live as if the world were a toy box arranged for our amusement: the sky as backdrop, the earth as stage, the people around us as extras. The ayah says the whole of it was made deliberately, by Someone, for a purpose.

Picture a man lying on his back in a field on a clear night, far from the city. The sky is thick with stars. For a few minutes the week that seemed so enormous, the email, the argument, the deadline, shrinks to its true size.

A sceptic may ask whether this purpose is about God's glory, as if He needed an audience. One commentator answers plainly: it was made to benefit His servants. The purpose serves us, not Him.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.