Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 17 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:17

لَوْ أَرَدْنَآ أَن نَّتَّخِذَ لَهْوًا لَّٱتَّخَذْنَـٰهُ مِن لَّدُنَّآ إِن كُنَّا فَـٰعِلِينَ

“Had We intended to take a diversion,[878] We could have taken it from [what is] with Us - if [indeed] We were to do so.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He needs no pastime, companion or child; had He wanted one, it would have come from His own presence, not from anything we carve.

A reflection

Not a tyrant's pleasure palace

Two commentators read this ayah with the one before it, and give a striking picture. Look at the sky, they say: a raised ceiling. Look at the earth: a carpet spread out. Between them, every kind of creature, packed with wonders. Tyrants also build ceilings and lay carpets, decorated and gilded, for their amusement and play. We did not make Ours like that. We made them for reflection, for lessons, for proofs, and for countless benefits to Our servants.

Then comes this ayah. If We had wanted to take a pastime, We would have taken it from Our own presence. One commentator explains: the reason He does not take a pastime is not inability, for He is able to do anything. It is that wisdom turns Him away from it.

Picture a guided tour through the mansion of a tycoon who died a decade ago. Visitors shuffle past gold taps, a ballroom ceiling painted with clouds, a private cinema with thirty velvet seats. The guide recites the cost of each room. Nobody lives there now. The splendour that was built to amuse one man now amuses strangers for an hour, then they leave by the gift shop.

That is what human pride builds when it has the means: a world arranged for its own pleasure. The ayah sets the whole cosmos against that habit. The most magnificent ceiling there is was not made for anyone's amusement, including His. It was made to be read.

A sceptic may ask whether this is God protecting His dignity, insisting He is above such things. Read again. The point is not His reputation but our understanding. If creation were play, nothing in it would mean anything. Because it is not, everything in it is a sign, and every life in it matters.

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.