Al-Anbya · Makki · ayah 20 of 112

Al-Anbya 21:20

يُسَبِّحُونَ ٱلَّيْلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ لَا يَفْتُرُونَ

“They exalt [Him] night and day [and] do not slacken.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Night and day, without a lull, the angels declare Him far above every flaw, and the words they use are offered to us too.

A reflection

Swimmers in an endless sea

They glorify, night and day. The verb is yusabbiḥūn, and its root holds two families of meaning. The lexicons record both. One is worship: tasbīḥ is declaring Allah clear of everything unworthy of Him. The Arabs said subḥāna when they meant: how far that is from him, in wonder. The other family is swimming: gliding swiftly over water, a horse stretching its forelegs as it runs, stars travelling in their orbits. The lexicons differ on how the two meet. Both are recorded plainly.

This surah itself joins them. A little later it says of the sun and moon: each is swimming in an orbit, yasbaḥūn (21:33). An early explanation recorded by Bukhari says the orbit is like the whorl of a spindle, and the swimming means they revolve.

Picture a photograph taken on a mountain at night with the shutter left open for hours. The stars become bright circular lines, all turning round the same point in the sky, like ripples. Above a tiny lit hut the whole sky seems to be moving in one slow, silent motion. That is the sense the root gives: everything gliding, everything declaring the same thing.

Now set the self beside it. Most human speech, if we are honest, glorifies ourselves: what we achieved, what we think, how we were wronged. Our ego swims in small circles around our own name. The ayah describes beings who never once do that. Their whole existence turns around Him.

A sceptic may ask whether God needs this constant praise. The word itself answers. Tasbīḥ means declaring Him free of all need and imperfection. A being who needed glorification would not deserve it. The glorification is true because He needs nothing, and it is for the ones who say it. One commentator says they are inspired with it as they are inspired to breathe.

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.