Al-Hajj · Madani · ayah 18 of 78

Al-Hajj 22:18

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَسْجُدُ لَهُۥ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱلشَّمْسُ وَٱلْقَمَرُ وَٱلنُّجُومُ وَٱلْجِبَالُ وَٱلشَّجَرُ وَٱلدَّوَآبُّ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ ۖ وَكَثِيرٌ حَقَّ عَلَيْهِ ٱلْعَذَابُ ۗ وَمَن يُهِنِ ٱللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُۥ مِن مُّكْرِمٍ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَفْعَلُ مَا يَشَآءُ ۩

“Do you not see [i.e., know] that to Allāh prostrates whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth and the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the moving creatures and many of the people? But upon many the punishment has been justified.[920] And he whom Allāh humiliates - for him there is no bestower of honor. Indeed, Allāh does what He wills.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Sun, moon, stars, mountains, trees and animals all bow to Allah; among people alone the bow is a choice, and many make it.

A reflection

A roll-call of Arabia's gods, every one bowing

A young man has a print framed above his desk. It shows the exact stars over his city on the night he was born. The shop sold it as 'your sky'. He likes looking at it. It makes the heavens feel personal, as if they had arranged themselves for him.

The first hearers of this ayah had their own version. One classical commentary records which tribes worshipped which lights. Ḥimyar worshipped the sun and Kināna the moon. Tamīm worshipped the star al-Dabarān. Lakhm and Quraysh worshipped Sirius, and Ṭayyiʾ the Pleiades. Most of the Arabs worshipped idols carved from mountain stone. Ghaṭafān's goddess al-ʿUzzā was a single acacia tree. Some people worshipped cattle.

Now hear the ayah again: the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the animals. It reads like a roll-call of every tribe's god. Another commentary says these were named one by one precisely because they had been worshipped besides Allah. Each is named, and each is placed on its face before Him.

The ego has the same habit as the tribes. It wants the sky to be about us. The stars on that print never once looked at the young man. On the night he was born they were bowing to their Maker, as on every other night.

Someone may ask: why would God want the whole universe on its face before Him? Is that not a kind of vanity? One classical commentator answers from the nature of created things. Everything other than Allah needs Him to begin existing and to go on existing. That need is the deepest bowing there is, deeper than any forehead on any floor, and nothing created is ever without it.

So the ayah is not describing a tribute He requires. It describes what every creature already is. 'You are the ones in need of Allah, and Allah is the Free of need' (35:15). Their bowing adds nothing to Him.

Then the list reaches us: wa-kathīrun min al-nās, and many of the people. Every other item bows without being asked. Only one creature on the list is left undecided, and it is the one reading the list.

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.