An-Naml · Makki · ayah 78 of 93

An-Naml 27:78

إِنَّ رَبَّكَ يَقْضِى بَيْنَهُم بِحُكْمِهِۦ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ

“Indeed, your Lord will judge between them by His [wise] judgement. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Knowing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Every unsettled dispute will be closed by your Lord, whose might cannot be blocked and whose knowledge never mistakes the wrong for the right.

A reflection

No replay needed, and no appeal

Every human verdict carries a small doubt. A video referee replays one tackle from eleven angles. He slows it, freezes it, zooms in on the boot. The stadium boos while he decides. Even after the ruling, half the crowd is sure he was wrong. Television will argue about it all week.

His problem is not effort. It is reach. He sees only what the cameras caught, and he cannot see intention at all.

The ayah closes that gap in four words: wa-huwa al-ʿazīzu al-ʿalīm. He is the Mighty, the Knowing. One commentary puts it simply. He is Mighty, so no one overpowers Him or blocks His ruling. He is Knowing, so the one in the right is never confused with the one in the wrong. Another adds the consequence. Because He knows what He rules on, His ruling can only be the truth.

Set that beside our own habits. Most of us quietly appoint ourselves judge of every dispute we hear about. We decide who was right in a friend's divorce from one side's account. We rule on strangers' quarrels from a headline. We want our own arguments declared won. The ayah shrinks that pride. There is one court whose verdict needs no replay, and it is not ours.

Is it vanity for Allah to announce Himself as the final judge? He needs nothing from anyone (51:57). A judge's authority is not for his own comfort. It is the only protection the wronged have. Think of the widow with no lawyer, the child no one believed, the worker cheated of wages. For them, al-ʿAzīz al-ʿAlīm is the best news in the passage.

And note the words before the names: rabbuka, your Lord. The Judge of every dispute is introduced as the one who cares for you.

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.