Ali 'Imran · Madani · ayah 109 of 200

Ali 'Imran 3:109

وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ وَإِلَى ٱللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ ٱلْأُمُورُ

“To Allāh belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And to Allāh will [all] matters be returned.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth belongs to Allah, and every matter goes back to Him.

A reflection

The first thing a dealer removes

A man builds a library of four thousand books over fifty years. Into the front of every one he pastes a printed bookplate with his name on it. He is not a vain man in any other respect, and he would be surprised to be called one here.

After his death the library goes to a sale in nine boxes. The first thing the dealers do is lift out the bookplates, because a previous owner's name reduces the price.

That is where the ego lands in this ayah, and it lands quietly. Ownership is the one claim a human being never stops making. Our initials on tools. Our surname above a shop. The pronoun we use for a house, a team, a country, a child.

And then the ayah states the inventory, and it does so with a word worth noticing. Not whoever is in the heavens and the earth. Whatever. The whole contents, named and unnamed, counted and uncounted.

One concise commentary spells out what that includes: everything is His by creation, by command and by servitude. Another adds that He disposes of it and judges in this world and the next.

So the honest objection should be heard. Why would He assert this at all? Who is He informing? It sounds like a man reading out his own deeds in a room.

But consider who else could possibly be told. There is no registry above Him and no rival claimant. The sentence is not a claim being lodged; it is a correction issued to creatures who had quietly assumed the opposite all morning. That is us, and the arrogance in it is almost invisible, because it feels like ordinary competence.

And the correction is a relief if you let it be. You are not actually responsible for keeping your own name in the front of anything.

So today, take one thing you say my about, and say it differently once. His, lent to me, for now. Then treat it accordingly for an hour.

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.