Luqman · Makki · ayah 20 of 34

Luqman 31:20

أَلَمْ تَرَوْا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُم مَّا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَأَسْبَغَ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعَمَهُۥ ظَـٰهِرَةً وَبَاطِنَةً ۗ وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يُجَـٰدِلُ فِى ٱللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ وَلَا هُدًى وَلَا كِتَـٰبٍ مُّنِيرٍ

“Do you not see that Allāh has made subject to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and amply bestowed upon you His favors, [both] apparent and unapparent? But of the people is he who disputes about Allāh without knowledge or guidance or an enlightening Book [from Him].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Everything above and below you is put to work for you, your favours fit like armour, yet some still argue about the Giver.

A reflection

Harnessed for you, never by you

A farmer sits in the cab of a tractor guided by satellite. His hands are off the wheel. The machine holds its line across a field to within a few centimetres. Over tea he tells a visitor, with some pride, that he now farms nine hundred acres on his own.

He is not lying. He works hard, and he knows his soil. But listen to the verb in this ayah. Sakhkhara: He harnessed. The lexicons picture ships running obediently before a good wind, a thing driven to the task it was made for. One classical definition adds that the driving is by compulsion. The cloud does not volunteer to rain on his barley.

The Quran uses this doubled verb twenty-two times. In every one of them, the One who harnesses is Allah. Not once is a human being its subject. We are only ever the ones it is done for: lakum, for you.

One commentary lists what is meant. Above: sun, moon, stars and cloud. Below: animals, trees, water, sea and ships, all running for your food and your comfort. Another adds a sharp observation. Whatever you use as you please looks harnessed to you. In reality it is harnessed to Allah, and only lent to your purposes.

That is where the ego quietly shrinks. Our language is full of conquest: we tame rivers, harness the wind, master the land. The ayah keeps the grammar honest. The satellites hold their orbits by laws he did not write. The sun that ripens his crop was not switched on by him.

Someone may ask why Allah reminds us of His favours at all. Does He need our thanks? One classical commentator reasons that He made the world as a kindness, because He needs nothing from it. Its benefit can only flow towards the creature. A gift that needs nothing back is still worth naming. He is reminding the farmer whose acres they are, for the farmer's sake.

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.