Luqman · Makki · ayah 25 of 34

Luqman 31:25

وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّنْ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ ٱللَّهُ ۚ قُلِ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ۚ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

“And if you asked them, "Who created the heavens and earth?" they would surely say, "Allāh." Say, "[All] praise is [due] to Allāh"; but most of them do not know.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Ask who made the heavens and the earth and they say Allah; the fitting reply is praise, for knowing the answer is not knowing Him.

A reflection

Praise at the moment you are proved right

An architect in her second year objected to a staircase in March. Too steep, she said, and the landing too short. The senior partner overruled her. In September the building inspector rejects the stair for exactly those reasons. At the site meeting the partner says, a little stiffly, 'You were right'.

That evening she drafts an email beginning 'As I said in March'. Every one of us knows the warmth of that sentence. It is the ego collecting its fee.

Now look at the scene in the ayah. The Prophet ﷺ is told: ask them who created the heavens and the earth. They will answer, with the emphatic la-yaqūlunna, Allah. The argument is over, conceded by their own mouths. And the next instruction is not 'so you admit it'. It is qul al-ḥamdu li-llāh: say, praise belongs to Allah.

The commentaries give the reason. The praise is for the proof having become plain, and for the truth being shown against them by their own admission. One adds: praise for what He guided us to, for praise belongs to no one else. So at the very moment a human being has won, the credit is sent away from him. Pride had its opening, and the sentence closes it.

Someone may object that this sounds like God fishing for compliments at the end of a debate. The next ayah answers before the question is finished. He is al-Ghanī, free of all need, and al-Ḥamīd, praiseworthy whether praised or not. One linguistic commentary says He is free of the praise of those who praise, and deserves it even if they never offer it. The praise does not top Him up. It puts the speaker back in his true size.

The architect deletes her first line. She writes that she is glad the stair will be safe, and adds, privately, al-ḥamdu li-llāh. The truth was never hers. She was only standing near it.

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.