Saba · Makki · ayah 2 of 54

Saba 34:2

يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلرَّحِيمُ ٱلْغَفُورُ

“He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein. And He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He knows everything entering and leaving the earth, everything coming down and climbing up, and that complete knowledge ends in mercy and forgiveness.

A reflection

The control room under the city

Under a big city there is a room most residents never think about. Screens show the storm drains, the pumping stations and the river gauges. When a downpour starts, the operators watch the rain enter the system street by street. They see which culverts fill and which outfalls run. They are proud of that room, and rightly so.

Yet their knowledge has edges. They know the drains they built. They do not know where each drop goes once it soaks into a park. They cannot see the seed swelling under a garden, or the mist rising off the river at dawn.

The ayah draws a far wider room. Yaʿlamu mā yaliju fī al-arḍi wa-mā yakhruju minhā: He knows what goes into the earth and what comes out of it. Wa-mā yanzilu min al-samāʾi wa-mā yaʿruju fīhā: what comes down from the sky and what climbs up into it. Four directions of traffic, never stopping, all known. The commentators fill each one. Into the earth go rain, seeds, buried treasure and the dead. Out of it come plants, springs, minerals and animals. Down from the sky come rain, snow, provision, angels and decrees. Up go angels, vapours, prayers and deeds.

Now set your own knowledge beside that. Most of us cannot track what goes in and out of our own bank account in a month. We lose our keys twice a week. Still the ego likes to feel it has things under control. The ayah does not mock us. It simply shows the size of the room, and our pride shrinks to fit.

Why tell us this at all? Not for His sake. He gains nothing from our knowing how much He knows. It comes after the praise of 34:1 as a reason for that praise, and it ends in mercy and forgiveness. The knowledge is announced so that the one who is known can stop pretending and start asking.

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.