Saba · Makki · ayah 22 of 54

Saba 34:22

قُلِ ٱدْعُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ زَعَمْتُم مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ لَا يَمْلِكُونَ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَلَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا لَهُمْ فِيهِمَا مِن شِرْكٍ وَمَا لَهُۥ مِنْهُم مِّن ظَهِيرٍ

“Say, [O Muḥammad], "Invoke those you claim [as deities] besides Allāh." They do not possess an atom's weight [of ability] in the heavens or on the earth, and they do not have therein any partnership [with Him], nor is there for Him from among them any assistant.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Call on them, the ayah dares: they own not a speck, share in nothing, and Allah needs none of them as His helper.

A reflection

He has no deputy, and needs none

The ayah closes with a phrase that stings a certain kind of pride. Wa-mā lahu minhum min ẓahīr: and He has no helper among them. Allah runs the heavens and the earth with no assistant, no deputy and no one holding up the other end.

Most of us like to be needed. We like to be the person without whom the meeting fails, the family falls apart or the project stalls. Picture an office manager on her first holiday in three years. She sits on a sunlounger checking work email every hour. She is sure the firm will be in chaos by Wednesday. When she returns, the invoices have gone out and the clients are happy. Someone has even fixed the printer.

There is a small lesson in that, and a very large one in the ayah. The small one is that the world turns without us. The large one is that it never turned with any help to Allah. The commentators say He has no helper in creating anything, nor in keeping it. All creation is poor in need of Him, and He needs none of it.

That is where the ego shrinks. The angels and the stars that some people revered were never His assistants. Then neither am I. My service, my effort and my work for His religion are an honour He gives me, not a gap I fill.

A fair objection follows. Why does He speak of Himself so sharply? Does He need us to admit that He stands alone? He does not. His standing alone is not made truer by our saying it. The words are for us, so that we stop placing our hopes in helpers who are not helping.

And there is relief in it too. You were never holding up the sky. You can put that weight down.

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.