Sad · Makki · ayah 66 of 88

Sad 38:66

رَبُّ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْغَفَّـٰرُ

“Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, the Exalted in Might,[1333] the Perpetual Forgiver."[1334]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The Lord who tends sky, earth and everything between is mighty enough that no one can overrule His pardon, and He forgives again and again.

A reflection

Lord of the storm beneath the wing

On a night flight, a woman in a window seat looks down and sees a thunderstorm below the aircraft. Lightning flickers inside the clouds beneath her, silently, like a lamp switched on and off in another room. All her life, weather has been something above her. Tonight it is underneath her, and it is still nowhere near the top of anything.

The ayah names three realms: the heavens, the earth, and mā baynahumā, what is between them. Earlier, the surah reminded its hearers that none of this was made in vain (38:27). This ayah adds a different word: Rabb. Not only the One who made it, but the One who owns it, governs it and keeps setting it right. One commentary says He owns all of it and disposes of it as He wills. Another says all its existing things come from Him, and the running of every one of their affairs belongs to Him.

The word bayn deserves a second look. The lexicons count it among words with opposite meanings. It can mean the gap that separates two things, and also the bond that joins them. So the Lord of 'what is between' is Lord of the distances and of the connections. Every storm and wind in the air is His. So is the light that crosses the gap to your eye, and the voice that crosses a room to someone you love.

Here the ego should take a step back. We manage a small 'between' of our own: a calendar, a household, a team, a few square metres of influence. Keeping even that in order exhausts us. Meanwhile every cloud, current and season is being run at this moment, without strain and without a single mistake.

One classical commentator says that knowing Him as Rabb grows by studying the traces of His wisdom in creation. That study, he adds, is a sea without a shore. You will never reach its end. But looking down on a storm from above it is a good place to begin being humble.

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.