Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 46 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:46

قُلِ ٱللَّهُمَّ فَاطِرَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ عَـٰلِمَ ٱلْغَيْبِ وَٱلشَّهَـٰدَةِ أَنتَ تَحْكُمُ بَيْنَ عِبَادِكَ فِى مَا كَانُوا۟ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ

“Say, "O Allāh, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, You will judge between your servants concerning that over which they used to differ."”

Saheeh International

Essence

With argument exhausted, the Prophet ﷺ is taught to pray: to the One who split creation open, sees all, and will settle every dispute.

A reflection

The One who split creation open

The prayer opens with a name: Fāṭir of the heavens and the earth. The root behind it is splitting open. The lexicons describe a camel's tooth that faṭara when it broke through the gum, and the earth cracking as plants push out. Faṭara is to originate: to split something out into being where nothing was before.

A well-known report has one of the Prophet's ﷺ young Companions admitting he did not know what fāṭir meant. Then two Bedouins came to him, arguing over a well. One of them said: anā faṭartuhā, I was the first to dig it. I began it.

Several commentaries add the key phrase: He made them without any previous model. No pattern to copy, no materials to start from.

Hold that against human pride in our own creativity. Picture a young composer at the premiere of her first symphony. She tells the audience that nothing like it has ever been heard. Perhaps that is even true of the arrangement. But every note came from the same twelve that every composer uses. The instruments were built by others, from wood and metal she never made. Her originality, real as it is, is rearrangement.

Allah's origination is of another order entirely. He did not rearrange. He began. The heavens and the earth were split out of nothing.

That is humbling, and in a freeing way. Our creativity is a gift worked within His. We need not inflate it, and need not despise it either.

A sceptic might ask why the Prophet ﷺ is told to open with such praise. Does Allah need His titles recited? But the prayer is taught for the one praying. Before bringing a complaint about people, the heart is reminded whom it is addressing. The One who split the heavens open can split a hardened situation open too.

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.