Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 7 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:7

إِن تَكْفُرُوا۟ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَنِىٌّ عَنكُمْ ۖ وَلَا يَرْضَىٰ لِعِبَادِهِ ٱلْكُفْرَ ۖ وَإِن تَشْكُرُوا۟ يَرْضَهُ لَكُمْ ۗ وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ ۗ ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكُم مَّرْجِعُكُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ عَلِيمٌۢ بِذَاتِ ٱلصُّدُورِ

“If you disbelieve - indeed, Allāh is Free from need of you. And He does not approve for His servants disbelief. And if you are grateful, He approves [i.e., likes] it for you; and no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return, and He will inform you about what you used to do. Indeed, He is Knowing of that within the breasts.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Your disbelief costs Allah nothing and your gratitude gains Him nothing; He refuses the one and loves the other purely for your sake.

A reflection

The lecture goes on without you

If you disbelieve, Allah is free of need of you. The sentence is short and it settles a question many people never quite ask aloud. Does my faith do something for God?

The Prophet ﷺ answered it in words Sahih Muslim records, speaking for Allah. My servants, suppose all of you, first and last, humans and jinn, were as pious as the most pious heart among you. It would add nothing to My dominion. And if they were all as wicked as the most wicked heart among you, it would take nothing from it.

One commentary spells out the logic. The One who created the heavens and the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars gains nothing from one man's prayer. Nor is He harmed by another's neglect. Every command He gave, He gave without drawing benefit to Himself or warding off harm from Himself.

Picture a second-year student annoyed with a professor. He stops going to her lectures to make a point. Week after week he stays in bed at ten o'clock, imagining the gap he leaves. The lecture goes on. The notes are given. The exam arrives. The only person who learned less was him.

That is the ego at its most self-important: the belief that our worship is a favour to God, or our absence a protest He feels. The ayah dissolves it in one clause.

And this is exactly why the charge of divine vanity fails. A God who needed praise would plead for it, flatter for it, bargain for it. This one says plainly: if you turn away, I am not in need of you. What follows is not a complaint about lost worship. It is concern about what the turning away will do to you.

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.