Ghafir · Makki · ayah 65 of 85

Ghafir 40:65

هُوَ ٱلْحَىُّ لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ فَٱدْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ ٱلدِّينَ ۗ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

“He is the Ever-Living;[1377] there is no deity except Him, so call upon Him, [being] sincere to Him in religion. [All] praise is [due] to Allāh, Lord of the worlds.”

Saheeh International

Essence

He is the Living, with no god but Him; so call on Him with pure devotion, and say: praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

A reflection

The only life that is not lent

Huwa al-ḥayyu. He is the Living.

The ayah does not say: He is alive. It says: He is the Living. A later commentary explains: the One alone in true life that belongs to His own essence. Nothing comes near Him in essence, attributes or actions. A modern commentary adds: the One who has complete and perfect life. Another: the Living who does not die.

The root ḥ-y-y in the lexicons pictures rain on dead ground, and green shoots trembling up the next morning. The land alive again. Life, for every creature, is something that arrives and can leave. This is the established sense.

That is precisely the difference. Our life is like the green shoots: given, received, dependent on rain we did not send. His life is not given to Him. It is His own.

This is the deepest blow to the ego. We speak of my life as though we owned it. The ayah reminds us we are borrowers. Every heartbeat is on loan from the only One whose life is not.

A woman is fitted with a pacemaker after a scare. The first night home, she lies awake and listens to her own heart, aware for the first time of every beat. None of them, she realises, was ever hers to command.

The ayah then draws a conclusion: no god but Him. Why? Because only the One whose life is His own can be relied on without fear of loss. Every other object of devotion, an idol, a person, a career, can die, fail or fade.

Some may ask: why would the Living, complete in Himself, want our call or praise? He does not need it. His life lacks nothing. The command to call on Him follows His life, not His need. Because He lives for ever, He is the One worth turning to. The benefit flows entirely to the one who turns.

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.