Ash-Shuraa · Makki · ayah 53 of 53

Ash-Shuraa 42:53

صِرَٰطِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلَّذِى لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۗ أَلَآ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ تَصِيرُ ٱلْأُمُورُ

“The path of Allāh, to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Unquestionably, to Allāh do [all] matters evolve [i.e., return].”

Saheeh International

Essence

The straight path is the path of the One who owns everything, and every affair, however tangled, finally comes home to Him.

A reflection

By kind permission of the Owner

A family out walking on a country estate stops at a small wooden sign. Permissive path, it reads, by kind permission of the owner. The children ask what that means. Their father explains: this path is not ours. We are allowed to walk it because the person it belongs to has opened it to us.

The last ayah of Ash-Shūrā names the straight path of the ayah before: ṣirāṭi allāhi alladhī lahu mā fī al-samāwāti wa-mā fī al-arḍ. The path of Allah, to whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. One commentator notes that the second mention of the path interprets the first.

Another commentator explains why the path is joined to the Name and described this way. It magnifies the path, confirms its straightness and stresses the obligation to walk it. Everything that exists is His by creation, ownership and command. That is the strongest possible reason to take His road.

Human pride likes to think it has found its own path, or built it. We speak of 'my journey', 'my truth', 'my way'. The ayah gently corrects the possessive. The straight path is not ours. It is His, and He has opened it.

A sceptic might hear in 'to Him belongs everything' a claim of total control for its own sake. But the ayah's purpose is the opposite of a fence. The Owner of everything has opened a road through His own estate and invited everyone to walk it.

The children on the estate understood quickly. The sign was not a warning. It was a welcome. That is the humility of the final ayah: not owning the path, but being allowed onto it.

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.