Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 13 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:13

لِتَسْتَوُۥا۟ عَلَىٰ ظُهُورِهِۦ ثُمَّ تَذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَةَ رَبِّكُمْ إِذَا ٱسْتَوَيْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ وَتَقُولُوا۟ سُبْحَـٰنَ ٱلَّذِى سَخَّرَ لَنَا هَـٰذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لَهُۥ مُقْرِنِينَ

“That you may settle yourselves upon their backs and then remember the favor of your Lord when you have settled upon them and say, "Exalted is He who has subjected this to us, and we could not have [otherwise] subdued it.[1433]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Settle on what carries you, remember who gave it, then say: glory to the One who made this yield to us; we were never its match.

A reflection

The weight that chooses to obey

Sakhkhara is the verb at the centre of this ayah. One lexicon describes ships as sawākhir when they ran obediently before a good wind. Another defines the word as driving a thing to its set purpose. A third adds that whatever is managed and cannot free itself is musakhkhar. Allah sakhkhara a thing when He made it yield to His command.

One classical commentator spells out why this calls for wonder. The animal a person rides is far stronger than he is. It has no reasoning that would lead it to obey him. Yet Allah made it so that, with all its strength, it submits and is subdued. Whoever thinks about this, he says, will be amazed at the overpowering ability and endless wisdom behind it. Then he will have to say: glory to the One who subjected this to us.

Picture a jockey at the starting stalls before a big race. He weighs about as much as a sack of feed. Under him is half a tonne of muscle, trembling, built to run. The gates crash open and the horse goes where his small hands ask. The jockey knows, every single time, that this is borrowed obedience.

That is the posture the ayah teaches the ego. Everything that carries us, every power we steer, is stronger than we are. Its obedience was placed in it. We did not earn it with our strength.

Subḥān, the lexicons say, means declaring Him far from every flaw. Someone might ask why He asks us to say this. Is it for His sake? He needs nothing from it. The words are for the rider, who is always one buck away from remembering how small he is.

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.