Az-Zukhruf · Makki · ayah 84 of 89

Az-Zukhruf 43:84

وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِى فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ إِلَـٰهٌ وَفِى ٱلْأَرْضِ إِلَـٰهٌ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْحَكِيمُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ

“And it is He [i.e., Allāh] who is [the only] deity in the heaven, and on the earth [the only] deity. And He is the Wise, the Knowing.”

Saheeh International

Essence

No god for the sky and another for the earth: the One worshipped above is worshipped below, Wise and Knowing.

A reflection

The same God in every room

Wa-huwa alladhī fī al-samāʾi ilāhun wa-fī al-arḍi ilāh. And it is He who is God in the heaven and God on the earth.

The commentators give the plain sense. He alone is the One rightly worshipped in the heaven and on the earth. One early scholar: He is worshipped in the heaven and on the earth; there is no god but He. Another commentator adds that the ayah denies the gods that used to be worshipped on earth. The angels above worship Him. The creatures below owe Him the same.

The ancient world was full of local gods: a god of this river, that mountain, this tribe, that city. Move to a new valley and you met a new god. The ayah sweeps all of them away. One God, everywhere.

That has a sharp personal edge. Many people live as though there were a different god in each room of their lives. A god of the mosque, where they are pious. A god of the office, where profit rules. A god of the phone at midnight, where anything goes. The ayah says: it is one God in every room. The same eyes, the same knowledge, the same claim.

Picture a businessman who prays every prayer on time and gives generously at the mosque. On Monday, in a supplier negotiation, he lies about a competitor's price to squeeze a better deal. On his way home he realises something with a jolt. He had acted as if the One he prayed to that morning was absent from the meeting room.

That realisation shrinks the ego. We like to compartmentalise, to be lords of some rooms of our own. The ayah allows no such room.

Does Allah need us to acknowledge this? No. He is God in the heaven and on the earth whether we acknowledge it or not. The acknowledgement is for us: it makes a divided life whole.

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.