Al-Jathiyah · Makki · ayah 37 of 37

Al-Jathiyah 45:37

وَلَهُ ٱلْكِبْرِيَآءُ فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

“And to Him belongs [all] grandeur within the heavens and the earth, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The surah's last word hands the cloak of grandeur back to its only Wearer and leaves human pride in its shirtsleeves.

A reflection

A cloak that fits only One

The ayah says: His is the grandeur in the heavens and the earth.

One classical commentator records two definitions of kibriyāʾ: greatness and sovereignty; or rising above any need to submit. Then he brings the hadith that the commentators place beside this ayah. Sahih Muslim records the Prophet ﷺ conveying Allah's words. Might is His lower garment and grandeur His cloak. Whoever contends with Me in them, I will punish. Sunan Abi Dawud records a fuller wording, graded ṣaḥīḥ. Grandeur is My cloak and greatness My lower garment. Whoever contends with Me in either, I will cast into the Fire.

A cloak is worn by one person. It is cut to fit one frame.

Picture an office on a Friday evening. The chief executive has left her long wool coat over a chair. A junior manager, showing off, puts it on and parades up and down the corridor doing an impression of her. His colleagues laugh. The sleeves hang past his fingers; the shoulders sag. Then the lift doors open and she walks back in for her keys. He stands there in a coat that was never his, suddenly very small.

Every human act of arrogance is a version of that. This surah has shown several: the man who heard the verses and 'persisted in arrogance' (45:8), the crowd told 'you were arrogant' (45:31). The final ayah says plainly whose cloak they were wearing.

Is it unfair that only Allah may wear grandeur? The lexicons draw the line clearly. For Allah, greatness is His true state. In us, it is raising the self above what it deserves, because our real state is small. A creature wearing grandeur is wearing a lie. The Creator wearing it is simply telling the truth.

There is rest in taking the coat off. You were never meant to carry its weight.

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.