Al-Ma'idah · Madani · ayah 117 of 120

Al-Ma'idah 5:117

مَا قُلْتُ لَهُمْ إِلَّا مَآ أَمَرْتَنِى بِهِۦٓ أَنِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ رَبِّى وَرَبَّكُمْ ۚ وَكُنتُ عَلَيْهِمْ شَهِيدًا مَّا دُمْتُ فِيهِمْ ۖ فَلَمَّا تَوَفَّيْتَنِى كُنتَ أَنتَ ٱلرَّقِيبَ عَلَيْهِمْ ۚ وَأَنتَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ شَهِيدٌ

“I said not to them except what You commanded me - to worship Allāh, my Lord and your Lord. And I was a witness over them as long as I was among them; but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Isa sums up his whole message in one line, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord, then hands his people back to the true Watcher.

A reflection

Witness over all things

A woman founded a small food charity on her estate six years ago. She has not taken a week off since. If I go, she says, it will all fall apart. Her friends have stopped arguing.

There is love in that, and something else too. The ego quietly believes that its presence is what holds things together. Remove me, and it collapses. It is a flattering thought, and a heavy one.

Isa, on the greatest Day, describes his own presence with complete honesty. I was a witness over them as long as I was among them. Then, when You took me, You were the Watcher over them. And You are Witness over all things.

His witnessing had limits. It began when he arrived and ended when he was taken. It covered only what he saw, only while he was there. Allah's witnessing has no such edges. Shahīd over all things: present, seeing, and knowing everything, before Isa came, while he stayed, and after he left.

This humbles the pride in our sense of being needed. Parents, founders, leaders and carers all watch over others for a while. Then we are taken: by distance, by age, by death. What we guarded was never held up by us alone. It was always held, underneath our watch, by His.

Does Allah need to be called Witness over all things? He needs nothing. The naming is for us. It lets the woman with the food charity take a week off. Not because the work does not matter, but because she was never its only watcher.

Isa hands his people back without anxiety. He knows Whose they were all along.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.