An-Najm · Makki · ayah 14 of 62

An-Najm 53:14

عِندَ سِدْرَةِ ٱلْمُنتَهَىٰ

“At the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary -”

Saheeh International

Essence

At the Lote Tree, where all that rises comes to rest and every creature's knowledge stops, the Prophet was given gifts for us.

A reflection

Where the flood comes to rest

Al-muntahā means the furthest point, the end. The first hearers had a picture for the root. A nihy was a pool where floodwater came to rest behind a barrier that stopped it spilling further. The notch at the head of a tent peg, which kept the rope from slipping off, was its nuhya.

The Lote Tree of the Boundary is that kind of place. Sahih Muslim records Ibn Masʿud's description. To it ends whatever rises up from the earth, and it is received there. To it ends whatever comes down from above it, and it is received there.

One classical commentator lists nine explanations of the name the scholars gave. The knowledge of the prophets ends there, and what lies beyond it is hidden from them. The angels stop there. The deeds of people reach it. Every account agrees on this much: it is a limit set by Allah, beyond which no creature passes on its own.

Picture a great river after a week of storms, roaring down from the hills, carrying branches and mud and everything in its path. At the weir by the old mill it slows, spreads and stills into a wide flat pool. All that force comes to rest.

That is a picture worth holding when we feel our own importance swelling. Our knowledge, however impressive, has a weir. So do the angels'. The most learned scholar alive, the most powerful machine we will build, the brightest mind in any field: each comes to rest somewhere.

Only Allah's knowledge has no boundary. To your Lord is the final end, this same surah says (53:42). Ego quietens at a weir like that. The water is not humiliated by stopping. It is simply where it was always meant to come to rest.

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.