Ar-Rahman · Madani · ayah 33 of 78

Ar-Rahman 55:33

يَـٰمَعْشَرَ ٱلْجِنِّ وَٱلْإِنسِ إِنِ ٱسْتَطَعْتُمْ أَن تَنفُذُوا۟ مِنْ أَقْطَارِ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنفُذُوا۟ ۚ لَا تَنفُذُونَ إِلَّا بِسُلْطَـٰنٍ

“O company of jinn and mankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not pass except by authority [from Allāh].”

Saheeh International

Essence

Jinn and humankind are told to pierce the edges of the heavens and the earth if they can, and there is no far side.

A reflection

"Go on, then": the command spoken to those who cannot

There is a tone of voice everyone recognises. A small child says he is running away. His father, who loves him, holds the door open and says: go on, then. Both of them know how far he will get.

The commentaries call the command in this ayah exactly that kind of command. Fa-nfudhū, pass through, is an imperative of incapacity. It is addressed to those who cannot do it, so that they see they cannot.

O company of jinn and humankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not pass except with authority.

The ego has a recurring fantasy, and this ayah meets it head on. It is the fantasy of a place beyond reach. Think of a man who has made his fortune and spent it on distance. A second passport. A house on an island with its own generator and its own security. He says, half joking, that nothing can touch him now.

He has built himself a far side. The ayah says there is no far side.

One classical commentary makes the point sharper. Even if they could leave the heavens and the earth, it says, they would not have left the dominion of Allah. He would take them wherever they were, however they were. Wherever you turn, His dominion is there; wherever you are, His judgement reaches you.

That is humbling in a precise way. Pride is not only thinking you are great. It is thinking you are separate: that there is some corner of life, some account, some hour, outside His reach. The man on the island has simply drawn the corner larger.

The ayah does not argue with him. It holds the door open and says: go on, then. Every attempt to leave ends, like the child's, somewhere inside the same house.

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.