Al-Hashr · Madani · ayah 24 of 24

Al-Hashr 59:24

هُوَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْخَـٰلِقُ ٱلْبَارِئُ ٱلْمُصَوِّرُ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

“He is Allāh, the Creator,[1666] the Producer,[1667] the Fashioner;[1668] to Him belong the best names.[1669] Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.[1670]”

Saheeh International

Essence

Three names trace a craftsman's three steps, measure, cut and shape, and the surah closes where it opened, with everything in creation glorifying Him.

A reflection

We rearrange; He brings into being

Human beings are proud of what they make. Buildings, machines, paintings, businesses, children's futures. We call the most gifted among us 'creative', and the word flatters us.

The ayah sets three names over all of that: the Creator, the Producer, the Fashioner. A classical spiritual writer draws a sharp line between them. 'Creator' and 'fashioner' can be said of a person in a limited sense. Someone who measures out a thing in his mind can be said to have 'created' it. So the Quran can speak of Allah as the best of creators (23:14). But al-Bāriʾ, the One who brings creatures out into existence from nothing, is said of Allah alone. The most a human being can do is change some qualities of what Allah has already brought into being. Even that happens within the limits of a borrowed power.

That is a quiet humbling of every creative ego. The architect did not make the stone. The composer did not make sound, or the ear. The surgeon did not make the body he repairs. Every human act of making is rearrangement inside a creation already given.

None of this cheapens human skill. It places it. The craftsman's pride becomes gratitude when he sees that his hands, his materials and the very idea of form were handed to him.

And the ayah ends by naming the response all of creation already gives: everything in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him. The proud maker is invited to join the rest of creation, not to stand outside it admiring his own work.

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.