Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 1 of 165

Al-An'am 6:1

ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ ٱلظُّلُمَـٰتِ وَٱلنُّورَ ۖ ثُمَّ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ

“[All] praise is [due] to Allāh, who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Then those who disbelieve equate [others] with their Lord.”

Saheeh International

Essence

All praise belongs to the One who made the sky, the earth, the dark and the light, yet people still set equals beside Him.

A reflection

Applause for the light show

A lighting designer takes her bow after a stadium concert. Sixty thousand phones were raised to film her work: lasers, a ceiling of screens, a final flood of white. She walks out to the car park still glowing. Behind the stands the sun is going down in bands of copper and violet. Nobody films it. Nobody claps.

The ayah opens with that scene turned the right way round. Al-ḥamdu lillāh: the praise, all of it, belongs to Allah. One classical reading notes that the definite article takes in the whole of praise, so every true word of it finally lands on Him. Then come His reasons. He created the heavens and the earth, and He made the darknesses and the light.

Here the ego is quietly weighed. We collect praise for arranging light that He made, on ground He laid, under a sky He raised. The designer did real work, and she deserves her bow. But her talent, her eyes, the power in the cables and the evening itself were all given. Every compliment we receive is borrowed glory, a coin to be passed on to its owner. Pride is forgetting to pass it on.

Does a God who praises Himself sound vain? The same reading points out the form of the words. It is a statement of fact, true whether anyone says it or not. He gains nothing from it. A creature gives in order to gain, even if only the relief of a softened heart. He gives and gains nothing at all.

So the sentence is for us. He praised Himself, the commentaries say, to teach His servants how to praise Him. It is not a request for our applause. It is a direction for it.

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.