Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 163 of 165

Al-An'am 6:163

لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُۥ ۖ وَبِذَٰلِكَ أُمِرْتُ وَأَنَا۠ أَوَّلُ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ

“No partner has He. And this I have been commanded, and I am the first [among you] of the Muslims."[361]”

Saheeh International

Essence

The dedication is sealed with three things: no partner shares it, it was commanded, and the one who brought it went first.

A reflection

Muslim is a verb before it is a label

For many people, 'Muslim' is an identity. A word on a form, a family background, a community you belong to whether or not you pray. The worn-smooth reading of this ayah hears 'the first of the Muslims' as the founder of a group.

The root says something different. The lexicons describe aslama as handing something over. Before Islam, a traveller reaching a camp at dusk would call out salām: no weapon, no war between us. The same letters name a thing that is safe, sound and whole, and a slave who belongs to one master alone. A muslim is someone who has handed himself over, whole, to One.

One concise commentary glosses the phrase: the first of those who surrendered and submitted to Him, from this nation. Another: the first to affirm and yield. The ayah describes an act before it describes a membership.

Picture a man filling in a census form. He reaches the question on religion and ticks 'Muslim' without hesitating. Then he pauses, pen in the air. It strikes him that ticking that box may be the only act of his faith he has done this year. The label is true; the verb has gone missing.

The ayah does not take the label away from anyone. It fills it. To say 'I am of the Muslims' in its full sense is to say something large. I have handed over my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying. I come without a weapon. There is no war between me and my Lord.

Ask yourself whether 'Muslim' is, today, a word you are or a thing you do.

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.