Al-An'am · Makki · ayah 80 of 165

Al-An'am 6:80

وَحَآجَّهُۥ قَوْمُهُۥ ۚ قَالَ أَتُحَـٰٓجُّوٓنِّى فِى ٱللَّهِ وَقَدْ هَدَىٰنِ ۚ وَلَآ أَخَافُ مَا تُشْرِكُونَ بِهِۦٓ إِلَّآ أَن يَشَآءَ رَبِّى شَيْـًٔا ۗ وَسِعَ رَبِّى كُلَّ شَىْءٍ عِلْمًا ۗ أَفَلَا تَتَذَكَّرُونَ

“And his people argued with him. He said, "Do you argue with me concerning Allāh while He has guided me? And I fear not what you associate with Him [and will not be harmed] unless my Lord should will something. My Lord encompasses all things in knowledge; then will you not remember?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Threatened with his people's gods, Ibrahim fears only his Lord, whose knowledge has room for everything, and asks them simply to remember.

A reflection

A vessel with room for everything

Ibrahim is standing in front of a crowd that has just threatened him. Their gods, they say, will strike him down. His answer ends with a sentence about Allah, not about himself: wasiʿa rabbī kulla shayʾin ʿilman, my Lord encompasses all things in knowledge.

The verb carries a picture the first hearers knew from daily life. The lexicons say a vessel wasiʿa the goods when it was big enough to hold them. A gathering wasiʿa its guests when there was room for all. So His knowledge is not a lamp shining on things from outside. It is a vessel with room to spare, holding every thing, and every thing still fits.

Picture a father the night before a family holiday. He has built a spreadsheet of every risk: a delayed flight, a lost passport, a child's allergy, a flat tyre on the hire car. Each risk has a colour and a plan. It is good planning, and it is also a small throne. Somewhere in it sits the belief that if he has thought of everything, nothing can reach them.

Then a storm closes the one road his spreadsheet never imagined. The ayah does not mock his planning. It simply resizes him. His knowledge is a cup; his Lord's knowledge holds the sea and the cup together.

That is where the ego shrinks, and gratefully. Ibrahim does not claim to know what tomorrow holds. He claims only that Someone does. Why would Allah have this said of Him? Not because He needs the acknowledgement. He is the Rich, free of all need (35:15). The sentence is said for the one who is afraid. A frightened person does not need to know everything. He needs to know he is held by the One who does.

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.