Al-Muzzammil · Makki · ayah 8 of 20

Al-Muzzammil 73:8

وَٱذْكُرِ ٱسْمَ رَبِّكَ وَتَبَتَّلْ إِلَيْهِ تَبْتِيلًا

“And remember the name of your Lord and devote yourself to Him with [complete] devotion.”

Saheeh International

Essence

Keep His name on your tongue and cut yourself free to Him, like a palm shoot cut from its mother tree and rooted anew.

A reflection

A shoot cut from the mother palm

Wa tabattal ilayhi tabtīlā. And devote yourself to Him with complete devotion.

The root b-t-l means to cut. The Arabs called a young palm shoot cut from its mother tree a batīla. It now stands on its own roots. They spoke of charity given batta batla, cut clean from the giver, never to be taken back. A classical commentator lists these uses and explains tabattul from them. It is cutting yourself off to the worship of Allah, giving Him no partner in it.

Picture a date grower in an old grove. At the foot of a mature palm, offshoots have sprung up. He chooses one, cuts it cleanly from the mother tree with a portion of root, and plants it in new ground. For a while it looks fragile. Then it takes. It grows its own trunk and, in time, its own fruit.

That is the shape of tabattul ilayhi. Cut from everything that held you, and planted in Him. Not cut off into nothing, but cut to Him, ilayhi. The separation is for the sake of rooting.

The early generations glossed it with one word, again and again. One Companion said: make it sincere to Him, completely. A long line of early teachers said the same. Another early teacher put it as: free yourself for His worship.

Sincerity is exactly this kind of cut. Not a feeling but a decision: this act, this hour, this prayer, is for Him alone. Nothing else is drawing sap from 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.