Al-Qiyamah · Makki · ayah 4 of 40

Al-Qiyamah 75:4

بَلَىٰ قَـٰدِرِينَ عَلَىٰٓ أَن نُّسَوِّىَ بَنَانَهُۥ

“Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips.”

Saheeh International

Essence

To the man who doubts his bones can be gathered, Allah answers 'Yes', and points to the finest part of him: even his fingertips.

A reflection

Everything you made, you made with fingers you did not make

Somewhere tonight, someone is typing, with ten quick fingers, that no power anywhere could rebuild a human body. The fingers do not argue. They just keep moving, perfectly, each one doing a different job.

The ayah answers with one word and then a picture. Balā: yes, on the contrary. Then: able to proportion even his fingertips.

One of the earliest teachers of the Quran described what that means. He made it a hand, he said, and made it fingers that you close and open. Had He willed, He would have joined them, and you would have had to meet the ground with your mouth. But He shaped you well.

A later classical writer slows down over the same marvel. The fingers are separate, yet held in one palm on one forearm. One closes while another opens. One moves while another rests. One works while the one beside it does nothing.

Think of what has been done with that hand. Every signature on a contract. Every stitch, every brushstroke, every line of code. Every scalpel and every steering wheel. The things we are proudest of were all made with fingers we did not make and could not design.

That is where the ego quietly overreaches. It takes credit for the work of the hand and forgets the Maker of the hand. Qādirīna, 'able', is said here of Allah, in the plural of majesty: We, the Able.

Someone may ask why Allah speaks of His own power at all. Does He need us impressed? The classical answer is that this is not a boast but a reply. The deniers said He could not do it. He answered the denial with the fact, the way a teacher answers 'that's impossible' by writing out the working. As one writer puts it, He argued for what He will do, which His enemies denied, by His power to do it.

Open your hand now, and close it. That small movement is the argument.

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.