Al-Inshiqaq · Makki · ayah 5 of 25

Al-Inshiqaq 84:5

وَأَذِنَتْ لِرَبِّهَا وَحُقَّتْ

“And has listened [i.e., responded] to its Lord and was obligated [to do so] –”

Saheeh International

Essence

The ground we dig, pave and boast of standing on gives its Lord its ear and hands back everything, as was its due.

A reflection

Breaking ground with a silver spade

At the start of a big building project there is often a ceremony. A row of people in clean hard hats stands on a patch of cleared mud. Someone important is handed a spade, sometimes a polished silver one, and turns over a small clod of earth for the cameras. It is called 'breaking ground'.

We speak of the earth that way all the time. We break it, tame it, clear it, drain it, quarry it and pave it. It lies under every foot, silent, and it seems to belong to whoever holds the deeds.

This ayah shows who it listens to. Wa-adhinat li-rabbihā wa-ḥuqqat: and it gave ear to its Lord, as was its due. The words are the same as in ayah 2, but now the subject is the earth. It has just been stretched, cast out its dead and emptied itself. One commentator explains that it gave ear to its Lord in exactly that: the casting out and the emptying. The ground that let us dig, build and bury for thousands of years was never listening to us. On the Day it hears its Lord, it obeys at once, and not one of our deeds of ownership slows it down.

The Quran puts the lesson in a single sentence addressed to the proud. 'Do not walk upon the earth exultantly. Indeed, you will never tear the earth apart, and you will never reach the mountains in height' (17:37). The ego stands on the ground as though it were a platform built for its display. The ground is a servant of Someone else.

Someone may ask why the Lord of all this describes the obedience of His creation. Does He need the earth's submission, or ours, to feel secure in His kingship? In a hadith qudsi in Sahih Muslim, Allah says: 'O My servants, you will never reach the point of harming Me, nor of benefiting Me'.

If every human who ever lived were as pious as the most pious heart, it would add nothing to His dominion.

So the earth's obedience is not reported for His sake. It is reported for ours, so that we walk on it a little more gently, knowing whose floor it is.

The full entry has 4 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.