وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ طَوْعًۭا وَكَرْهًۭا وَظِلَٰلُهُم بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ ۩
And to Allah prostrates whoever is within the heavens and the earth, willingly or by compulsion, and their shadows [as well] in the mornings and the afternoons.
Introduction
This is āyah 15 of Sūrat Ar-Ra'd (The Thunder), the 96th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Medinan period and sits within Juzʾ 13. Medinan verses often address community life, law, and the building of society.
This introduction is a starting point — the community and Bilal will enrich it over time.
Revelation & occasion
- Period
- Medinan
- Order revealed
- 96 of 114
- Surah
- Ar-Ra'd (13)
To God prostrate themselves all in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly. In the tongue of commentary, the prostration of the unbeliever is an unwilling prostration, for he prostrates himself and shows humility at the time of tribulation in the state of hardship so as to repel harm from himself. Thus MuṣṬafā said to Ḥaṣīn Khuzāʿī,1 " How many gods do you wor- ship today? " He said, " Seven: one in heaven and six in the earth. " He said, " Which one of them do you look to on the day of your hope and fear? " He said, " The one in heaven. " According to these words, when someone prostrates himself to a god wanting to attract a benefit or repel a harm, that is a prostration of unwillingness, not a prostration of willingness. The willing prostration is the one done for the command alone and to venerate the Real's exaltedness. There is no taint of wanting, no hope for compensation, and no dread of tribulation. The individual is in prostration, the heart in finding, the spirit in witnessing; the individual is with loyalty, the heart with shame, and the spirit with limpidness. That chieftain of the Tariqah, Abū Yazīd BasṬāmī, was addressed in a dream: " 'O Abū Yazīd, Our storehouses are full of worship. Approach Us with brokenness and abasement.' In Our thresh- old, bowing and prostrating are of no use without brokenness of the heart and limpidness of the spirit, for the storehouses of Our exaltedness are already full of the bowing and prostrating of the lords of the heart. When you come to Our threshold, place the heart's pain in the spirit's cup and send it to the Presence of the Beloved, for the heart's pain has measure with Us. " The Pir of the Tariqah said, " The tawḤīd of the hearts of the faithful is in the measure of the heart's pain. The more a heart is burnt and the more complete its pain, the more it is familiar with tawḤīd and the closer it is to the Real. " Without the perfection of burning pain, don't mention religion's name. Without the beauty of yearning for union, don't lean on faith.
Tafsir
Hafiz Ibn Kathir
Chains of transmission
Oral — isnād
- ~610–632 CERevelation & memorisation
Received by the Prophet ﷺ and preserved by the ḥuffāẓ (memorisers) among the Companions.
- 1st century AHMutawātir transmissionawaiting curation
Carried by mass-transmission through the generations of qurrāʾ.
- TodayLiving chainsawaiting curation
Continuous ijāzah chains link reciters today back to the Prophet ﷺ.
Verified isnād chains for this āyah will be added by curators.
Written — the manuscript record
- ~650 CEʿUthmānic codicesawaiting curation
The standardised muṣḥaf sent to the great cities (e.g. the Topkapı and Samarqand codices).
- 8th–10th c.Early Ḥijāzī & Kūfic foliosawaiting curation
Surviving leaves in Birmingham, Sanaa, Paris (BnF) and beyond.
- Modern printModern printawaiting curation
The 1924 Cairo edition → today: the standard printed muṣḥaf used worldwide.
A curated chain of manuscript images for this exact āyah — roughly one per century — is coming. Help us source and verify them.
And now — what do you think?
The text, its history and the classical commentary are laid out above. Share your own understanding, ask a question, or reason with others.
Community resources
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