بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ سَبَّحَ لِلَّهِ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ
Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth exalts Allah, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.
Introduction
This is āyah 1 of Sūrat As-Saff (The Ranks), the 109th sūrah in the traditional order of revelation. It was revealed in the Medinan period and sits within Juzʾ 28. 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
- 109 of 114
- Surah
- As-Saff (61)
Everything in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, and He is the Exalted, the Wise. He who desires to make his glorification of Him limpid should make his heart limpid without the traces of his soul, and he who desires his life in the Garden to be limpid should make his religion limpid without the filth of caprice. The world's folk are two groups: The life of one group is with the Real's gentleness and bounty, and their ease is the glorification and remembrance of the Real. The life of the other group is a mark of the Real's justice, and their ease is found in the shares of the soul. Those who are the folk of gentleness and bounty have a heart that is limpid, an aspiration that is high, and a breast that is empty for the divine remembrance. Their tongue is given over to bearing witness, their heart turned over to recognition, their spirit mixed with love, their secret core fled to God, and their own attributes disowned. It has been said that every attribute of selfhood is an attachment, every attach- ment a color, and every color a disgrace in the road of men. He who painted a thousand worlds with color- why would He buy my color and yours, O bankrupt man! The glorification and remembrance of this group come from the pure quarry and reach the pure Lord, accepted and approved by God, as He says: “To Him ascend the goodly words, and He uplifts the wholesome deed” [35:10]. As for those who are the mark of the Real's justice and who live through the shares of the soul, their breast is tainted with appetite, their heart is the quarry of trouble, and their inwardness is dif- ferent from their outwardness. Their names are written in the register of the hypocrites. Their acts are different from their words, just as the Lord of the Worlds says:
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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