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Fāṭir 35:15

The Qurʾān · Sūra 35: Fāṭir · verse 15

This commentary was written by Claude (Anthropic); it carries no religious authority and should be checked against the classical sources.

35/15

يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ أَنتُمُ ٱلْفُقَرَآءُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱللَّهُ هُوَ ٱلْغَنِىُّ ٱلْحَمِيدُ

"O people! It is you who are in need of God. God is the One who needs nothing and is worthy of all praise."

فُقَرَآء — root: ف-ق-ر

The lexicographers give the concrete sense of the root thus: faqar, the spine; faqīr, the one whose spine is broken. From this arises the sense of neediness: one who cannot stand up on his own.

I record this picture and transmit it as a connection the lexicographers make, not as a settled verdict of etymology.

And the way the sentence is built is worth recording: antumu'l-fuqarāʾu ila'llāhthe predicate comes definite. In Arabic this conveys restriction (ḥaṣr): "the truly needy ones are you."

That is: need is given not as a state of man but as his definition.

And the other side is mentioned by two names: al-ghaniyy (the one who needs nothing) and al-ḥamīd (the one worthy of praise). The addition of the second is worth recording: to be without need might on its own have conveyed a distance; the attribute of praise keeps the relationship open.


The whole of Sūrat Fāṭir