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Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) 40:16-17

The Qurʾān · Sūra 40: Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin) · verses 16-17

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

40/16-17

يَوْمَ هُم بَٰرِزُونَ لَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مِنْهُمْ شَىْءٌ لِّمَنِ ٱلْمُلْكُ ٱلْيَوْمَ لِلَّهِ ٱلْوَٰحِدِ ٱلْقَهَّارِ

"On that day they will be out in the open; nothing of theirs will be hidden from God. 'Whose is the dominion today?' — 'God's, the One, the Qahhār.'"

Who asks the question, who answers it

There is a question in the verse and its answer comes immediately after — but neither side is identified.

The most widespread explanation in the classical commentaries is that both the question and the answer come from the same place: since no one is left to answer, the question receives its own answer. I transmit this as an explanation that is transmitted.

بَٰرِزُون — root ب-ر-ز: to come out into the open, to emerge into view. Barāz — open ground, empty flat land. The word carries the fact that no place is left to hide in.

ٱلْقَهَّار — root ق-ه-ر: to overcome and make submit. An intensive form (faʿʿāl).

The choice of attribute is worth recording: in the answer to the question "whose is the dominion?" two attributes are given — al-wāḥid (the One) and al-qahhār. That is, the question of whose the dominion is gets answered both by oneness and by overpowering.


Roots analysed in this section

ب-ر-ز

The whole of Sūrat Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin)