رَبِّ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَآ ۖ إِن كُنتُم مُّوقِنِينَ · لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ يُحْىِۦ وَيُمِيتُ ۖ رَبُّكُمْ وَرَبُّ ءَابَآئِكُمُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
Rabbi's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍi wa mā baynahumā, in kuntum mūqinīn · Lā ilāha illā huwa yuḥyī wa yumīt, rabbukum wa rabbu ābāʾikumu'l-awwalīn
"The Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between them — if you are people of certainty. There is no god but He; He gives life and gives death. Your Lord, and the Lord of your forefathers."
The word is in the genitive and stands in apposition to rabbika in the preceding verse. That is, after "from your Lord" is said, that Lord is defined.
| Verse | Expression | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | rabbi's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍi wa mā baynahumā | Lordship |
| 29 | fa-mā bakat ʿalayhimu's-samāʾu wa'l-arḍ | Not being mourned |
| 38 | wa mā khalaqna's-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa wa mā baynahumā | The purpose of creation |
Two of the occurrences have wa mā baynahumā, the middle one does not. In the twenty-ninth verse the heaven and the earth stand as a subject (they did not weep), in the other two as an object (that which is lorded over, that which is created).
I record this as a verifiable repetition. The difference among the occurrences of the phrase is not interpretation but a datum of wording.
At al-Aḥqāf 46/3 the same phrase occurred inside mā khalaqnā… illā bi'l-ḥaqqi wa ajalin musammā and was treated there; at the thirty-eighth verse I shall rely on that treatment.
And the answer to the condition is not stated. In Arabic this is called ḥadhf, and a similar leaving-half-said was treated at Qāf 50/3.
| Reading | What it says | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| The condition qualifies the acceptance of the statement | "This knowledge is knowledge only for one who seeks certainty" | Its being placed at the end of the sentence; it sifts the addressee |
| The condition rests on the other party's own claim | They already accepted the Lord of the heavens and the earth; the verse recalls that acceptance | It is known that the Qurʾān in such places makes the addressee's own admission its proof |
The root ي-ق-ن: the leaving of doubt, the settling of knowledge in place as water settles to the bottom. The root was treated in al-Takāthur and al-Ḥāqqa by way of the phrases ʿilmu'l-yaqīn / ʿaynu'l-yaqīn / ḥaqqu'l-yaqīn; it was also set out in a table at al-Wāqiʿa 56/95. I do not repeat it here.
What is to be added here is the pattern: mūqinīn — the active participle of Form IV. That is, not "one who possesses certainty" but "one who has arrived at certainty". The pattern conveys an arrival.
The best-known negating structure in Arabic: lā that negates the genus. That is, not "there is no god" but "there is no such thing as a god" — the whole kind is lifted, and then a single exception is placed with illā.
How the structure works is this, and it is worth recording: the sentence first erases them all, then puts one back. Had the order been reversed (huwa ilāhun — "He is a god"), the same thing would not have been said.
Both verbs are Form IV: aḥyā (he gave life) and amāta (he gave death). Both, that is, are in the causative pattern.
The expected order in English is the reverse — when we say life first and then death we are describing one lifetime. But the Qurʾān mostly gives this pair in this order, and the order itself says something.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the context of the sūra: the sūra will shortly (verse 35) report this objection — "there is only our first death, and we are not to be raised." The other party, that is, builds the order life → death → the end.
The eighth verse begins the order with giving life. And the verb yuḥyī is imperfect: it conveys continuity. Not once, then, but repeatable.
The sentence thus answers the objection of the thirty-fifth verse twenty-seven verses in advance. It is I who make this link; the wording of the two verses is verifiable.
At Mecca the ground the other party most often put forward is the fathers: "we found our fathers upon a religion." The fathers, that is, are the other party's proof.
And the verse does not take that proof out of their hands; it changes its owner: rabbu ābāʾikumu'l-awwalīn — "and the Lord of your forefathers".
I record it as my own reading: the sentence does not say "your fathers were in error". It says "He is your fathers' Lord too." The appeal to the fathers is not rejected; it is carried back to its source. The fathers too had a Lord; the chain does not end with them.
| Verse | Word | What |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | ābāʾikumu'l-awwalīn | The forefathers |
| 35 | mawtatuna'l-ūlā | The first death — from the mouths of the deniers |
| 56 | al-mawtata'l-ūlā | The first death — about the muttaqīn |
The sūra uses the word "first" three times, and in all three there is an implication of a second: the first fathers (is there anything before them?), the first death (is there a second?), the first death (and there is no other).