Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ

سورۃ الاخلاص

Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, Makkī — revealed in Makkah. It has four (4) āyāt.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Bismillāhi l-Raḥmāni l-Raḥīm.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ

qul huwa llāhu aḥad.

"Say: He is Allah, the One." (al-Ikhlāṣ 112:1)

The disbelievers asked the Beloved of Allah ﷺ — tell us what the attributes of your God are? And this sūra came down. Qul — say. Huwa — He. Llāhu — is Allah — He is One. Aḥad — one, in every respect One.

Translation: "Say — He is Allah — He is absolutely One."

Reflect on the single word Huwa ("He"). Its first letter, hāʾ, is the most deeply interior sound, articulated from the very end of the throat; its second letter, wāw, is a labial, formed at the lips. By this the word itself signals that He is the One who is the beginning of everything and the end of everything — the All-Encompassing, who encompasses all things; nothing whatever lies outside Him.

Huwa ("He") bears upon two orders of existence: the necessary (wājib) and the contingent (mumkin). The contingent (mumkin) is that whose existence and non-existence are equally possible. Huwa denotes that whose existence is necessary and whose non-existence is impossible — that is, the Necessary Existent (wājib al-wujūd), considered together with the contingent: in the contingent, existence is something merely related and borrowed (bi’l-ghayr); in Him, existence is by virtue of His own essence (bi’l-dhāt). Whatever exists, its existence is sometimes active and unfolding and sometimes still — but that real, underlying existence is itself motionless and unchanging (sākin): it neither comes into motion nor passes out of it. Everything in between — all secondary causes and means (asbāb, wasāʾiṭ) — are effects; the true Cause (ʿilla) of them all is He.

Consider the order of things. An infant, when it is born, cries and turns its face this way and that, seeking — knowing instinctively that there is Someone who attends to it. As it grows, it takes its father to be its provider (rabb); growing further, it looks beyond him to a king; then to the elements; then to the heavenly bodies. But in the end, the intellects of all the worlds turn back to one sought-after Object of worship (maʿbūd) — at every step the heart is driven on to another on whom it depends (muḥtāj ilayhi), until it comes to rest in the One. This longing for an Object of worship is innate (fiṭrī); and that innate longing, when it is fulfilled, comes to rest. When the seeker lifts his hand away from every created thing, the way opens to the real and ultimate Object of worship. So when all created things are set aside, the question arises: then who is He?

He is Huwa — and the word Huwa points to wujūd (existence/being). Is this, then, a merely mental existence (wujūd dhihnī), a notion in the mind? No — a mental, conceptual existence has nothing to do with what we mean here. A mental existence is one that merely reports a thing; the Sufis call it mā bihi’l-mawjūdiyya — "that by which a thing is said to exist." If that reported existence does not correspond to fact, the report is false; truth and falsehood turn on whether it matches the reality. The existence we mean is not this. We mean the real, extramental existence by which a thing is actually present, outside the mind.

Reflect further. This is Zayd, that is ʿAmr; this is a mango, that a horse, this marble stone, that an angel — in each you say "it is." Is the "is-ness" (the being) in each of them one and the same, or different in each? It is not different — the "is" in Zayd, in ʿAmr, in the mango, the horse, the marble, the angel, is one single existence. Were it not one — were "is" not the common thread — no mango could be called a mango, no marble a marble; nothing could be ordered, and no judgement could be passed on anything. Whenever the word "is" runs through every sentence with one and the same meaning, the underlying being of all of them is one. Then what will Huwa ("He") be? Huwa will be that very mā bihi’l-mawjūdiyya — the ground of being itself.

Was there anything before this existence? Will anything remain after it? It tells you: only existence was, only existence remains. Existence is one single reality. Whether before existence or after it, to speak of "before" and "after" existence is incoherent — therefore existence is azalī wa-abadī, beginningless and endless. What stands opposite existence? To speak of an "opposite" of existence is also incoherent. What could stand against existence? Non-existence (ʿadam) — "nothing"? But to be and not to be are not on a par; non-existence is sheer nothing, utterly without footing. Is the real Existence in need of anything? No — it is everything else that needs the real Existence: all existing things draw their being from It, and in the unfolding of effects they become real things only through It.

Is this real Existence simple or composite, made of parts? The whole precedes its parts — parts come after, but existence is prior to them all; existence needs nothing, while everything else is in need of It (muḥtāj ilayhi). It is the most prior of all; everything is posterior to It. Bear this in mind too: created things either arise purely from It — manifesting from the eternal abundance of Being — or, in our limited grasp, the portion of reality that lies beyond our power to perceive may seem to us absent; yet its absence-to-us is no proof of its non-existence. The fact that we cannot perceive a thing does not establish that it is not there.

There is no doubt, then, that this real Existence is a thing whose being is certain and established beyond question. Since every description we might offer carries an addition or a subtraction, His reality cannot be fully captured in any description: any definition we attempt would impose limits where there are none. All meanings, all attributes, are gathered in Him — for He is pure existence in His very essence; He is free of every need and every deficiency; He is the gathering-place of all the attributes of perfection (majmaʿ-e-ṣifāt-e-kamāliyya). He is the Cause of all, while He Himself has no cause (lā ʿilla lahu). It is for this reason that Allah said: qul huwa llāhu aḥad.

In the technical vocabulary of the verifying Sufis (ṣūfiyya ṣāfiya), existence (wujūd) is considered under four aspects: (1) al-Aḥadiyya — waḥdat muṭlaq, absolute Oneness: the purely undifferentiated Essence, beyond all multiplicity and all relation. (2) al-Wāḥidiyya — unity-in-relation: the One considered as gathering within It the attributes and names (martaba-e-ṣifāt, the level of the attributes). (3) al-Waḥdat — unity as the gathering of receptivities (jamʿ-e-qābiliyyāt): the One as embracing all potentialities. (4) al-Waḥdāniyya — divine sole-ness, that there is none alongside Him — which the kalima lā ilāha illā Llāh affirms.

Considered all together, these aspects are pointed to by the divine names in the verse huwa l-awwalu wa-l-ākhiru wa-l-ẓāhiru wa-l-bāṭin — "He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden" (al-Ḥadīd 57:3): al-Awwal and al-Ākhir ("the First" and "the Last") point to al-Aḥadiyya, the absolute Oneness, Huwa in Its pure unity; al-Ẓāhir ("the Manifest") points to al-Wāḥidiyya — the One as disclosed outwardly in Its names and attributes; and al-Bāṭin ("the Hidden") points to al-Aḥadiyya in Its inward, undisclosed depth.

The inner states (shuʾūn) of the Divine are of two kinds: the inner states of the Essence (shuʾūn ilāhiyya) and the inner states of the creation (shuʾūn khalqiyya). And within al-Wāḥidiyya, the objects of His knowledge — the fixed archetypes (aʿyān thābita) — are themselves of two kinds: (1) the divine archetypes (aʿyān ilāhiyya) and (2) the cosmic or created archetypes (aʿyān kawniyya). The whole adornment of the world stands upon the self-disclosure (tajallī) of the divine archetypes.

Consider, then, our own reality: we were as dead — blind, dumb, lifeless — and by the self-disclosure (tajallī) of the Life of Allah Most High we are made alive. By the self-disclosure of His Hearing and His Seeing we hear and see; by the trace of His Power (qudrat) and His Speech (kalām) the one endowed with will (murīd) moves and speaks by a will derived from Him. Keep this distinction in mind: the Sufis call real existence wujūd, external/concrete existence wujūd khārijī, and established existence in knowledge wujūd ʿilmī.

اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ

Allāhu l-ṣamad.

"Allah, the Self-Sufficient." (al-Ikhlāṣ 112:2)

al-Ṣamad carries several meanings. First: the firm, the immovable, that which is not subject to change — that whose own being is the absolute Cause (ʿilla) of all, while It is itself uncaused; the wholly actual, the pure actuality (fiʿliyya maḥḍa), awaiting no perfection it does not already possess. For what could the Necessary Existent (wājib al-wujūd) await, which is itself the Cause of every cause? The things subject to change are the contingents (mumkināt), the created things; their changes have causes and means — but He is the One upon whom all converge and who needs none. Second: al-Ṣamad means the Master, the Lord — and a master, the self-sufficient one to whom all turn, how could He not be the Chief and the Sovereign? Third: al-Ṣamad means the One free of all need (bē-niyāz, bē-ḥājat), a sense taken from ṣamadat al-nāqa ("the she-camel that wants for nothing"). Hence the Cause of all is utterly self-sufficient, while all else is in need of Him.

Translation: "Allah is the One subject to no change, free of all need."

Here a point deserves careful attention — namely, that this is a matter of relation (iḍāfāt). The word "Creator" (Khāliq) becomes true precisely when there is a creation to be created; in the same way a "Lord" (Rabb) requires that there be a nurtured-one (marbūb). So where, then, is His self-sufficiency (ṣamadiyya)? The answer is this: the self-sufficiency of Allah Most High is an essential, intrinsic independence (istighnāʾ dhātī). Take a beggar (gadā) before a king: the beggar says, "O my Master! O Living One! I confess that I am utterly in need of you — I depend on you for my food, for my very sustenance." But the king — though he lives in ease and comfort, eating and resting, wanting for nothing — even he, in the very act of displaying his generosity, is in need of the beggar (for without a petitioner there is no one upon whom to bestow). Even an earthly king’s independence is relative and entangled in need — whereas Allah’s self-sufficiency is absolute and belongs to His essence; He needs nothing and no one, while all need Him.

The root of the matter is this: the relations and the active attributes do not arise out of the Essence as something added to It. They are a coming-forth, from the Essence’s non-manifestation into manifestation, of what the Essence already contains — and the contingency (ḥudūth) of the manifestation does not entail any contingency in the underlying attribute itself. This manifestation of perfections is what is meant by kullu yawmin huwa fī shaʾn — "every day He is upon some task" (al-Raḥmān 55:29). With respect to the Essence, the attributes, and the root perfections, He is kamā kāna — exactly as He ever was, without addition or diminution.

[Poem by Ḥażrat Ṣiddīqī (may Allah have mercy on him):] "Bāb-e-waḥdat kā bun gayā darbān — wahm bāṭil bhī kyā qiyāmat hai" "The guardian of the door of unity has become — what a resurrection is the false illusion!"

لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ

lam yalid wa-lam yūlad.

"He neither begets, nor was He begotten." (al-Ikhlāṣ 112:3)

Translation: "He has no sons or daughters and no mother or father."

So it is proven that the existence which is the mabda al-wujūd (origin of existence) is that which has nothing before it — no equivalent. His mithl (likeness) is nothing — there is no comparison before its existence — there is no predecessor — the father, mother and children are the things that come before and after existence — and there is similarity and resemblance in them — where will the real existence start — whose real existence is whose equal? The moonlit night shows beautiful twinkling — marvellous — a person of singular wisdom sees only this — the wujūd (existence) is light, the non-existence (ʿadam) is darkness — wujūd itself is goodness and beauty — wujūd is knowledge —

وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ

wa-lam yakun lahu kufuwan aḥad.

"And there is none comparable to Him." (al-Ikhlāṣ 112:4)

Translation: "No one is His equal or comparable to Him."

So it is proven that as the wujūd (existence) the confrontation of nothing with it is possible — the confrontation of contingent relative existence is possible — but a true trustworthy presence of ʿadam (non-existence) is present — what does "non-existence" or "nothing" have? Nothing — so it has been made apparent that the wujūd is absolute reality and without equivalent.

Allāhumma arinā ḥaqāʾiqa l-ashyāʾi kamā hiya, tawaffanā muslimīna wa-aḥiqnā bi-l-ṣāliḥīn. Allāhumma arinal-ḥaqqa ḥaqqan wa-rzuqnā ittibāʿahu wa-arinal-bāṭila bāṭilan wa-rzuqnā-jtinābah. (O Allah, show us the realities of things as they truly are, grant us death as Muslims and unite us with the righteous. O Allah, show us the truth as truth and grant us the ability to follow it, and show us the false as false and grant us the ability to avoid it.)