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Ibrāhīm 14:8

The Qurʾān · Sūra 14: Ibrāhīm · verse 8

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

14/8

وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰٓ إِن تَكْفُرُوٓا۟ أَنتُمْ وَمَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ جَمِيعًا فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَغَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌ

Wa qāla Mūsā in takfurū antum wa man fi'l-arḍi jamīʿan fa-inna'llāha la-ghaniyyun ḥamīd

"Moses said: 'Were you and everyone on earth together to deny, know that God is rich beyond need, worthy of all praise.'"

The enlarging of the condition

In the seventh verse the condition was addressed to a community (la-in kafartum). In the eighth the same condition is repeated with its scope opened to the limit: antum wa man fi'l-arḍi jamīʿan — "you and everyone on earth together."

I record this as an observation about the word order: the verse carries a supposition to its furthest point. And even at that furthest point the outcome does not change.

لَغَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌ

The root غ-ن-ي: being without need, sufficiency. Ghinā — wealth; but the core of the root is not standing in need of a thing. Ghaniya ʿani'sh-shayʾ — he had no need of it.

And the second name must be recorded: ḥamīd.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is that the two names come together: had ghanī come alone, the sentence would have said no more than "He has no need of you" — a declaration of indifference. When ḥamīd is added the sense changes: His being worthy of praise does not depend on there being anyone to praise Him. That is, the freedom from need is given not as coldness but as the source of the praise not lying outside Him.

And these two names join with the first verse of the sūra: there it was al-ʿAzīzu'l-Ḥamīd. The same name, in two different pairs.


The whole of Sūrat Ibrāhīm