تُسَبِّحُ لَهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتُ ٱلسَّبْعُ وَٱلْأَرْضُ وَمَن فِيهِنَّ وَإِن مِّن شَىْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِۦ وَلَٰكِن لَّا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ
Tusabbiḥu lahu'l-samāwātu'l-sabʿu wa'l-arḍu wa man fīhinn, wa in min shayʾin illā yusabbiḥu bi-ḥamdihi wa lākin lā tafqahūna tasbīḥahum, innahū kāna ḥalīman ghafūrā
"The seven heavens and the earth and all that is in them glorify Him. There is not a thing that does not glorify Him with praise. But you do not grasp their glorification. He is forbearing, much forgiving."
This verse is one of those most often used in claims of "scientific miracle", and per the method a record must be entered at the outset.
In this commentary no conclusion about physics, acoustics, vibration or the motion of particles is drawn from this verse. The ground is the verse's own sentence, and it is the strongest textual datum against the claim: wa lākin lā tafqahūna tasbīḥahum — "you do not grasp their glorification."
The verse, that is, closes off with its own sentence any claim to knowledge about itself. If it has been stated that a thing is not grasped, then producing an explanation about that thing runs against the verse's own datum.
The root: to understand a thing in depth, to grasp its inner face. What separates it from ʿilm in Arabic is the depth of the grasp.
The choice of verb must be recorded, and this is a datum of the language: the verse does not say lā tasmaʿūn (you do not hear), nor does it say lā taʿlamūn (you do not know). It says "you cannot grasp it in its depth".
I record this as an observation about the language: this choice of verb says that the matter is not one of perception but of the capacity to grasp.
The root س-ب-ح: to move by gliding through water or air, to flow along. The root was treated at 79/3 in al-Nāziʿāt (wa'l-sābiḥāti sabḥā) and at 36/40 in Yāsīn (kullun fī falakin yasbaḥūn). I do not repeat it here.
| Verse | Word | Whose |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subḥāna | The text — the opening of the sūra |
| 43 | Subḥānahu wa taʿālā | The text — an answer to a claim |
| 44 | Tusabbiḥu … yusabbiḥu … tasbīḥahum | Everything — three times |
| 93 | Qul subḥāna rabbī | The Prophet — an answer to a demand |
| 108 | Subḥāna rabbinā | Those given knowledge |
The root occurs in five places in the sūra and in five different mouths. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: the sūra opens with a sentence of glorification, states the universality of glorification at its middle, and towards its end puts the same sentence into two different mouths.
After it has been stated that everything glorifies Him, the expected close would be a name of majesty. The two names that come are ḥalīm and ghafūr.
The root ح-ل-م: not to hurry, not to grow angry, to grant respite. The root was named in al-Baqara (inna'llāha ghafūrun ḥalīm).
I record this as my own reading, and its support is the relation of the two names to the context: at the very place where it says that everything glorifies Him, the verse gives two names for those who do not glorify. The sentence thus says, by implication: within the whole of existence there is one exception, and towards that exception there is no haste.