al-Ṣaff 61:1

Sabbaḥa lillāhi mā fi'l-samāwāti wa mā fi'l-arḍ, wa huwa'l-ʿAzīzu'l-Ḥakīm

"Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth has declared God free of all imperfection. He is al-ʿAzīz, al-Ḥakīm."

Root س-ب-ح. And the concrete sense of the root is the key to every use of the word: to move swiftly and without obstruction in water or in air — to swim.

• سَبَحَ فِى ٱلْمَآءِ — he swam in the water.
• ٱلسَّابِحَات — those that swim swiftly (al-Nāziʿāt 79/3).
• سَبْح — as was treated in the section on al-Muzzammil (73/7: sabḥan ṭawīlā), the long current of the daytime that takes a person into itself and carries him along.
• The Qurʾān uses the same root of the heavenly bodies: "each one swims in an orbit (yasbaḥūn)" (al-Anbiyāʾ 21/33, Yā Sīn 36/40).

So what lies between "to swim" and "to declare God free of all deficiency"?

The classical explanation is this: tasbīḥ, in the word's own logic, is a verb of removal. What swims departs swiftly from where it was. The one who performs tasbīḥ likewise carries God far away from any deficiency that might be conceived of Him. Tasbīḥ, then, is not a praise; it is a purification. Accordingly the expression subḥānallāh means "I declare God free of all deficiency" — not "I commend God".

This distinction also shows the difference between ḥamd and tasbīḥ. As was seen in the section on al-Fātiḥa, ḥamd is a positive word turned towards beauty. Tasbīḥ works by way of negation: it says what is not the case. The two often come side by side in the Qurʾān (subḥānallāhi wa bi-ḥamdih) and together they set up a complete frame: far from deficiencies (tasbīḥ) and the owner of all beauties (ḥamd).

The verb is سَبَّحَ — the perfect (māḍī, past tense). "It declared / it has declared God free of all imperfection."

This is a striking choice, because tasbīḥ is an ongoing business and the imperfect (muḍāriʿ) would have been expected. Indeed the Qurʾān does use the imperfect with this root in other openings.

The sūras that open with this root form a group in the Qurʾān, and in the tradition they are called al-musabbiḥāt. The distribution of the verb forms is as follows:

The same verb, in four different forms. This distribution is no coincidence; each form states a direction. The perfect: done, completed, entered on the record. The imperfect: it is going on. The imperative: it is asked of you.

The function of the perfect here opens up when it is considered together with the rest of the sūra — and this is a reading, not a transmitted report: the sūra is about to address a community that does not do what it says. In the opening, by contrast, it is recorded that the whole of existence has long since done its own work. Nothing in the universe says anything other than what it is; nothing defers its promise. And then, in the second verse, man comes.

This reading is not binding; but that the two verses stand side by side is worth noting.

The verse says مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ. In Arabic mā is used of beings without reason and of things in general, man of those who possess reason.

Here mā has been chosen. The scope is therefore not limited to those who possess reason; everything is meant. The Qurʾān elsewhere generalises this tasbīḥ explicitly: "There is nothing that does not declare Him free of all imperfection together with His praise; but you do not understand their tasbīḥ" (al-Isrāʾ 17/44).

The two names were analysed in the section on al-Mumtaḥana, at 60/5: al-ʿAzīz — its root ع-ز-ز, ground that is hard and difficult of access; al-Ḥakīm — its root ح-ك-م, to bridle, to hold back.

And a detail worth noting: the fifth verse of al-Mumtaḥana, the sūra immediately preceding it in the order of the muṣḥaf, also ended with exactly these two names (innaka anta'l-ʿAzīzu'l-Ḥakīm). Two neighbouring sūras share the same pair of names.

That the two names stand at the opening of this sūra agrees with its content. al-ʿAzīz: a rank is to be formed, a fight is to be mentioned, a superiority is to be promised — the source of the power is stated at the outset. al-Ḥakīm: but that power is not used without measure; the promise that will come at the end of the sūra is not arbitrary either.