al-Mulk 67:1

Tabāraka'lladhī bi-yadihi'l-mulku wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr "Blessed is He in whose hand is the dominion; and He is powerful over everything."

Root: ب-ر-ك. And the concrete sense of this root is the place that carries all the abstract uses of the word.

Baraka'l-baʿīr — the camel knelt. The camel's setting its breast to the ground and settling, not hurrying to rise. The derivatives of the root confirm this picture:

• بَرْك (birk) — the camel's breast; the part that touches the ground when it kneels.
• مَبْرَك (mabrak) — the place where the camel kneels, a halting-place.
• بِرْكَة (birka) — a pool. That is, water that does not flow, that stands in one place. In Turkish, the resemblance to the words birikinti ("a pool of standing water") and birikmek ("to accumulate") is a coincidence, but it conveys the sense well: a birka is water that has gone and settled.
• بَرَكَة (baraka) — the good that settles in a thing and stays and increases.

Now the real definition of "blessing" comes out, and it differs from the way the English word is used: blessing does not mean "abundance". Blessing is permanence and increase. A thing that is much may not be blessed — it runs out quickly. A thing that is little may be blessed — it stays and multiplies.

This distinction stands in the root of the word: the camel, when it kneels, stops; the pool, because it does not flow, remains. The picture of blessing is a good that settles somewhere and does not get up from there.

In the places where the Qurʾān uses this word, this sense can be seen:

• "And He has made me blessed wherever I may be" (Maryam 19/31) — the words of Jesus (ʿĪsā) in the cradle. Blessing here is not a quantity but a continuous quality attached to a person.
• "And We sent down blessed water from the sky" (Qāf 50/9) — the blessing of rain is its staying where it falls and producing.
• "We sent it down on a blessed night" (al-Dukhān 44/3).
• "From a blessed tree, an olive" (al-Nūr 24/35).

The word is in Form VI (tabāraka). In Arabic this form generally conveys reciprocity (taqātala — they killed one another) or gradual becoming (tanāwama — he acted as though falling asleep). But here it carries neither function; the lexicographers say that this form here conveys abundance and greatness: tabāraka — His blessing became exceedingly great and high, He is exalted.

And what is really worth recording is this: in the Qurʾān this verb is used only of God.

Tabāraka is not said of any human being, angel, prophet or object. The conjugation of the word is defective as well: its imperfect, its verbal noun and its active participle are not used. It comes only in this one form, with one person, with one subject.

Of the places where it occurs, those I am sure of:

• "Behold, His is the creating and the commanding. Blessed is God, the Lord of all the worlds" (al-Aʿrāf 7/54)
• "Blessed is God, the best of creators" (al-Muʾminūn 23/14)
• "Blessed is He who sent down the Furqān upon His servant" (al-Furqān 25/1)
• "Blessed is He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth" (al-Zukhruf 43/85)
• "Blessed is the name of your Lord, possessor of majesty and honour" (al-Raḥmān 55/78)

Looking at this list an order appears: tabāraka comes when an ownership or an act is to be mentioned immediately afterwards. That is, the word is not an exclamation of praise but a heading: one must look at what comes after it.

In Sūrat al-Mulk what comes after it is: the dominion.

The word order of the sentence calls for attention. The normal order would be "al-mulku bi-yadihi" — "the dominion is in His hand". The verse has brought bi-yadihi forward.

In Arabic the element brought forward conveys restriction. This rule was treated in the discussion of the basmala: when "in the name of God" is brought forward, the sense "in His name only" arises. The same rule works here: the dominion is in His hand only. Not in another hand, and not partly in another hand either.

And the matter of the "hand". Expressions ascribed to God in the Qurʾān such as yad (hand), wajh (face), ʿayn (eye) are the most debated subject in the history of kalām. The method held to in this commentary is the following, and it will be applied once more later in the sūra (68/42, sāq):

I take no side between the two positions. Both have a ground and both agree on the principle that God does not resemble created things — where they differ is in how the wording is to be handled.

This much should be recorded as a linguistic datum: in Arabic the idiom "bi-yadi fulān" is used in everyday speech for authority and disposal. It has exactly the same structure as the English "the matter is in his hands", and in English nobody understands this as an organ. This is the linguistic ground of the taʾwīl side; the tafwīḍ side says that this ground is not enough to settle the revealed wording.

Root: م-ل-ك. To own, to hold in hand, to have disposal over. Beneath the root lies an idea of holding tightly; the lexicographers record the closeness between malakahu (he owned it) and malakahu (he held it fast).

Its derivatives show the field of meaning:

• مِلْك (milk) — ownership, having something as one's property.
• مُلْك (mulk) — sovereignty, rule; not only ownership but the authority to dispose.
• مَلِك (malik) — king.
• مَالِك (mālik) — owner.
• مَلَكُوت (malakūt) — the highest, unseen layer of the dominion.

In the discussion of al-Fātiḥa the readings mālik / malik and the difference between them were treated: mālik conveys ownership, malik sovereignty; one brings the relation of property to the fore, the other the relation of authority. The word mulk used here is the common subject of those two words — the thing itself that is owned and disposed of.

And the point to note: the verse does not say of what the dominion is. It does not say "the dominion of the heavens and the earth"; it says only "al-mulk". At al-Zukhruf 43/85 the construct was made; here it has not been.

This is the same as the rule recorded for al-ghāshiya in the discussion of al-Ghāshiya: a word whose object is not stated becomes unlimited. Had it said "the dominion of such-and-such", a place outside that dominion would have remained. Since it is not said, none remains.

Root: ق-د-ر. And the proper sense of this root is not "power" but measure.

Qadara — he measured, he determined its quantity. Qadar — what has been measured. Miqdār — quantity. Taqdīr — measuring out.

In the discussion of al-Fajr (89/16) this root was dwelt on and it was debated whether the expression "fa-qadara ʿalayhi rizqahu" means "to straiten" or "to measure". The finding there is useful here: at the centre of the root stands measuring, not straitening; straitening is a consequence of the measure.

From this the exact equivalent of the word qadīr emerges: not the possessor of brute force, but the one who can do a thing to its measure. Power, in this Arabic root, is force joined with quantity. To be able is not enough; one must do it knowing how much is to be done.

And this will take on meaning when joined with the third verse: "You will see no disharmony in the creation of the Merciful." The absence of disharmony is the measure's having been hit exactly. That is, the last word of the first verse is the ground of the third verse's claim. I record this as my own reading.

The sentence "the dominion is His" can easily turn into a ceremonial sentence — it is said, and one passes on. The whole of the sūra is built to prevent this: after the sentence, an inventory is drawn up across thirty verses.

And the logic of the inventory is simple: a claim of ownership is tested by the possibility of losing what is owned. Can the person who says he owns a thing go on holding it? Can he hold the water, the air, the heartbeat, the fixity of the ground?

The sūra does not once say "you are not the owner". It only asks questions. And the answer to the questions appears as soon as they are asked.