لَهُ مُلكُ السَّماواتِ وَالأَرضِ ۖ يُحيي وَيُميتُ ۖ وَهُوَ عَلىٰ كُلِّ شَيءٍ قَديرٌ

To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth: He gives life and brings death, and He has power over all things.

EXEGESIS

Mulk is sovereignty, kingdom, dominion. To Him belongs the kingdom (mulk) of the heavens and the earth is a recurring statement in the Quran (2:107, 3:189, 5:17, 5:18, 5:40, 5:120, 7:158, 9:116, 24:42, 25:2, and others) emphasising God’s absolute dominance and sovereignty over every realm. This kingdom (mulk) is in His hand (bi-yadihi) (67:1), meaning He has total power and authority over what He owns, to direct and control, and turn in any way He so chooses, for To Him belongs all sovereignty (al-mulk) (64:1).

From the same root as mulk is the word malakūt, which, though often translated as God’s kingdom (6:75, 7:185), refers to the inner aspect of things through which they face and connect to their Creator. This is more apparent in how malakūt is used in 23:88 and 36:83. And because of this meaning, of the inner or hidden aspect of things, when mulk and malakūt are mentioned together, mulk refers to the dominion that is apparent to man, meaning of the earth, whereas the latter denotes the dominion of what is hidden, meaning the heavens.[1]

See 67:1 for more on mulk. Also see 1:4 and 72:21 for the differences between mulk (kingdom) and milk (possession) as well as malik (king) and mālik (master, owner). And see 69:17 and 89:22 for the meanings of malak and malāʾikah as used for angels.

Samāwāt (sing. samāʾ) is heavens, and is derived from sumuww (highness, elevation). It denotes the roof of something; that which is above or higher than what it represents is its samāʾ. It appears very frequently in the Quran, in the singular (samāʾ) and plural (samāwāt), to denote many related matters, including rainfall, the sky and space above the earth, celestial bodies, and, in the metaphysical sense, of that which is ‘above’ what is visible to the physical senses. See 72:8 for more on the different meanings of samāʾ in the Quran.

In this surah alone, the heavens are mentioned six times (verses 1-2, 4-5, 10, and 21) and always along with the earth, as if to mean everything created or every existent besides God, the giver of existence.

The phrase To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth often also ends with and He has power over all things, or similar such expressions, as ‘He creates whatsoever He pleases’, and so on. Likewise, the words He gives life and brings death recurs frequently, to emphasise that God is in complete control of all that exists and nothing can come about – good or bad – without His knowledge and wisdom allowing for it.

In verse 1 God was described as all-mighty (al-ʿazīz), and now He is depicted as having power over all things (qadīr). His might (ʿizzah) is His dominion over anything opposed to Him, while His power (qudrah) highlights His unrestricted ability to create, own, and control anything.

And He has power over all things: after the mention of He gives life and brings death, this also highlights that nothing has the power to give itself life or bring about its own death. It points to God’s absolute omnipotence – qadīr being the absolute qādir – without any restriction or condition and, in doing so, it serves to remove any doubt in one who may wonder how God will bring the dead back to life after their complete disintegration and without any apparent trace (cf. 36:78-79).

EXPOSITION

The ownership in the words To Him belongs is not symbolic or legislative but is real and universal. It means everything depends on Him and is brought to existence by Him and He encompasses everything as the sole owner of the heavens and the earth. His ownership of every existent includes their essence, actions, and every attribute conceivable. He commands as He pleases and everything submits to His decree including the thoughts and emotions of man. There is no true command, sovereignty, or authority except His and hence it is not merely to Him belongs the heavens and the earth but rather To Him belongs the kingdom (mulk), dominion, and sovereignty of the heavens and the earth.

Whatever anyone else claims to own is merely symbolic and a short-lived custody before it returns to the only true owner and its possessor: Say: ‘O Allah, master (mālik) of all sovereignty (al-mulk)! You give sovereignty to whomever You wish, and strip of sovereignty whomever You wish’ (3:26). See also 1:4, 6:73, 22:56, 25:26, and 40:16.

It is in the backdrop of this realisation, and what is emphasised in the first six verses of the surah, that the faithful are invited to spend out of what God has given them from verse 7 onward, and to devote themselves to God with sincere faith and dedication.

He gives life and brings death points to two divine names: the Giver of Life (al-muḥyī) and the Causer of Death (al-mumīt)[2] and they apply to all things including His giving of life to angels and other higher beings, or to the foetus in the womb, or His resurrecting the dead on Judgement Day, or His creating of solid inanimate things as dead without a precedence of life, and His causing humans to die in this world, and again in the intermediate world (barzakh), before the final resurrection on the Day of Judgement (40:11). In fact, the words He gives life and brings death (yuḥyī wa yumīt) is given in the imperfect tense suggesting repetition and the validity of their application to infinite scenarios (2:28, 2:258, 3:156, 7:158, 9:116, 10:56, 22:6, 23:80, 40:68, 44:8, 53:44).

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Rāzī argues that the physical kingdom of the heavens and the earth in comparison to the actual dominion of God’s perfection is but an atom or less. This is because the kingdom of the heavens and the earth has limits (since it is created) while God’s perfection and power do not. But God mentions this because it is only what man’s limited imagination and intellect can perceive and withstand.^[3]

And for Mulla Sadra, the words He gives life and brings death can also be metaphorical. To prove this, he quotes three interpretations for this verse: from Imam Ali (a) it is reported: ‘He gives life through obedience [to Him] and brings death through disobedience [to Him].’ And from Abū Bakr al-Warrāq it is reported: ‘He gives life through knowledge and brings death through ignorance.’ And finally, from Ibn Abbas: ‘He brings life at the resurrection and brings death in the world.’ Thereafter Sadra adds: ‘These three statements are similar in meaning because the life by knowledge and obedience is like the life of souls in the afterlife, and the death by ignorance and disobedience is like the death of bodies in this world.’^[4]

Such metaphorical interpretations do not seem farfetched when read with other verses such as: O you who have faith! Answer Allah and the Apostle when he summons you to that which will give you life (8:24).

[1] Lane, m-l-k.
[2] These two names do not occur in the Quran but are a part of the ninety-nine beautiful divine names and they are inspired by this and many other such Quranic verses.
[3] Razi, 29/444.
[4] Sadra, 6/152.