سورة الإخلاص

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): Allah, Blessed and Exalted, is Ahad (One) and Samad, having no interior.

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Rabi ibn Muslim says: I heard Abu al-Hasan (peace be upon him), when he was asked about al-Samad, say: "Al-Samad is that which has no interior cavity."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): From al-Halabi and Zurarah, from Abu Abdillah (peace be upon him), who said: Indeed Allah, Blessed and Exalted, is One (Ahad), Samad; He has no interior (jawf).

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Dawud ibn al-Qasim al-Ja'fari said: I said to Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): 'May I be your ransom! What is al-Samad?' He said: 'The Master to whom all turn in [their needs], be they small or great.'

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Muhammad ibn Muslim said: I said: 'What is al-Samad?' He said: 'That which is not hollow.'

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Al-Samad is the Master upon whom all things rely and depend.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Dawud ibn al-Qasim said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about al-Samad. He said: 'That which has no navel.' I said: 'But they say it is that which has no interior.' He said: 'Everything that has an interior has a navel as well.'

Imam Husayn (peace be upon him): al-Samad is that which has no hollow inside it; and al-Samad is the one whose lordship has reached its utmost; and al-Samad is the one who does not eat and does not drink; and al-Samad is the one who does not sleep; and al-Samad is the Everlasting who has always been and will always be.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): al-Samad is the One who subsists by Himself and is independent of all besides Him. Another said: al-Samad is the One who is transcendent above coming into being and decay, and al-Samad is the One who is not described by any variation.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): al-Samad is the Master who is obeyed, above whom there is none who commands or forbids.

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him) was asked about al-Samad, and he said: "al-Samad is the One who has no partner, and the safeguarding of anything does not burden Him, and nothing is hidden from His awareness."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): When this verse was revealed, they said: "What is al-Samad?" The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: "He is the Master to whom recourse is made in needs."

Imam Husayn (peace be upon him): Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) narrated from his grandfather: The people of Basra wrote a letter to Imam Husayn (peace be upon him) and asked him about al-Samad. He wrote to them: "Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has interpreted al-Samad Himself." The Exalted said: اللهُ أَحَدٌ، اللهُ الصَّمَدُ [Allah is One, Allah is al-Samad], then He interpreted it and said: لَمْ یَلِدْ وَ لَمْ یُولَدْ وَ لَمْ یَکُنْ لَهُ کُفُواً أَحَدٌ [He begets not, nor is He begotten, and there is none comparable to Him]. He is Allah al-Samad, who is not from anything, nor in anything, nor upon anything. He is the Originator and Creator of things. He is the Maker of things by His power; whatever He has created by His will for annihilation, He disintegrates, and whatever He has created by His knowledge for permanence, He preserves. So He is Allah al-Samad, who [never] begot, nor was He begotten, and there has never been for Him any likeness or equal.

Al-Husayn (peace be upon him): The people of Basra wrote to al-Husayn ibn Ali (peace be upon him) asking him about al-Samad, so he wrote to them ... "Indeed He, glorified is He, has Himself explained al-Samad, for He said: اللهُ أَحَدٌ اللهُ الصَّمَدُ [Allah is One, Allah is al-Samad]. Then He explained it, saying: لَمْ یَلِدْ وَ لَمْ یُولَدْ وَ لَمْ یَکُنْ لَهُ کُفُواً أَحَدٌ [He begets not, nor is He begotten, and there is none equal to Him] ... And He is Allah al-Samad, who is not from anything, nor in anything, nor upon anything; the Originator of things and their Creator, the Bringer-into-being of things by His power. What He created for perishing dissolves by His will, and what He created to endure remains by His knowledge. That is Allah al-Samad, الَّذِی لَمْ یَلِدْ وَ لَمْ یُولَدْ عالِمُ الْغَیْبِ وَ الشَّهادَهًِْ الْکَبِیرُ الْمُتَعالِ وَ لَمْ یَکُنْ لَهُ کُفُواً أَحَدٌ [who begets not nor is begotten, the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Great, the Most High, and there is none equal to Him]."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Wahb Qurashi said: I heard Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) say: A group of the people of Palestine came to Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) and asked him about certain matters, and he (peace be upon him) said: "The tafsir of الصَّمَدُ [al-Samad] is within itself. الصَّمَدُ has five letters. The alif is proof of His self-existence (inniyya) and His enduring essence, and this is the word of Allah the Mighty and Majestic who said: 'Allah bears witness [by establishing the single order of the universe] that there is no god but He' (Al Imran/18). This is an alerting and an indication toward the One hidden from the perception of the senses. The lam is proof of His divinity (uluhiyya) and lordship — that He is the One Allah. The alif and the lam are merged together; they do not come out on the tongue and do not fall upon the ear, yet they appear in writing. These two are proof that His divinity is hidden through its subtlety, is not perceived by the senses, does not settle on the tongue of any describer and does not reach the ear of any hearer. For the tafsir of ilah (god) is this: He is the One from grasping whose whatness and howness — whether by sense or by imagination — the creatures are ma'luh (bewildered and lost); rather, He is the originator of imaginings and the creator of the senses. Yet at the time of writing they appear, and this is proof that Allah, glorified is He, made His lordship manifest in the origination of the creatures and in blending their subtle spirits into their dense bodies. So when a servant looks at himself he does not see his spirit, just as the lam in al-Samad is not pronounced and does not enter any of the five senses; but when a person looks at the writing, what was hidden and subtle becomes clear to him. So when the servant reflects on the whatness and howness of the Creator, he becomes bewildered and dumbfounded in it, and his thought does not reach anything that can be conceived for him, because Allah the Mighty and Majestic is Himself the creator of forms. But when the servant looks at His creatures, it is established for him that He, the Mighty and Majestic, is their creator and has blended their spirits into their bodies. As for the sad, it is proof that Allah the Mighty and Majestic is truthful (sadiq), His word is truth and His speech is truth, and He has called His servants to a truthful following of the truth, and indeed He has promised the abode of truth. As for the mim, it is proof of His sovereignty and dominion, and that He is the true Sovereign who always was, is, and will be. As for the dal, it is proof of the permanence and endurance of His sovereignty, and that He, the Mighty and Majestic, is everlasting and is exalted above coming into being and passing away; rather, He, the Mighty and Majestic, is Himself the Bringer-into-being of all beings — every existent thing exists through His bringing it into being." Then he (peace be upon him) said: "If I had found bearers for the knowledge that Allah the Mighty and Majestic has given me, I would have spread out tawhid, Islam, iman, religion and the laws of the shari'a from the heart of the word al-Samad."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): The Quraysh in Mecca said to the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family), "Describe your Lord for us so that we may know Him and thus worship Him." Then Allah, Blessed and Exalted, revealed to the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): "اللهُ الصَّمَدُ [Allah is He on Whom all depend] — the One whose lordship has reached its utmost, and the One to whom the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth turn with their needs."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Jabir ibn Yazid said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about the reality of tawhid (divine unity). He said: "Indeed Allah, whose Names by which He is called are blessed, and who is exalted in the loftiness of His essence, is One. In His oneness and solitude He is known as One; He caused His tawhid to flow among His creation. He is the One, the Samad (upon whom all depend), the Quddus (all-holy); everything worships Him, everything is in need of Him, and His knowledge encompasses all things. This is the correct meaning of al-Samad, not what the Mushabbiha (anthropomorphists) said — that Allah is a solid body without a hollow — for that description is confined to bodies, and Allah, exalted be His mention, is higher than that. He is greater and more sublime than that imaginations should reach His description or grasp the depth of His greatness. And if the meaning of al-Samad in describing Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, were 'solid,' it would contradict the saying of the Mighty and Majestic: 'Nothing is like unto Him' (Shura/11), for this meaning belongs to the attributes of solid bodies which have no hollow, such as stone and iron and other solid bodies without cavities — and Allah is greater than to be described in such a way."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Know that if there were a partner for your Lord, His messengers would have come to you, and you would have seen the traces of His dominion and sovereignty and known His attribute and act. But He is One Allah, as He Himself has described, and no one opposes or disputes Him in divinity, and He is the Creator of every thing.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Jabir ibn Yazid al-Ju'fi said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about tawhid (divine oneness). He said: "The names by which Allah the Exalted — whose remembrance be glorious and lofty — is called are blessed and everlasting. He, in the loftiness of His essence, is exalted; and He is the One who, in affirming His oneness, stood alone in His oneness, and then made this oneness flow over His creation. So He is the One, the Self-Sufficient, the Most Holy, who encompasses all things. This is the correct meaning in the interpretation of al-Samad, and not what the anthropomorphists have imagined and said in interpreting الصَّمَدُ [al-Samad], namely: al-Samad is a dense compacted thing whose middle is not empty; for this statement is only a description of a body, and Allah — whose remembrance be glorious and lofty — is far above such a description. He is greater and more majestic than that thoughts should reach His description or grasp the depth of His greatness. If the interpretation of الصَّمَدُ [al-Samad] in the description of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, were a dense compacted thing, that interpretation would contradict the words of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, who said: لَیْسَ کَمِثْلِهِ شَیْءٌ [There is nothing like Him]. (Shura/11) For this interpretation is among the attributes of dense, solid bodies whose middle is not empty at all — like stone, iron, and the rest of dense things that have no hollow. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, is far above such a description."

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Imam Kazim (peace be upon him), titled al-'Alim, who himself is more knowledgeable about his own words, said: "al-Samad is the very Lord and Master to whom recourse is made. And this is the correct meaning, in agreement with the words of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, who said: There is nothing like Him. (Shura/11) And al-Masmud ilayh (the one to whom recourse is made) in the language means al-maqsud (the one intended)."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Allah is Ahad (One) without the interpretation of number; Allah is al-Samad without any division in Him.