(63–64) “Have you not seen that Allah sends down water from the sky, whereupon the earth turns green? Indeed, Allah is Most Subtle, All-Aware. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth. Indeed, Allah—He alone—is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy.”

This is an exhortation and encouragement from Him, exalted is He, to contemplate His signs, which attest to His oneness and perfection. He says: “Have you not seen”—that is, have you not observed with your physical sight and inner perception—“that Allah sends down water from the sky,” namely rain? It falls upon parched, barren land whose expanses have grown dusty and whose trees and plants have withered. Then it turns green, clothed in plants of every splendid kind, and thereby becomes a delightful sight. Indeed, the One who revives it after its death and lifelessness will surely resurrect the dead after they have become crumbled remains.

“Indeed, Allah is Most Subtle, All-Aware.” The Most Subtle is the One who apprehends the inner dimensions of things, their hidden aspects and secrets, and who brings good to His servant and wards evil away from him (1) through subtle means hidden from His servants. One manifestation of His subtle grace is that He allows His servant to witness His might in His retribution and the perfection of His power, then manifests His subtle grace after the servant has come to the brink of destruction. Another is that He knows where rain will fall upon the earth and where the seeds lie beneath its surface. He directs that water to the seed whose location is hidden from the knowledge of created beings, and from it He causes every variety of plant to grow. He is “All-Aware” of the secrets of all matters, what hearts conceal, and everything hidden.

“To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth.” All are His creatures and servants. He governs them through His sovereignty, wisdom, and perfect power, and no one besides Him has any share in the command.

“Indeed, Allah—He alone—is the Self-Sufficient”: self-sufficient in Himself and possessed of complete, absolute freedom from need in every respect. Part of His self-sufficiency is that He needs none of His creatures, takes none of them as allies out of weakness, and does not seek strength in their numbers because of any lack. Part of His self-sufficiency is that He has taken neither a consort nor a child. Part of His self-sufficiency is that He is the Self-Sufficient Master upon whom all depend: He neither eats nor drinks and has no need whatsoever for anything creatures need. He feeds but is not fed. Part of His self-sufficiency is that all creatures depend upon Him for their creation, preparation, and sustenance, and in both their religious and worldly affairs. Part of His self-sufficiency is that if all those in the heavens and on the earth, the living and the dead alike, were gathered upon a single plain, and each asked Him for all that his wishes could encompass, and He granted them even more than they wished, this would not diminish His dominion in the least. Part of His self-sufficiency is that His hand pours forth goodness and blessings by night and by day, and His beneficence continues with every breath. Part of His self-sufficiency and generosity is what He has stored in His abode of honor: that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and which has never occurred to any human heart.

“The Praiseworthy”—that is, praised in His Essence; in His names, because they are the Most Beautiful; in His attributes, because all of them are attributes of perfection; in His actions, because they revolve around justice, beneficence, mercy, and wisdom; and in His revealed law, because He commands only what brings a benefit that is either unalloyed or predominant, and forbids only what entails harm that is either unalloyed or predominant. To Him belongs praise that fills the heavens and the earth, all that lies between them, and whatever else He wills beyond that. His servants can never praise Him fully. Rather, He is as He has praised Himself and beyond the praise His servants render Him. He is praised for granting success to those to whom He grants it and for forsaking those whom He forsakes. He is Self-Sufficient in His praiseworthiness and Praiseworthy in His self-sufficiency.