Everything is already praising Him

The thunder. The birds. The mountains and the trees. Before you say a word, the whole of creation is already doing what you were made for.

Go outside tonight and everything you can see is engaged in something you cannot hear.

This is not poetry. It is what the Qur'an says plainly, in more than one place, about more than one kind of created thing. Every reference on this page is given so you can open the mushaf and read it for yourself.

The heavens, and everything in them

The Qur'an does not describe creation as silent scenery that Allah made and then left. It describes it as engaged, continuously, in His praise.

Surah Al-Isra (17 : 44) — The seven heavens and the earth and whatever is in them exalt Him — and there is nothing that does not glorify Him with praise, though you do not understand their glorification.

Read that last part slowly. It is not saying creation could praise Him. It says there is not one thing that does not — and that the reason you cannot hear it is a limitation in you, not an absence in them.

Surah Al-Jumu'ah (62 : 1) — Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth exalts Him.

The sky and the weather

When you were a child, thunder was frightening. The Qur'an gives it a different character entirely.

Surah Ar-Ra'd (13 : 13) — The thunder exalts Him with praise — and so do the angels, in awe of Him.

And when the heavens and the earth were first addressed, the Qur'an records their answer.

Surah Fussilat (41 : 11) — He said to the heaven and the earth: come, willingly or unwillingly. They said: we come willingly.

Willingly. Submission was not forced out of them. It was their answer.

The mountains, the stars, the trees

Surah Al-Hajj (22 : 18) — The sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the trees, the moving creatures — and many among mankind — prostrate to Allah.

Notice the structure of that verse. It lists the sun and moon and mountains without qualification. Then it reaches human beings and says many — not all. Everything else in the list is doing it already. We are the ones the verse has to count.

Surah Ar-Rahman (55 : 6) — The stars and the trees prostrate.

The birds, each with its own prayer

Surah An-Nur (24 : 41) — Do you not see that Allah is exalted by whoever is in the heavens and the earth, and by the birds with wings outspread? Each one knows its own prayer and its own way of glorifying.

Each one knows. Not a general instinct — its own. The bird outside your window has a form of worship assigned to it, and it has not forgotten it.

The angels, who do not tire

Surah Al-Anbiya (21 : 19–20) — Those with Him are not too proud to worship Him, and they do not tire — they exalt Him night and day without pause.

An entire order of creation exists whose whole occupation is this. They do not sleep, they do not weary of it, and they have never once refused.

Those who carry the Throne

Surah Ghafir (40 : 7) — Those who bear the Throne, and those around it, exalt their Lord with praise — and they ask forgiveness for those who believe.

Read the second half of that verse again. The greatest of the angels, occupied with the greatest task in creation, spend part of it asking Allah to forgive you.

The angels the Qur'an names

Jibril — Al-Baqarah (2 : 97–98). The one who brought the revelation down.

Mikail — Al-Baqarah (2 : 98), named alongside Jibril.

Malik — Az-Zukhruf (43 : 77), the keeper of the Fire.

Harut and Marut — Al-Baqarah (2 : 102), the two at Babylon.

The jinn, and us

Two kinds of creation were given something the mountains were not: the ability to refuse. And for both of them, the Qur'an states the purpose in a single verse.

Surah Adh-Dhariyat (51 : 56) — I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.

Everything above is already fulfilling its purpose without being asked twice. We are the ones who have to choose it — and that choice is the whole of the matter.

So who is He?

If the whole universe is oriented toward one Being, the next question is unavoidable. The Qur'an answers it in four lines — a surah short enough to learn tonight.

Surah Al-Ikhlas (112 : 1–4) — He is Allah, One. The Eternal, the Absolute. He does not beget, nor was He begotten. And there is none comparable to Him.

Surah Al-Hashr (59 : 22–24) — His names, listed one after another — and the statement that whatever is in the heavens and the earth exalts Him.

Surah Al-Baqarah (2 : 255) — Ayat al-Kursi. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him; His throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and guarding them does not tire Him.

Read those three and you have the answer the mountains already had.

The name of the thing

There is a word for what the thunder is doing, and the birds, and the trees, and the angels who never tire. It means submission — the willing kind, the kind the heavens gave when they said we come willingly.

That word is Islam. And the Qur'an names it directly.

Surah Al-Imran (3 : 19) — Indeed, the religion in the sight of Allah is Islam.

This is not an argument being made at you. This is a sentence in the Book, and you can go and read it in its place.

You already agreed once

There is one more verse, and it is the strangest and the most beautiful of them. The Qur'an says that before any of us arrived here, every soul was asked directly, and every soul answered.

Surah Al-A'raf (7 : 172) — He brought forth from the children of Adam their descendants, and made them testify: Am I not your Lord? They said: yes, we have testified.

Which means none of this is new information. It is a reminder of something already agreed to, by you, before you had a name.

The thunder never forgot. The birds never forgot. Only we forget — and only we are given the chance to remember.