How to Overcome Division through Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn — “The Lord of All Worlds”: Focusing on Qur’an 79:1–5

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This essay attempts to reread the “oaths” in Qur’an 79:1–5, not limiting them to the traditional interpretation of angels extracting souls, but returning instead to the Arabic roots: نزع・نشط・سبح・سبق・دبر.
By understanding these as a chain of movements — “pulling away,” “untying,” “swimming,” “preceding,” and “the work of arranging or ordering” — the essay suggests the existence of an invisible foundation that supports Allah’s ongoing creation.
While drawing on Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s multi-layered interpretation, it reconsiders Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn — “the Lord of all worlds” — as a “receptive ground” that enfolds a divided world.

What Does It Mean to Swear by “Angels”?

“Us” and “them,” “we” and “those people.”
For example, how can we associate with people whose faiths, languages, values, principles, claims, cultures, and customs differ from our own, build good relationships with them, cooperate with them, and live together?
Since the so-called Age of Discovery, the range of human activity has expanded to a global scale, and the domination of the poor by the wealthy has continued to progress. Colonial rule; the sweep of industrial capitalism and then financial capitalism; the domination of the weak by money and power. Or, domination through socialist and communist regimes formed by the solidarity of workers; and further still, domination by violence under dictatorial systems. In any case, those who possess impose domination and subordination upon those who do not possess. Rulers demand that people revere them as gods, and if people do not accept this, their lives are placed in danger. Even after two world wars, such things still continue.
When this is combined with a principle that prioritizes “national interest,” “they” and “those people” not only lose their connection with society, but become objects of attack and exclusion. They are isolated within society, and ultimately their very existence may be threatened.

Toward Whom Do Our Prayers Go?

Why do we fall into such a situation? One thing that can be said with certainty is that between our Lord and their Lord, or between our god and their god — even if we say “god,” this does not necessarily mean a single deity, and it may also include objects of faith that take the place of God — there may be an unbridgeable gulf, and this can at any moment be transformed into a human conflict over gods.
It may never occur to us that our god and their god could be the same. For example, if one asks Japanese people, “Do you ever turn to the gods in times of trouble, or pray to the Buddha?” the answer will usually be “yes.” But if one then asks, “Is that Allah?” the answer will usually be “no.” Even if people cling to the gods or the Buddha in prayer, Allah is not present at the destination of that prayer.
Then, if a Muslim appears — someone who believes in Allah and performs the daily prayers — people will likely say that our god and their god are different. Of course, at the level of the Constitution of Japan, both Japanese forms of faith and Muslim faith are accepted, and the Constitution proclaims respect for basic human rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Yet it is not impossible that a tyrant might appear and push constitutional revision forward by the force of numbers.

Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn

Among the words that Muslims recite as a verse of the Qur’an in every prayer is Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn (رب العالمين):

“The Lord of all worlds” means the Lord of all created beings in this world, or the Lord of all human beings.
Because He is the Lord of all beings and all peoples, those beings and peoples must include different nationalities, races and ethnicities, rich and poor, different faiths, ideologies, origins, and histories. It is Allah as “the Lord of all worlds” who receives all of these things as they are.
In other words, what is called “Allah” here is not a god in the sense of “Jesus is the God of Christianity,” or “the God of Islam,” or “such-and-such is a god for believers.”
Rather, He is the Lord of all created beings in this world, or the Lord of all human beings in this world — regardless of whether they have faith or not, regardless of what they believe in, and including even unbelievers and transgressors. He is the Lord of all human beings.

What Is the Purpose of the Qasam?

The actual agents who carry out the command of Allah are the angels. They are loyal servants who never disobey Allah’s command. The first verse of Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt is generally understood as an oath in which these angels are invoked.[2] Al-nāziʿāt is interpreted as referring to “angels.”[3]
Al-nāziʿāt means “those who pull out.” First, this is interpreted as referring to the souls of unbelievers: the angels pull out their souls with great force. The following second verse is interpreted as referring to the extraction of the souls of believers. Compared with the unbelievers, however, the taking of believers’ souls is easy, and the angels are interpreted as taking their souls gently, as if accompanying them with care.
The “swimmers” in the third verse are interpreted as angels who hasten, as if swimming through water, in order to carry out Allah’s command. The “those who hasten ahead” in the fourth verse are interpreted as angels who carry the souls of believers to Paradise.
Furthermore, the “those who carry out the command” in the fifth verse are those who bring about affairs in the existence of this world, such as rain, wind, provision, and lifespan.
According to al-Ṣābūnī, Allah swears by these five because He is swearing that resurrection in the Hereafter is true.

The Risk of Context-Dependent Interpretation

In this commentary by al-Ṣābūnī, there seems to be a tendency to determine the meaning in accordance with the context, perhaps because he is trying to read these expressions as referring to angels and as serving as an oath that the resurrection on the Last Day is true.
For example, regarding al-nāshiṭāt nashṭan, he explains it as meaning that the souls of believers can be taken easily. Yet when we consider nashaṭa, it can mean “to be active” or “to tie a knot.” Taking these meanings into account, there may be some distance between the word itself and “the extraction of souls from pious believers.”
To go back slightly, the reading of the word gharqan in the first verse is also noteworthy. Generally, it is taken as referring to the state of drawing something, such as a bow, with maximum force. From there, it is explained as the forceful pulling out of the souls of unbelievers. Yet the same root, gharaqa, means “to drown.” If so, there may also be a possible direction of interpretation in which it is understood as a force like being sunk deep beneath the sea, where gravity and water pressure work at the same time.

Returning to the Three-Consonant Roots

Here, I would like to confirm the original meanings of the verbs used in these five expressions.[4]
النّازعات (al-nāziʿāt) comes from the three-consonant root نزع, meaning “to pull away” or “to separate.” It indicates a force of separation, a movement of detachment.
النّاشطات (al-nāshiṭāt) comes from the root نشط, meaning to untie a knot, or to be active.
السّابحات (al-sābiḥāt) comes from the root سبح, meaning “to swim.” It may be understood as a movement that swims, or moves as if swimming, within a field.
السّابقات (al-sābiqāt) comes from the root سبق, meaning precedence, difference in speed, or competition.
المدبّرات (al-mudabbirāt) comes from the root دبّر, meaning to govern, direct, or arrange. Thus, it indicates the movement of “the work of arranging” and “the formation of order.”
As long as Allah’s creation continues, these movements do not cease. Allah’s creation itself is possible through such movements. In the ordinary interpretation, these events — beginning with the extraction of the souls of unbelievers — may be understood as showing that the Last Day is true. Yet Allah’s creation is still continuing now. And if that creation is realized through the activities of the angels, then may these five verses not be read as hinting at the unceasing movement that supports the existence of the world of Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn, and, as the field of that movement, at the inner reality of something like the foundation or basis of Allah’s creation at a level invisible to the naked eye?

What Enfolds Division

Remarkably, the commentary of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, who lived in the twelfth century CE, is broader in scope than the modern commentary of al-Ṣābūnī.[5] Regarding the opening five verses of Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt, al-Rāzī introduces not only the reading that interprets them as “angels,” but also readings that interpret them as “stars,” “souls,” “the horses of warriors,” “the warriors themselves,” and “the stages by which the heart returns to Allah.” He also mentions the possibility that each of the five expressions may refer to something different.
Moreover, in any case, these interpretations have not been transmitted as explicit statements from the Messenger of Allah. Therefore, room for interpretation opens up. Yet although each interpretation is possible, one cannot assert decisively that the intention of Allah Most High is this or that. One can only present it as a possibility.
If we follow his method of interpretation, then on the basis of the meanings indicated by the roots, it also falls within an acceptable range to read these expressions as indicating the field-like movements of something particle-like, and the existence of the field itself.
This points to the world of Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn as the invisible support of the creation of Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn: something like a foundation, a basis, or a platform.
Especially when we take into account the continuous effort of Muslims to seek out the intention of Allah, this can surely be understood as something that functions as a foundation that does not collapse even amid division. No matter how intense the division may be, it is the field of the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful — a field that can function as a receptive ground, and even lead toward reconciliation.
Allāhu aʿlam — Allah knows best.

Footnotes

[1] Qur’an 1:2.
[2] Qur’an 79:1–5.
[3] Al-Ṣābūnī, Ṣafwat al-Tafāsīr.
[4] An arrangement based on the Arabic three-consonant roots: نزع・نشط・سبح・سبق・دبر.
[5] Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr / Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb, commentary on Sūrat al-Nāziʿāt, Qur’an 79.

Special Thanks to: ChatGPT

Cover Image:

The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA) NASA Headquarters — Greatest Images of NASA (NASA-HQ-GRIN) — http://nix.larc.nasa.gov/info;jsessionid=1sl2so6lc9mab?id=GPN-2000-000933&orgid=12

Acknowledgements

This English version was prepared with the support of ChatGPT.
The author gratefully acknowledges its assistance in translation and linguistic clarification.

Original version in Japanese:

「ラッブ・ル・アーラミーン(万有の主)」による分断の乗り越え方：《聖典クルアーン》「ナーズィアート章」第1–5節を中心に