The 365 · Verses · Day 35 · Mercy
The hadith of Ibn Abbas: if all the nations gathered to harm you with what Allah has not decreed, they could not. The verse the hadith was extracting from.
Qur'an 10:107
وَإِن يَمْسَسْكَ ٱللَّهُ بِضُرٍّ فَلَا كَاشِفَ لَهُۥٓ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ وَإِن يُرِدْكَ بِخَيْرٍ فَلَا رَآدَّ لِفَضْلِهِۦ ۚ يُصِيبُ بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
“If God inflicts harm on you, no one can remove it but Him, and if He intends good for you, no one can turn His bounty away; He grants His bounty to any of His servants He will. He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.”
Svenska: Om Gud låter en olycka drabba dig är Han den ende som kan avvärja den, och om Han vill skänka dig något gott kan ingen hindra detta goda [att nå dig]. Han skänker det till den Han vill av Sina tjänare. Han är Den som ständigt förlåter, Den som ständigt visar barmhärtighet.
The story
The hadith of Ibn Abbas. Al-Tirmidhi (classified hasan sahih) and Imam Ahmad. Ibn Abbas, a young boy at the time, was riding behind the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ called him 'O young man' and gave him this teaching. The hadith is one of the most-quoted in classical Islamic theology and is the operational form of 10:107.
The closing of Surah Yunus. Verse 107 is the third-from-last verse of the surah. The surah is named after Yunus (Jonah, peace be upon him), the prophet who fled his people, was swallowed by the whale, and called out from inside it: 'There is no god but You; glorified are You; I have been among the wrongdoers.' Allah saved him. The surah's argument across 109 verses is for one God who controls outcomes; verse 107 names the principle that allowed Yunus to call from the whale's belly with confidence: only Allah could remove the harm, and Allah did.
The pairing with 35:2. Both verses appear in classical theology as the foundational pair on tawakkul. 35:2 (Day 33): no one withholds what He gives. 10:107: no one removes what He inflicts. Together they exhaust the directions of divine intervention. Ibn Kathir cites 10:107 in his commentary on 35:2; al-Tabari cites both in his commentary on either.
The closing names. 'Al-Ghafur al-Rahim' - with the definite article in both. Not 'a forgiving, a merciful' but 'the Forgiving, the Merciful.' These are His names, in their absolute form. The verse closes the cosmic-sovereignty argument with the assurance that the cosmic Sovereign is, by name, defined by mercy.
In the language
'Yamsasaka' (touch you). The verb masasa in Arabic literally means 'to touch.' The verse uses a softer word for harm than the alternatives (yu'dhi - to hurt, yudirru - to harm). Why? Classical commentators note this is rhetorical. The harm Allah sends is, from His perspective, a touch - light, calibrated, never excessive. Even when the harm feels overwhelming to the recipient, the verb names it from the divine angle: a touch.
'Bi-durrin' (with harm). The word durr in Arabic is the noun form for harm, distress, affliction. The construction 'yamsasaka bi-durrin' (touches you with harm) personifies the act: harm is something Allah deploys deliberately, with intent, not a random event.
'Fa-la kashifa lahu illa huwa' (no one removes it but Him). Kashif is the active participle of kashafa (to uncover, to remove a covering). The image: harm is a veil thrown over you; only the One who threw it can lift it. Other agents (doctors, lawyers, friends) can be instruments through which He lifts it; they are not themselves kashifs.
'Yusibu bihi man yasha'u min 'ibadih' (He grants His bounty to any of His servants He will). Yusibu is from the same root as musibah (calamity) but used here for benefit. The verb means 'to reach with' or 'to strike with' - the same verb is used for both calamity and bounty in different contexts. The Quran's vocabulary refuses to make benefit and harm radically different verbs. Both are something Allah strikes you with, and both are part of His care.
Closing names with definite article. 'Al-Ghafur al-Rahim' - 'the Forgiving, the Merciful.' The definite article asserts uniqueness in the attribute. There are forgiving people, merciful people. There is only one al-Ghafur, al-Rahim.
Why this verse
Ibn Kathir: 'This verse contains the explanation that good, evil, benefit and harm only come from Allah alone.' The foundational verse for tawakkul. The pair-verse to 35:2.
Bring it into today
The verse has one direct application: stop fearing the wrong source.
Most human anxiety is misplaced agency. We fear the boss who could fire us, the test result that could be bad, the person whose opinion of us could shift, the economy that could collapse. The verse says: none of these is the actor. The actor is Him.
This does not mean the boss cannot fire you. It means: if the boss does, it was Allah using the boss as an instrument. If Allah did not will it, the boss could not have. So the appropriate object of your awareness is Allah, not the boss.
Three practical consequences:
1. Reduced anxiety about proximate causes. When you understand that the proximate cause is an instrument, the proximate cause stops being the source of your fear. Fear migrates upstream to its actual source: Allah. And Allah, by His own self-description in the verse's closing, is al-Ghafur al-Rahim.
2. Increased gratitude when good arrives. When good things happen, the proximate cause (a kind person, a lucky break, a successful effort) is also an instrument. The actor was Him. Gratitude reorients to Him.
3. Deeper trust in du'ā. If only He benefits and harms, then du'ā is the highest leverage you have. You are speaking directly to the agent.
A practice for one week: in any moment of fear or hope about an outcome, recite (or recall) the Ibn Abbas hadith. 'Know that if all the nations were to gather to benefit you with something, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had decreed for you.' Notice where the fear or hope relocates.
A reflection to carry
10:107 is one of the Quran's foundational tawhid verses. Ibn Kathir reads it as the verse that grounds tawakkul: 'No one shares with His power.' The famous hadith of Ibn Abbas (al-Tirmidhi, classified hasan sahih) is a direct extension: 'Know that if all the nations were to gather to benefit you with something, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had decreed for you. And if they gathered to harm you with something, they could not harm you except with what Allah had decreed for you.' The verse and the hadith name the same principle from two angles. The closing 'al-Ghafur al-Rahim' adds: even when His decree includes harm, His underlying disposition toward you is forgiveness and mercy. The harm is real; so is the mercy.
Read the longer reflection
Surah Yunus closes its central tawhid argument with this verse. After 106 verses presenting the case for one God, verse 107 distills it.
'If God inflicts harm on you, no one can remove it but Him; and if He intends good for you, no one can turn His bounty away; He grants His bounty to any of His servants He will. He is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.'
The verse is doing two things at once.
Theologically, it asserts what classical scholars call tawhid al-rububiyyah (oneness of lordship over outcomes). No created being shares Allah's power to benefit or harm. Idols cannot help. People cannot harm beyond what He decrees. Even cosmic forces - illness, accident, success, failure - are instruments, not actors. The actor is Him, alone.
Practically, the verse draws the conclusion. Since no one else benefits or harms, no one else deserves your worship, fear, or ultimate hope. This is why Ibn Kathir reads the verse as the foundational verse for tawakkul: it forecloses every alternative agency.
Ibn Kathir's gloss on the closing: 'He is forgiving and merciful towards those who turn to Him in repentance, regardless of what sin the person has committed. Even if the person associated a partner with Allah, verily Allah would forgive him if he repented from it.'
The verse's structure is theologically dense. It names:
1. Harm comes from Him.
2. Only He removes it.
3. Good comes from Him.
4. No one turns His good away.
5. He directs both to whom He wills.
6. Despite all of this, His underlying nature is forgiveness and mercy.
The sixth point is the key. A creator who has total control over harm and benefit is, in many religious traditions, terrifying. The Quran refuses that conclusion. The same God whose harm none can remove is the God whose underlying disposition is, fundamentally, forgiveness and mercy.
The famous hadith of Ibn Abbas. Al-Tirmidhi records (classified hasan sahih) the Prophet ﷺ saying to Ibn Abbas, then a young boy: 'O young man, I will teach you words. Be mindful of Allah, and He will preserve you. Be mindful of Allah, and you will find Him before you. When you ask, ask Allah; when you seek help, seek help in Allah. Know that if all the nations were to gather to benefit you with something, they would not benefit you except with what Allah had decreed for you. And if they gathered to harm you with something, they could not harm you except with what Allah had decreed for you. The pens are lifted and the pages have dried.'
This is 10:107 unfolded into life-instruction for a young boy. The Prophet ﷺ was teaching the verse in operational form.
Sources: Ibn Kathir. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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