The 365 · Verses · Day 120 · Mercy
Allah's mercy encompasses all things. The Prophet ﷺ rebuked the bedouin who narrowed it: 'You have restricted a vast mercy.'
Qur'an Q 7:156
۞ وَٱكْتُبْ لَنَا فِى هَـٰذِهِ ٱلدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ إِنَّا هُدْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ۚ قَالَ عَذَابِىٓ أُصِيبُ بِهِۦ مَنْ أَشَآءُ ۖ وَرَحْمَتِى وَسِعَتْ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ ۚ فَسَأَكْتُبُهَا لِلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ وَيُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَٱلَّذِينَ هُم بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
“...'Grant us good things in this world and in the life to come. We turn to You.' God said, 'I bring My punishment on whoever I will, but My mercy encompasses all things. I shall ordain My mercy for those who are conscious of God and pay the prescribed alms; who believe in Our Revelations.' (Abdel Haleem)”
Svenska: ...'Låt gott komma oss till del i detta liv och i det eviga livet. Ja, Vi vänder tillbaka till Dig.' [Gud] svarade: 'Jag låter Mitt straff drabba den Jag vill; men Min nåd och Min barmhärtighet når överallt och Min nåd skänker Jag dem som fruktar Gud och ger åt de behövande och som tror på Mina budskap...' (Knut Bernström)
The story
Ibn Kathir reads this verse within the Mūsā narrative. After the seventy chosen men were struck by lightning for asking to see Allah directly, Mūsā stood weeping and asked forgiveness. Allah's response is verse 7:156. Ibn Kathir cites the Prophet's ﷺ hadith of the bedouin who supplicated narrowly: 'O Allah, grant Your mercy to me and to Muḥammad ﷺ, and do not give a share in it to anyone else.' The Prophet ﷺ rebuked him: 'You have restricted a vast mercy! Allah has divided mercy into 100 parts; He sent down 1 to the earth (through which all creatures show mercy to each other); He has retained 99 with Himself.' (Bukhārī 6000, Muslim 2752.)
In the language
وَسِعَتْ (wasiʿat, 'encompasses') is from w-s-ʿ, the root of vastness, expansion, comprehensiveness. The verb is in the perfect tense: Allah's mercy has already encompassed all things. كُلَّ شَيْءٍ (kulla shayʾ, 'all things') is unrestricted. The verse explicitly names the universal scope. سَأَكْتُبُهَا (sa-aktubuhā, 'I will ordain it') uses the future tense; the structural mercy-decree for the muttaqūn is forthcoming.
Why this verse
Q 7:156 is one of the Quran's structural foundations of mercy-theology. Allah's mercy has already encompassed everything; the question is not whether the believer can access mercy but whether he positions himself within the named mercy-recipient categories. The verse names three: those of taqwa, those who give zakāh, those who believe in His verses.
Bring it into today
When you encounter another Muslim whose practice differs from yours (in madhhab, in style, in level of observance), remember the verse. Allah's mercy encompasses all things; do not be the one who narrows it. Make duʿāʾ for the broader Ummah, not just for those like you. The Prophetic standard.
A reflection to carry
The verse is the structural foundation of Islamic mercy-theology. Allah's mercy has already encompassed everything; the question is not whether the believer can access mercy but whether he positions himself within the named mercy-recipient categories. The diseased soul (despair, qunūṭ) is the soul that has forgotten the universal scope of the mercy and the operational pathways of accessing the specific mercy-decree.
Read the longer reflection
Ibn Kathir's commentary on the bedouin-rebuke hadith is operationally important: the Prophet ﷺ himself corrected someone who narrowed the mercy. The believer who carries any conception of Allah's mercy as limited to himself, his community, his sect, his school of thought, has fallen into the same restriction the Prophet ﷺ rebuked. The structural correction: 100 parts of mercy; 1 in the world; 99 reserved for the Day of Resurrection. Even the kindness mares show their foals is from Allah's mercy. The classical scholars wrote that this verse is the structural anchor against any sectarian narrowing of Allah's mercy.
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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