Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:18
And He is the subjugator over His servants. And He is the Wise, the Acquainted [with all].
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His statement: وَهُوَ الْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِ وَهُوَ الْحَكِيمُ الْخَبِيرُ (18) (And He is the Subjugator over His servants, and He is the All-Wise, the All-Aware) (18).
Abū Jaʿfar said: He, exalted be His remembrance, means by His statement "and He" Himself. He says: And Allah is the One who stands victorious over His servants. And by His statement "the Subjugator (al-qāhir)" He means: the One who humbles and subdues His creation, who is exalted above them. He said only "over His servants" because He described Himself, exalted be His remembrance, as subjugating them. And it belongs to the attribute of everyone who subjugates something, that he is exalted above it.
The meaning of the statement is therefore: And Allah is the One who overpowers His servants, humbles them, is exalted above them through His humbling of them and His creating of them; He is thus above them through His subjugation of them, and they stand beneath Him. "And He is the All-Wise (al-ḥakīm)," He says: And Allah is the All-Wise in His exaltation above His servants, and in His subjugation of them through His power, and in all the rest of His ordainment. "The All-Aware (al-khabīr)" concerning the benefits of things and their harms, the One from whom the outcomes of affairs and their beginnings are not hidden, in whose ordainment no deficiency occurs, and into whose judgment no corruption enters.
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