Iqra

Learn the Qur’an, one ayah at a time.

68 of 99

الصَّمَدُ

As Samad

The Supreme Provider

Scroll on for a reflection, and where you’ll meet it

Reflection

Two senses at once, and the lexicons give both: something solid with no hollow anywhere in it, and the one everybody turns to in need — the person a whole tribe goes to when there is nowhere else. Solidity and being turned to are one fact, described from inside and from outside.

This root occurs exactly once in the entire Qur’an, in the second ayah of Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, and that once is this name: two words long, standing between the ayah that says He is One and the ayah that says He did not beget. A word used only once, and placed there, is a word worth reading slowly.

Where you’ll meet it

A few of the ayat where this name’s written form appears.