قُلِ ٱلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَسَلَـٰمٌ عَلَىٰ عِبَادِهِ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱصْطَفَىٰٓ ۗ ءَآللَّهُ خَيْرٌ أَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ 59
Translations
Say, [O Muḥammad], "Praise be to Allāh, and peace upon His servants whom He has chosen. Is Allāh better or what they associate with Him?"
Transliteration
Qul al-hamdu lillahi wa-assalamu 'ala 'ibaadihi alladhina istafa. A-allahu khayrun amma yushrikun.
Tafsir (Explanation)
The Prophet is commanded to proclaim that all praise belongs to Allah alone and to send peace upon His chosen servants—the prophets and righteous believers. The ayah then poses a rhetorical question highlighting Allah's supremacy: Is Allah better, or the false gods that the polytheists associate with Him? According to Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari, this ayah emphasizes tawhid (monotheism) by contrasting the perfection of Allah with the utter baseness of idols, thereby refuting shirk (polytheism) at its core.
Revelation Context
This ayah appears in the Meccan surah An-Naml during a period of intense opposition to the Prophet's monotheistic message. The surah addresses the polytheists of Mecca, and this particular verse serves as a powerful refutation of their idolatry, directly confronting their practice of associating partners with Allah.
Related Hadiths
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, 'The best supplication is 'Alhamdulillah' (praise be to Allah)' (Jami' at-Tirmidhi). Additionally, the greeting of Assalamu 'alaikum (peace be upon you) practiced among believers exemplifies the implementation of the command to send peace in this ayah.
Themes
Key Lesson
This ayah reminds believers to constantly affirm Allah's oneness through praise and to recognize that true peace and blessing come only from following Allah and His chosen servants, not from the pursuit of worldly false gods or material desires that distract from spiritual truth.