قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ
SAY: "He is the One God: (1)
اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ
"God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All That Exists. (2)
لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ
"He begets not, and neither is He begotten; (3)
وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ
"and there is nothing that could be compared with Him." (4)
- "God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All Being.1
- 1 This rendering gives no more than an approximate meaning of the term as-samad, which occurs in the Qur'an only once, and is applied to God alone. It comprises the concepts of Primary Cause and eternal, independent Being, combined with the idea that everything existing or conceivable goes back to Him as its source and is therefore, dependent on Him for its beginning as well as for its continued existence.
- Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;6298
- 6298 Samad is difficult to translate by one word. I have used two, "Eternal" and "Absolute". The latter implies: (1) that absolute existence can only be predicted of Him; all other existence is temporal or conditional; (2) that He is dependent on no person or things, but all persons or things are dependent on Him, thus negativing the idea of gods and goddesses who ate and drank, wrangled and plotted, depended on the gifts of worshippers, etc.
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Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
— Abdullah Yusuf Ali -
Allah, the eternally Besought of all!
— Marmaduke Pickthall -
Allah is He on Whom all depend.
— M. Habib Shakir -
"Allah-us-Samad (The Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need, He neither eats nor drinks).
— Taqiuddin Hilali and M. Mohsin Khan -
Allah, the Independent,
— Abdul-Majid Daryabadi -
the called upon.
— Hasan Qaribullah and Ahmed Darwish -
the Absolute, Self-subsisting God;
— Ayub Khan -
God the Independent and Besought of all.
— Sher Ali -
"God the Eternal, the Uncaused Cause of All That Exists.
— Muhammad Asad -
God, the Everlasting Refuge,
— Arthur Arberry -
Allah, Who is in need of none and of Whom all are in need;{{4}}
— Abu'l Ala Maududi