What is the meaning of the verse: “And He is the One who is in the heavens a God and in the earth a God”?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Teacher, in a question: [Az-Zukhruf 43:84] ?
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : What is left ... .
The Shaykh: “Ilah” means the one who is worshipped, a God who is worshipped; so He is worshipped in the heavens and worshipped in the earth, there is nothing in the verse, worshipped in the heavens and worshipped, yes?
The questioner : ... the heavens and the earth?
The Shaykh: The God of the heavens and the God of the earth.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh: He is the Lord of the heavens, the Lord must be mentioned, the meaning of the Lord is other than the God, the Lord is the Creator and the Nurturer, whereas the God is the one who is worshipped in truth; therefore, not everyone who believes in Allah as Lord believes in Him as God, just as this is one of the things that people are unaware of, if a person from the atheists or the disbelievers said: “I believe that there is no Lord but Allah,” he would not become a Muslim, rather he must say: “I believe that there is no God but Allah”; why? Because the meaning of “no God” is lighter than the meaning of “no Lord”; because the polytheists to whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent and to whom he called them to what he called them to, that there is no God but Allah, so they disbelieved, He said - the Exalted - :[As-Saffat 37:35] , but in the other verse: [Luqman 31:25] . So they are not denying the existence of Allah, they believe that this universe has a Lord who is the Creator, but they do not believe that worship must be directed to this Lord alone, so “There is no God but Allah” is much higher than if the one said: “There is no Lord but Allah,” “There is no Lord but Allah” means: there is no Creator but Allah, the polytheist used to say: there is no Creator but Allah by the text of the Qur'an, why did he disbelieve? Because he worshipped other than Allah along with Allah and made for Him a partner in worship.
And it is Allah who is [the only] deity in the heaven, and on the earth [the only] deity
وَهُوَ الَّذِي فِي السَّمَاءِ إِلَهٌ وَفِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَهٌThe Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : What is left ... .
The Shaykh: “Ilah” means the one who is worshipped, a God who is worshipped; so He is worshipped in the heavens and worshipped in the earth, there is nothing in the verse, worshipped in the heavens and worshipped, yes?
The questioner : ... the heavens and the earth?
The Shaykh: The God of the heavens and the God of the earth.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh: He is the Lord of the heavens, the Lord must be mentioned, the meaning of the Lord is other than the God, the Lord is the Creator and the Nurturer, whereas the God is the one who is worshipped in truth; therefore, not everyone who believes in Allah as Lord believes in Him as God, just as this is one of the things that people are unaware of, if a person from the atheists or the disbelievers said: “I believe that there is no Lord but Allah,” he would not become a Muslim, rather he must say: “I believe that there is no God but Allah”; why? Because the meaning of “no God” is lighter than the meaning of “no Lord”; because the polytheists to whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent and to whom he called them to what he called them to, that there is no God but Allah, so they disbelieved, He said - the Exalted - :
when it was said to them, "There is no deity but Allah," were arrogant
إِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَAnd if you asked them, "Who created the heavens and earth?" they would surely say, "Allah."
وَلَئِنْ سَأَلْتَهُمْ مَنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ اللَّهُ
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.