Ayat al-Kursi — Rawzat

The Text of Ayat al-Kursi

The verse in full:

“Allah — there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living (al-Hayy), the Self-Sustaining (al-Qayyum). Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High (al-‘Ali), the Most Great (al-‘Azim).” (2:255)

This is a single Arabic sentence of extraordinary density and power — in its original form, each phrase resonates with and amplifies the others. The scholars have noted that Ayat al-Kursi contains 10 divine names and attributes, each making a specific claim about the nature of reality.

The Prophet’s Testimony to Its Greatness

“Ubayy ibn Ka’b narrates that the Prophet (SAW) asked him: ‘Which verse in the Book of Allah is the greatest?’ He said: ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said again: ‘Which verse in the Book of Allah is the greatest?’ He said: ‘Allahu la ilaha illa huwa al-Hayy al-Qayyum.’ The Prophet struck his chest and said: ‘May knowledge be sweet to you, O Abu al-Mundhir.’” (Muslim)

“Whoever recites Ayat al-Kursi after every obligatory prayer, nothing stands between him and entering Paradise except death.” (al-Nasa’i, authenticated in many collections)

“When you retire to your bed, recite Ayat al-Kursi, and there will always be a guardian over you from Allah, and no shaitan will approach you until morning.” (Bukhari)

These hadith establish Ayat al-Kursi’s practical importance in daily Islamic life:

After every fard salah — for the divine’s protection throughout the day
Before sleeping — to secure protection through the night
As a dhikr of divine presence and protection at moments of vulnerability

Phrase-by-Phrase Exegesis

”Allahu la ilaha illa huwa” — “Allah, there is no deity except Him”

The verse begins with the divine’s proper name (Allah) and then immediately restates the core of tawhid: la ilaha illa huwa (no deity except Him). Every description that follows is a description of this one Being who alone deserves worship.

“No deity except Him” — a double negation (la + illa) that is more emphatic than a simple positive statement would be. The divine is not described as “the best deity” or “the true deity” but as the only deity: every other claimant to divinity is not just inferior but non-existent as a deity.

”Al-Hayy al-Qayyum” — “The Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining”

Two divine names of foundational importance:

Al-Hayy (the Ever-Living): The divine’s life is not like creaturely life — it is not limited by a beginning or an end, not sustained by nutrition or rest, not subject to the biological rhythms that govern all created living things. The divine is Life itself, the ground of all other life.

Al-Qayyum (the Self-Sustaining, the Upright One who sustains all others): From qama (to stand), al-Qayyum means the one who stands independently AND sustains everything else. Every created thing depends for its moment-to-moment existence on the divine’s continuous creative act (amr, kun fa-yakun). If the divine withdrew this sustaining, everything would cease instantly.

These two names together — al-Hayy al-Qayyum — form a pair that Islamic theology regards as the Ism al-A’zam (the Greatest Name of the divine): the two names that most completely capture the divine’s self-sufficient reality.

See also: Tawhid Divine Unity

“La ta’khudhahu sinatun wa la nawm” — “Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep”

Sleep and drowsiness are specifically negated. Why? Because in human experience, sleep is the most vivid reminder of our dependence and vulnerability: while we sleep, we are unaware, unprotective, temporally unconscious. The divine has no such limitation.

The specific order — drowsiness first, then sleep — is significant. Drowsiness is the beginning of the diminishment of consciousness; sleep is its fuller form. The Quran denies both, starting from the milder form: not even a slight dimming of divine awareness occurs.

This is the guarantee of divine providence: the divine does not “take a day off” from sustaining the universe. The same divine awareness that maintained creation a billion years ago maintains it now, and will maintain it until the divine wills otherwise.

”Lahu ma fi al-samawati wa ma fi al-ard” — “To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth”

Ownership — the divine’s relationship to creation is one of sovereign ownership. Everything in the heavens and everything on the earth (and by extension, everything between them) belongs to the divine.

In Islamic theology, this is not merely metaphorical: the divine’s ownership is the ground of all other “ownership.” When a human being “owns” something, they have a conditional, temporary, contingent ownership — a stewardship — over something whose ultimate sovereign owner is the divine. The wealth one “has” is a divine trust; the body one “has” is a divine gift; the time one “has” is a divine loan.

See also: Adl, Zakat And Khums

“Man dha alladhi yashfa’u ‘indahu illa bi-idhnihi” — “Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission?”

A rhetorical question: the answer is “no one.” Not even the most beloved of the divine’s creation — the Prophet, the Imams, the angels — can intercede with the divine unless the divine permits. This maintains the divine’s absolute sovereignty over the relationship between the divine and the human: the divine is never “cornered” by an intermediary’s appeal.

But the verse also affirms intercession as real: “except by His permission” — the permission will sometimes be given. The Prophet’s shafa’a al-‘uzma (greatest intercession) on the Day of Judgment is one of the most established beliefs in Islamic theology — the divine will permit the Prophet to intercede for his community.

In the Ismaili ta’wil: the Imam intercedes for the mu’min community through his walayah. The Imam’s ta’wil is the form of divine permission that allows the soul’s ascent.

”Ya’lamu ma bayna aydihim wa ma khalfahum” — “He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them”

The divine’s knowledge encompasses past and future simultaneously — not as sequential knowledge (remembering the past, predicting the future) but as immediate divine knowing in which “before” and “after” are equally present. For the divine, there is no past that has become obscure or future that is uncertain.

“And not absent from your Lord is any [part] of an atom’s weight within the earth or within the heaven or [anything] smaller than that or greater.” (10:61) — Even the sub-atomic level of reality is fully present to the divine’s knowledge.

”Wa la yuhituna bi-shay’in min ‘ilmihi illa bima sha’a” — “And they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills”

Created beings — including the most exalted (angels, prophets, Imams) — know what the divine chooses to reveal to them, and nothing beyond that. The divine’s ‘ilm is infinite; the creature’s capacity for ‘ilm is finite. Whatever the creature knows, it knows as a divine gift, not as something independently possessed.

In the Ismaili ta’wil: this verse establishes the framework for ta’wil itself — the Imam knows what the divine wills to reveal through the Imam, and the disciple knows what the Imam wills to reveal through teaching. The hierarchy of knowledge is the hierarchy of the divine’s self-disclosure.

”Wasi’a kursiyyuhu al-samawati wa al-ard” — “His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth”

The Kursi (often translated as Throne or Footstool) is one of the most discussed terms in Quranic cosmology. Classical scholarship identifies it as:

A physical structure (in the mainstream exegesis): a cosmic structure that “extends over the heavens and the earth” — greater than the earth, containing the seven heavens within it
A metaphor for divine sovereignty (in the philosophical reading): the Kursi is the divine’s dominion, majesty, and authority over creation

The Ismaili ta’wil of the Kursi: In the Ismaili cosmological framework, the Kursi corresponds to the ‘Aql al-Kulli (the Universal Intellect) — the First Intellect that emanated from the divine’s creative command and through which all of creation is sustained. The Kursi “extending over the heavens and earth” means that the Universal Intellect pervades and sustains the entire cosmos.

The relationship between the Kursi and the ‘Arsh (the divine’s Throne, the highest created reality) in the Ismaili framework: ‘Arsh is the divine’s will (iradah) in its creative expression; Kursi is the First Intellect that executes that will in the created order.

“Wa la ya’uduhu hifzuhuma” — “And their preservation tires Him not”

The sustaining of the entire universe — every particle in every star, every cell in every living thing, every thought in every mind — does not cause the divine the slightest fatigue. The divine’s power is infinite; no amount of use diminishes it.

This is the guarantee of creation’s stability: the cosmos does not drift toward dissolution because the divine has grown weary of sustaining it. Every moment of the universe’s existence is a fresh act of divine creative sustaining.

”Wa huwa al-‘Aliyyu al-‘Azim” — “And He is the Most High, the Most Great”

The verse closes with two names that together encapsulate the divine’s transcendence:

Al-‘Ali (the Most High): The divine is mutanazzih — transcendent, above all comparison, not contained by any category. Nothing in creation is like the divine; the divine is exalted beyond all limitations.

Al-‘Azim (the Most Great): Not merely great but al-‘Azim — the one whose greatness surpasses all measurement, all imagination, all analogy. The divine’s greatness is not the greatest thing on a scale of greatness; the divine is the reference point from which all greatness is measured.

Together, these closing names bring the verse full circle: it began with tawhid (no deity except the divine) and closes with transcendence (‘Ali) and immeasurable greatness (‘Azim) — the divine who sustains all creation does so from a position of absolute transcendence above it.

Practice and Benefits

The Bohra community recites Ayat al-Kursi:

After every fard salah (obligatory prayer), before leaving the prayer area
Before sleeping
On entering and leaving the home
As part of the closing dhikr in various majalis
As a protection when facing danger or vulnerability

The Prophet’s testimony is that regular recitation brings divine guardianship and protection from evil. The verse’s density of divine attributes makes it, in a single verse, a complete act of ‘ibadah — the acknowledgment of who the divine is and the soul’s orientation toward that reality.

Ayat al-Kursi — The Throne Verse