Appearance
Master of the Day of Judgment
مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ
Master of the Day of Judgment (1:4)
The question
Can mālik (Master) describe Allah, if the Day of Judgment has not yet come? And should the word be read mālik (Master) or malik (Sovereign)?
Views answered: al-Kashshāf and Tafsīr al-Nasafī · al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān and Rūḥ al-Maʿānī · most reciters
Jawādī Āmulī’s argument
The exegetes disagree on two points. On the first, some hold that mālik is continuous and can describe Allah; others that it means “will possess”, since the Day has not come, and so cannot. Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī sides with the first group, for a reason of his own: the Day of Judgment already exists now, and man enters it as the worldly order folds up. On the second, most reciters and many exegetes read malik, arguing that mālik is not joined to a time. He answers that this holds of conventional ownership, not of God, who owns time and what is not time, and he prefers mālik as the broader: on that day God is Master of all things, and His mastery is manifest to all.
Views compared
The views are given as al-Tasnim reports them, with the works it cites. Each point opens al-Tasnim at that place.
Can mālik describe Allah? Read →
al-Kashshāf; Tafsīr al-Nasafī
Mālik here implies no present or future; it is continuous, and so, as part of a possessive construct, can describe a definite noun like Allah.Jawādī Āmulī
Agrees: this group is right; mālik here denotes continuity.“Will possess”, so it cannot Read →
al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr; al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qurʾān; Rūḥ al-Maʿānī
The Day of Judgment does not exist yet, so mālik means “will possess”; such a participle stays indefinite and cannot describe Allah.Jawādī Āmulī
Contrary to what they say, the Day of Judgment already exists now; when the worldly order is folded up, man enters it.Malik (Sovereign) or mālik (Master)? Read →
Most reciters, and many exegetes
Read malik: it is joined to a time (yawm), as in “sovereign of the age”, whereas one does not say “master of the age”.Jawādī Āmulī
That distinction holds for conventional ownership, not for God, who owns time and what is not time; and mālik is the broader, including malik. On that day God is Master of all things, and His mastery is manifest to all.Reading guide
Each step opens al-Tasnim at that point.