Do Inanimate Things and Non-Rational Creatures Truly Glorify Allah?

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Do Inanimate Things and Non-Rational Creatures Truly Glorify Allah?

This article studies a classic theological and exegetical question: when the Qur’an says that everything in the heavens and the earth glorifies Allah, should that be taken as a literal act of glorification or as a metaphor for the way creation points to its Creator? The piece leans strongly toward the first view.

It presents the two major positions. One group of scholars interprets these texts literally, holding that mountains, stones, trees, food, limbs, and other created things truly glorify Allah in a way known to Him, even if human beings do not perceive or understand that mode of glorification. The other group interprets such passages more figuratively, treating them as signs of created order and testimony to divine greatness rather than acts of conscious praise.

The article argues that the literal reading is stronger because of the accumulation of Qur’anic and hadith evidence: the glorification of mountains with Dawud, the yearning of the palm trunk, the tasbih heard from food, the testimony of limbs on the Day of Judgment, and other reports in which created things speak, respond, or manifest divinely granted perception. These are taken as evidence that the unseen capacities of created things should not be reduced to modern material expectations.

Its broader point is devotional. Belief in this unseen glorification expands the believer’s sense of the cosmos: creation is not silent, empty matter but a world alive with worship, submission, and signs of divine lordship. The article therefore uses the question not only to defend a doctrinal point but to deepen reverence and wonder.

Original publication

This article is also published on Alukah Network

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