Al-Wâsi`: The Vast

"To Allah belongs the East and the West. Whichever way you turn, there is the Presence of Allah for Allah is Vast (wâsi`).." (2:115).

The Vast refers to expansiveness. Sometimes expansiveness is related to knowledge, as it is extensive and embraces a great number of things that are known. At other times it is related to charity and widespread blessings. But no matter how it is understood and to what it is applied, the absolute Vast is Allah. If one contemplates Allah's knowledge, one knows that the sea of Allah's knowledge has no shore. Rather the seas of His knowledge would be depleted if they were used as ink for His words. Furthermore, if one were to His beneficence and blessings, one would know that there is no end to what Allah can do. Every other expansiveness, even if it be great, ultimately reaches its limit. That which does not reach such a limit is more deserving of the name expansiveness. Allah is the absolute Vast, the quality which embraces and contains all things, which extends generosity to all things, knowledge to everything which is knowable, power to everything which may be determined by it, absolutely and without having to pay attention successively to things because every other expansiveness is restricted in comparison. Furthermore, any expansiveness ultimately reaches a limit so that it is not possible for one to conceive a further extension of it, whereas it is inconceivable that anything be added to that which is limitless and without boundary.