Al Baasit
The Expansive One
The Enlarger, the Expansive, the Munificent.
Al-Baasit is the One who amplifies all abundance, the one who makes the way wide open. He expands and widens the hearts and the souls, gives sustenance in His generosity and mercy, gives plentifully to whoever He wills, and reaches out a helping hand to all mankind.
Mentions of Al Baasit
From the Quran & Hadith
From the root ba-sin-ta (ب س ط), which carries the classical Arabic connotations of expanding, enlarging, and extending; granting abundantly and providing amply; spreading and widening, making spacious; and extending a hand. Where qabd is the clenched hand, bast is the open one: to withhold and to give are two gestures of the same hand.
The mercy of giving without measure
To contrast with Al-Qaabid, Al-Baasit is a display of Allah's mercy of giving without any measure. When Allah wants to give, it is free and infinite: there is no stopping and no restricting it. 'Whatever Allah grants to people of mercy, none can withhold it' (Quran 35:2). The believer who has watched a door open after years of it being shut knows this Name by experience.
He stretches out His Hand
Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) reported the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saying that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, stretches out His Hand during the night so that the people may repent for the faults committed from dawn till dusk, and He stretches out His Hand during the day so that the people may repent for the faults committed from dusk to dawn, and He would accept repentance before the sun rises in the west (Sahih Muslim 2759). The expansion of Al-Baasit is not only in rizq: every night and every day, the door of return is held open.
Man dha-lladhī yuqriḍu-llāha qarḍan ḥasanan fa-yuḍāʿifahu lahu aḍʿāfan kathīrah. Wa-llāhu yaqbiḍu wa yabṣuṭu wa ilayhi turjaʿūn.
“Who is it that would loan Allah a goodly loan so He may multiply it for him many times over? And it is Allah who withholds and grants abundance, and to Him you will be returned.”
Allāhu yabsuṭu-r-rizqa liman yashā'u wa yaqdir. Wa fariḥū bi-l-ḥayāti-d-dunyā wa ma-l-ḥayātu-d-dunyā fi-l-ākhirati illā matāʿ.
“Allah extends provision for whom He wills and restricts it. And they rejoice in the worldly life, while the worldly life is not, compared to the Hereafter, except brief enjoyment.”
Wa law basaṭa-llāhu-r-rizqa li-ʿibādihi la-baghaw fi-l-arḍi wa lākin yunazzilu bi-qadarin mā yashā'. Innahu bi-ʿibādihi khabīrun baṣīr.
“And if Allah had extended excessively provision for His servants, they would have committed tyranny throughout the earth. But He sends it down in an amount which He wills. Indeed He is, of His servants, Acquainted and Seeing.”
Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) reported the Messenger of Allah ﷺ as saying that Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, stretches out His Hand during the night so that the people may repent for the fault committed from dawn till dusk, and He stretches out His Hand during the day so that the people may repent for the fault committed from dusk to dawn; He would accept repentance before the sun rises in the west.
Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that when asked to fix prices, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: 'Allah is the one who fixes prices, who withholds, gives lavishly and provides.'
In the tafsir of Quran 13:26, Maududi notes that the verse refutes those who judged a person's worth by wealth and worldly prosperity rather than by faith and righteous conduct: Allah gives His provision to people abundantly or sparingly for reasons of His own, and riches or poverty is no criterion by which to judge anyone's worth. The real criterion is belief and deeds. So ask Al-Baasit for the expansions that matter most: an opened heart, a widened chest, ease after constriction, and rizq that carries barakah. And practice the gesture yourself; the open hand is the believer's hand, and generosity in tight times is bast lived out.
Allāhumma-bsuṭ ʿalaynā min barakātika wa raḥmatika wa faḍlika wa rizqik
O Allah, extend over us Your blessings, Your mercy, Your bounty, and Your provision.
- Sahih Muslim 2759
- Sunan Abi Dawud 3451
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