No, Were it not for you, I would not have created the celestial spheres / universe saying is widely circulated in Islamic literature, but the famous wording is not an authentic hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
No, this saying is widely circulated in Islamic literature, but the famous wording is not an authentic hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
1. The famous narration
Arabic:
لَوْلَاكَ لَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْأَفْلَاكَ
Transliteration: Lawlāka lamā khalaqtu al-aflāk.
Meaning: “Were it not for you, I would not have created the celestial spheres / universe.”
Scholars such as al-Ṣaghānī and al-Shawkānī classified this report as fabricated (mawḍūʿ). The Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta also ruled that it has no established basis as a prophetic hadith.
2. What does the Qur’an say about why Allah created us?
Allah says:
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنْسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
“And I did not create the jinn and humankind except to worship Me.” — Qur’an 51:56.
And in Qur’an 65:12, Allah explains that He created the heavens and the earth so that people may know that He has power over all things and that His knowledge encompasses everything.
3. Does this mean Prophet Muhammad ﷺ has no special status?
No. The Qur’an describes him as a mercy to all the worlds:
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ
“And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds.” — Qur’an 21:107.
This establishes his extraordinary role as a messenger and mercy. However, it does not explicitly say that Allah would not have created the universe without him.
Conclusion: We should distinguish between three things:
The Prophet ﷺ has a special and exalted status in Islam.
The Qur’an identifies worship of Allah as the purpose of creating jinn and humankind.
The statement “Were it not for you, I would not have created the universe” cannot reliably be attributed to the Prophet ﷺ as an authentic hadith.
For further reading, see the Permanent Committee’s ruling on this narration.
The saying “Were it not for you, I would not have created the universe” is commonly associated with the Arabic phrase:
لَوْلَاكَ لَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْأَفْلَاكَ
Lawlāka lamā khalaqtu al-aflāk.
The important question is not only who transmitted it, but where it first appeared in the literature and whether it can be traced to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ through a reliable chain of transmission.
The phrase is not established as an authentic prophetic hadith. Its circulation in later Islamic literature does not, by itself, prove that the Prophet ﷺ said it.
Earliest identifiable source
The traceable scholarly references point to the following:
Al-Ṣaghānī (d. 650 AH / 1252 CE) — his work al-Mawḍūʿāt identifies the saying as fabricated. Al-Ṣaghānī is one of the earliest named hadith critics cited for this specific wording.
الإسلام سؤال وجواب+1Al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH / 1834 CE) — al-Fawāʾid al-Majmūʿah fī al-Aḥādīth al-Mawḍūʿah, p. 326 in the cited edition, records the verdict attributed to al-Ṣaghānī.
Al-Fatawa+1Al-ʿAjlūnī (d. 1162 AH / 1749 CE) — Kashf al-Khafāʾ, discusses the saying and the earlier criticism of its attribution.
Al-Fatawa+1
There are also similar narrations attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās in later works, including reports associated with al-Ḥākim's al-Mustadrak and al-Daylamī's Firdaws al-Akhbār. These have serious problems with their chains and are not reliable proof of the famous statement.
Important distinction: Al-Ṣaghānī is an early identifiable source for the criticism of the saying, not a verified source for a genuine prophetic narration. I cannot establish who first coined the phrase or the exact date it first circulated.
You can consult the discussion of its authenticity and source references.
The specific reports and their problems
Source | Report attributed to | Main issue |
|---|---|---|
Al-Mustadrak, al-Ḥākim, 2/615 in the cited edition | Ibn ʿAbbās (RA) | The chain contains ʿAmr ibn Aws, whose status is unknown; al-Dhahabī criticized the report as objectionable and suspected fabrication. IslamQA +1 |
Musnad al-Firdaws, al-Daylamī | Ibn ʿAbbās (RA) | The report says Gabriel conveyed that Paradise and Hell would not have been created without the Prophet ﷺ. Its chain is weak, and al-Albānī questioned its reliability. المكتبة السنية +1 |
Al-Aḥādīth al-Mawḍūʿah, al-Ṣaghānī | No reliable prophetic chain established for the famous wording | The wording “Were it not for you, I would not have created the celestial spheres” is classified as fabricated. الإسلام سؤال وجواب +1 |
One important distinction: al-Ḥākim judged the report in al-Mustadrak authentic according to his assessment, but al-Dhahabī challenged that assessment. The existence of a report in al-Mustadrak therefore does not settle its authenticity.
The careful conclusion is that these reports exist in Islamic literature, but their attribution to the Prophet ﷺ is not reliably established. That does not by itself settle the theological question of the Prophet's status; it means that this particular claim should not be presented as a proven statement of the Prophet ﷺ.
Imām al-Ḥākim al-Naysābūrī (أبو عبد الله الحاكم النيسابوري) lived from 321 AH to 405 AH, approximately 933 CE to 1014 CE.
Born: 321 AH / 933 CE, in Nishapur, Persia (present-day Iran).
Died: 405 AH / 1014 CE, in Nishapur.
Famous work: Al-Mustadrak ʿalā al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (المستدرك على الصحيحين), a hadith collection intended to gather narrations that al-Ḥākim considered to meet the criteria of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim but that they had not included.
Historical significance: Al-Ḥākim lived more than three centuries after Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who died in 11 AH / 632 CE. Therefore, a narration in Al-Mustadrak is not automatically authentic merely because it appears in that book; its chain of transmission and the assessments of hadith scholars must also be examined.
Abū Shujāʿ al-Daylamī (أبو شجاع الديلمي), the author associated with Musnad al-Firdaws, lived approximately from the 5th to the 6th century AH.
A distinction is important:
Al-Daylamī: Commonly identified as Abū Shujāʿ Shīrawayh ibn Shahrad al-Daylamī, who died in 509 AH / 1115 CE.
His work: Musnad al-Firdaws (مسند الفردوس), a collection of hadith reports.
His son: Zayn al-Dīn al-Daylamī, who compiled al-Firdaws bi-Maʾthūr al-Khiṭāb from his father's material.
Al-Daylamī lived roughly five centuries after Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who died in 11 AH / 632 CE.
Important: The date of the compiler does not determine whether a hadith is authentic. The individual report's chain of transmission (isnād) must be assessed separately.
Al-Ṣaghānī (الصغاني), the hadith scholar associated with Al-Aḥādīth al-Mawḍūʿah (الأحاديث الموضوعة), lived from approximately 577 AH to 650 AH (1181–1252 CE).
Born: 577 AH / 1181 CE, in Lahore.
Died: 650 AH / 1252 CE, in Baghdad; he was subsequently buried in Makkah.
Full name: Raḍī al-Dīn Abū al-Faḍāʾil al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaghānī.
dorar.net+1
Note: His lifetime is generally given as 577–650 AH. There is some disagreement over his birth date, but 577 AH is the commonly accepted date.
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