As-Samee'

The root. As-Samee' comes from s-m-ʿ, the root behind samʿ (hearing) and istimāʿ (listening attentively). Across its derivatives the root is not passive reception of sound but an active grasp of it — Arabic uses the same root for someone who truly takes in what is said, not merely someone within earshot. As-Samee' is built on the faʿīl pattern, the same intensive shape used for Ar-Raheem, naming a hearing that is constant and complete rather than an occasional act.

What it means here. As-Samee' is read as the hearing that misses nothing spoken or unspoken — the words on a tongue, a whispered prayer, even what a heart has not yet said aloud. It is almost always paired with Al-Baseer, its counterpart for sight, the two together affirming that nothing escapes Him either in sound or in sight; where one covers what is heard, the other covers what is seen, and neither is treated as complete without the other in the verses that name them.

Where it is met. As-Samee' is paired with Al-Baseer at the close of the account of the Night Journey in Surah Al-Isra, and with Al-Alim in Surah Yunus and Surah Yusuf, describing Allah's response to a prayer. Surah Hud draws the same pairing by contrast, likening the two positions of disbelief and belief to blindness and deafness against sight and hearing. In supplication, it is invoked directly by anyone asking to be heard.