One Community (ummatan wāḥidatan)
أُمَّةً وَٰحِدَةً
ummatan wāḥidatan — one community / a single community
Across these nine verses the phrase moves between a past state of humanity, a hypothetical that Allah could have willed but did not, and an asserted present identity, so that reading them together shows the phrase functioning as a fixed unit whose context, not its wording, determines whether oneness is lost, declined, or claimed.
The phrase ummatan wāḥidatan pairs a feminine singular noun with a feminine singular adjective, both indefinite accusative, in every occurrence given. What changes is the frame around it. In (2:213) and (10:19) it names a past state: 'Humanity used to be one community' and 'humanity was nothing but a single community', and in both the oneness is followed by difference (ikhtalafa in 2:213, 'they came to differ' in 10:19). In (5:48), (11:118), (16:93) and (42:8) the phrase stands inside a counterfactual: had Allah willed (5:48, 16:93, 42:8) or had your Lord willed (11:118), He would have made the addressees or the people one community, but each verse states what happens instead—testing in (5:48), continuing disagreement in (11:118), astraying and guiding in (16:93), admitting into mercy in (42:8). In (43:33) the counterfactual is inverted: were it not that mankind would become one community, silver roofs would have been made for those who deny. Finally (21:92) and (23:52) assert the phrase as an identity: 'this community of yours is one community', followed by 'I am your Lord'. Read side by side, the verses show that the identical phrase serves three distinct roles—remembered past, declined possibility, and asserted present—while its internal form never varies.
Where it occurs
- 2:213 Names humanity's past state as one community, which the sending of prophets and the Book then addresses as difference arises.
- 5:48 Stands in a counterfactual: Allah could have made the addressees one community but instead tests them in what they were given.
- 10:19 Describes humanity as nothing but a single community before they came to differ.
- 11:118 Counterfactual: had the Lord willed, He would have made the people a single community, but they remain in disagreement.
- 16:93 Counterfactual: Allah could have made the addressees one community, but instead leads astray and guides whom He wills.
- 21:92 Asserts 'this community of yours' to be one community, tied to serving the one Lord.
- 23:52 Asserts the community as one, tied to being wary of the one Lord.
- 42:8 Counterfactual: Allah could have made them one community, but instead admits whom He wills into His mercy.
- 43:33 Inverted counterfactual: were it not that mankind would become one community, silver roofs would be given to those who deny the All-Merciful.
All Qur'anic expressions