Dōsō soi tas kleidas tēs Basileias tōn Ouranōn, kai ho ean dēsēs epi tēs Gēs estai dedemenon en tois Ouranois, kai ho ean lysēs epi tēs Gēs estai lelymenon en tois Ouranois.
The exact translation varies slightly depending on the version of the Bible, but it is generally translated into English as:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
The Keys of the kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven are popular Christian concepts and are quite significant in multiple denominations. While the "Kingdom of Heaven" is referenced elsewhere in the Bible, the "Keys of the Kingdom" is only referenced in this passage. "Keys" symbolize "authority" (cf. Isaiah 22:22: "key of the house of David".[1]
The keys of the kingdom is given to Peter, which is explicated to mean that Peter has the authority to bind and loose (cf. Matthew 18:18).[2] This is not to be understood as a statement about exorcism or the forgiveness of sins (cf. John 20:23), but Peter, being a sort of 'supreme rabbi of the kingdom', is given teaching authority, that 'his decisions stand'.[2]
The verbs in future perfect tense—'will have been bound', 'will have been loosed'—suggest that 'the heavenly decision preceded Peter's declaration of it on earth'.[3] "Bind" and "loose" are judicial terms denoting "forbid" and "permit".[1] This expression is to contrast Peter's authority in teaching with that of the Pharisees and the scribes (cf. Matthew 23:13).[1] In Matthew 18:18 the same authority is given to all of his disciples.
Cultural references
This is a very popular line from the Bible and is referenced in many different forms.
In Islam, the Qur'an restores clarity to a truth that later traditions obscured: sovereignty over salvation, forgiveness, and destiny belongs to God alone. No prophet, apostle, priest, or institution can mediate ultimate authority. The Qur'an emphasizes this with deliberate precision, declaring twice that the keys of the heavens and the earth belong to God alone (Q 39:63; 42:12). Strikingly, it employs the rare term maqāleed (مَقَالِيدُ) instead of the more common mafātih for "keys," underscoring that such authority is not merely symbolic but uniquely and exclusively divine.
This stands in direct contrast to the Gospel of Matthew (16:19), where Jesus is reported as telling Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Greek: κλεῖδας, kleidas; Syriac: ܩܠܝܕܐ, qleeda). Christian interpretation has often taken this to mean that salvific authority was handed to Peter and, through him, to the church. Yet the Qur'an decisively corrects this notion: divine prerogative cannot be transferred to human hands.
The Qur'an's language sharpens this correction further through its use of the word sulṭān (سُلْطَان). When describing God's authority, this term does not signify mere permission or delegated office but conveys absolute, sovereign, and ineffable rule. Its resonance with cognates across the Semitic tradition — Aramaic שׁוּלְטָנָא / ܫܘܼܠܛܵܢܵܐ (šulṭānā, "power") and Biblical Hebrew שִׁלְטוֹן (shiltón, "rulership, authority") — highlights a shared scriptural vocabulary of power.
Even within the Syriac Gospels, the same word is used to describe delegated human authority. For example, in Luke 10:19 Jesus is reported as saying:
Behold, I give you authority (šulṭānā) to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.
In Christian reading, this suggests that the disciples receive power to exercise dominion even over demonic forces. Yet here again the Qur'an responds with a corrective: Satan possesses no sulṭān at all over God's true servants.
The Qur'an declares this in multiple verses with striking consistency:
Q 14:22 —
"I had no sulṭān over you except that I called you, and you responded to me…"
Q 15:42 —
"As for My servants, truly thou [Satan] hast no sulṭān over them, save for those in error who follow thee."
Q 17:65 —
“As for My servants, truly thou hast no sulṭān over them.” And thy Lord suffices as a Guardian.
By using the same cognate term that the Syriac Gospels apply to delegated authority (šulṭānā), the Qur'an flips the claim: what Christianity attributes to men — the right to wield divine authority over evil — the Qur'an attributes solely to God, while stripping Satan of any power over believers.
By employing both the rare maqāleed for "keys" and the uncompromising sulṭān for sovereignty, the Qur'an not only rejects the Christian idea of human custodianship over salvation and power, it reclaims the very imagery of authority found in earlier scriptures and redirects it to its rightful source: Allah (or God) alone.
Where Christian theology elevated Peter and the church as gatekeepers of salvation, the Qur'an restores the doctrine to its true form: the "keys" remain solely in God's hand, and every human role is at most derivative, contingent, and subordinate. The Qur'an does not merely disagree with the Gospel reading — it corrects it, reasserting the unbroken principle of tawḥīd that ultimate authority can never leave the dominion of Allah.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
