Appearance
Summaries of Sūrat al-Anʿām
The summary with which Āyatullāh Jawādī Āmulī opens his commentary on each verse of Sūrat al-Anʿām, in the order of the verses. To read the summary of one verse, type it on the Summary page.
6:1 — All praise belongs to Allah who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness…
All praise belongs to Allah who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. Yet the faithless equate [others] with their Lord.
This verse aims to establish the very root of the Oneness of God. It is in fact a reply to those who deny the principle of creatorship and the Oneness of God in creatorship and lordship (al-tawḥīd al-khāliqī wa al-rubūbī), since it presents God (s.w.t.) as the Creator of the heaven and the earth and the Maker of the night and the day on the one hand, and as the One who manages them on the other.
The creation of the darknesses and the light has many instances, among them the creation of the night and the day. These two, the night and the day, are two divine signs for the management of the state of the earth and its inhabitants.
How astonishing are the faithless! When they are faced with these divine signs that call to the Oneness of God, they hasten to set up a partner and an equal to God, Exalted, instead of hastening to faith and to acknowledging His Oneness in creatorship and lordship.
6:2 — It is He who created you from clay
It is He who created you from clay, then ordained the term [of your life]—the specified term is with Him—and yet you are in doubt.
He, God, is the One who created the material body of the first human being directly, and that of his descendants through intermediaries, from clay (water and earth). Then He set for man in this world two terms: a decreed term (ajal maqḍī), which is conditional (muʿallaq), and a named term (ajal musammā), which is fixed (maḥtūm).
Man’s conditional term depends on the realisation of what brings it about (the presence of certain conditions and the removal of certain obstacles) and on the appearance of the signs of death. So it can come earlier or later, and it can also be erased and confirmed. His named and appointed term, however, coincides with the realisation of all the conditions and the removal of all the obstacles; so it accepts no change, and cannot come earlier or later. But no one dies at his conditional term unless it matches the fixed term, and no one knows the named and fixed term except God (s.w.t.).
The division of the term into conditional and fixed is from the point of view just mentioned, and the obscurity in it is from the point of view of people’s ignorance. Otherwise there is no obscurity in external reality and in the order of creation, just as there is no vagueness or obscurity in the Clear Book or in the knowledge of God, Exalted. The order of cause and effect in the world is not run by doubt and hesitation.
Seeing the signs of the Real is complete proof for faith, far removed from doubt and hesitation. Even so, the polytheists did not come to faith. They took it upon themselves to cast doubt, despite seeing the signs of God’s (s.w.t.) creatorship in the creation of man from clay and in the decree of death upon him.
6:3 — He is Allah in the heavens and on the earth
He is Allah in the heavens and on the earth: He knows your secret and your overt [matters], and He knows what you earn.
This verse sets out the result of God’s (s.w.t.) creatorship of the universe and of man. The pronoun “He” may refer to the divine Essence under the name known to all, even to the polytheists, namely “God”. He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, and there is no room for any god besides Him: “And He is God…”. The pronoun may also refer to something other than the Essence, as follows. The Face and the extended effusion (al-fayḍ al-munbasiṭ) of the holy divine Essence is manifest in beings without mixing or composition. So no place is empty of it; rather, it is present in every place and with all things, yet it does not take on any quality that bears the stamp of contingency.
The fruit of God’s (s.w.t.) creatorship of man is His knowledge of man’s secret and open matters, his qualities, his voluntary acts, and the results that follow from those qualities and acts. For since man is created by God (s.w.t.) without intermediary, man’s act is created by the holy divine Essence through an intermediary.
On this basis, His words, Exalted, “He knows your secret and your open, and He knows what you earn” are cited to establish God’s knowledge by the proof from creatorship. God (s.w.t.) is the Creator of the heavens, the earth and mankind (without intermediary), and of their voluntary qualities and acts (through an intermediary) (the minor premise); and every creator knows what he has created (the major premise); so God knows the heavens, the earth, and man’s secret and open (the conclusion).
6:4 — There did not come to them any sign from among the signs of their Lord
There did not come to them any sign from among the signs of their Lord, but that they used to disregard it.
The main source of the doubt of the faithless and the polytheists about the Oneness of God in creatorship and lordship is their turning away from the miracles and the signs of the prophetic mission, and their failure to reflect on them.
What is meant by “sign” (āyah) in the phrase “and there does not come to them any sign” is specifically the miracles of the prophets (a.s.), since this noble verse stands at the head of the discussions on prophethood. These miracles reveal prophethood in general, and when they appear at the hands of a particular prophet they are proof of that particular prophethood.
The prophets (a.s.) carry two things: the claim to the prophetic mission, and the call to the Oneness of God, the Return and so on. The call to the mission is established by the miracle. The truth of the call to the Oneness of God (not of the very existence of the Origin) is established by proof and by the words of the infallible Prophet. The faithless and the polytheist accept the Prophet’s call to the Oneness of God in creatorship and lordship (not to the very existence of the Origin) after they have come to have faith, through the miracle, in the truth of his claim. On this basis, the miracle shows, in the first place, the truthfulness of the Prophet in claiming the prophetic mission.
6:5 — They have certainly denied the truth when it came to them
They have certainly denied the truth when it came to them, but soon there will come to them the news of what they have been deriding.
This verse follows on from the points of the preceding verses, the gist of which is that the polytheists turn away from every sign that comes to them. This is because of their faithlessness towards the truth itself, their turning away from it, and their taking a partner and an equal to the Real, who has no like.
The polytheists’ denial of the truth is a denial of God’s (s.w.t.) lordship in particular matters, because they consider God the Creator of the whole world and “the Lord of the worlds”. The atheists, by contrast, deny creatorship itself and the lordship of “the Lord of the worlds”.
Among the ill-omened effects of denying the truth and of turning and straying from it is mocking those who have faith in the truth. That is why, after the Creator set out the proof for these mockers, He warned them that the news of what they used to mock would reach them in the end. This denial will appear in the form of a punishment that surrounds them.
6:6 — Have they not regarded how many a generation We have destroyed before them whom We had…
Have they not regarded how many a generation We have destroyed before them whom We had granted power in the land in respects that We did not grant you, and We sent abundant rains for them from the sky and made streams run for them? Then We destroyed them for their sins, and brought forth another generation after them.
This verse sheds light on one of the fixed divine laws (sunan) concerning the destruction of nations and peoples as a result of wrongdoing and disobedience. It warned the polytheists of Mecca of the black fate of those nations, which had great means, enormous power and vast wealth compared with what the polytheists had. It called them to review history and take lessons from the fate of others, and to reflect on the divine laws when God wills to test blessings, to punish the guilty for their disobedience and their committing of sins, and to replace them with other people. It stresses: We established them as We have not established you, and We sent down blessings on them from the heaven and the earth [but they took the path of ingratitude for the blessings and of committing sins instead of thanks]; then We destroyed them for their sins and replaced them with other people.
6:7 — Had We sent down to you a Book on paper so they could touch it with their [own] hands
Had We sent down to you a Book on paper so they could touch it with their [own] hands, [still] the faithless would have said, ‘This is nothing but plain magic.’
This verse concerns the excuses of the polytheists of the Ḥijāz and their practical whims regarding divine revelation. It uncovered the extent of their stubbornness and their inventing of excuses, and showed that they imagined heavenly revelation to be something material that comes down as rain comes down; so they expected it to be something that could be sensed and touched.
In reply to these excuses, the Creator, Exalted, said: Even if We sent down the divine verses in a material, tangible book and they touched it with their own hands, they would not come to faith; rather, they would then say: This is plain sorcery. For at root they deny the lordship and divine management of particular matters. For this reason they do not have faith in revelation itself and in the divine mission, and they make the excuse that a human being is not worthy to reach this station.
6:8 — They say, ‘Why has not an angel been sent down to him?’ Were We to send down an angel
They say, ‘Why has not an angel been sent down to him?’ Were We to send down an angel, the matter would surely be decided, and then they would not be granted any respite.
Another excuse the polytheists clung to in order to deny prophethood, revelation and the signs of the mission was: why has an angel not been sent down to the Prophet (s.a.w.)?
There are two possibilities about the polytheists’ aim in this question. 1) To challenge the Prophet (s.a.w.) to do what he could not, meaning: if you are frightening us with divine punishment, then carry out this threat by sending down the angels! God, Exalted, replied to them that if He sent down an angel to them, He would have finished them and given them no respite. 2) To confirm the truthfulness of the Prophet (s.a.w.) in his claim to the mission by seeing a divine miracle. On this possibility, two explanations can be given of God’s (s.w.t.) reply to them: (a) the polytheists would get no respite after this proposal was carried out and this miracle took place and they still insisted on not having faith, because the miracle was proposed by them, the divine proof was already complete, and this question comes from greed and from playing with miracles; (b) the time when an angel comes down that they can see is at death and at the passage from this world to the barzakh and the Resurrection. At that point the time of obligation has ended and there is no respite after it, so faith is of no use then.
The upshot is this. If the polytheists meant the coming down of an angel with the qualities of real angels to guide them, this request has already been met, though they are unable to see it. If they meant an angel sent down in human form, like ordinary people, then it would not differ from the Prophet (s.a.w.), because they do not know his inner reality, and outwardly he is an ordinary man. From this it is clear that they are not raising a scholarly doubt, but trying to invent excuses and to be stubborn.
6:9 — Had We made him an angel, We would have surely made him a man
Had We made him an angel, We would have surely made him a man, and We would have surely confounded them just as they confound [the truth now].
The Creator, Exalted, answered the polytheists’ excuses about the receiver of revelation: if the messenger were an angel, he would have to appear in human form (as a man) so that they could see him and hear his words. For an angel in whom the sanctity of angels is preserved would not meet their demand, and they would not be able to communicate with him. So he would have to come down to their level to be visible, and then they would deal with him as they deal with the present Prophet.
The polytheists had grasped the truth, yet through their bad choice they took the path of misguidance instead of guidance, and deliberately mixed truth and falsehood to confuse their followers. After this, God (s.w.t.) afflicted them with confusion as a recompense (al-labs al-jazāʾī), and they were deprived of the divine grace, because God, Exalted, closed the door of kindness and mercy in their faces.
6:10 — Apostles were certainly derided before you
Apostles were certainly derided before you. Then those who ridiculed them were besieged by what they used to deride.
The polytheists used to mock the Prophet (s.a.w.) and the faithful by inventing excuses about revelation, its bearer and its receiver. So God, Exalted, threatened those who mocked divine revelation with the fate of earlier nations, and said, to console the Prophet (s.a.w.) and comfort him: Messengers before you were mocked, and exactly what they mocked befell them (either as a threat of punishment or simply as news of the unseen). That is, the mockery of revelation turned into a punishment that came down on them and surrounded them.
6:11 — Say, ‘Travel over the land
Say, ‘Travel over the land, and then observe how was the fate of the deniers.’
In this verse people are called to travel in the land and to reflect on its regions. Studying the book of creation, looking at the signs in the horizons and examining the visible pages left behind by past nations should lead them to learn the stories of those nations and to uncover their fate, after they were afflicted with divine punishment for denying the prophets (a.s.) and the divine signs; and then to reflect on that and take a lesson from it.
6:12–13 — Say, ‘To whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth?’ Say
(12) Say, ‘To whom belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth?’ Say, ‘To Allah. He has made mercy incumbent upon Himself. He will surely gather you on the Day of Resurrection, in which there is no doubt. Those who have ruined their souls will not have faith.’ (13) To Him belongs whatever abides in the night and the day, and He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.
These two verses point to two proofs about the Return: one is the proof of its possibility, and the other the proof of the necessity of its occurrence, by way of mercy. The gist of the proof of possibility is that every place and everything in place, and every time and everything in time, belongs to God (s.w.t.). He hears the voices and knows everything; so He is able to replace the present order of the universe with another order and to bring the dead to life.
The second proof (the proof from mercy) shows the necessity of the Return’s occurrence. Its middle term is the mercy of God, Exalted. Divine mercy requires that every being with the capacity attain the perfection fitting for it; that creation not be without a goal; that the toil of one who deserves reward not be lost; that the arrogant come to know their weakness and abasement; and that man, who is fit for everlasting life, not perish through death. All these things show the need for a Resurrection in which all people are gathered, so that each of them receives the recompense of his deeds.
What is meant by the writing of mercy is its being fixed and certain. That is, the realisation of mercy from God (s.w.t.) is necessary and its issuing from Him is certain, and His mercy comes from the source of power, or of knowledge, or of what combines both. Since the proof from mercy is a proof of the Return itself, what is meant by the writing of mercy here is general mercy, not special mercy.
In short, the Return in the future is a necessary and fixed matter that admits no doubt at all. It is settled that God (s.w.t.) will bring people to life after death, even though those who have lost their own selves (that greatest wealth) do not have faith in this matter.
Everything that dwells in the night and the day, whether still or moving, belongs to God (s.w.t.) and lies within the control of His power and choice; so it must be heard and known by Him, Exalted.
After the proof of the possibility of the Return and of the necessity of its occurrence was given in these two verses, the attributes “the Hearing” and “the Knowing” are mentioned. This is because the reckoning of the Day of Resurrection depends on God’s (s.w.t.) knowledge of people’s deeds and words, His hearing them, and His awareness of their intentions and secrets, so as to recompense each of them for his deed with the reward or punishment he deserves. So what is meant by “hearing” and “knowledge” in the two verses above is the hearing and knowledge of God, Exalted, in action.
6:14 — Say, ‘Shall I take for guardian [anyone] other than Allah
Say, ‘Shall I take for guardian [anyone] other than Allah, the originator of the heavens and the earth, who feeds and is not fed?’ Say, ‘I have been commanded to be the first of those who submit [to Allah], and [told,] “Never be one of the polytheists.” ’
God (s.w.t.), by way of a rhetorical question of disapproval, argued through rational proof that guardianship (wilāyah) belongs to none but Him. He mentioned that man should not take a guardian other than Him (the guardian must be none other than the Origin of the universe and absolute perfection). For man is needy, both in coming into being and in continuing to exist, so he must take a guardian able to meet his needs. No one is able to be his guardian and meet all his needs, and the needs of all, except the Creator of the universe, who is free of need of others: that God at whose hands man was brought forth in coming into being, and at whose tables of blessing he sits in continuing to exist. For everything is brought forth, created and needy, and no one is worthy of guardianship but Him. Since the Prophet (s.a.w.) is the first who must accept the proofs of the Oneness of God, after this rational proof he is commanded to say: I am the first of those who submit (first in rank). These words of the Prophet (s.a.w.) are a transmitted proof denying the guardianship of anyone other than God, Exalted.
Since most of the proofs of the Oneness of God in the noble Qur’an come back to the denial of polytheism, He forbade it with an emphatic prohibition after mentioning the rational and transmitted proof denying the guardianship of anyone but Him.
The word “guardian” (walī) is used in this proof in order to blend knowledge with love, because guardianship reveals a special nearness marked by management and special care, in addition to existential encompassing.
The outward form of the expression “Originator of the heavens and the earth” is that of giving a reason; but its spirit is an alert against heedlessness. That is: if you returned to yourselves and to your nature, you would find that you need One free of need, who originated you in coming into being and meets your needs in continuing to exist: “And He feeds and is not fed.”
This verse, together with the two verses after it, may form a proof for three groups: those who love meeting God (the free), those who long for the Garden, and those who fear the Fire. It may also be for the first group of worshippers only (the free). For whoever has reached that degree and stage (the worship of the free) certainly grasps the degrees below it too, namely the second stage (the worship of traders) and the third (the worship of slaves), even though for him the motives of longing and fear have shrunk before the motives of love and thanks.
6:15–16 — Say, ‘Indeed, should I disobey my Lord
(15) Say, ‘Indeed, should I disobey my Lord, I fear the punishment of a tremendous day.’ (16) Whoever is spared of it on that day, He has certainly been merciful to him, and that is manifest success.
In these two verses a third proof is given to establish the claim that guardianship over man is restricted to God. This proof can be stated in three forms: 1) Disobeying God entails a great punishment, and the rational link between disobedience and punishment is enough for having faith in God and avoiding taking anyone else as guardian. 2) Man should fear no one but God, since no one besides Him is able to do anything. 3) Man can be saved from painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter only by faith in the divine guardianship and the lordship of the holy divine Essence, and by obeying the commands of the Creator, Exalted.
Escaping the punishment of the Hereafter is no easy matter, since on that day all of a person’s convictions, qualities and passing thoughts of the heart are examined, and escaping their consequences is very hard, just as in this world it is hard to know oneself and to treat the diseases of the soul. So salvation from the great punishment on the Day of Resurrection is proof of special divine mercy and reveals the great triumph.
Because of the personal address to the Prophet (s.a.w.), the first verse appears to be an argument specific to him; but its ruling becomes general when the second verse is joined to it. The address then moves from the personal to the general, because every person who is charged with duties and obedient must have such fear.
Turning punishment away from man comes about by divine enabling, and it is of two kinds. Sometimes God (s.w.t.) keeps man away from punishment; at other times He does more than that, preventing the punishment from coming towards him. The verse under discussion points to the punishment itself being turned away from man.
6:17–18 — Should Allah visit you with some distress there is no one to remove it except Him
(17) Should Allah visit you with some distress there is no one to remove it except Him; and should He bring you some good, then He has power over all things. (18) And He is the All-dominant over His servants, and He is the All-wise, the All-aware.
Absolute divine lordship (holding the reins of all matters, good and evil, in this world and the Hereafter) is a summary of the preceding proofs, and it forms another proof establishing God’s (s.w.t.) guardianship and denying the guardianship of others.
These two verses contain two more proofs establishing the Necessary Being and denying polytheism. For they ascribe to God (s.w.t.) the warding off of all problems and harms and the bringing of all material and spiritual benefits and goods. They state as a general ruling that if God wills harm for someone, no one can lift it or ward it off; and if He opens to him one of the doors of good, no one can close it or hold it back. He gives good and repels those who would prevent it, because He has power over everything, encompasses them and oversees them.
God’s (s.w.t.) being the absolute Subduer (qāhir) means that He is at the same time the One who benefits and the One who harms; it also means that He holds back and spreads out, gives life and causes death. Divine subduing (qahr) means the luminous encompassing of all things: He encompasses and oversees all things, and everything is subdued by Him in knowledge and in action.
What is meant by “over His servants” is the elevation of God (s.w.t.) over His servants in standing, and His wise encompassing of them in knowledge and existence, because He is absolutely Wise and Aware.
6:19 — Say, ‘What thing is greatest as witness?’ Say
Say, ‘What thing is greatest as witness?’ Say, ‘Allah! [He is] witness between me and you, and this Quran has been revealed to me that I may warn thereby you and whomever it may reach.’ ‘Do you indeed bear witness that there are other gods besides Allah?’ Say, ‘I do not bear witness [to any such thing].’ Say, ‘Indeed He is the One God, and I indeed disown what you associate [with Him].’
This verse concerns the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) argument and his disputing in the best manner with the idol-worshippers of the Ḥijāz, to establish the Oneness of God (s.w.t.) by way of transmitted proof (revelation).
In debates and disputations, unlike demonstrative proof, oath and testimony have the effect of premises that are reasonable and accepted. That is why the Creator, Exalted, said in this verse to His noble Prophet (s.a.w.): Take an acknowledgement from the polytheists and ask them: whom do you accept to settle the dispute? Who, in your view, is greatest in testimony? If God’s testimony is the greatest, as it is, and you accept it too, then He has intervened in the dispute between me and you about my claim, and has testified to His Oneness and to my mission, because this Qur’an has been revealed to me, whose truthfulness and miraculous nature are beyond doubt. And He said to me: warn you with it, you and all who receive the divine messages, and call you to the Oneness of God and to dissociation from polytheism until the Day of Resurrection. On this basis, this God whose testimony you accept has testified for me in both matters of dispute between us (the call to the Oneness of God and the claim to the mission); so you must accept His testimony.
God (s.w.t.) is greatest in testimony to the Oneness of God and to prophethood because testimony depends on three central elements: being consciously present at the heart of the event (knowledge and awareness); preserving, retaining and truthfully delivering; and trustworthiness. No doubt God’s testimony, which is a testimony of knowledge and reason, is greater and more complete by all three of these standards.
God’s (s.w.t.) testimony to His Oneness and the denial of polytheism refers to testimony at the stage of delivery, that is, testimony in settling debates and worldly disputes. The Creator, Exalted, delivered what He had regarded at the stage of bearing witness, after setting out the proof and testifying to it. This testimony is also among the instances of verbal testimony; and although it reports the testimony of the Prophet (s.a.w.), His command to him to testify to the Oneness of God amounts to His own testimony.
The noble Qur’an came at times in the language of warning and at other times in that of good news. But warning is spoken of in this verse and in a number of other verses because most people avoid sin and keep to obedience when they remember Hell and punishment.
The expression in this verse, “that I may warn you by it and whomever it reaches”, is among the proofs of the finality of the prophethood of the most noble Messenger (s.a.w.), because it covers all mankind.
The phrase “He is only One God”, like the word of the Oneness of God (“There is no god but God”), shows restriction; so it conveys dissociation from polytheism as well as allegiance to the Oneness of God.
6:20 — Those whom We have given the Book recognize him just as they recognize their sons
Those whom We have given the Book recognize him just as they recognize their sons. Those who have ruined their souls will not have faith.
Another witness to the truth of the most noble Messenger (s.a.w.) and to the rightness of his claim to the mission is that God, Blessed and Exalted, testified to that mission in the books of the earlier prophets too. That is why the People of the Book know the Prophet (s.a.w.) as they know their own sons. They know him by his name, his general qualities and the whole set of his particular features, which fit him completely. These qualities and signs are so clear and reassuring that concealing them leads to nothing but loss and faithlessness.
6:21 — Who is a greater wrongdoer than him who fabricates a lie against Allah
Who is a greater wrongdoer than him who fabricates a lie against Allah, or denies His signs? Indeed the wrongdoers will not be felicitous.
The polytheists and the scholars of the People of the Book were counted the most wrongdoing of people because of their polytheism, their inventing lies against God, their denying the divine signs, their concealing of testimony and their rejecting the mission of the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.); and God (s.w.t.) has promised that they will not succeed. For polytheism, in view of the act itself and of its object, who is the Creator, Exalted, is an ugly act and a major sin. Associating partners with God, who shares with no one the creation and management of the universe, is a violation of His right, Exalted, and one of the worst kinds of wrongdoing. Inventing lies against God means affirming what is denied and denying what is affirmed, because the inventor ascribes partners to God after He, Exalted, has denied them of Himself, and denies of Him the Oneness that He (s.w.t.) has affirmed.
The root of the Oneness of God and the denial of a partner belong to the teachings of theoretical wisdom, while the question of polytheism as against faith belongs to practical wisdom: faith is justice and polytheism is wrongdoing, and wrongdoing, as the opposite of justice, belongs to practical wisdom. To establish a theoretical point by way of practical wisdom, this verse makes “the wrongdoing of polytheism” the middle term in the proof that refutes polytheism.
6:22–24 — On the day when We gather them all together
(22) On the day when We gather them all together, We shall say to those who ascribed partners [to Allah] ‘Where are your partners that you used to claim?’ (23) Then their only excuse will be to say, ‘By Allah, our Lord, we were not polytheists.’ (24) Look, how they forswear themselves, and what they used to fabricate has forsaken them!
The ill-omened fate and bad end of the polytheists and of those who deny the divine signs become clear on the Day of Resurrection. They are all gathered, called to account, and asked about the partners they used to worship besides God. They thought that these were God’s partners in managing the affairs of the world, and that they would intercede for them with God. Then it becomes clear that the position they claim for them is nothing but a mirage.
Since the Hereafter is the realm where the truth is witnessed and falsehood is lost, the polytheists are not asked for a proof of their polytheism, for if there were a partner it would be plain. Rather, they are asked about the partner with the interrogative “where”. When they are at a loss for an answer, and from their utter inability to give one, they resort to trickery and swear by God that they were not polytheists.
The Resurrection is the setting in which realities appear, and a serious intention to lie does not fit anyone there. But the polytheists lie on the basis of the settled traits of their souls, without intention or will, because lying is their habit and has become a settled trait in them. So their false belief (polytheism, lying invention and denying the signs) takes form on that day as another lie, and they swear that they were not polytheists.
In these verses the Creator (s.w.t.) relates the words of the polytheists and their false oath, and paints this scene for His noble Prophet (s.a.w.) as a witness at the divine court. Then He addresses him, saying: Look how they lie even against themselves. No doubt the trick of lying at the Return comes back only on the liar himself, because all the others know and are aware.
The polytheists’ invention revolves around the lordship and divinity of the idols. On the Day of Resurrection too, what vanishes is the invented position of lordship of those idols, not their being and their frame.
6:25 — There are some of them who prick up their ears at you
There are some of them who prick up their ears at you, but We have cast veils on their hearts lest they should understand it, and a deafness into their ears; and though they should see every sign, they will not believe in it. When they come to you, to dispute with you, the faithless say, ‘These are nothing but myths of the ancients.’
The polytheists used to hear the guidance of the Prophet Muḥammad (s.a.w.), but they did not seek guidance from the lights of his explanation and the radiance of his address. They walked in stubbornness and went on firmly in polytheism and in faithlessness towards the divine signs. So they were deprived of the enabling to understand them, their inner sight was blinded and their insight veiled. That is why they rejected, and did not have faith in, every clear sign and dazzling miracle. In frequenting the Prophet (s.a.w.) they sought nothing from him but argument, discord and insistence on what they wanted, nothing more. These people, who claim that the divine verses are nothing but legends and myths handed down from earlier peoples, chose badly in taking the course of faithlessness.
The deprivation of the polytheists was not forced on them; it was a matter of impossibility brought about by choice, which does not conflict with free will, and it sprang from their bad choice. For God is too exalted to cover anyone’s heart, blind him, or stop his ears and turn him away from the truth. Quite the opposite: God (s.w.t.) has given us the legitimate means and instruments that grasp the truth and reality, and He has completed His proof against all people. However, God may take these gifts and favours away from someone who, through his bad deeds and his choice, has taken the path of faithlessness and polytheism. His fierce insistence on his falsehood results in the ways of knowledge that lead to the truth being closed to him, because of the veil on his heart, the heaviness of his hearing and understanding, and the loss of the sight of his eyes, until no beneficial knowledge enters his heart or his hearing, for they do not listen. These causes, which came from themselves, planted in their souls a culture of argument, of denying the signs of the Lord of Majesty and of calling them legends.
6:26 — They dissuade [others] from [following] him
They dissuade [others] from [following] him, and [themselves] avoid him; yet they destroy no one except themselves, but they are not aware.
It became clear from what we said about the previous verse that the faithless and the polytheists accused the noble Qur’an of being legends. They did not stop there; they also warned others away from the Qur’an. So they were both forbidding and keeping away: they kept away themselves and kept others away too. By this shameful act they destroyed no one but themselves, without grasping the gravity of what they were doing. They kept away from the Qur’an so that no awe or impression from hearing the revelation and the noble Qur’an would touch them.
The pronoun in “from it” refers to the noble Qur’an, and so it fits with what “this” points to in the phrase “this is nothing but the legends of the ancients”.
6:27 — Were you to see when they are brought to a halt by the Fire
Were you to see when they are brought to a halt by the Fire, whereupon they will say, ‘If only we were sent back [into the world]! Then we will not deny the signs of our Lord, and we will be among the faithful!’
God, Exalted, addresses His Messenger (s.a.w.), or whoever sees the state of the polytheists: if you could see them on the day they are made to stand, on the plains of the Resurrection, over the fire of Hell and come to know its reality, you would see how they plead to return to the abode of this world and cry out: Would that we could return, so that we might return and not deny the signs of God, Blessed and Exalted!
The polytheists’ wish to return to this world is impossible, but their wishing for it can be understood in three ways: 1) the people of Hell do not grasp the impossibility of their return to this world; 2) wishing, unlike hoping, may concern something impossible; 3) their wish to return to this world is a complete reflection of their corrupt wishes in this world, not a serious wish.
6:28–29 — Indeed, what they used to hide before has now become evident to them
(28) Indeed, what they used to hide before has now become evident to them. But were they to be sent back they would revert to what they were forbidden, and they are indeed liars. (29) They say, ‘There is nothing but our life of this world, and we shall not be resurrected.’
These two verses came in reply to the polytheists’ wish to return to this world and to reform their belief. In this world they used to hide deliberately the truth they had grasped; then, once they are made to stand over the Fire on the Day of Resurrection, the truth is uncovered to them before their eyes. In truth the Fire is a manifestation of the sound, inspired primordial nature (fiṭrah), which man covered with the darknesses of stubbornness and arrogance. At that time this covering is lifted, and when they see the Fire they panic with fear; as a result of this fear they pretend to want to return to this world and to reform. Supposing the impossible, that they were allowed to return, they would plunge again into the forbidden. For they would carry on in their heedlessness, cover over what they had seen on the Day of Resurrection, and plunge into idle play and amusement, because this world is their abode.
The polytheists’ lie in this claim is a plain lie, because what they utter was not mere wishing; it contains a statement that, on returning to this world, they would be among the people of faith and acceptance. And God, who knows best their states and intentions, refuted their lie. These are the very people who used to go to extremes in denying the Resurrection, and who kept repeating their denial of the next life and their rejection of the gathering and the raising.
6:30 — Were you to see when they are brought to a halt before their Lord
Were you to see when they are brought to a halt before their Lord. He will say, ‘Is this not a fact?’ They will say, ‘Yes, by our Lord!’ He will say, ‘So taste the punishment because of what you used to deny.’
The polytheists used to proclaim loudly, and with great arrogance, their denial of the Return, the gathering, the Resurrection and the Hour of raising. After death, standing before the Real and attending the scene of the Hereafter, they will acknowledge their servitude and submission to God, Exalted, admit the truth of the Day of Resurrection, and swear to the truth of that great day.
But this oath and this admission will be of no use to them. When this comes from them, God, Exalted, addresses them in anger and decisively: “So taste the punishment for your faithlessness.”
6:31 — They are certainly losers who deny the encounter with Allah
They are certainly losers who deny the encounter with Allah. When the Hour overtakes them suddenly, they will say, ‘Alas for us, for what we neglected in it!’ And they will bear their burdens on their backs. Look! Evil is what they bear!
One of the most important instances of the consequences of denying the Day of the Return is the evil fate and painful end of those who deny it. Whoever the Resurrection comes upon suddenly will be seized by regrets, and by cries of woe and remorse for what he neglected and for his descent into the paths of evil. Their cries rise in lamenting and wailing with the call “Alas for us!” These people carry on their backs the weight of the sins and acts of disobedience they committed, and what a wretched, foul weight it is, the heaviest of their burdens! For evil deeds and acts in this world take form as a heavy load that almost crushes them.
All this loss, and these consequences for those who deny the Return, begin from the first hours of their death throes, continue into the barzakh, and end on the Day of Resurrection.
The Resurrection coming suddenly means that the order of existence, and the realm of time, movement and material beings, change into another realm different from the first. The suddenness does not mean that it happens at a particular moment. It is like someone who leaves his house and, on reaching his destination, is surprised to find everything before him different.
The Day of Resurrection is the day of regret. On it the people of falsehood regret what they neglected. Those among the people of good who were in the middle and did not reach the rank of those brought near are also overcome by regret for what they neglected, since otherwise they would have been among those brought near. Those brought near also feel regret over their nations’ straying from the right path. The regret of these last two groups is confined to the time before they enter the Garden and dwell in it, because regret has no meaning in the Garden.
6:32 — The life of the world is nothing but play and diversion
The life of the world is nothing but play and diversion, and the abode of the Hereafter is surely better for those who are Godwary. Do you not exercise your reason?
The reality of this world is nothing but amusement and play and a stopping place for merriment. By contrast, the world of the Hereafter is the world of wisdom, reality and permanence. No doubt the abode of the Hereafter is the true and most complete life for one who is Godwary of his Lord. Whoever plunges into play in this world and immerses himself in its amusements will not be among the people of Godwariness and righteousness in that world.
The address in this verse is directed to the polytheists, so that they stir their minds, do not limit themselves to this world nor become absorbed in its pleasures, but look into themselves and set out, by way of reflection, towards faith.
God, Exalted, is too exalted to create for play. What is meant by this world being play is the love of this world and immersion in its false and conventional titles, which are empty of all reality, without paying attention to God’s (s.w.t.) creatures and to the true signs in the self and in the horizons, such as the earth, the heaven and so on: beings of creation made with an order and arrangement of the utmost precision. This world is God’s creation, a divine sign and the starting point of man’s test. But whoever takes it as an abode of boasting, rivalry in wealth, desires and adornment, or goes too far in enjoying its amusement and play, and whoever thinks he was created for the pleasure of eating and drinking and indulges in them to excess, has turned his world into amusement and play.
The secret in calling this world play (laʿib) is that it is like the saliva (luʿāb) of the mouth, which soon perishes and fades, because all the aims of the life of this world are illusory and false.
The secret of likening this world to amusement (lahw) is that it distracts man and, with its perishing glitter and adornment, turns him away from his basic goal, which is his everlasting Hereafter.
6:34 — Apostles were certainly denied before you
Apostles were certainly denied before you, yet they patiently bore being denied and tormented until Our help came to them. Nothing can change the words of Allah, and there have certainly come to you some of the accounts of the apostles.
In continuing to console the Prophet (s.a.w.) over what his blessed person and his most complete being faced from the wrongdoers and the polytheists in denying him, God (s.w.t.) graciously comforts His noble Messenger (s.a.w.): Do not let anxiety and grief find a way into your heart, for the events that have befallen you befell the earlier prophets (a.s.) in their times, and they bore the same burdens. So you must follow the same way, resist and persevere with effort until the time of victory comes and We grant you victory. Victory that follows patience is one of the fixed laws that accept no change and that hold in all times and places. We have told you, in the course of the previous verses, the news of what befell the prophets (a.s.): how their peoples denied them and how they were patient with what they witnessed, until the good news of divine victory came to them, and they triumphed and attained what their Lord had promised them.
6:35 — And should their aversion be hard on you
And should their aversion be hard on you, find, if you can, a tunnel into the ground, or a ladder into sky, that you may bring them a sign. Had Allah wished, He would have brought them together on guidance. So do not be one of the ignorant.
The Prophet (s.a.w.) lived in grief over the misguidance of the polytheists and their turning away from the truth. God, Exalted, came to His Prophet (s.a.w.) to console and comfort him, saying: We know the extent of your grief for these people. Effort and toil with these stubborn people will not succeed. Even if you went down into the earth or rose up to the seventh heaven and brought them every extraordinary miracle, do not expect faith or righteousness from them. Whoever has stood against the Qur’an and shown no softening towards it reacts in the same way to all miracles.
If the Lord of Majesty willed to compel them to guidance, He would be able to do so; but compelled faith and perfection are as far apart as the east from the west. The will of God, Exalted, rests on wisdom, and His creative will is bound up with freedom and choice. Faithlessness and faith are the result of this choice; and if man were compelled to either of them, happiness and misery would have no real meaning. Hence the tasks of the prophets are nothing but conveying, delivering the proof and completing it. Once this truth became clear to the Messenger (s.a.w.) through the knowledge he gained: so be patient and stand firm in the face of the opposing forces, and do not act like one ignorant of the station.
Here the address of the verse is in the end directed at the polytheists, alluding to them and threatening them with punishment and torment; it is not a hint of any shortcoming in the Prophet (s.a.w.). The chapters of knowledge carried in the breast of the Prophet (s.a.w.) are an unseen that he received from the Lord of the unseen; in himself he does not know the unseen, were it not for God’s (s.w.t.) teaching him. This expression occurs in only one place, and it seeks only to open the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) breast and console his heart.
6:36 — Only those who listen will respond [to you]
Only those who listen will respond [to you]. As for the dead, Allah will resurrect them, then they will be brought back to Him.
When the Creator, Exalted, willed to remove grief and sorrow from the heart of the Messenger (s.a.w.), He followed up with a proof for what He had mentioned in the previous verse: only one whose heart is alive and has not yet died listens to the truth. It is not those of the stubborn polytheists who have blinded themselves to the truth, deafened their ears, and killed their hearts and consciences. They are the ones who do not live up to the responsibility of hearing and seeing; it is as though they are dead, neither grasping nor understanding. These will not be guided, and you have no responsibility towards them. Conveying and warning to these people is nothing but establishing the proof and fulfilling the responsibility of the mission, without any effect on them. Life will return to them at the Resurrection, and they will become aware of the truth they turned away from in this world; but their awareness will be of no use at the station of the Resurrection.
6:37 — They say, ‘Why has not a sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say
They say, ‘Why has not a sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say, ‘Allah is indeed able to send down a sign,’ but most of them do not know.
From time to time those who denied the heavenly mission would invent excuses and throw out doubts for which God had sent down no authority. Among those excuses was their saying: If the Messenger (s.a.w.) is truthful in claiming his connection with his Lord, let his Lord send down a miracle to him so that we may believe him.
God (s.w.t.) addresses His Prophet, telling him to inform them, in answer to their demand, that God is powerful in His Essence, and His power is absolute, without limit or restriction, without beginning or end. He is able to send down miracles without any limit. But they ask for miracles in order to invent excuses; and if a miracle were sent down to them, they would meet it with mockery and ridicule. For this reason God does not send down miracles, because for these people that would be a futile act, and God is free from futility. He did not send His Prophet (s.a.w.) to meet the proposals they make every day. Most of them do not know that mocking the divine signs and refusing to have faith in them brings down the punishment that ends their lives.
6:38 — There is no animal on land
There is no animal on land, nor a bird that flies with its wings, but they are communities like yourselves. We have not omitted anything from the Book. Then they will be mustered toward their Lord.
God, Exalted, by His wisdom and His kindness to creation, has recorded for all beings a life that they enjoy. On this basis, the snares the polytheists cast are refuted. He says: There is no creature on earth (on land or in the sea), nor bird in the air, but they are nations like you, in view of their features (growth, nourishment, reproduction, their glorification of God, their perception and so on); and in view of their inner features (one purpose, movement towards one leader and following him) they are nations like man. So what is meant by likeness is likeness of kind: all the kinds of beings, birds and others, are nations like you.
There is no shortfall or lack in the record of divine creation, whether the legislative book (outward and inward) or the book of creation (the Preserved Tablet and the Mother of the Book), which leaves out nothing small or great but has counted it.
From animals being nations it follows that they will be gathered, and gathered to the Exalted Lord. For a nation is a group that has, in its leader and its aspirations, a single purpose and goal, towards which it heads with its leader and moves. Their having a middle degree of perception and awareness also confirms this: animals, like man, do not cease to exist at death. If none of these perfections led to a gathering and a resurrection, their having them would be pointless.
The gathering in this verse is the greater gathering (the movement and becoming of beings towards the Lord of the worlds). There is also a lesser gathering, which is specific to animals, as is understood from some verses and narrations.
6:39 — Those who deny Our signs are deaf and dumb
Those who deny Our signs are deaf and dumb, in a manifold darkness. Allah leads astray whomever He wishes, and whomever He wishes He puts him on a straight path.
The reason the faithless are not moved, and deny God’s (s.w.t.) great and dazzling signs, is that they have no ears that hear the truth, and their tongues are unable to proclaim the truth. You see them plunging into the darknesses of ignorance, bigotry, stubbornness and obstinacy, sunk in them, so that the realities are covered from them. They have been deprived of the three faculties (speech, hearing and sight), and the loss of these faculties is the main cause of all their rejection of the truth.
Whomever God wills to lead astray, as a punishment from Him, is deprived of His overflowing, special merciful grace and is left to his own ways. Whomever God wills to grant guidance, He places on the straight and upright path. The first applies to one who persisted in rejection despite knowledge and clear evidence, made himself deaf and blind, and does not see the truth but turns his head away from it. Divine guidance reaches one who listens to the voice of the truth, and who has ears with which he understands, a tongue that proclaims the truth, and an eye with which he discerns the truth.
6:40–41 — Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah’s punishment overtake you
(40) Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah’s punishment overtake you, or should the Hour overtake you, will you supplicate anyone other than Allah, should you be truthful? (41) No, Him you will supplicate, and He will remove that for which you supplicated Him, if He wishes, and you will forget what you ascribe [to Him] as [His] partners.’
The Prophet (s.a.w.) spared no effort in trying to guide the polytheists, taking every path to lead them to the light of the Oneness of God. Among those paths is establishing the Oneness of God (s.w.t.) through the proof from primordial nature (fiṭrah). The most holy divine Essence addresses their nature, which dust had covered while it was still alive, so that the dust of idolatry might be removed from it. He, Mighty is the Speaker, says: “Say: Tell me, if God’s punishment came upon you, or the Hour came upon you, would you call on other than God, if you are truthful? Rather, it is Him you would call on, and He would remove what you call on Him for, if He wills, and you would forget what you associate with Him.” At that time your divine nature will awaken from the sleep of this world, the truth of faith and the falsity of the things associated with God will become clear to you, and you will seek help from none but God, Exalted, for there is none who harms or benefits besides Him. If He willed, He would lift the knots of your difficulties from you, and you will forget the partners you set up for God and called on for help in your hardships, so that they might help you instead of God.
This argument of the Creator, Exalted, is to bring the polytheists back to their divine nature. For if man faced his nature, he would bow his head before it, because it is charged with the light of the Oneness of God.
From the restriction in the phrase “would you call on other than God” it is understood that the polytheists gave the attribute of lordship, which is the management of the particular affairs of the universe, to the idols alone. In fact, the proof from primordial nature came to refute this mistaken idea of the polytheists.
The expression “if you are truthful” refers to denying truthfulness to the polytheists, both in what they report and in themselves as reporters. That is: if you are truthful in your claim of polytheism and in describing your idols as lords, and what you say is true and matches reality, then let them say that the lifting and warding off of punishment, in this world and the Hereafter, come from other than God, Exalted.
6:42–43 — We have certainly sent [apostles] to nations before you
(42) We have certainly sent [apostles] to nations before you, then We seized them with stress and distress so that they might entreat [Us]. (43) Why did they not entreat when Our punishment overtook them! But their hearts had hardened, and Satan had made what they had been doing seem decorous to them.
In these two verses God, Exalted, addresses His noble Prophet (s.a.w.), saying to him: We sent prophets to the nations before you, but those nations refused to have faith in them and in their calls. So We afflicted them with hardship (al-baʾsāʾ): diseases and illnesses in their bodies, and poverty, drought, calamities, wars and disputes in their livelihoods and food. And We tested them with adversity (al-ḍarrāʾ), which is inward troubles and pains, such as the loss of their positions and standing, so that they might take heed, cry out and humble themselves before the presence of the Lord. Then He says: Why, when We tested them with hardships and griefs and placed them amid layers of calamities, did they not take refuge for their deliverance in supplication and in humbling themselves before God, Exalted?
Their turning away from humbling themselves before the Lord of the worlds has two causes: 1) their hearts turned to stone from the multitude of their sins; 2) Satan made their deeds seem fair to them, so that they no longer saw any ugliness in them.
6:44 — So when they forgot what they had been admonished of
So when they forgot what they had been admonished of, We opened for them the gates of all [good] things. When they became proud of what they were given, We seized them suddenly, whereat, behold, they were despondent.
This verse concerns drawing the polytheists on, step by step, towards punishment (istidrāj), and granting them respite after they failed in their test with hardship and adversity, did not take heed from it, and did not humble themselves before their Lord.
The drawing on happens in this way. When God (s.w.t.) wills to make the punishment severe for them, He opens on them the doors of blessings (comfort and ease) from every side and direction, until, from the excess and abundance of blessings, they are immersed in them. At that time the punishment comes on them suddenly, without warning, leaving them no escape and no refuge. So the opening of the doors of blessings before the haughty wrongdoers is a prelude to the punishment and to seizing them, because the coming of punishment in this state is more painful for them.
6:45 — Thus the wrongdoing lot were rooted out
Thus the wrongdoing lot were rooted out, and all praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.
In the end the punishment comes suddenly, cutting off the roots of the faithless, and their lines are cut off by this punishment. Its criterion is their wrongdoing: had it not been for their wrongdoing, it would not have befallen them.
The punishment is their extirpation. Cutting off the last of the wrongdoers and their descendants is nothing but subduing and retribution against them.
But this retribution is a blessing with respect to the order of existence, and also to the faithful, by removing the faithless from this world. That is why the Creator, Exalted, praised Himself for His subduing and His blessing and for the appearance of the majesty of His grandeur. This is nothing but the manifestation of beauty to the whole order of the universe and to the faithful, and by it He, Exalted, deserves praise and thanks.
The praise and thanks at the end of the noble verse is nothing but teaching the faithful to give praise when victories come. It also teaches them not to incline towards the faithless remaining in the abode of this world.
6:46 — Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah take away your hearing and your sight and set a seal on your…
Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah take away your hearing and your sight and set a seal on your hearts, which god other than Allah can bring it [back] to you?’ Look, how We paraphrase the signs variously; nevertheless they turn away.
This verse came down carrying a shining proof and a clear argument, to lead the polytheists, guide them and set them on the way to the Oneness of God. It also concerns practical tests and a special divine punishment. God, Exalted, addresses His final Prophet (s.a.w.): Say to the polytheists: How would it be with you if God’s punishment befell you, and blessings such as sight and hearing were taken from you, your hearts were sealed, and perception and the sense of understanding were turned away from you? Who would have the power to give these back to you, and who would lift the punishment from you? Is there anyone besides the Lord of the worlds? Could your idols and the gods you worship besides God do such a thing?!
The address at the end of the verse is directed to the Prophet (s.a.w.) and to everyone with insight, so that they may see how God, Exalted, has made the loftiest teachings and the deepest meanings fine and gentle in the Qur’anic verses, so that all people may grasp them. All these attempts and this varied presentation of the verses did nothing to wake the polytheists from the sleep of their heedlessness and to make them lean towards the light of the Oneness of God. Rather, they behaved badly: they turned away in their deeds from God’s (s.w.t.) signs and turned their faces from the echo of their own nature, as though they had not heard its call.
6:47 — Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah’s punishment overtake you suddenly or visibly
Say, ‘Tell me, should Allah’s punishment overtake you suddenly or visibly, will anyone be destroyed except the wrongdoing lot?’
This noble verse contains another argument of God (s.w.t.) with the polytheists, and a second kind of varied presentation of the verses, to establish the Oneness of God in lordship. God, Exalted, points to practical tests and to the coming down of a general divine punishment, and addresses His Prophet (s.a.w.):
Tell the polytheists: if the punishment came on you suddenly, without any prior knowledge, would any be destroyed by it but the wrongdoers? If your belief in the idols were sound, they would have to be able to save from the punishment those who believe in their divinity and lordship. Yet they are helpless, unable to stop the divine punishment from coming down, nor do they have the power to lift the punishment after it has fallen.
This punishment befalls the arrogant wrongdoers without any harm reaching the faithful; they are protected from the punishment.
6:48–49 — We do not send the apostles except as bearers of good news and warners
(48) We do not send the apostles except as bearers of good news and warners. As for those who are faithful and righteous, they will have no fear, nor will they grieve. (49) But as for those who deny Our signs, the punishment shall befall them because of the transgressions they used to commit.
After the punishment has piled up on the polytheists, all the doors of success and prosperity will be closed to them, and then nothing done even by the prophets (a.s.) will help them. For God (s.w.t.) sent the prophets (a.s.) as bearers of good news and warners, and the only way to triumph and success is faith and righteous deeds. The righteous person of faith is the one who is not alarmed by God’s threat of punishment and does not grieve over what he has missed, if he leaves behind him a life that rejoices in faith and righteous deeds. As for the faithless, who have taken on denial in belief and in action, the punishment will befall them and take hold of them.
6:50 — Say, ‘I do not say to you that I possess the treasuries of Allah
Say, ‘I do not say to you that I possess the treasuries of Allah, nor do I know the Unseen, nor do I say to you that I am an angel. I follow only what is revealed to me.’ Say, ‘Are the blind one and the seer equal? So do you not reflect?’
The polytheists thought that one who claims prophethood and the mission must have the divine treasuries, must know the sciences of the unseen, and must not be of human kind but an angel.
God, Blessed and Exalted, answers the polytheists’ delusions and these three objections, and commands His Prophet (s.a.w.): Tell them that you do not own treasuries, do not know the unseen, and are not an angel as they claim; you are only a human being who receives the lights of divine revelation.
The treasuries of the knowledge of the unseen and of the dominion (malakūt) belong to God (s.w.t.) in essence and are under His choice, and they do not come down without His leave. So the Messenger (s.a.w.) does not own them in essence or independently. Nor should one overlook that bringing down the divine treasuries needs knowledge of the unseen, which the Prophet (s.a.w.) lacks in himself. Essential knowledge of the unseen is like absolute power and the enjoyment of all the treasuries of the earth, which belong to lordship, not to prophethood. The Prophet (s.a.w.) is not a lord, that the treasuries should be with him and that he should know the unseen in himself; he is only a messenger from the Lord of the worlds, and God shows His Prophet whatever He wills of the treasuries of His knowledge and the hidden things of His unseen.
The polytheists thought that the position of the mission does not fit with being human, so that the Prophet must be an angel come down to earth from heaven, or must go up to heaven and bring them a book. Against this, the Prophet (s.a.w.) would refute all these delusions and, obeying God, Exalted, say to them: I am not an angel, and basically the position of the mission does not require its holder to be an angel; the aim of the mission is to receive revelation, follow its commands and convey it to all people.
In the rest of the verse God (s.w.t.) urges His Messenger (s.a.w.) to tell the polytheists that it is a firm certainty that those with blind and dark hearts are not equal to those with enlightened hearts, and that those with insight who have grasped the realities and teachings differ from those deprived of grasping the truth. I and the rest of mankind are equal in being human; but this does not prevent you from following me, nor me from calling you to follow me. God has given me sight and enlightened me through revelation, while you are blind and astray from the way; and one who is blind and astray from the path must follow one who sees. So I call you to the mission, and to reflect on its features in its five roots: ownership of the treasuries of the heavens and the earth; essential knowledge of the unseen; there being no necessary link between the mission and being an angel; the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) following of revelation; and the blind of heart not being equal to those with aware hearts.
6:51 — And warn by its means those who fear being mustered toward their Lord
And warn by its means those who fear being mustered toward their Lord, besides whom they shall have neither any guardian nor any intercessor, so that they may be Godwary.
In this verse God (s.w.t.) charges His Prophet (s.a.w.): Warn with the Qur’an those who fear the gathering to God and the Resurrection. The reason behind this intense dread is that they will meet their Lord on the plain of the Resurrection with no intercessor besides Him to intercede for them and no guardian to take charge of them.
From His (s.w.t.) words “they have no guardian or intercessor besides Him, that they may be Godwary” it is understood that the mere possibility of the Resurrection taking place is of no use with them. Rather, every kind of refuge, and any guardian or intercessor of theirs, must be denied, so that they see the danger surrounding them as serious and certain. Then the effect of the warning appears, and they become Godwary of their Lord.
This verse aims to deny independent guardianship and intercession to anyone other than God; it does not mean to deny intercession altogether. Even supposing its wording is unqualified or general, it is specified or qualified by the verses that affirm intercession.
The fruit of warning is attaining Godwariness. That is why He ended the verse with it and gave it as the reason: “that they may be Godwary”.
6:52 — Do not drive away those who supplicate their Lord morning and evening desiring His face
Do not drive away those who supplicate their Lord morning and evening desiring His face. Neither are you accountable for them in any way, nor are they accountable for you in any way, so that you may drive them away and thus become one of the wrongdoers.
The nobles of Mecca and the Ḥijāz made their faith in the mission of the final Prophet (s.a.w.) conditional on his keeping away from the weak and deprived class of society. So God, Exalted, stresses to His Prophet (s.a.w.): Beware of driving away the faithful around you who call on their Lord night and day with sincere hearts, seeking by this nothing but the Face of God and hoping for nothing but Him. There is no factor or reason to drive away these Godwary people. You have no material, worldly account with them, such that you might fear that if you judged among them they would not accept your justice and your just ruling; nor is anything of your account on them, such that you might feel shy of not reckoning with them in fairness and justice. The meaning is that every individual is reckoned for his own deeds: your deeds are not reckoned against them, nor is the reckoning of their deeds upon you. So the factor for drawing them near is present, and the factor for driving them away is absent. If you pushed them away from you, you would commit a great wrong, because it would be a wrong to yourself and a wrong to the school of the mission and to the Islamic community.
6:53 — Thus do We test them by means of one another so that they should say
Thus do We test them by means of one another so that they should say, ‘Are these the ones whom Allah has favoured from among us?!’ Does not Allah know best the grateful?!
God (s.w.t.) made the faith of the poor and the weak in the final Prophet (s.a.w.) a test for the chiefs, the great men and the wealthy of the Ḥijāz. But they did not pass this test; they failed it because of their arrogance. They set about belittling the weak among the faithful and used to mock them, saying: Has God favoured these people, granted them the blessing of faith and the company of the chosen Messenger (s.a.w.), and put them before us? Can this be reasonable?!
They imagined that people of position, the nobles and the wealthy were more entitled than others to follow the sent Prophet (s.a.w.), and that the poor, the oppressed and the low, deprived class of society would not follow him. They were heedless that these differences are divine tests.
God (s.w.t.) rebuffed the mockery and disbelief of the arrogant nobles of the Ḥijāz and told them: Those who are thankful for God’s blessings know best what He has blessed them with. None is granted this great attainment, the company of the Prophet (s.a.w.), except one who is immersed in the bounties of God’s blessings; so God favoured them with guidance, so that they would thank Him for His blessing on them.
6:54 — When those who have faith in Our signs come to you
When those who have faith in Our signs come to you, say, ‘Peace to you! Your Lord has made mercy incumbent upon Himself: whoever of you commits an evil [deed] out of ignorance and then repents after that and reforms, then He is indeed all-forgiving, all-merciful.’
God (s.w.t.) commands His Prophet (s.a.w.) to convey His greeting of peace and His salutation, full of tenderness, to the faithful who answered the call of the final Prophet (s.a.w.) and followed him, and to tell them of their Lord’s mercy towards His servants and that He has written mercy upon Himself. Among the instances of this mercy is pardoning the error of sinning faithful who did evil out of ignorance, then came to themselves, set right what had passed and set about repairing their past faults. Without doubt, with certainty and conviction, such a person will be covered by the overflowing mercy of the Lord of the worlds, for the Lord of the worlds is Forgiving and Merciful.
God’s peace is a description of God’s act, and conveying it to them means pouring mercy and well-being into their hearts and spiritually embracing these faithful. The mercy of God (s.w.t.) is mentioned after peace because a sound vessel is ready to receive God’s special mercy. Special divine mercy is borne in a sound heart, and the issuing of the outpouring of God’s mercy is made firm once the receptivity of the heart’s vessel is complete. This peace and this mercy are among the affairs of God’s special lordship towards the faithful.
6:55 — Thus do We elaborate the signs
Thus do We elaborate the signs, so that the way of the guilty may be exposed.
One of the basic aims of setting out and explaining the divine verses about the faithful and the faithless is to enlighten the minds of the faithful about the path of the faithless, and to make known their disgrace and expose them publicly, so that the faithful avoid them and no one is deceived by them.
6:56 — Say, ‘I have been forbidden to worship those whom you invoke besides Allah.’ Say
Say, ‘I have been forbidden to worship those whom you invoke besides Allah.’ Say, ‘I do not follow your desires, for then I will have gone astray, and I will not be among the [rightly] guided.’
This noble verse teaches the final Prophet (s.a.w.) another argument in reply to the polytheists’ insistent demand that the Messenger (s.a.w.) follow their religion in idol-worship.
God, Exalted, commands His Messenger (s.a.w.) to stand with resolve and firm determination against the false demands of the polytheists, to insist on proclaiming his true belief and spreading it among the people, and to expose their false belief by saying to them: I have been forbidden to worship your idols, which you worship besides your Lord. I do not follow your desires, which have led you astray from the path of right guidance. The worship of anything other than God springs from fancy, imagination, desire and obsession, and you have no decisive evidence or effective proof for this belief of yours. I follow nothing but evidence, reason and the bright light of proof, while these are nothing but desires and misguidance.
Pursuing the desires of the self is a source of misguidance, and the misguided person is not guided to the truth as long as he follows the path of the desires that cast man down to destruction. He is misguided, attains nothing of guidance, and will not reach guidance as long as he walks on falsehood. So I do not follow your selfish desires.
6:57–58 — Say, ‘Indeed I stand on a manifest proof from my Lord and you have denied it
(57) Say, ‘Indeed I stand on a manifest proof from my Lord and you have denied it. What you seek to hasten is not up to me. Judgement belongs only to Allah; He expounds the truth and He is the best of judges.’ (58) Say, ‘If what you seek to hasten were with me, the matter would surely have been decided between you and me, and Allah knows best the wrongdoers.’
These two verses are another proof that the final Prophet (s.a.w.) does not follow the desires of the polytheists and keeps far from idol-worship.
In the first verse God, Exalted, says to His Messenger (s.a.w.): In opposing desire I carry with me clear evidence from my Lord, which is the glorious Qur’an; its miraculous nature is rational proof of the truth of my claim and of what I claim. The Qur’an is God’s word. It is a scale for telling truth from falsehood, and it drives falsehood away from itself, even though you deny it and ask for another miracle. What you ask for is the punishment, and you even seek to hasten it; but it is not within my choice, and the Lord of power has not entrusted its matter to me. So there is no judgement between me and you on which we agree (since you reject the miracle I have brought, and your demand for the punishment to come down is not entrusted to me).
The reins of the creative judgement are in the hands of God (s.w.t.) alone, not in anyone else’s, and the decisive word is His, Exalted. He is the One who separates truth from falsehood by creative judgement and ends every rational or intellectual dispute and turmoil between truth and falsehood; He is the best of those who separate truth from falsehood.
In the second verse He stresses to them: if the matter of the sign of punishment and the miracle you insist on demanding were in my hands, and I had the power to carry out what you ask, the matter between us would have been decided and the dispute ended in my favour. For divine punishment befalls the wrongdoers, and you are certainly among the wrongdoers; and God knows best the wrongdoers.
6:59 — With Him are the treasures of the Unseen
With Him are the treasures of the Unseen; no one knows them except Him. He knows whatever there is in land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it, nor is there a grain in the darkness of the earth, nor anything fresh or withered but it is in a manifest Book.
This blessed verse contains three sections: 1) God’s (s.w.t.) knowledge of the unseen is specific to His Essence alone; 2) His knowledge of all things (the unseen and the witnessed); 3) everything is recorded in a Clear Book. The storehouses of the unseen are the treasuries of the beings of the witnessed world, and they have three important features: (a) they cannot be limited before they come down; (b) they cannot cease, because they are with the Lord of the worlds; (c) they come down by way of manifestation. The storehouses of the unseen, both of the unseen in itself and of the relative unseen, lie within the circle of God’s knowledge, and none but He, Exalted, is aware of them. Others bear them by His leave, and their knowledge is a manifestation of God’s knowledge; just as the keys of these storehouses are in His hand alone. He alone opens and closes them, even if someone else has their keys as a manifestation of the act of God, Exalted.
The storehouse of the unseen, like what is stored in it, is part of the creatures of the world of contingency. So it is outside the Essence and comes after divine essential knowledge; that is, it is known to God by His knowledge in action.
Everything that exists in the universe is known to God, Exalted, because it is His creation, and every creator knows his act and his creation; and His knowledge of His act is knowledge in action and is the very thing known. What is meant in His words, Exalted, “none knows them but He” is knowledge in action.
Among the instances of God’s (s.w.t.) knowledge in action is His knowledge of all the creatures of land and sea, and His knowledge of the falling of the leaves of trees and of the seed in the darknesses of the earth; and there is nothing wet or dry but God’s Book has counted it. Smallness of size, distance, darkness and hiddenness in the depths of the earth do not prevent God’s knowledge.
According to the beginning and the end of this verse, everything unseen and witnessed is witnessed and known by God, Exalted.
The expression “nor anything wet or dry”, judging by what comes before and after it, is an allusion that covers God’s knowledge, Exalted, of all things.
The knowledge of the inner interpretation (taʾwīl) and of the inner meaning of the noble Qur’an, the Mother of the Book, and the soul of the perfect human being (the Prophet and the infallible Imam (a.s.)) are among the instances of the Clear Book and among the degrees of God’s knowledge in action.
6:60 — It is He who takes your souls by night
It is He who takes your souls by night, and He knows what you do by day, then He reanimates you therein so that a specified term may be completed. Then to Him will be your return, whereat He will inform you concerning what you used to do.
The noble verse speaks about the pivot of divine management in the various affairs of human life, from beginning to end, and it warns of the Day of the Return, the Day of Calling, and life after the realm of this world.
God (s.w.t.) is the One who takes the spirits out of the bodies when they sleep, then returns them to the body. Sleeping at night is a sign of man’s death, and the place of his sleep is like the grave in which he is buried; and his waking from sleep in the day is a sign of the raising and resurrection after death. This death and waking is a temporary death in the form of sleep and a picture of the Day of raising, and it continues until man’s life ends. After that his spirit is taken forever and returns to its Lord, who informs it of its deeds in the abode of this world.
Man must know that God takes him at night and watches his deeds during the hours of the day. So he must do good things and the best deeds, so that he may hand over to his Lord a clean and pure spirit.
6:61 — He is the All-dominant over His servants
He is the All-dominant over His servants, and He sends guards to [protect] you. When death approaches anyone of you, Our messengers take him away and they do not neglect [their duty].
The withness of the Lord of the worlds with His creation is a sustaining withness (maʿiyyah qayyūmiyyah), from which follow His elevation, His subduing and His absolute encompassing of His creation. Divine elevation and subduing cover man and the angels, the relationship between them, and the tasks entrusted to the angels. One of their effects is that a number of angels take charge of preserving man’s outward and inward deeds, in word and act. When the term of their death arrives, the turn comes for the angels who take spirits, and they take the spirit fully and completely, without any delay or hesitation.
The angels’ preserving and guarding of man is more general than creative and legislative preserving. The cause of man’s rescue from dangers, calamities and natural events in the world is the angels charged over creation.
The angels commanded to preserve man are different from the angels of taking (tawaffī). The angels of taking do not fall short in the taking itself, in taking hold of the spirit, or in guarding the spirit after it is drawn out of the body. In the same way, the angels who preserve man in creation and his legislative acts do not neglect and know no neglect, because they bear the trait of infallibility.
6:62 — Then they are returned to Allah
Then they are returned to Allah, their real master. Look! All judgement belongs to Him, and He is the swiftest of reckoners.
After the death of the body, the living spirit returns to its Maker, carrying with it the belief, character and deeds that the person acquired in his life. The Lord of the worlds warns: Know that judgement and the creative and legislative commands are in His choice, and He is the swiftest of reckoners; there is no slackness in His reckoning, Exalted. Delay in reckoning comes from ignorance, heedlessness, forgetfulness and lack of the necessary means, and God, Majestic and Exalted, is free of these things.
The spirit’s return to God (s.w.t.) shows that the completeness of man’s reality lies in his spirit, which gives life to the body; with the death of the body it is drawn out and rises to its true place.
Joining the name “Master” (mawlā) to the pronoun “their” is a joining of compassion. It points to the intensity of the care, kindness and mercy of the Lord of the worlds for His servants, and expresses a mastership of love and of general kindness.
6:63–64 — Say, ‘Who delivers you from the darkness of land and sea
(63) Say, ‘Who delivers you from the darkness of land and sea, [when] You invoke Him suppliantly and secretly: ‘‘If He delivers us from this, we will surely be among the grateful’’?’ (64) Say, ‘It is Allah who delivers you from them and from every agony, [but] then you ascribe partners [to Him].’
These two verses address the atheists and the deniers, calling them to the worship of God by proof, and they call the polytheists to the Oneness of God by disputing in the best manner.
In view of the general rule, “every distress”, what is meant by “you” in “Who delivers you” is not limited to one surrounded by dangers on a dark night in the midst of the sea’s waves, or by dangers that loom before him in the midst of a desert. Rather, it covers even one struck by problems and knots in his individual, social and family life. The only rescuer for all of these is God, Exalted.
Whoever is caught in these hardships and tight straits, or in the darknesses of land and sea, with his hand cut off from material causes, returns, in that wretched and hopeless state, to his own nature. In the depths of his spirit he hears the ring of hope in a power above nature, able to rescue him from these difficulties. The universality of this matter, and of taking refuge in that power, shows that there is a true rescuer in the order of existence, who is God, Exalted. On this basis there is a pull towards God (s.w.t.) in the depths of every person’s being; it is not luck, which is superstition and nonsense.
Belief in God is not born of human fears, because the prophets (a.s.), who brought the messages of the religion of the Oneness of God, were among the bravest and boldest people history has known. How often they stood against tyrants and their tyrannical power until the last moments of their lives, without any slackening! Yes, fear of limited beings and despair of them prepare fertile ground for knowing God and wipe the dust of reliance on materialist ideas from human thought.
In practice, secret supplication is preferred to open supplication; but in rank, “humbly” comes before “secretly”. The person in distress insists, and resorts to four emphases in pledging to give thanks for the blessings if God (s.w.t.) rescues him from the darknesses of land or sea; yet despite this emphatic pledge he breaks the covenant and associates partners with his Lord again. God, Exalted, is the One who wards off and lifts every kind of calamity and danger from man in all states, and the one who holds sincerely to the Oneness of God is the one who grasps that these come from God, Exalted.
6:65 — Say, ‘He is able to send upon you a punishment from above you or from under your feet
Say, ‘He is able to send upon you a punishment from above you or from under your feet, or confound you as [hostile] factions, and make you taste one another’s violence.’ Look, how We paraphrase the signs variously so that they may understand!
The noble Qur’an has used good news and warning, in its various contexts, to call to the Oneness of God, Exalted, and to the rejection of polytheism and atheism. Among these contexts is this verse, which threatens the polytheists and the atheists with every kind of heavenly and earthly punishment, and threatens them with the punishment of division, separation and conflict among themselves. He is the Lord of the universe and of existence; if He willed, none could hold Him back; He is the One with power above every possessor of power.
The verse we are discussing carries no scent of compulsion or force at all. It follows on from the previous verses of good news and completes their context. It turns to the polytheists with the threat of punishment and divine wrath, since one who has seen the great and clear signs of his Lord still persists in his atheism and polytheism. So let them await the retribution of God (s.w.t.) through heavenly and earthly punishment and through the casting of division and conflict among them.
In this verse God, Exalted, ascribes division and separation to Himself, and in other verses He ascribes them to Satan. No doubt blameworthy division is the work of Satan. But since the order of existence turns under the management of God (s.w.t.), and all creatures move by His creative leave, their acts can be ascribed to God while keeping the place of the near causes and principles. So sowing division and discord, and Satan’s other acts, are by God’s leave and by a creative command from Him; and this task was handed over to Satan because he deserved it after his faithlessness and arrogance.
Varied presentation (taṣrīf), turning and shifting the verses, and moving points from one proof to another and from one form to another, means setting out the reality and the truth in many scholarly tongues. Guidance and the luminous Book (proof, revelation and reliable transmission) all three move towards a single goal along a common line. The secret in the many proofs, the different expressions and the abundant Qur’anic parables is that each person may draw from the teachings of the divine Book according to his understanding, and that the ground may be prepared for all to return to the noble Qur’an. So the divine proof is completed against all human beings.
6:66 — Your people have denied it
Your people have denied it, though it is the truth. Say, ‘It is not my business to watch over you.’
Quraysh and some of the relatives of the chosen Prophet (s.a.w.), out of stubbornness and arrogance, were the first to confront the Messenger (s.a.w.) after he announced and proclaimed his call, and they cried out denying the chosen Messenger (s.a.w.). So their denial of him was the cornerstone in sowing tribal and local divisions, and a cause of the decline of the Muslims in the past and in the present.
The pronoun in “it” may refer to the noble Qur’an, to the varied presentation of the verses, or to the threat of punishment mentioned in the previous verses. The polytheists did not only deny the Qur’an and the varied presentation of the verses; they were also unmoved by God’s (s.w.t.) threat to punish them and by the warning given to them. But the likelier possibility, as the context of the verses requires, is the denial of the threat of punishment.
God (s.w.t.), on the one hand, entrusted to him the task of guiding people, warning, giving good news, calling to the Oneness of God, reminding and so on; and on the other hand, He removed from him responsibilities such as being a guardian (wakīl), controller and keeper in creation.
On this basis, the Prophet (s.a.w.) is charged and commanded by law to call people to the truth, to the Oneness of God and to the religious teachings. But in creation he is not a guardian over people, such that he would turn their hearts to God and compel them to guidance. In creation they are free to accept or to turn away.
6:67 — For every prophecy there is a [preordained] setting
For every prophecy there is a [preordained] setting, and soon you will know.
After the series of repeated warnings from the Messenger Muḥammad (s.a.w.) to the polytheists, telling them of punishment, some of them would ask about the timing of the punishment, for they saw these threats as nothing but threats that would never actually happen.
But God (s.w.t.) replies to them that these promises and reports are certain and determined matters, and will take place in a particular setting and at a particular time, without any delay or postponement; for by divine decree every event has a particular setting in time and place. So the faithless must not doubt the coming of the punishment or seek to hasten it. Rather, they must know that, when the conditions are fitting, they will find the penalty for their denial and the truth of the divine promise. They will come to know the reality of the punishment when it comes down on them.
6:68 — When you see those who gossip impiously about Our signs
When you see those who gossip impiously about Our signs, avoid them until they engage in some other discourse; but if Satan makes you forget, then, after remembering, do not sit with the wrongdoing lot.
In this verse God, Exalted, consoles His chosen Prophet (s.a.w.) and calms his heart by commanding him: whenever the stubborn faithless set about casting doubts and slipping fallacies into society, turning the truth of the revealed religious teachings upside down and mocking God’s signs, turn away from them until they leave off these vile acts.
As firm internal and external evidence in the context shows, the real addressee of this verse is not the Prophet (s.a.w.). The internal evidence is the context of the preceding verses, which uncovered the reality of the gatherings of the faithless: the atmosphere in them is polluted with backbiting, slander, belittling the faithful, denying revelation and mocking the Prophet (s.a.w.), and it is certain that the final Messenger (s.a.w.) kept away from such gatherings. Further evidence is the rest of the verse itself, which speaks of Iblīs’s power and influence over the one addressed, to make him forget; whereas decisive rational proofs and reliable transmitted proofs have established the infallibility of the Messenger (s.a.w.) and his freedom from oversight and forgetfulness, with certainty and clear proof.
Among the external evidence too is verse 140 of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ; another is the rational proof that the Messenger (s.a.w.) is protected from oversight and forgetfulness.
The faithless differ in their degrees of faithlessness and stubbornness against the truth, and this makes a difference in how the faithful deal with them and in their not attending their gatherings. Complete turning away is obligatory only towards those faithless who are sunk in this world, mock the faithful, and offer no hope of success or reform, so that there is no benefit in warning them or calling them.
If it can be established, on the basis of narrations and hadith, that the definite article in “the wrongdoers” is for the genus, then the verse shows that taking part and sitting in the gatherings of the mocking polytheists is forbidden, and the general case of taking part in and attending the gatherings of wrongdoers can be inferred.
6:69 — Those who are Godwary are in no way accountable for them
Those who are Godwary are in no way accountable for them, but this is merely for admonition’s sake, so that they may beware.
In the previous verse the firm revelation came down forbidding going to the gatherings of the polytheists. In this one it speaks of the case where the faithful go to the gatherings of the polytheists unintentionally: they are not taken to account for this sin. But the Lord of Might reminds them to guard their Godwariness and not to go to those circles polluted with mockery and ridicule of the signs of the Lord of the worlds.
6:70 — Leave alone those who take their religion for play and diversion and whom the life of…
Leave alone those who take their religion for play and diversion and whom the life of this world has deceived, and admonish with it, lest any soul should perish because of what it has earned: It shall not have any guardian besides Allah, nor any intercessor; and though it should offer every kind of ransom, it shall not be accepted from it. They are the ones who perish because of what they have earned; they shall have boiling water for drink and a painful punishment because of what they used to defy.
This verse continues the earlier description of the chiefs and great men of Quraysh.
Religion is a programme for life, and man cannot be without religion, because he would lose the order in his life. In the opposite direction to those who have faith, you find the polytheists, who have taken their desire as their god; so their view of this world, of life and of religion was amusement and play, in keeping with their polytheistic outlook.
Keeping away from those who have taken their religion as mockery and play and are sunk in their world is a necessity. But one should not withdraw one’s hand, nor stop advising them and offering them counsel.
Love of this world is the head of all sins. If this world takes hold of someone, it will stain him with all kinds of sins and acts of disobedience, lead him down by degrees into the valley of falling and decline, and then destroy him, and his end will be abiding forever in the fire of Hell.
One of the things that treat the soul’s love of this world is acting on the commands of the noble Qur’an. That is why God (s.w.t.) commands His Messenger (s.a.w.) to remind them: “For them is a drink of boiling water and a painful punishment, for their faithlessness.”
The polytheists, who have tightened the noose on themselves by their ignorance in knowledge and in action, have no hope of rescue, unless someone intercedes for them, or the friends of God take charge of them, or they seek a means through those friends’ persons; and these three ways are closed to them. In the Hereafter they have in truth no master to save them, no intercessor and no helper to call on for rescue, and no means or intermediaries to use. On that day the causes and means are cut off, and nothing saves anyone but belief, character and deeds; and these are what the polytheist has lost from his harvest on that plain. No ransom is accepted from anyone there. They are bound by their false ideas and imprisoned by the evil character traits they had in the abode of this world, and their evil deeds have taken them captive. So there is nothing for them but to be punished and to drink of the boiling water of punishment.
6:71 — Say, ‘Shall we invoke besides Allah that which can neither benefit us nor harm us
Say, ‘Shall we invoke besides Allah that which can neither benefit us nor harm us, and turn back on our heels after Allah has guided us, like someone seduced by the devils and bewildered on the earth, who has companions that invite him to guidance, [saying,] ‘‘Come to us!’’?’ Say, ‘Indeed it is the guidance of Allah which is [true] guidance. And we have been commanded to submit to the Lord of all the worlds,
The most important motive for worshipping an object of worship is to bring a benefit, or to ward off corruption or harm. That is why the chosen Messenger (s.a.w.) was commanded to send the faithless back to their consciences and their reason and to ask them: Must not the one who deserves worship own benefit and harm, so that worshipping him brings benefit and disobeying him brings disgrace and shame? Is it at all reasonable that, while our Lord calls us to His Oneness and guides us to Him, we should go back to polytheism and turn from His call, in a backward movement and a state opposed to the perfection required of mankind? Should we be like the polytheists whom Satan whispered to and pushed from the highest summit of the Oneness of God to the lowest depth of polytheism, and afflicted with bewilderment to the end of their lives?
The Lord of the worlds does not withhold His wide mercy from the polytheists: He places guided and righteous companions beside them, to call them to the Oneness of God and to happiness. But those who have put themselves in the orbit and under the control of Iblīs do not give up polytheism and idol-worship.
From the phrase “and shall we be turned back on our heels”, and similar expressions in the noble Qur’an, it is not to be understood that the prophets (a.s.) had a past of polytheism and did not hold to the Oneness of God before their mission. For in the culture of conversation, going back is still a retreat even if there was no previous state. Besides, the verse concerns the Muslims in general, not the Messenger (s.a.w.) in particular; and even supposing it covers the greatest Messenger (s.a.w.), its content does not fit apostasy and turning back in the technical sense. The phrase “after He has guided us” does not point to a record of polytheism or faithlessness. What is meant is: now that our Lord has guided us, it is not fitting for us to retreat to polytheism.
From some expressions in this verse it is understood that among the effects of polytheism are falling from the highest summit of the Oneness of God to the lowest depth of polytheism, and bewilderment and confusion.
The expression “come to us” points to leading guidance, which is higher than guidance by driving from behind, because leaders are a living, practical example who go ahead of everyone on the road.
The greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) is commanded to tell them that happiness and guidance lie in guidance to God and to His Oneness, and that all of us, by the judgement of reason and conscience, are commanded to submit to the Lord of the worlds in harmony with the order of existence, for He is the Lord who manages the order of creation.
6:72 — and that ‘‘Maintain the prayer and be wary of Him
and that ‘‘Maintain the prayer and be wary of Him, and it is He toward whom you will be gathered.’’ ’
After denying polytheism, establishing the Oneness of God, restricting guidance to divine, lordly guidance, and the rational necessity of pure submission to God, Exalted, this verse brings the two most prominent instances of the Oneness of God and of submission to Him: establishing prayer and keeping Godwariness. Then at its end it points to the end of man’s life, and that man’s return must end with God. So man must receive the guidance of the Creator, Exalted, for He is the Origin of the world and its Return.
6:73 — It is He who created the heavens and the earth with reason
It is He who created the heavens and the earth with reason, and the day He says [to something], ‘Be!’ it is. His word is the truth, and to Him belongs all sovereignty on the day when the Trumpet will be blown. Knower of the sensible and the Unseen, He is the All-wise, the All-aware.
Man must submit purely and humble himself before the God who created the order of existence with truth and with purpose. The purpose of creation and of bringing into being is the Return and the reckoning of man for his belief, character and deeds. If mankind’s end were at death, it would follow that existence is futile and without a goal.
God, Exalted, without drawing on material causes, spreads out the Hereafter in a single moment by His word “Be”. This address is a creative address (the pouring out of existence and the bringing into being of the Hereafter), which arises from the divine will, because God’s word and act are not limited by time or confined to place.
God’s word and act are truth. All the acts of God, Exalted, are certainly good; nothing ugly issues from Him, and He is not governed by any ruling nor subject to any principle or law.
On the day the Trumpet is blown and all come for the reckoning (the second blowing of the Trumpet), dominion and authority (an allusion to power) belong to God, Exalted, alone, without partner.
There is no doubt about that day; and in this world too all matters are in His hand. But on that day the spread of worldly causes and means is rolled up, conventional ownership and rule fade away, and everything is owned by the will of God alone, by which a thing comes to exist. All witness this rule and sovereignty of God (s.w.t.): how He brings the dead to life by His great power, and how, by His knowledge that covers everything witnessed and unseen, on the basis of wisdom, without error or confusion, He reckons the deeds of all human beings. So for the Return to take place, two of the divine beautiful names are needed: God’s absolute power and His all-covering knowledge. Absolute power is God’s ownership and possession of the order of existence; all-covering knowledge is His knowledge of the immaterial and the material, the unseen and the witnessed.
6:74 — When Abraham said to Azar
When Abraham said to Azar, his father, ‘Do you take idols for gods? Indeed I see you and your people in manifest error.’
One way of arguing against the polytheists and denying polytheism is to relate the words of those they held in esteem and to point to what they did. Such was Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.), who, besides being respected by those who held to the Oneness of God, was respected by all the Arab polytheists too.
Perhaps the repeated mention, for the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.), of the debates of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) with Āzar and his people was because they resembled the polytheists of the Ḥijāz in idol-worship.
God (s.w.t.) mentioned to His greatest Messenger (s.a.w.) the argument of Ibrāhīm (a.s.) with Āzar and his people, to show the method of disputing in the best manner and of scholarly discussion with the polytheists. He, Exalted, said: Remember Ibrāhīm (a.s.) when he said to Āzar: Do you take as gods, besides God, idols without spirit? Surely you and your people are in plain error.
As for Āzar, he was not the father of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.). The word “father” (ab) originally means rearing and nourishing, and in the noble Qur’an it is used for the father, the grandfather, the uncle and the one who brings up a child. In this verse it is used for Āzar because he was the uncle or the guardian of Ibrāhīm (a.s.), especially given that the forefathers of the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.), from Ādam onwards, held to the Oneness of God.
It is understood from the account of the noble Qur’an, as some commentators have stated, that Ibrāhīm (a.s.) mentioned his real father with the word wālid, and that he prayed for mercy for him at the end of his noble life and asked God (s.w.t.) to forgive him.
The polytheists were various groups, each with its own idol. For this reason idols are mentioned in the verse in the plural, and likewise gods. What is meant is not only to deny the worship of many idols, since idol-worship is false and ugly even if it is of a single idol; what is meant is the genus of idol, even though it is mentioned in the plural.
On the basis of the expression “your people”, Āzar was at that time a guardian and leader of the idol-worshippers, even if only of some of them.
Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) addressed them with gentle words and confronted them with questions to which they found no correct answer, before this decisive statement that they were in plain error.
6:75 — Thus did We show Abraham the dominions of the heavens and the earth
Thus did We show Abraham the dominions of the heavens and the earth, that he might be of those who possess certitude.
God (s.w.t.) showed Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) the dominion (malakūt) of the heavens and the earth, just as He showed him that the Oneness of God is true and idolatry false, and that Āzar and his people were astray. What is meant by the dominion in the noble verse is the inner reality of the universe, that is, the creative sovereignty and ownership of God (s.w.t.) over the order of creation.
It is understood from the present-tense verb “We show” that this showing was a continuing matter; among its manifestations are the arguments for the Oneness of God mentioned in the following verses.
This showing of the dominion had many blessings. Among them was his reaching logical certainty, not psychological certainty, and with it he argued against his people by proof. It is clear that certainty, as the term is used in psychology, is something personal and is not fit for argument or for producing certainty in others.
6:76 — When night darkened over him
When night darkened over him, he saw a star and said, ‘This is my Lord!’ But when it set, he said, ‘I do not like those who set.’
One result of showing Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) the dominion of the order of the universe was his firm, scholarly argument with the worshippers of the stars, the moon and the sun. When night fell, he saw a star (Venus) and pretended to be one of them, saying: This is my Lord, to prepare the way for refuting their beliefs. When it set, he said: I do not love those that set, and it is not my Lord. For when it sets, its link with me and with others is cut, and then no good reaches others from it; whereas God, Exalted, the Beloved, is the One who is never heedless of His servants and never absent, and whose good is everlasting.
There is internal evidence and proof, such as the debate with the star-worshippers branching off from the showing of the dominion, and the connection of the verses in the intellectual struggle against the polytheists. There is also external evidence, such as his nature attuned to the Oneness of God, his certainty about realities, and the testimony to the Oneness of the Exalted Real and the headings of his struggles. All of these testify that Ibrāhīm (a.s.) held to the Oneness of God, and that no trace of polytheism touched his pure heart. He counted their star as his lord on the basis of disputing in the best manner, so as to argue against them for the Oneness of God in lordship from a premise they already accepted.
The middle term of the proof of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) against the worship of the stars is rational love, arising from real good and benefit, not love arising from sensation and the inclinations of the self.
Then, the proof from love differs from the proofs from origination, contingency and motion, and cannot be reduced to any of them, because the noble verse, and reality too, do not fit any of those proofs. Rather, it is a gift of God, Exalted, that had not been mentioned before in the books of philosophy and theology.
The proof from love can be set out in two syllogisms combined, in the first figure and the second figure:
First: the star sets, and what sets is not beloved; so the star is not beloved.
Second: the star is not beloved, and the Lord is the one who is beloved; so the star is not a lord.
That the star sets is something sensed by experience, so anyone can look and grasp that what sets is not beloved. The proof of this is that the source of love is lasting and stable good, and the star contains neither of these two criteria. Moreover, man by nature worships only one who, besides having knowledge, power, life and so on, is beloved and owns benefit and harm, so as to meet his needs and save him in hardships.
In any case, the proof from love is general: ordinary people, and the middling and the perfect among the faithful, can all benefit from it.
6:77 — Then, when he saw the moon rising
Then, when he saw the moon rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord!’ But when it set, he said, ‘Had my Lord not guided me, I would surely have been among the astray lot.’
After debating with a people who worshipped the star, Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) argued against the worshippers of the moon, to convince them too by disputing in the best manner. When he saw the moon rising, he prepared for the debate and the argument against its worshippers by pretending to be one of them, saying: This rising moon is a lord. When it vanished and set, he said to them: If God, Exalted, who is truly my Lord, had not guided me, I would be among the people who are astray.
It is known from Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl’s (a.s.) arguing against his people from the setting of the moon, not its rising, and from the context of the previous verse, that the argument turns on love of the Lord, Exalted, of which nothing is found in what sets.
Then Ibrāhīm (a.s.) ascribed guidance to God (the Mighty and Majestic) and misguidance to himself, on the basis of the courtesy of the Oneness of God; even though the Oneness of God in action requires that all the phenomena and acts in the universe go back to the most holy divine Essence, whether through an intermediary or without one.
6:78 — Then, when he saw the sun rising
Then, when he saw the sun rising, he said, ‘This is my Lord! This is bigger!’ But when it set, he said, ‘O my people, indeed I disown what you take as [His] partners.’
After Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) argued with the Sabians who worshipped the star, he brought his argument against the worshippers of the sun. When the sun rose shining, he prepared for the dialogue and debate, saying: This is greater than the star and the moon. When it set and vanished, he said to his people: I am free of what you associate with God.
6:79 — ‘Indeed I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth
‘Indeed I have turned my face toward Him who originated the heavens and the earth, as a Hanif, and I am not one of the polytheists.’
After Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) argued with his polytheist people and with the worshippers of the heavenly bodies, he mentioned that his Lord is the One who is in the nature of all creatures, and said: I have sincerely turned my face, truly, to God, Exalted, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, to whom all faces turn, inwardly and outwardly; and he is not of the polytheists.
From the lām of purpose in His words “to the One who”, it is understood that the sole goal in the world is God (the Mighty and Majestic), and He alone is the One intended by worship.
When Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) used the term of origination (faṭara) towards the polytheists, who also believed that God, Exalted, is the Originator of the heavens and the earth, he meant to tell them: just as God (the Mighty and Majestic) is the Creator of the universe, so too lordship and the management of creatures are in His hand alone.
Ibrāhīm, the Friend of the All-Merciful (a.s.), was a ḥanīf. On the basis of this belief he was free of all polytheism, pure of all defilement, obedient to God (s.w.t.) and submitting to His commands, Blessed and Exalted.
The sense of the beginning and the end of the verse under discussion is the message of the good word, that is, the word “There is no god but God”, which denies the existence of any object of worship other than God (the Mighty and Majestic), and so establishes with certainty the Oneness of God in lordship.
6:80 — His people argued with him
His people argued with him. He said, ‘Do you argue with me concerning Allah, while He has guided me for certain? I do not fear what you ascribe to Him as [His] partners, excepting anything that my Lord may wish. My Lord embraces all things in [His] knowledge. Will you not then take admonition?
After the people of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) were defeated in the arena of thought, belief and logic, they warned him with all kinds of political and spiritual threats that their gods would destroy him. The axis of the argument between them and him was the denial of the lordship of God (the Mighty and Majestic) and the affirmation of the lordship of the gods. Although they believed in the lordship of the Bestowing God over the order of the universe at its root, they held that their scattered lords managed part of the universe, and also that they had an effect on the events of the world and the happenings of the universe.
Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) was certain that the gods owned nothing of benefit or harm, and knew that guidance and happiness are confined to an outpouring from God, Blessed and Exalted. So he refuted both axes of their words in the argument, saying plainly: God has guided me, and I do not fear in anything what you worship besides God; for I see myself under the will of the Exalted Lord, the Real, who encompasses everything in knowledge. Will you not then take heed, after these proofs set out to establish that the Oneness of God is innate, and desist?
6:81 — How could I fear what you ascribe [to Him] as [His] partners
How could I fear what you ascribe [to Him] as [His] partners, when you do not fear ascribing to Allah partners for which He has not sent down any authority to you? So [tell me,] which of the two sides has a greater right to safety, if you know?
Continuing his earlier words in his argument against the polytheists, Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) stressed that he did not fear their false idols and imagined gods. He also said: how should I fear what owns no benefit or harm for you, which the polytheists made lords for themselves and to which they kept devoted? Rather, it is they who should fear the punishment of God (the Mighty and Majestic), because they associated partners with Him without transmitted proof or rational logic.
Finally he called them to judge: if you are knowing and experienced, judge for yourselves which of the two parties, the people of faith or the lords of polytheism, is more entitled to security.
6:82 — Those who have faith and do not taint their faith with wrongdoing—for such there shall be…
Those who have faith and do not taint their faith with wrongdoing—for such there shall be safety, and they are the [rightly] guided.’
In answer to his question in the previous verse, Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) confined security in this world and the Hereafter, and the attainment of the highest degree, to the faithful who are free of all polytheism and of every wrongdoing: those who have faith, that is, goodness of the doer, and righteous deeds, that is, goodness of the act. For faith and righteous deeds are the two basic axes of guidance.
Polytheism, the most prominent instance of wrongdoing, can in no way come together with faith. But the noble verse did not stop at that; so wrongdoing here covers every sin and wrong.
What is meant by security is safety from punishment of every kind, in this world and the Hereafter; and what is meant by the guided is those who have reached the highest ranks of guidance.
6:83 — This was Our argument that We gave to Abraham against his people
This was Our argument that We gave to Abraham against his people. We raise in rank whomever We wish. Indeed your Lord is all-wise, all-knowing.
The arguments of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) against the polytheists were among the conclusive proofs of God (the Mighty and Majestic) and the clear proofs of primordial nature that He gave him, inwardly and outwardly. From the distant demonstrative in His words “That is Our proof”, and from the honorific joining of the proof to the pronoun in His words “Our proof”, it is understood that the proof was great and lofty.
God, Exalted, raises in degrees whom He wills, by His wisdom and His knowledge and according to the fitness of the one raised, and He prefers him by the standards of preference, in knowledge and faith.
The kindness of God (the Mighty and Majestic) in raising degrees and exalting the self is general. So every servant can reach that station by purely sincere obedience to God and by practising the spiritual virtues until they become a settled trait in him. Indeed, it becomes part of him to the extent of the differentia that constitutes his identity, not his quiddity, and he benefits from it on the basis of the wise will of God, Exalted, until he attains the share of rising in substance and essence.
6:84–86 — And We gave him Isaac and Jacob and guided each of them
(84) And We gave him Isaac and Jacob and guided each of them. And Noah We had guided before, and from his offspring, David and Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses and Aaron—thus do We reward the virtuous— (85) and Zechariah, John, Jesus and Ilyas—each of them among the righteous— (86) and Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah and Lot—each We graced over all the nations—
Among the gifts of God (s.w.t.) to Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) is that He placed seventeen of God’s great prophets (a.s.) among his forefathers and descendants. Each of them attained noble character and possessed the conditions of general prophethood, that is, special guidance, doing good, righteousness of self, virtue, and also being chosen.
It appears from His words “Each We guided” that the lofty station of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.), and the distinction of the other prophets (a.s.), came about because, by their right knowledge and righteous deeds, they were guided by God (the Mighty and Majestic), and that each of them had an independent personality. So too God, Exalted, rewards whoever does good deeds and prefers him over the worlds.
Righteousness and doing good are among the general qualities of the prophets (a.s.) that were fixed in their souls; indeed they became constituents of their selves, that is, of their identity, not their quiddity. Both are instances of God’s special guidance to them.
The reason for dividing the prophets (a.s.) in these verses into three independent groups is that the members of each group share qualities with each other. The members of the first group held kingship, rule and social standing, besides receiving the mission and reaching spiritual perfection. The members of the second group shared in renunciation and in keeping away from worldly blessings. And the whole of the third group was afflicted with trial and hardship, by which they were distinguished from others.
The absolutely best cannot be more than one. From this it is judged that the superiority of the prophets (a.s.) over others, since there are many of them, is not absolute superiority but relative, reckoned against the people of their time. In creation there is no absolutely best except the final Prophet (s.a.w.).
6:87 — and from among their fathers
and from among their fathers, their descendants and brethren—We chose them and guided them to a straight path.
The forefathers of the prophets mentioned (a.s.), their descendants, and their brothers by lineage and in spirit were guided to a straight path in the light of God’s special care. They reached the station of being chosen by God (s.w.t.), because they stood firm and kept upright on that way of the school of His prophets (a.s.).
6:88 — That is Allah’s guidance: with it
That is Allah’s guidance: with it, He guides whomever He wishes of His servants. But were they to ascribe any partners [to Allah], what they used to do would not avail them.
Reaching the straight path, and the outstanding perfection given to the prophets (a.s.), are that special divine guidance which God’s servants who hold to His Oneness have attained on the basis of knowledge and wisdom. What the will of God (s.w.t.) necessarily requires for attaining special divine guidance is showing servitude.
The danger of polytheism threatened even the prophets and the friends of God (a.s.). For this reason God, Exalted, warned those of His servants whom He had chosen, all together and each one, that if any of them associated partners with Him, all his deeds would come to nothing.
6:89 — They are the ones whom We gave the Book
They are the ones whom We gave the Book, judgement and prophethood. So if these disbelieve in them, We have certainly entrusted them to a people who will never disbelieve in them.
The prophets mentioned in the previous verses are those to whom We gave the Book, judgement (ḥukm) and prophethood. The Book is a body of matters of religion sent down to the resolute (ulū al-ʿazm) among the prophets (a.s.); the others conveyed their books and spread their laws. What is meant by judgement is wisdom, or the station of rule and control, or the position of judging and arbitration.
God (s.w.t.), to console the heart of His greatest Messenger (s.a.w.), said: if the polytheists of Mecca and Quraysh reject his prophethood and the messengers and prophets (a.s.) before him, do not be anxious then. For the way of religion and the school of the Oneness of God stand as they are, and God, Exalted, has entrusted them to people who do not reject them, to keep them firm and lasting on what they were and on what they laid down. So the last part of the noble verse contains two things: first, a warning to the faithless that if they reject, they will be among those who perish; and second, good news for the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.) of the firmness of the school of the Oneness of God and the way of religion, and of their being upheld by the faithful, even if the faithless of Quraysh dislike it and the souls of their polytheists refuse it.
6:90 — They are the ones whom Allah has guided
They are the ones whom Allah has guided. So follow their guidance. Say, ‘I do not ask you any recompense for it. It is just an admonition for all the nations.’
The eighteen prophets mentioned in the previous verse were covered by God’s (s.w.t.) special guidance, and it was an example for the most noble Messenger (s.a.w.). The roots of the innate teachings and the general rules that do not change are the character and the rulings shared by all the prophets (God’s blessings be upon them all).
The prophets did not ask people for a wage for conveying religion, and the greatest Messenger (s.a.w.) was commanded to have this quality too, which is also a result of the guidance of God (the Mighty and Majestic). He was commanded to say to his people that he asks them no wage for conveying the messages of God, Exalted. The spoils (anfāl) are the financial reserve for him and for all who convey the religion of the Creator (s.w.t.).
The last phrase shows the permanence and firmness of the mission of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.).
6:91 — They did not regard Allah with the regard due to Him when they said
They did not regard Allah with the regard due to Him when they said, ‘Allah has not sent down anything to any human.’ Say, ‘Who had sent down the Book that was brought by Moses as a light and guidance for the people, which you make into parchments that you display, while you conceal much of it, and [by means of which] you were taught what you did not know, [neither] you nor your fathers?’ Say, ‘Allah!’ Then leave them to play around in their impious gossip.
One manifestation of the lordship of the Real, Exalted, is the guiding of mankind at the hands of the prophets (a.s.) through revelation, which was the axis of the discussion in the previous verses. Now the discussion turns to establishing general prophethood, which some people denied, saying that God, Exalted, has not sent down any revelation or any written book to any human being. This is the false saying of those who did not know God, Exalted, as He should be known.
On the basis of this resolving proof (that is, just as they denied prophethood because they did not know God (s.w.t.)), many of the deviations in their beliefs and the errors in their deeds go back to their deficient knowledge of God, Blessed and Exalted.
God, Exalted, censured the Jewish rabbis for committing three major sins: making the written Torah into scattered sheets, showing a little of it according to inclination and desire, and hiding much of it from people. Then He said to His most noble Messenger (s.a.w.): Ask them, by way of rebuttal and of disputing in the best manner, about the Torah, which was a light and guidance for the people of Mūsā, the one who spoke with God (a.s.): who sent it down? It is the precious written Torah that you made into sheets, showing a little of it and hiding much of it, which was a threat to your positions and interests. And ask them about much knowledge and teaching beyond nature that neither you nor your fathers knew: if you did not take it from revelation and its Book, where did you take it from?
From these two arguments, by rebuttal and by disputation (disputing in the best manner), it is understood that the address is directed to the Jewish rabbis and scholars who denied the prophethood of the final Messenger (s.a.w.), and because of this denied the very sending down of revelation to their prophet Mūsā (a.s.), though they had believed it before. But they were stubborn and rejected it, and this faithlessness of theirs led them to treat the Torah as their souls desired: they showed of it what they wished and hid of it what they feared.
In debates, the answer to a question may be so clear that the questioner answers it himself. From this standpoint God (s.w.t.) commanded His noble Messenger (s.a.w.) to say, in answer to his own question: “Who sent down the Book that Mūsā brought as a light and guidance for people, which you make into sheets, showing them while hiding much, and you were taught what neither you nor your fathers knew? Say: God.” He should not argue further with the Jewish rabbis, and should turn away from them, without abandoning them altogether, so that they plunge into their selfish whims and false beliefs, since their words rest on no foundation but on pretence, stubbornness, obstinacy and rejection: “Then leave them, playing in their vain talk.” This command is the verse of the most noble Prophet’s (s.a.w.) gracious withdrawal from them, not of abandoning them altogether and turning away from arguing with them about belief; for the last words may be a threat and a warning about the end of denying the truth.
6:92 — Blessed is this Book, which We have sent down
Blessed is this Book, which We have sent down, confirming what was [revealed] before it, so that you may warn the Mother of Cities and those around it. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe in it, and they are watchful of their prayers.
The noble Qur’an is a blessed Book that gathers all wisdom, covers all theoretical and practical knowledge, and holds within it every good and every blessing. God (the Mighty and Majestic) sent it down so that the greatest Messenger (s.a.w.) might warn by it the people of Mecca and the worlds about what they were doing. It is a Book that confirms what came in the heavenly books before it and their contents, in their roots and their aims.
Belief in the Hereafter affects man’s growth more than anything else. Those who have faith in it are those who truly have faith in the noble Qur’an and in the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.), and who keep up their prayer earnestly.
6:93 — Who is a greater wrongdoer than him who fabricates a lie against Allah
Who is a greater wrongdoer than him who fabricates a lie against Allah, or says, ‘It has been revealed to me,’ while nothing was revealed to him, and he who says, ‘I will bring the like of what Allah has sent down?’ Were you to see when the wrongdoers are in the throes of death, and the angels extend their hands [saying]: ‘Give up your souls! Today you shall be requited with a humiliating punishment because of what you used to attribute to Allah untruly, and for your being disdainful towards His signs.’
Inventing lies against God (s.w.t.) has a general meaning. It includes denying of God (the Mighty and Majestic) any attribute, name or act that is established for Him, or affirming of God, Exalted, any description, name or act of which He is free in His complete holiness and perfect majesty.
The people of invention, and those who pretend to prophethood, to calling to God, Exalted, and to revelation coming down to them, are certainly among the most wrongdoing of people. They have faith in the lordship of God (s.w.t.), except that the last of these groups claims the station of lordship too.
God, Exalted, says: If only you could see the wrongdoers, how death comes to them and they are in its agonies, when the angels of death charged with taking the spirits come to them, stretching out their hands, and call to them: Bring out your souls today; or they say to them, in mockery or to show their helplessness: Save them from the severe punishment, if you can.
The arrogant considered themselves the mightiest and best of people, without basis, falsely and by invention. So for them there is nothing but humiliating punishment, which is the appearance of their real abasement. It begins for them from the very first moment of the death throes and continues upon them in the barzakh and after it. The angels let them know that this severe punishment upon the spirit is the recompense for what you used to say that was not the truth, and for your arrogance towards the signs of God (s.w.t.).
6:94 — ‘Certainly you have come to Us alone
‘Certainly you have come to Us alone, just as We created you the first time, and left behind whatever We had bestowed on you. We do not see your intercessors with you—those whom you claimed to be [Our] partners in [deciding] you[r] [fate]. Certainly all links between you have been cut, and what you used to claim has forsaken you!’
No doubt the wrongdoers come to God, Exalted, after death alone and poor, owning no benefit or harm for themselves. None of the friends whom they counted as treasures and intercessors intercedes for them. They leave behind all the wealth and riches their hands acquired, and they find that their partners, whom they claimed had influence over outcomes, own nothing at all for them.
At death man’s connection with anything other than God (the Mighty and Majestic) is cut. Everything he had counted as a support and a treasure, of wealth and belief, to save him in hardship and distress, is completely lost, and every falsehood he used to claim is wiped out.
It is plain that the cutting of the causes does not mean that the order of causality is cut off. The order of the Hereafter too rests on causality, even though the causes and effects in that realm differ from those of this world.
6:95 — Indeed Allah is the splitter of the grain and the pit
Indeed Allah is the splitter of the grain and the pit. He brings forth the living from the dead and He brings forth the dead from the living. That is Allah! Then where do you stray?
To establish the Oneness of God in lordship and to refute the belief of the polytheists, the noble Qur’an said that the One who splits the grain and the date-stone is God (s.w.t.). He brings forth the living tree and the growing plant from the hard stone, and likewise brings forth from these trees and plants the lifeless stone and the dead grain. God, Exalted, manages all the phenomena of the order of the universe, while the idols made of stone and carved from wood certainly do none of this. So believing that they are lords besides God (the Mighty and Majestic) is certainly a false belief.
At the end of the noble verse He said: That is God; so how are you turned away, astray?
The words “so how are you turned away” show the falsity of the school of compulsion (jabr), because a compelled person is not blamed for what he does or leaves undone out of misguidance and deviation.
6:96 — Splitter of the dawn, He has made the night for rest
Splitter of the dawn, He has made the night for rest, and the sun and the moon for calculation. That is the ordaining of the All-mighty, the All-knowing.
God (s.w.t.) splits the darkness of the night with its dawning and brings forth the morning from it.
The noble Qur’an usually mentions the blessings of the night and the day together, but this noble verse mentions only one of them, which is rest in the night.
Among the benefits of creating the sun and the moon is the reckoning of time and the fixing of appointed times. By them people order their affairs: their work, their agreements, their acts of worship, their livelihoods and their earnings. On this basis God (s.w.t.) manages the order of the universe, the upkeep of creation and the structure of people’s lives.
6:97 — It is He who made the stars for you
It is He who made the stars for you, so that you may be guided by them in the darkness of land and sea. We have certainly elaborated the signs for a people who have knowledge.
Among the manifestations of the Oneness of God, Exalted, in lordship is His making the stars means of guiding man on the routes of the sky, the land and the air in the darkness of the night. Even today, after the development of science and modern technology, mankind still needs to be guided by the stars.
God (s.w.t.) has set out His signs in the order of creation in detail, making clear that only those who know benefit from their effects; for understanding the subjects of mathematics and astronomy requires acquiring particular knowledge and gaining a certain specialisation. But the general effect of the stars in guiding travellers is common to all people, and they can all grasp it.
6:98 — It is He who created you from a single soul
It is He who created you from a single soul, then there is the [enduring] abode and the place of temporary lodging. We have certainly elaborated the signs for a people who understand.
God, Blessed and Exalted, created people, with all their nations and their many differences, from Ādam (a.s.), the father of mankind. From his descendants He brought forth people, and He made some of them settled on the earth, and others deposits in the loins of their fathers, to be born in the future. Then all people will be gathered before God (the Mighty and Majestic) on the Day of Resurrection.
God, Exalted, has set out the signs of His lordship in detail and clearly for those with knowledge and understanding, so that they may know themselves through understanding and reflection, and learn about their dwelling place (mustaqarr) and their place of deposit (mustawdaʿ).
6:99 — It is He who sends down water from the sky
It is He who sends down water from the sky, and brings forth with it every kind of growing thing. Then from it We bring forth vegetation from which We produce the grain, in clusters, and from the palm-tree, from the spathes of it, low-hanging clusters [of dates], and gardens of grapes, olives and pomegranates, similar and dissimilar. Look at its fruit as it fructifies and ripens. Indeed, there are signs in that for a people who have faith.
God (s.w.t.) sends down water from the sky and by it brings forth various plants from the earth. From them He brings forth green shoots and grain piled up; from the spathe of the palm, low-hanging clusters; and gardens of grapes, olives and pomegranates, alike and unlike in their outward look, their fruit, their benefit and so on.
The turn from the third person in His words, Exalted, “And He it is who sends down water from the sky” to the first person in His words “then We bring forth” is one of the arts of eloquence in speech and one of the marks of clarity in expression, and it shows the importance of the matter.
So look closely at the time when each tree bears fruit and its fruit ripens, for in every wondrous creation of God there are many signs of the power, knowledge and lordship of God (s.w.t.), for whoever is far from obstinacy and stubbornness and eager to seek the truth and reality.
6:100 — They make the jinn partners of Allah
They make the jinn partners of Allah, though He has created them, and carve out sons and daughters for Him, without any knowledge. Immaculate is He and exalted above what they allege [concerning Him]!
The polytheists made the jinn partners of God (the Mighty and Majestic), although God, Exalted, created them; so they ought to obey God with pure obedience, since He created the jinn too. A creature is not fit to be a partner of the Creator. They also invented lies against God (s.w.t.) and said that God has sons and daughters. Glory be to our Lord, above what the polytheists describe Him with: their speaking of the jinn as His partners, and of sons and daughters for His most holy Essence, Exalted.
The polytheists who believed that God has partners from among the jinn were of two kinds. Some of them held that the source of ugly things and the origin of evils is Satan, that is, the jinn. Others said that God took kin by marriage with the jinn, and from them were born the angels, who are God’s partners and His children, Mighty and Majestic is He.
6:101 — The originator of the heavens and the earth—how could He have a child when He has had no…
The originator of the heavens and the earth—how could He have a child when He has had no spouse? He created all things and He has knowledge of all things.
God (s.w.t.) is the One who originated the universe, that is, the heavens and the earth, without prior matter or previous form. So how could He be thought to have a child without having a consort (a wife)? For a child requires a wife; and since He has no consort, He has no child either.
He is the One who created everything and knows everything. If He (s.w.t.) had a consort and a child, He would know of them by His vast knowledge. Since God (the Mighty and Majestic) knows of none, the untruth and falsity of the existence of a consort and a child is certainly clear.
6:102 — That is Allah, your Lord, there is no god except Him
That is Allah, your Lord, there is no god except Him, the creator of all things; so worship Him. He watches over all things.
This noble verse mentions four of the attributes of the Creator, Exalted, which are the result of the four attributes mentioned in the previous verse. It says: That is God (s.w.t.), the Originator, who has no partner, has taken no consort or child, is the Creator of everything and knows everything; He is your Lord, and there is no object of worship besides Him. He is the One who created the heavens and the earth, and to Him belongs guardianship over everything; so worship Him.
Evil is something comparative and relative, not intrinsic or essential. All the evils in the world go back to lack and non-existence, just as they are concomitants of existence, not of the existent itself; so non-existence, and what is attributed to it, need no cause or reason. In any case, evils and sins cannot be excepted from the creation of God (the Mighty and Majestic), for several reasons. The first is that by this exception the generality of the rational law “every contingent being must end in the Necessary” would be lost, and rational laws do not admit exceptions. What the divine outpouring in a world requires is the incidental existence of evil and harm in the world; otherwise the affairs of matter and its beings would vanish altogether.
Then, the Ashʿarites and the Muʿtazilites held to the noble verse to establish compulsion (jabr) and delegation (tafwīḍ). What the school of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.), the true school, holds is the falsity of both compulsion and delegation. Rather, the Oneness of God in action means grasping that the true manager in the universe is God (s.w.t.), and also that man is free in what he does.
Between guardianship (wilāyah) and agency (wakālah) there is equivalence in meaning. For divine guardianship over man and over the other phenomena and things is real and true, not a mere agency on God’s behalf. All beings and things are under the guardianship of the true Agent, that is, God, Exalted, in their coming into being, their continuance, their management and their lordship altogether.
6:103 — The sights do not apprehend Him
The sights do not apprehend Him, yet He apprehends the sights, and He is the All-attentive, the All-aware.
God (s.w.t.) is outside the frame of sense. He is not seen by the eye of sight; indeed, He is not perceived by any of the outward senses, even when aided. Sight is mentioned specifically in the noble verse because the eye is the most active of the body’s organs. The basic statement that the eye does not perceive Him is to show the reality that God (the Mighty and Majestic) is not matter, and that perceiving His reality through any of the senses is certainly impossible.
On the basis of rational rules and transmitted evidence, this verse conveys a general negation; its sense is: no sight sees God in any realm. For what is seen is encompassed, and what would follow from the possibility of seeing Him, even at the Resurrection, is His being encompassed; whereas God encompasses everything, “Surely He encompasses all things”, and nothing at all encompasses Him.
What is understood from the narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt (a.s.) is the seeing of God, Exalted, by inner witnessing and perceiving Him with the heart, in this world and the Hereafter.
The two names “the Subtle” and “the Aware” give a proof for what came at the beginning of the verse, in the manner of ordered folding and unfolding (laff wa nashr murattab). He says: no sight perceives God (the Mighty and Majestic), because He is subtle and immaterial, too high to be reached by the outward senses; and He is the One who perceives the sights and what they see, because He is aware of every matter and knows everything.
6:104 — [Say,] ‘Certainly insights have come to you from your Lord
[Say,] ‘Certainly insights have come to you from your Lord. So whoever sees, it is to the benefit of his own soul, and whoever remains blind, it is to its detriment, and I am not a keeper over you.’
The proofs of the noble Qur’an are clear and plain proofs from God (the Mighty and Majestic) at various levels, so that people of all kinds may be guided, each group benefiting according to its insight and its root.
Blindness and insight in the inner self are in man’s own hands, and the benefit of insight and the harm of blindness come back to him. If man has faith and does righteous deeds, he has sight in this world and distinguishes truth from falsehood, and he is so in the Hereafter too. But the blind person is deprived of the blessings of this world and will be gathered blind on the Day of Resurrection.
Then, the mission of the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) was to convey insights from God (s.w.t.), not to compel man in creation (creative keeping) to choose the path of guidance and the way of faith. If people wish, they are guided, benefiting from the insights of the Creator, Exalted, and become people of faith who do righteous deeds, attaining true insight in this world and the Hereafter; and if they wish, they are blind, heedless of all that in both abodes.
6:105 — Thus do We paraphrase the signs variously
Thus do We paraphrase the signs variously, lest they should say, ‘You have received instruction,’ and so that We may make it clear for a people who have knowledge.
The noble Qur’an has set out the proofs of the Oneness of God in different subjects and on various axes, so that all may benefit from them in every place and time, according to their understanding and perception.
The outcome of the varied presentation of the verses is an increase in the misguidance of the polytheists. They accused the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) of having studied these verses with others; or, according to the reading “darasat”, they said that the Qur’an is worn out and one of the legends of the ancients.
The benefit and effect of the varied presentation of the verses is to increase the knowledge of those who know and to make things clear to them. Although the varied presentation and turning of the verses are general for all people, it is the scholars in particular who benefit from them; for this reason God (the Mighty and Majestic) singled them out for clarification.
6:106 — Follow that which has been revealed to you from your Lord
Follow that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, there is no god except Him, and turn away from the polytheists.
God (s.w.t.) commanded the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.) and the Muslims to follow revelation. What God (the Mighty and Majestic) commanded in some verses of the noble revelation, of following the creed of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.) or following the guidance of the earlier prophets (a.s.), is in fact a command to follow the revelation of God, Exalted.
The Oneness of God is the essence of revelation; if it is truly known, prophethood and the Return are established after it.
The praiseworthy conduct in turning away from the polytheists is gracious withdrawal. In it, struggle with the polytheists continues with patience until the truth is clear and reality is plain, so that they have no argument after the command to fight them comes down.
6:107 — Had Allah wished they would not have ascribed partners [to Him]
Had Allah wished they would not have ascribed partners [to Him]. We have not made you a caretaker for them, nor is it your duty to watch over them.
In view of the absolute and general creative power of God (s.w.t.), if His will had been bound to people not being polytheists, no one would ever have associated partners with Him. But His will (s.w.t.) required that man be free to choose polytheism or the Oneness of God. So His Messenger is not a keeper over people, nor a guardian over them in creation either; so do not grieve over their not having faith.
Some polytheists, confusing the creative will of God (the Mighty and Majestic) with His legislative will, believed that since God did not prevent them or their fathers from worshipping idols, He was pleased with their devotion to the idols they themselves had made. But this was nothing but a plain fallacy. For God, Exalted, has forbidden polytheism and faithlessness to all by legislation, and has commanded the Oneness of God and the worship of God, the One, the Subduer, alone, even though He made them free and choosing in creation.
6:108 — Do not abuse those whom they invoke besides Allah
Do not abuse those whom they invoke besides Allah, lest they should abuse Allah out of hostility, without any knowledge. That is how to every people We have made their conduct seem decorous. Then their return will be to their Lord and He will inform them concerning what they used to do.
The sacred things of every people are revered by them, and the way to refute them is proof or disputing in the best manner, not insult or cursing. This act, that is, insulting, goes against the practice of the noble Qur’an in refuting falsehoods, and causes the sanctity of the presence of God (the Mighty and Majestic) to be violated. The insult of the polytheists against the sanctity of God, Blessed and Exalted, may rest on the violation of their own sacred things, or may arise from their ignorance and stupidity.
The prohibition on attacking the sacred things of others is no proof that they are true.
As for making the evil deeds of the wicked seem fair, it is a punishment from God, Exalted, at the hands of His angels who are commanded by Him to do so; unlike the adornment of the good deeds of the righteous, such as faith, which is placed in their nature.
The Resurrection is the realm in which the true school appears, and the true reality of deeds that were hidden even from man himself becomes plainly clear.
6:109 — They swear by Allah with solemn oaths that were a sign to come to them they would surely…
They swear by Allah with solemn oaths that were a sign to come to them they would surely believe in it. Say, ‘These signs are only from Allah,’ and what will bring home to you that they will not believe even if they came?
The polytheists swore by God, Exalted, using the name of Majesty, that is, the word for God (s.w.t.), that if a sign came to them from God (the Mighty and Majestic) they would surely have faith. This oath and demand is a turning away from the great divine miracle, namely the noble Qur’an, and an insinuation and hint on their part that the glorious Qur’an is not truly a miracle.
God (s.w.t.) tells His noble Messenger (s.a.w.): Say to them: the reins of signs and miracles are in the hand of God, Exalted, alone, and He sends them only when the interests of the community are served and they have an effect on its members. So asking the Messenger of God (s.a.w.) for a sign is asking in the wrong place.
And you, O faithful, perhaps you are impressed by them; but what makes you aware? That is, you do not know that if a sign came to them from God, Exalted, they would still not have faith.
6:110 — We transform their hearts and their visions as they did not believe in it the first time
We transform their hearts and their visions as they did not believe in it the first time, and We leave them bewildered in their rebellion.
The turning of hearts and sights is a punishment from God (the Mighty and Majestic), with which God, Exalted, afflicts the polytheists after He has completed the proof against them inwardly and outwardly, because they insulted the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) after seeing the signs of God (s.w.t.) and the miracles.
The turning of the polytheists’ hearts and sights, that is, the disturbance of their channels of perception, does not add to the knowledge of God, Majestic is His majesty, because God knows everything and is present in every place; rather, He wills to punish them by it.
The reason hearts come before sights in the noble verse is this. Man first learns through sight and hearing, from which it is known that the channels of sense perception are the root and the heart is a branch of them. But after sight and hearing have handed knowledge over to the heart, the heart holds their reins and leads their affairs; so the heart then becomes the root and comes first.
Then, the turning of the polytheists’ hearts and sights means depriving them of the special kindnesses of God (the Mighty and Majestic). It does not mean that God interferes with the outward parts of their eyes and hearts, placing something in them in creation.
6:111 — Even if We had sent down angels to them
Even if We had sent down angels to them, and the dead had spoken to them, and We had gathered before them all things manifestly, they would [still] not believe unless Allah wished. But most of them are ignorant.
The coming of the miracles the polytheists proposed, and likewise the coming earlier of miracles they had not proposed, did not make them people of faith, because their false beliefs held them back from that, unless God, Exalted, willed by creation to make them people of faith. Most of the polytheists do not know that faith, in creation, is in the hand of God (s.w.t.), even though they are commanded to it by legislation; but the vileness of their inner selves and the falsity of their beliefs kept them from being people of faith.
6:112 — That is how for every prophet We appointed as enemy the devils from among humans and jinn
That is how for every prophet We appointed as enemy the devils from among humans and jinn, who inspire each other with flashy words, deceptively. Had your Lord wished, they would not have done it. So leave them with what they fabricate,
Being tested with enemies is one of the laws of God (s.w.t.) for the prophets (a.s.), and the reminder of it is a cause of the final Prophet’s (s.a.w.) steadfastness and patience in setting out proof and calling to the truth.
Ascribing the making of the enemy to God (s.w.t.) is real, not figurative, because making the enemy is one of the perfections of the order of creation; and the evil is the enmity of the enemy [not the enemy himself].
The enemies from among men and jinn lead themselves astray, one another, or other people, by inspiring one another.
If God, Blessed and Holy, had willed, none of the devils of the jinn and of men would have been able to whisper and lead astray; but then no human being would reach the rank of perfection either.
Then God (the Mighty and Majestic) said to His noble Prophet (s.a.w.) at the end of the verse: leave them to invent what they invent, for what they do has truly no effect.
6:113 — so that toward it may incline the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter
so that toward it may incline the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter, and so that they may be pleased with it and commit what they commit.
The devils of men and jinn exchange views among themselves in order to tempt, to win over hearts, and to make the polytheists pleased with great wrongdoing; this is if the lām in the noble verse is the lām of purpose. Or else the polytheists, through their evil deeds and their bad choice, listened with inclination and desire to the whisperings and deceptions of the devils, were pleased with them, and then became committers of sin; this is if the lām is the lām of outcome.
6:114 — [Say,] ‘Shall I seek a judge other than Allah
[Say,] ‘Shall I seek a judge other than Allah, while it is He who has sent down to you the Book, well-elaborated?’ Those whom We have given the Book know that it has been sent down from your Lord with the truth; so do not be one of the skeptics.
It seems that the polytheists, by demanding a new sign from the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.), wanted a proof of, and a judge over, the truth and truthfulness of his (s.a.w.) mission. The final Messenger (s.a.w.) named no judge except God, the One, the Bestower, Exalted, because rule and judgement belong only to His most holy Essence, who is the Real in essence. He sent down His Book, which is a complete sign, on one who had not been taught before. By it the rabbis of the People of the Book know, and they know that it, and the mission and prophethood of the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.), are true, though some of them hide this out of fear and stubbornness.
God (s.w.t.) sent down the noble Qur’an on the purified heart of the final Messenger (s.a.w.) and made it clear to people in detail at his (s.a.w.) hand.
Outwardly the end of the noble verse is addressed to the chosen Prophet (s.a.w.), but people are also addressed in these cases.
6:115 — The word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice
The word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and justice. Nothing can change His words, and He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.
A word is whatever points to a meaning, whether it is speech or a thing in the outside world. What is meant by “the word of your Lord” is the word of the Oneness of God and the general lines of religion, which are described with four qualities: completeness, truth, justice, and not accepting change.
What is meant by the word of God, Exalted, being complete is the appearance of the call of Islam and religion’s reaching perfection with the prophethood of the Seal of the prophets and messengers (s.a.w.). Its being truth means that the word of God (s.w.t.), that is, Islam, realises the rulings and branches of religion in the outside world. Its being justice means that there is no disagreement among its matters and parts, with no contrast or contradiction. And what is meant by its not accepting change is the firmness of religion, and that the word of religion, that is, the Oneness of God, does not change.
Then, the outward sense of the noble verse is that all four qualities, completeness, truth, justice and not changing, belong to the word of God, Exalted. So it is not correct to divide these qualities up and distribute them on the basis of dividing the words of God (s.w.t.) into report, described by completeness, truth and not changing, and command, that is, obligation, described by justice.
6:116–117 — If you obey most of those on the earth
(116) If you obey most of those on the earth, they will lead you astray from the way of Allah. They follow nothing but conjectures and they do nothing but surmise. (117) Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way; and He knows best those who are guided.
The standard in scholarly discussions is proof, and the Qur’an in agreement with the pure Family (a.s.). Hence obeying most people in matters of knowledge, such as the roots of religion and the rulings of God (the Mighty and Majestic), was forbidden, because the words of most people rest on conjecture and guesswork. Conjecture does not avail at all against the truth, and acting on conjecture leads only to misguidance and deviation.
Most of the polytheists had no share of proof and clear evidence; they walked only on the path of fancy, conjecture and unreliable guesswork. For this reason, in matters of knowledge they were people of guessing and conjecture. As for what they said with certainty of its truth, it was a kind of psychological certainty arising from suggestion or conjecture. It was not a certain matter containing a rational minor premise and a rational major premise, fit to be presented to others.
God, Blessed and Exalted, knows best who goes astray; and since He knows best the guided, He knows best those who go astray too.
6:118 — Eat from that over which Allah’s Name has been mentioned
Eat from that over which Allah’s Name has been mentioned, if you are believers in His signs.
The polytheists put to the simple Muslims a doubt and two false analogies, one negative and the other positive: how is it that you do not eat an animal that God, Exalted, has caused to die, yet you eat an animal you have slaughtered with your own hands?
In answer to the first analogy the noble Qur’an commanded eating an animal over which the name of God (s.w.t.) has been mentioned, since it differs completely from the carcass of an animal over which the name of God, Exalted, has not been mentioned. Then, in the next verse, it refuted the positive analogy with a question of astonishment: why do you count what is slaughtered as carrion?
What is meant by mentioning the name of God (s.w.t.) at the slaughter of an animal is any attribute or name specific to God (the Mighty and Majestic).
As for the qualifier “if you have faith in His signs”, it is a measure for knowing the true faith of individuals, especially the simple Muslims who had given in to the idea that eating slaughtered animals was not allowed, and it removes this false notion that implied prohibition. Besides this, it refers to restricting lawfulness to animals slaughtered according to the law (mudhakkā) and not others. That is: if you have faith, eat of what the name of God (the Mighty and Majestic) has been mentioned over, and do not eat of what the name of the Creator, Exalted, has not been mentioned over.
6:119 — Why should you not eat that over which Allah’s Name has been mentioned
Why should you not eat that over which Allah’s Name has been mentioned, while He has already elaborated for you whatever He has forbidden you, excepting what you may be compelled to [eat in an emergency]? Indeed many mislead [others] by their fancies, without any knowledge. Indeed your Lord knows best the transgressors.
Some simple Muslims, after hearing the doubts of the polytheists and the prohibitions of those who follow their desires, thought that a slaughtered animal is like carrion, and so they avoided eating lawfully slaughtered animals. God (the Mighty and Majestic) censured them with a question of rebuke and astonishment: why are you influenced by the customs of the age of ignorance and the false sayings of the polytheists? He had set out in detail some forbidden foods before this noble verse was revealed, except in the case of necessity, in which it is permitted to eat the flesh of an animal slaughtered without the name of God (s.w.t.) being mentioned over it. As for those who follow their desires and the people of innovation, they have led many people astray by their desires, without having any argument or proof for it. These are the ones who have overstepped the bounds of the truth and transgressed its frontiers, and God, Exalted, knows best the transgressors.
6:120 — Renounce outward sins and the inward ones
Renounce outward sins and the inward ones. Indeed those who commit sins shall be requited for what they used to commit.
Sin, whether committed with the limbs and organs or with the heart, and whether in public or in secret, must be given up entirely, because all of it is known to God (s.w.t.). This noble verse refers to a general principle covering all sins, eating carrion and others, even though it is explicit about eating carrion.
Continuing, the noble verse says in warning against committing sin: those who spend the treasures of their lives earning sins are losers, and they will certainly be recompensed for what they used to commit, in this world or in the Hereafter.
6:121 — Do not eat [anything] of that over which Allah’s Name has not been mentioned
Do not eat [anything] of that over which Allah’s Name has not been mentioned, and that is indeed transgression. Indeed the satans inspire their friends to dispute with you; and if you obey them, you will indeed be polytheists.
Deliberately leaving out the naming of God makes the slaughtered animal forbidden. Satanic whisperings drove their people, that is, the polytheists, to put this false analogy and argument to the Muslims: that there is no difference between an animal slaughtered with the name of God, Exalted, mentioned over it and one over which His (s.w.t.) name was not mentioned at slaughter. If the whispering of the polytheists affected the simple among the Muslims, so that they counted the lawfully slaughtered animal as carrion, or carrion as the lawfully slaughtered animal, they would be like the polytheists in this belief; and if they acted on it, they would then be judged faithless in belief and in action too.
6:122 — Is he who was lifeless, then We gave him life and provided him with a light by which he…
Is he who was lifeless, then We gave him life and provided him with a light by which he walks among the people, like one who dwells in a manifold darkness which he cannot leave? To the faithless is thus presented as decorous what they have been doing.
From the viewpoint of the noble Qur’an, the person of faith is alive and the faithless is dead. Whoever is alive with faith and righteous deeds, and walks among people with a light from God, Exalted, sees his way by that light and shows it to others too.
Opposite him is the faithless, who walks in the darknesses of faithlessness and misguidance, bewildered, finding no way out of the darknesses, because he chose this path himself. Just as good deeds and pure paths become manifest for the faithful, so too the evil deeds of the faithless are made to seem fair to them; and this adornment is nothing but a punishment and a torment for them.
6:123 — Thus have We installed in every town its major criminals that they may plot therein
Thus have We installed in every town its major criminals that they may plot therein. Yet they do not plot except against their own souls, but they are not aware.
The deeds of the guilty and of those who are stubborn against religion have been made to seem fair to them, just as what the faithless used to do was made to seem fair to them. For them there is a punishment like the one with which the enemies of the prophets of earlier nations were punished.
The “making” in His words, Exalted, “We have made” means turning into, and it has two objects; its sense is: We have made the guilty ones of every town its great ones.
The punishment of the guilty is sometimes by an external cause, such as a thunderbolt, an earthquake and the like, and sometimes by internal causes, that is, by their own scheming. This position and this arrogance pave the way for their fall, their failure and their punishment. God (s.w.t.) punishes the guilty by their own scheming and schemes against them, but they do not perceive where they will end and on whom the evil outcome of the scheming will fall.
6:124 — When a sign comes to them
When a sign comes to them, they say, ‘We will not believe until we are given the like of what was given to Allah’s apostles.’ Allah knows best where to place His apostleship! Soon the guilty will be visited by a degradation and severe punishment from Allah because of the plots they used to devise.
The guilty, especially the great ones among them, had many false wishes. When a sign came to them from God, Exalted, on the tongue of His Prophet, they would say, out of sarcasm and mockery or for the sake of argument: if the prophets are the places where the revelation of God (s.w.t.) descends, we too must be like them in that. God (the Mighty and Majestic) said, rejecting this saying of theirs: God knows best where to place His message.
Then, the great guilty ones will be punished on the Day of Resurrection with two punishments: one that falls on their spirits, which is abasement and smallness, and another that befalls their bodies, which is severe punishment. That is only because of their claim to deserve the message, their false arrogance, and their scheming and deceit.
6:125 — Whomever Allah desires to guide
Whomever Allah desires to guide, He opens his breast to Islam, and whomever He desires to lead astray, He makes his breast narrow and straitened as if he were climbing to a height. Thus does Allah lay [spiritual] defilement on those who do not have faith.
God (s.w.t.) may reward some people by opening their breasts to Islam, and punish others by opening their breasts to faithlessness. That is, He places light in the heart of the person of faith by guidance as a recompense, and leaves the faithless to himself by leading him astray as a punishment, that is, by lifting His special kindness from him.
Opening the breast means the opening and widening of the breast, which happen at times in good and at times in evil. True knowledge and divine teachings open the breast and widen the spirit to receive knowledge and increase in it, while closing the breast to false knowledge and futile matters. The spirit widens in misguided matters if false knowledge and sins enter it, while it closes to receiving true knowledge and spiritual matters. So both true and false knowledge open and widen the spirit; but one does so at the level of reason and justice, and the other at the level of fancy and wrongdoing.
The breast that has been opened and widened to Islam will then be full of light. After that it receives the divine teachings with the utmost ease, accepts them with its whole being, bears hardships, and submits to the obligations and prohibitions. But the breast opened and widened to faithlessness will not be ready to accept Islam. It tastes nothing of the true divine teachings and commits major sins, such as lying, in the easiest way possible, and doing good deeds becomes very hard for it; indeed, for it this is like climbing up to the sky with no means to raise it.
The expression of God, Exalted, “who do not have faith” refers to the fact that these faithless people have closed on themselves the doors of repentance and of turning to God (the Mighty and Majestic), so no faith is expected of them that they might become people of faith. For this reason they are not described as “those who did not have faith”.
6:126 — This is the straight path of your Lord
This is the straight path of your Lord. We have already elaborated the signs for a people who take admonition.
Creative and legislative guidance, and leading astray as a punishment, are both among the laws of God, Exalted, and God’s straight path. Whoever chooses the path of faith by his good choice increases in guidance; and whoever chooses the way of faithlessness by his bad choice, his recompense is misguidance and deviation.
The verses of the Book of God (s.w.t.) are the decisive word, and they are distinct from one another. All the matters set out in detail in the Qur’an have their roots, in summary form, in man’s nature; if he returns to it, he finds them in detail. Hence the great Qur’an is a reminder for people.
6:127 — For them shall be the abode of peace near their Lord and He will be their guardian…
For them shall be the abode of peace near their Lord and He will be their guardian because of what they used to do.
The faithful whose breasts have been opened benefit from two special graces from God (the Mighty and Majestic): the promised Garden, or the Abode of Peace, and the station of being with the Exalted Lord, which is better than all the other gardens.
The Garden’s being peace means its being far from outward and inward harms. It is unlikely that “peace” here points to one of God’s beautiful names, because the phrase would then be “for them is the abode of God with their Lord”, which is far-fetched.
Then, these faithful are under the guardianship of God (the Mighty and Majestic), and God (s.w.t.) is their guardian. The reason they reach this station and benefit from these two special graces of God, Exalted, is their right faith and their righteous deeds.
6:128 — On the day He will gather them all together
On the day He will gather them all together, [He will say], ‘O company of jinn! You claimed many of the humans.’ Their friends from among the humans will say, ‘Our Lord, we used each other, and we completed our term which You had appointed for us.’ He will say, ‘The Fire is your abode, to remain in it [forever], except what Allah may wish.’ Indeed your Lord is all-wise, all-knowing.
The jinn, like men, are charged with duties. For this reason, on the day of their gathering at the Resurrection, some of them are addressed with a rebuke: you have taken many of mankind and made them your followers, so that they then went astray.
On the basis of this verse, the jinn and their misleading leaders have no answer to this question of rebuke. Then those of mankind who followed them answer that we were means for one another to enjoy: the jinn enjoyed mankind by taking charge of them, and mankind enjoyed the jinn by accepting their guardianship, receiving their ill-omened plans and taking refuge in them.
What is meant by “the term” in this verse is the known period and the opportunity given to sinners to repent. It may also mean the creative position and the existential degree of misery that the sinners have reached by their deeds.
Then God (s.w.t.) replies to them that your abode, that is, the abode of the friends of the jinn, is the Fire, abiding in it, unless God, Exalted, wills something else.
That God (s.w.t.) gives His wisdom and knowledge as the reason for His reply, and not His wrath, power and vengeance, shows that the message of the noble verse is pardon and forgiveness.
6:129 — That is how We make the wrongdoers one another’s friends because of what they used to earn
That is how We make the wrongdoers one another’s friends because of what they used to earn.
Just as God, Exalted, gives the devils of the jinn power over the wrongdoers among sinners, so He gives some wrongdoers power over others because of their deeds, so that they are punished by it as a penalty.
6:130 — ‘O company of jinn and humans
‘O company of jinn and humans! Did there not come to you apostles from yourselves, recounting to you My signs and warning you of the encounter of this Day?’ They will say, ‘We testify against ourselves.’ The life of this world had deceived them, and they will testify against themselves that they had been faithless.
God (s.w.t.) tries the jinn and men on the Day of Resurrection: Did not messengers come to you from among yourselves, reciting to you the signs of God (the Mighty and Majestic) and warning you of meeting this day?
The main axis of the argument of God (s.w.t.) against the jinn and men on the Day of Resurrection is revelation and the mission. For revelation sets out both the general and the particular lines of Islam, and likewise the Return; whereas reason grasps only the general lines of Islam and of the Return.
It is understood from the Exalted God’s address to the jinn that they are charged with duties like men. The sending of messengers and prophets (a.s.) to them shows this too; though, on the basis of what custom and the Qur’an warrant, it is possible that the messenger sent to both groups was specifically of human kind.
In response to the address of God (the Mighty and Majestic), the wrongdoing jinn and men testify against themselves: messengers from God, Exalted, came to us from among ourselves, relating His signs to us; but because of the deception of this world we denied them. They brought about that deception with their own hands; it was not this world that deceived them. So they testified against themselves that they were a faithless people.
6:131 — This is because your Lord would never destroy the towns unjustly while their people were…
This is because your Lord would never destroy the towns unjustly while their people were unaware.
The law of God (the Mighty and Majestic) in punishment is that it comes after the true proof has reached its full measure and completeness. From this it is known that God (s.w.t.) does not punish the heedless whom the true proof has not reached, and that their destruction was not a punishment and a penalty.
The soundest possibility for the meaning of His words “through wrongdoing” is that God punishes no one through wrongdoing; rather, if there is punishment, it rests entirely on justice.
6:132 — For everyone there are ranks in accordance with what they have done
For everyone there are ranks in accordance with what they have done; and your Lord is not oblivious of what they do.
Each of the jinn and men has degrees which he has earned by his own deeds. In language, “degrees” is used for rising and also for falling, though in technical use it is used only for rising. In this verse it is meant in its comprehensive sense, or by way of predominance (taghlīb); otherwise there is no talk of those who do good in these verses.
Degrees are of the same kind as deeds. For every deed to move from a passing state to a settled trait, and from that to the constituent differentia of the soul, needs effort; and then man himself becomes degrees, as He, Exalted, said: “They are degrees with God.”
There is no negative attribute in the Essence of God (s.w.t.), such as heedlessness, oversight, forgetfulness or disobedience, because He is the Lord who is aware of all deeds; so He is not heedless of what creation does.
6:133 — Your Lord is the All-sufficient dispenser of mercy
Your Lord is the All-sufficient dispenser of mercy. If He wishes, He will take you away, and make whomever He wishes succeed you, just as He produced you from the descendants of another people.
Complete self-sufficiency belongs to God (s.w.t.), and He is the possessor of absolute mercy; so wrongdoing cannot issue from Him. For wrongdoing comes either from need or from vileness and the trait of aggression, and God, Exalted, is neither in need nor an aggressor against any of His creation.
The noble verse gives the good news of the self-sufficiency and mercy of God (the Mighty and Majestic), as it gives the good news that God is the absolutely Self-sufficient who lifts poverty from all people. It threatens the faithless and the wrongdoers with a painful punishment, and warns that He is able to destroy a people at a set time and make others succeed them.
6:134 — Indeed what you are promised will surely come
Indeed what you are promised will surely come, and you will not be able to thwart it.
The promises of God, Blessed and Exalted, are certainly fulfilled, because they can in no way be broken. As for the threat of God (s.w.t.), it may not be carried out, because not carrying out a threat does not go against the wisdom of God, Mighty is His standing.
Man cannot frustrate the Exalted Lord in any way: not independently, nor through guardianship, nor through the help of others. No one can ever stand against the will and power of God (s.w.t.), because His power is absolute and unlimited, and every creature is an obedient soldier of His.
6:135 — Say, ‘O my people, act according to your ability
Say, ‘O my people, act according to your ability; I too am acting. Soon you will know in whose favour the outcome of that abode will be. Indeed the wrongdoers will not be felicitous.’
God (s.w.t.) addressed the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.), telling him to say to his people, that is, the great chiefs of Quraysh and the polytheists of Mecca: Do what you will; I am doing what I have been charged with, calling to the Oneness of God; so that it may become clear for whom will be the final abode and the good return.
This command was a threat to the polytheists, because they are the wrongdoers, and the wrongdoer never sees success.
6:136 — They dedicate a portion to Allah out of what He has created of the crops and cattle
They dedicate a portion to Allah out of what He has created of the crops and cattle, and say, ‘This is for Allah,’ so do they maintain, ‘and this is for our partners.’ But what is for their partners does not reach Allah, and what is for Allah reaches their partners. Evil is the judgement that they make.
The polytheists set aside a portion of the crops and the livestock for God, Exalted, and another portion for their partners among the idols. They divided the property, and falsely thought that they were delivering to God what He owns and has created. In this they were not upright either: they did wrong both in the original act and in keeping it up, and they transgressed likewise. That is, their very act of setting apart was an innovation, because they had no religion or law to which this act of theirs could be traced as legislation or religious practice. Nor did they keep to their own allotment: they spent the share of God (the Mighty and Majestic) on their partners, and spent the partners’ share on them too, and gave nothing to God, Exalted. The term “claim” in the verse is an allusion to their lying in this division. Likewise, their aim in this deed was to draw near to the idols and to seek their benefits, not to draw near to God, the One, the Subduer; for this reason they ascribed the partners to themselves, not to the Creator, Exalted.
The polytheists’ allotment had no basis or foundation, because it relied on no transmitted or rational proof. Rather, reason considers it transgression and wrongdoing and judges it ugly on its own, and in it is a violation of the holy presence of the Exalted Lord. And they did not keep even to this baseless allotment. That is why He said at the end of the verse that the polytheists’ judgement in such an allotment, that is, setting a share for God and another for the idols and not keeping to it, was evil and false.
6:137 — That is how to most of the polytheists the slaying of their children is presented as…
That is how to most of the polytheists the slaying of their children is presented as decorous by those whom they ascribe as partners [to Allah], that they may ruin them and confound their religion for them. Had Allah wished, they would not have done it. So leave them with what they fabricate.
Among the many innovations and false laws of the polytheists was killing their children for the idols and before the idols. The custodians of the idols, or the devils, or their love of the idols, made this act seem fair to them. The idols were in fact means of misguidance and of making things seem fair; they had no independent power to do so. The aim of those who made it seem fair was the destruction of the polytheists and the distortion of the creed of Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.), which they followed.
If God, Exalted, had willed, He would have prevented them in creation from the innovations and the killing of children. But this is on the basis of the law of God (s.w.t.), which rests on man’s freedom and choice, even though he is charged by legislation; and since the field of legislation allows disobedience, some people, like the polytheists, fell short. So let them be left to themselves with gracious withdrawal, so that they may see the end of their inventing lies against God, the One, the Subduer.
6:138 — And they say, ‘These cattle and tillage are a taboo
And they say, ‘These cattle and tillage are a taboo: none may eat them except whom we please,’ so they maintain, and there are cattle whose backs are forbidden and cattle over which they do not mention Allah’s Name, fabricating a lie against Him. Soon He will requite them for what they used to fabricate.
Among the innovations of the polytheists was forbidding the use of some crops and livestock to all but the custodians of the idols and the friends of the idols, and likewise forbidding riding on the backs of animals such as the baḥīrah, the sāʾibah and the ḥām. They did not mention the name of God, Exalted, when slaughtering; rather, they mentioned the names of the idols, to draw near to them.
Forbidding all these things and making them unlawful is an invention by the polytheists against God, Mighty is His standing. The Creator (s.w.t.) will recompense them, and this invention will be hardship and affliction for them.
6:139 — And they say, ‘That which is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively for our males…
And they say, ‘That which is in the bellies of these cattle is exclusively for our males and forbidden to our wives. But if it be still-born, they will all share it.’ Soon He will requite them for their allegations. Indeed, He is all-wise, all-knowing.
Among the corrupt rulings and false laws of the polytheists was reserving for males the eating of the young of certain livestock, or of livestock in general, when born alive; and having males and females share in eating its flesh if it was born dead. God, the Wise, the Knowing, made this ugly description of theirs their recompense.
At the end of the noble verse, besides the correspondence of the deed with the recompense, their identity is also mentioned. That is, God, Exalted, will make their description (invention and innovation) their recompense, in such a way that the description itself appears for them. And since God (s.w.t.) is Wise and Knowing, the innovations of the polytheists are, in His sight, ignorance and folly.
6:140 — They are certainly losers who slay their children foolishly without knowledge
They are certainly losers who slay their children foolishly without knowledge, and forbid what Allah has provided them, fabricating a lie against Allah. Certainly, they have gone astray and are not guided.
Loss, killing children, folly, ignorance, inventing lies in forbidding lawful provision to oneself, misguidance and not being guided are all qualities of the polytheists, who acted against reason and against what God (the Mighty and Majestic) has decreed. The polytheists’ killing of children, for whatever aim, is folly and ignorance, and all of it goes back to their faithlessness and misguidance.
6:141 — It is He who produces gardens trellised and without trellises
It is He who produces gardens trellised and without trellises, and palm-trees and crops of diverse produce, olives and pomegranates, similar and dissimilar. Eat of its fruits when it fructifies, and give its due on the day of harvest, and do not be wasteful; indeed, He does not like the wasteful.
The creation of gardens trellised and untrellised, of palms and crops of various produce, and of olives and pomegranates, alike and unlike in taste, shape and colour: all of this is the act of God, Blessed and Exalted. After creating some plants and citing them as evidence for the proof from order and for the Oneness of God in lordship, God (s.w.t.) set out the jurisprudential rulings connected with them. He made all of it lawful and good for all people, women and men, so no one can forbid its use to himself or to others.
What is required is to pay the due of God and of the poor at harvest time. None of them, the owner, the deserving recipient, the one who pays the charity, or the legislator, should be extravagant in spending and in carrying out the duty.
6:142 — Of the cattle [some] are for burden and [some] for slaughter
Of the cattle [some] are for burden and [some] for slaughter. Eat of what Allah has provided you and do not follow in Satan’s footsteps; he is indeed your manifest enemy.
God (s.w.t.) created livestock as beasts of burden and as small animals, such as sheep, for man to benefit from them; not to be reserved for a particular group, such as the custodians of the idols and the servants of the temples, or for males. This reservation is an innovation and a following of Satan, who drives man to things contrary to reason and to transmitted proof. So his footsteps must be avoided, for he is a manifest enemy to man.
6:143–144 — Eight mates: two of sheep
(143) Eight mates: two of sheep, and two of goats. Say, ‘Is it the two males that He has forbidden or the two females, or what is contained in the wombs of the two females? Inform me with knowledge, should you be truthful.’ (144) And two of camels and two of oxen. Say, ‘Is it the two males that He has forbidden or the two females, or what is contained in the wombs of the two females? Were you witnesses when Allah enjoined this upon you?’ So who is a greater wrongdoer than him who fabricates a lie against Allah to mislead the people without any knowledge? Indeed Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot.
The Creator of eight pairs, of sheep two and of goats two, and likewise of camels two and of cattle two, for people to benefit from, is God, Mighty is His standing. So He knows best what is forbidden or lawful of them. What the polytheists said in forbidding, such as that some livestock are forbidden to women, and that others are reserved for the idols, their custodians and the servants of their temples, has no proof from reason and sense, nor from transmission and report. Rather, it is an instance of invention and innovation. They are the most wrongdoing of creation, for they ascribed the false prohibition to God without authority or proof; and God does not guide the wrongdoing peoples.
6:145 — Say, ‘I do not find in what has been revealed to me that anyone be forbidden to eat…
Say, ‘I do not find in what has been revealed to me that anyone be forbidden to eat anything except carrion or spilt blood, or the flesh of swine—for that is indeed unclean—or an impiety offered to other than Allah.’ But should someone be compelled, without being rebellious or aggressive, indeed your Lord is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
Divine revelation is the only proof for forbidding and permitting things. This prohibition is sometimes because of ugliness in the thing forbidden, such as carrion, blood poured out and the flesh of swine; sometimes because of transgression and deviation, such as an animal slaughtered on stone altars and dedicated to other than God, Exalted; and sometimes, as mentioned in the next verse, as a punishment for their rebellion and wrongdoing. None of the livestock that the polytheists forbade to themselves falls under any of these standards; so the polytheists have no proof or argument for what they forbade.
The restriction of forbidden things to the four cases mentioned in the noble verse is relative: it concerns things forbidden in themselves, not forbidden acts or prohibited earnings. If other forbidden things are mentioned in verses other than this one, they are either a detailing of these cases, or a qualification of the unqualified wording of the verse under discussion, or a specification of its generality.
6:146–147 — To the Jews We forbade every animal having an undivided hoof
(146) To the Jews We forbade every animal having an undivided hoof, and of oxen and sheep We forbade them their fat, except what is borne by their backs or the entrails, or what is attached to the bones. We requited them with that for their rebelliousness, and We indeed speak the truth. (147) But if they deny you, say, ‘Your Lord is dispenser of an all-embracing mercy, but His punishment will not be averted from the guilty lot.’
God (s.w.t.) forbade to the Jews every bird with claws, and the fat of cattle and sheep, except what was on their backs or entrails or mixed with bone. This prohibition was the recompense for their rebellion and wrongdoing. And God, Exalted, in the Jews’ having no proof, from the earlier religion or from the law of Islam, for the livestock and crops they forbade, has truthfulness both in the report and as the reporter, just as He has a promise and a threat likewise.
If the polytheists deny this statement, then the proof of God, Exalted, is conclusive, and then there remains no way but calling with good news and warning. If they repent, God is possessed of vast mercy; and if they do not repent, God is severe, possessed of vengeance, and no one can turn back His might.
6:148 — The polytheists will say, ‘Had Allah wished we would not have ascribed any partner [to…
The polytheists will say, ‘Had Allah wished we would not have ascribed any partner [to Him], nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden anything.’ Those who were before them had denied likewise until they tasted Our punishment. Say, ‘Do you have any [revealed] knowledge that you can produce before us? You follow nothing but conjectures, and you do nothing but surmise.’
The polytheists, who claimed to have looked into the matter, argued for their polytheism and their innovation, and for what their fathers had innovated, by way of compulsion and fallacy: if God, Exalted, had willed, neither we nor our fathers would have associated partners, nor would we have forbidden anything; but since we did that, it is known that God, Exalted, willed that we do it.
God (the Mighty and Majestic) warned the polytheists of a painful punishment after mentioning the end of those before them who denied. He teaches them that what the polytheists before them did in associating partners was not by the will of God, Exalted; otherwise He would not have punished them with a painful punishment.
The phrase “until they tasted Our might” conveys that the punishment of God, Mighty is His standing, is more than that, and that they tasted only some of it; it does not mean that they tasted all of it.
In the rest of the verse God, Exalted, argues against the polytheists that they should bring a proof resting on knowledge, and describes what they do as nothing but following conjecture and being content with it; and it is known that conjecture has no authority at all.
6:149 — Say, ‘To Allah belongs the conclusive argument
Say, ‘To Allah belongs the conclusive argument. Had He wished, He would have surely guided you all.’
The polytheists ascribed their polytheism to God (the Mighty and Majestic) by an analogy full of fallacy and falsehood. In reply to what they did, God, Exalted, said: If God (s.w.t.) had willed, by His creative will, to guide you and make you hold to His Oneness, you would all have been guided; but you were not all guided, so God, Exalted, did not will by His creative will that you be guided.
From these two propositions together, that is, that God, Exalted, willed man’s guidance and not his polytheism, it is understood that God made man free in creation and willed his choice, even though He willed by legislation that he hold to His Oneness.
As for polytheism: if He had willed that all people be polytheists, they would all have associated partners. But some of them hold to the Oneness of God, others are faithless, and others are neither; so each person’s will plays a basic role in his polytheism or in his holding to the Oneness of God, and nothing of polytheism can be ascribed to the most holy divine Essence.
6:150 — Say, ‘Bring your witnesses who may testify that Allah has forbidden this.’ So if they…
Say, ‘Bring your witnesses who may testify that Allah has forbidden this.’ So if they testify, do not testify with them, and do not follow the desires of those who deny Our signs, and those who do not believe in the Hereafter and equate [others] with their Lord.
After the polytheists brought no proof from reason or from transmission for what they forbade and what they innovated, God (s.w.t.) demanded that they bring witnesses to the prohibition. He says to His noble Prophet (s.a.w.): if they bring witnesses who testify falsely, do not accept their testimony and do not testify with them. For they have denied three general roots of the noble religion, the Oneness of God, prophethood and the Return: they denied the signs of God, Blessed and Holy, did not have faith in the Hereafter, and set up partners for God.
6:151 — Say, ‘Come, I will recount what your Lord has forbidden you
Say, ‘Come, I will recount what your Lord has forbidden you. That you shall not ascribe any partners to Him, and you shall be good to the parents, you shall not kill your children due to penury—We will provide for you and for them—you shall not approach indecencies, the outward among them and the inward ones, and you shall not kill a soul [whose life] Allah has made inviolable, except with due cause. This is what He has enjoined upon you so that you may exercise your reason.
The greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) was the one charged with reciting to people the rulings of God, Exalted, especially the prohibitions, in order by this to save them from the pit of polytheism and the falsehoods of superstition, and to bring them to the highest ranks of happiness.
In this verse and the next, God (s.w.t.) mentions ten rulings shared by all the prophets (a.s.) and nations. They are:
Denying every kind of polytheism. God sometimes calls people to the Oneness of God in positive language, and at other times forbids them polytheism in negative language.
The duty of doing good to parents, which is one of the international rulings of Islam. Because of its importance it is usually mentioned in the Qur’an alongside the call to the Oneness of God or the prohibition of polytheism.
The prohibition of killing children for fear of destitution and poverty, because the Provider is God (the Mighty and Majestic).
The prohibition of approaching indecencies, outward and inward. For outward indecency, besides corrupting the spirit, corrupts the community too, just as inward indecency corrupts man’s spirit.
The prohibition of killing a soul that God (the Mighty and Majestic) has made sacred, except by right, such as killing in retaliation or as a prescribed punishment.
These rulings and principles are commands of God, Exalted, which He has made obligatory for people. By following them, theoretical reason in the field of knowledge, and practical reason in the field of action, can be brought to the desired perfection.
6:152 — Do not approach the orphan’s property
Do not approach the orphan’s property, except in the best [possible] manner, until he comes of age. And observe fully the measure and the balance with justice.’ We task no soul except according to its capacity. ‘And when you speak, be fair, even if it were a relative; and fulfill Allah’s covenant. This is what He enjoins upon you so that you may take admonition.’
Five of the ten rulings and principles shared by God’s prophets (a.s.) and their nations were mentioned in the previous verse; in this noble verse five more are mentioned:
The prohibition of approaching the property of the orphan except in what his interest requires and what is best for him. For human nature loves wealth greatly, and the orphan who has not come of age cannot discern the interests of his property or defend himself. Yes, once he reaches the age of obligation and a degree of maturity, he is the defender of his own property.
The duty of keeping to justice and equity in transactions, whether by measure or by weight, or one by measure and the other by weight. In every case cheating is forbidden; rather, both must be dealt with on the basis of equity and justice.
Setting duties according to man’s capacity. This ruling is the centrepiece of the rulings mentioned in these two verses, that is, the one hundred and fifty-first and the one hundred and fifty-second verses of this sura, and it indicates that all the rulings mentioned are set according to man’s capacity and strength.
Observing justice in speech, even with relatives. This is a comprehensive constitutional ruling, covering every report, judgement, testimony, praise, criticism, enjoining of good and so on.
The necessity of keeping a covenant, whether the original contracts and the divine duties placed on the servants, or the covenants people make with one another, or the personal covenants by which a person pledges himself to his Lord, such as vows, oaths and the like.
At the end of the verse the rulings mentioned are counted among the instructions of God (s.w.t.). Since they are rulings that need more reflection, the quality of remembering is mentioned at the end of the verse; unlike the rulings mentioned in the previous verse, most of which were matters of perception, so the quality of reasoning was mentioned there.
6:153 — ‘This indeed is my straight path
‘This indeed is my straight path, so follow it, and do not follow [other] ways, for they will separate you from His way. This is what He enjoins upon you so that you may be Godwary.’
The outward sense of the noble verse shows the oneness of the straight path, the duty to follow it, the prohibition of deviating from it, and the ban on following other ways.
What is meant by “My path” may rightly be the path of God, Exalted, and may rightly be the path of the Messenger of God (s.a.w.), since his (s.a.w.) path is the path of God (the Mighty and Majestic), which he himself made clear to people through revelation and the mission.
Straightness is part of the meaning of “path” (ṣirāṭ), and the description “straight” is an explanatory qualifier, not a restrictive one.
There is a difference between the straight path and uprightness on the path: “straight” describes the path, while uprightness on the path describes the one travelling it.
Knowledge and remembrance of the ten principles mentioned earlier, and acting on them, whose fruit is Godwariness, are among the conditions for travelling this straight path. When any of them is missing, deviation from the straight path and scattering away from the way of God (s.w.t.) occur.
In the noble Qur’an, “path” (ṣirāṭ) is mentioned only in the singular, unlike “way” (sabīl), which is mentioned both in the singular and in the plural. The straight path is only one, but the branch ways are many. If these ways end in that path, they are all true, however many they are; just as the deviant and misguided ways are all false. From this, on the logic of the noble Qur’an, the theory of religious pluralism, in the sense that there are several straight paths that bring man to the truth, is judged false; and this differs from saying that there are many ways connected to the one path.
6:154 — Then We gave Moses the Book
Then We gave Moses the Book, completing [Our blessing] on him who is virtuous, and as an elaboration of all things, and as a guidance and mercy, so that they may believe in the encounter with their Lord.
After setting out the ten principles shared by the prophets (a.s.) and nations, God (s.w.t.) used the word “then”, which is either for detail after summary or for order in mention and report; it does not mean that the Torah was revealed after the noble Qur’an. He said: We gave Mūsā, the one who spoke with God (a.s.), the Torah, to complete the principles mentioned.
What is meant by “the one who” in His words, Exalted, “complete for the one who did good” may be the person of Mūsā (a.s.) himself, since he received the Torah after the blessed forty days and he was a doer of good. It may also be the genus of the righteous human being, covering all the faithful and the doers of good of that time, since they alone benefited from the completeness of the Torah, while others deprived themselves of it by their bad choice. Mentioning the explicit “the one who” instead of a pronoun shows the generality of the ruling, and also suggests that doing good is the cause.
Completion, detail, guidance and mercy are the outstanding qualities of the Torah, by which Mūsā (a.s.) met all the needs of the people of his time. Guidance concerns matters of thought (knowledge), and mercy is connected with practical matters: one is for understanding right knowledge, and the other for travelling the straight path and achieving righteous deeds.
Faith in the Return is one of the most important aims of the Torah. God, Exalted, sent down this Book with the four qualities mentioned so that the Children of Israel would have faith in the Last Day and the Resurrection. For what has practical effect is faith in the Resurrection, in which every soul is recompensed for the good and evil it did; not merely belief in the Oneness of God, Exalted, and His attributes. For this reason the Resurrection and the Last Day are expressed as meeting the Exalted Lord (s.w.t.).
6:155 — And this Book that We have sent down is a blessed one
And this Book that We have sent down is a blessed one; so follow it, and be Godwary so that you may receive [His] mercy.
After mentioning the Torah, the noble Qur’an mentions the Qur’an, and does not mention the Gospel or the Psalms, because the Gospel and the Psalms do not have the comprehensiveness of the Torah. But the wise Qur’an contains the four headings found in the Torah, completion, detail, guidance and mercy, besides the blessing it has.
The glorious Qur’an is a blessed Book. Because of its permanence and its not accepting abrogation, its blessing is greater than the blessings of the other heavenly books, and it is more upright and more lasting.
The aim of sending down the great Qur’an is that it be followed and that Godwariness be kept, which pave the way for the coming down of special mercy.
6:156 — Lest you should say, ‘The Book was sent down only to two communities before us
Lest you should say, ‘The Book was sent down only to two communities before us, and we were indeed unaware of their studies,’
Reason is the proof of God (s.w.t.) against all people, but it is not a sufficient condition; nothing completes, necessarily accompanies and perfects the proof but revelation. Hence one of the aims of sending down the noble Qur’an was to put an end to all the excuses and arguments of the Arab polytheists, so that they would not say: the Book was sent down to the Jews and the Christians, and we were unaware of learning the intellectual and cultural matters in it, because it was a non-Arabic, foreign book.
6:157 — or [lest] you should say, ‘If the Book had been sent down to us
or [lest] you should say, ‘If the Book had been sent down to us, surely we would have been better-guided than them.’ There has already come to you a manifest proof from your Lord and a guidance and mercy. So who is a greater wrongdoer than him who denies the signs of Allah, and turns away from them? Soon We shall requite those who turn away from Our signs with a terrible punishment because of what they used to evade.
Among the subsidiary aims of sending down the noble Qur’an is to reject the polytheists’ second excuse, which was their saying: if a Book were sent down to us from heaven, we would be better guided than the Jews and the Christians. So the great Qur’an was sent down, on the one hand to refute this claim of theirs, and on the other to guide them as a mercy from God, Exalted. This heavenly Book is called a clear proof (bayyinah), because the word means clarity and plainness, just as it also means separating and cutting off. That is, the glorious Qur’an was sent down separating the refuted argument of the polytheist from itself, cutting the one off from the other by cutting off argument and excuse.
After it became clear to the polytheists that the noble Qur’an is a clear proof and an argument from God (s.w.t.), they denied it and said: this is not from God, Mighty is His standing; and they turned away from it completely. In truth they drove away the word and revelation of God (s.w.t.) knowingly and deliberately, and cast it behind their backs knowingly and deliberately. There is no greater wrongdoing than this, since not having faith in what goes back to God, Blessed and Exalted, and to the affairs of His most holy Essence, is one of the greatest sins and the gravest of forbidden things; and God, Exalted, will punish those who do this with His painful punishment.
6:158 — Do they not consider that the angels may come to them
Do they not consider that the angels may come to them, or your Lord may come, or some of your Lord’s signs may come? The day when some of your Lord’s signs do come, faith shall not benefit any soul that had not believed beforehand and had not earned some goodness in its faith. Say, ‘Wait! We too are waiting!’
The polytheists of Mecca did not have faith in what happens after death: the coming of the angels, the Resurrection and its punishment. So God, Exalted, threatened them, with a rhetorical question of disapproval, that they should wait for His punishment. The coming of the angels may at times be for taking the spirit at death, and at other times for bringing down divine punishment. They give no one respite when they take the spirit, because faith at that time is of no use to its owner.
As for the coming of the Exalted Lord, it means either the coming of the command of God, Exalted, or the complete appearance of His signs. The appearance of some of the signs of God (s.w.t.) is enough for punishment, while the complete appearance of all the signs is at the Great Resurrection. One possible reason for repeating the words “your Lord” is to support the most noble Prophet (s.a.w.) against the polytheists and to mention to them the Oneness of God, the One, the Subduer.
Man is charged to have faith in his heart and to do righteous deeds in keeping with it. So there is no benefit in the faith of a person of faith if he has no righteous deeds, nor in a righteous deed done by a faithless person without faith.
Yes, the two are not at one level: faith is the root, and the lack of faith is faithlessness; righteous deeds are the branch, and one who abandons them is a transgressor.
In any case, the person of faith whose faith is not accompanied by righteous deeds is counted among the faithless in action, not in belief and profession; just as the faithless, if he did righteous deeds before death, is not saved by that from the punishment of the Return.
Faith and righteous deeds must rest on choice. For this reason they are of no use when some of the signs of the Exalted Lord appear, that is, when divine punishment appears at the end of life as a result of a state of compulsion arising. Faith and righteous deeds after moving to the barzakh are beyond the power of the one charged; indeed they are impossible, for they are like a negative proposition whose subject is absent.
6:159 — Indeed those who split up their religion and became sects
Indeed those who split up their religion and became sects, you will not have anything to do with them. Their matter rests only with Allah; then He will inform them concerning what they used to do.
Splitting away from the straight path and following scattered ways entails leaving the religion of God (the Mighty and Majestic).
The task of the prophets (a.s.) rested on calling all to the straight path and the one religion, and the nations too were charged with unity. But a group of them split away from the way of truth knowingly and with awareness, and followed scattered ways; so internal and external division took hold of the community and the religion. Nothing paves the way for division but the followers of the different religions.
Division is either initial or punitive. In the first, some slide into division knowingly and by their bad choice. If they do not repent, do not turn back from what they are on, and do not hold fast to the rope of God (s.w.t.), they deserve to be afflicted with the second kind of division, namely punitive division, and God, Exalted, divides them further and more severely.
This noble verse is general, and not specific to one people rather than another. Any nation that deviates from its religion and creed may be afflicted with a punishment coming down from heaven or coming out of the earth, and then afflicted with something more severe, which is division and disagreement among its members.
The verb “were” at the start of the noble verse is either in its real sense, that is, the roots of hypocrisy were present in them and appeared with the passing of days and times; or it means becoming and changing, that is, they were sound in spirit, but they split after being scattered, and were scattered after splitting.
In this verse there is what is in the first verse of Sūrat al-Barāʾah: the declaration of the dissociation of God, Exalted, and of His final Messenger (s.a.w.) from those who split up their religion and divided among themselves. God, the Subduer, punishes those who split from religion, in this world or the Hereafter: He punishes them in this realm by casting division among them, and in that realm with a painful, humiliating punishment.
6:160 — Whoever brings virtue shall receive [a reward] ten times its like
Whoever brings virtue shall receive [a reward] ten times its like; but whoever brings vice shall not be requited except with its like, and they will not be wronged.
The standard and the scale in reward and punishment is doing a good or an evil deed and keeping it until the Day of Resurrection. A good deed has ten times its like as reward, and an evil deed one like it as punishment. If someone erases the reward of his good deeds by an evil deed, or gives them to another, he has none of the reward mentioned; just as, if someone repairs his past evil deeds by repentance and turning back, he does not have the punishment mentioned either.
From the contrast between the good deed and the evil deed it is known that a good deed is an act which, besides not being evil, must be preferable to the extent that the Lawgiver has commanded it. So “good deed” is used only for the obligatory and the recommended, and never for anything merely permitted. The definite article in “the good deed” in the noble verse is for the known, and the tāʾ is for intensification; both point to the preferable act that is commanded, that is, the obligatory and the recommended.
The reward of a good deed is not confined to any amount, on the basis of a group of noble verses; unlike the punishment of an evil deed, which is confined to its like. His saying that the recompense of an evil deed is its like does not mean that the recompense of an evil deed is doing evil, because God, Exalted, is far exalted above that. Rather, what is meant by recompense in the noble verse under discussion is punishment; that is, by way of verbal correspondence (mushākalah) it is said that the recompense of an evil deed is its like; otherwise, in reality, recompensing an evil deed is a good thing.
Fulfilling the divine promise is certain, because breaking a promise is ugly and the issuing of the ugly from God (s.w.t.) is impossible. But not carrying out a threat is not against wisdom; so the Bestowing Creator, Exalted, may by His wisdom see intercession and benefit in pardoning an evil deed, and forgive the wrongdoer, majestic is His favour.
The verses that set out the measure of divine reward for good deeds are outwardly not in agreement, but in reality they do not conflict at all, and they may not be treated as unqualified and qualified. For they all came to establish the reward itself, without any implied restriction that would contradict the explicit wording of another; and they also aim to set out the divine bounty. The difference in the degrees of divine reward rests on differences in the degree of sincerity of the one who does the good deed, in his knowledge, and in society’s need for that good deed.
At the Resurrection no one who did a good or an evil deed is wronged; rather, each sees all that he did.
6:161 — Say, ‘Indeed my Lord has guided me to a straight path
Say, ‘Indeed my Lord has guided me to a straight path, the upright religion, the creed of Abraham, a Hanif, and he was not one of the polytheists.’
God (s.w.t.) guides to the straight path on the basis of general guidance. But the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) benefited from special divine guidance, in the shadow of acting on the rulings of God, Exalted, in all the affairs of his life, under the lordship of the Bestowing Lord, Mighty is His standing, so that his outward existence became the very text of the straight path: the path that is the very religion of Islam. Religion is nothing but this: the religion in which there is uprightness, inwardly and outwardly, with no disagreement, deviation or crookedness. This religion is the creed of our master Ibrāhīm al-Khalīl (a.s.), the ḥanīf, inclined to the even path, who never for a moment associated partners with God.
6:162 — Say, ‘Indeed my prayer and my worship
Say, ‘Indeed my prayer and my worship, my life and my death are for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.
Prayer is mentioned in this verse as the bond and the link between the roots and the branches of religion, and this expression adds to its greatness and clarity. Mentioning rites (nusuk) after it is mentioning the general after the particular, and it shows the importance of prayer. The outward sense of the noble verse under discussion, judging by the phrase in the next verse “and this I have been commanded”, is that prayer, worship, life and death are voluntary matters with which man is charged; and the greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) did them for God, the Lord of the worlds, not out of longing for the Garden or fear of the Fire.
6:163 — He has no partner, and I have been commanded [to follow] this [creed]
He has no partner, and I have been commanded [to follow] this [creed], and I am the first of those who submit [to Allah].’
The true Oneness of God depends on belief in the absolute lordship of the Real, Exalted, and on not making any partner for Him in essence, attribute, act or effect. The greatest Prophet (s.a.w.) was commanded with this Oneness of God and with the things mentioned before, and he is the first of those who submit in rank and station, not in time.
6:164 — Say, ‘Shall I seek a Lord other than Allah
Say, ‘Shall I seek a Lord other than Allah, while He is the Lord of all things?’ No soul does evil except against itself, and no bearer shall bear another’s burden; then to your Lord will be your return, whereat He will inform you concerning that about which you used to differ.
Four forms can be pictured for the meaning of the beginning of the verse:
First: God, Exalted, is the Lord of everything, and the management of the whole world is in His hand; so how should I choose another as lord and go against the order of existence?
Second: Shall I choose other than God as lord, when everything besides Him is under lordship, and what is under lordship is not fit to be a lord? So no one is fit for lordship but God (s.w.t.).
Third: I do not take the particular names as lords; rather I take God, who is the Greatest Name and the mother of the names, as my Lord.
Fourth: The human soul is not neutral between the Oneness of God and polytheism. On the basis of the verses of primordial nature and of the progeny (dharr), the human soul rests on the Oneness of God, Mighty is His standing, and on His exalted lordship, even though it has now forgotten them.
After denying lordship to anything other than the most holy divine Essence, this verse mentions that every soul is responsible for what it has done. So the way the polytheists have taken is only to their own harm, because each person’s good-doing is for himself and his evil-doing is against himself, and the wrongdoer wrongs only himself. The original effects of his wrongdoing take hold of him, and its incidental effects reach others.
Then, every wrongdoer comes on the Day of Resurrection with what he earned, and no bearer of burdens carries the weight of another’s deeds. That is, just as wrongdoing was fixed in the record of his deeds at the stage of establishment, so he must bear the burden of this wrongdoing himself at the stage of continuance.
The existence of different schools and opinions is among the best proofs of the necessity of the Return, because there must be a day on which the truth and reality become clear to all.
6:165 — It is He who has made you successors on the earth
It is He who has made you successors on the earth, and raised some of you in rank above others so that He may test you in respect to what He has given you. Indeed your Lord is swift in retribution, and indeed, He is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
The sense of the noble verse under discussion is general succession, not particular succession or succession in the most specific sense. That is, God, Exalted, has made people successors of one another and replaced one people with another.
God (the Mighty and Majestic) has preferred some people over others as a test for them; and the wrongdoing of the wrongdoers and the tyranny of the tyrants, which arise from faithlessness and atheism, are not from Him.
Whenever retribution and blessing are mentioned together in the noble Qur’an, the blessings of God (s.w.t.) are stated plainly, while punishment is set out by allusion and hint.
What is meant by the Creator’s being swift in retribution is that the punishment of sin is quickly set over the sinner in this world; or it refers to the Day of Resurrection, but since the Resurrection is certain and sure to happen, it is expressed as swiftness of retribution.
At the end of the verse, after mentioning that God, Exalted, is swift in retribution, His forgiveness is pointed to, not the reward that would correspond to punishment. For punishment and forgiveness both relate to sinners, and in divine forgiveness there is preparation for the coming of His vast mercy.