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The term rizq ("provision of sustenance") is used here in both the physical and spiritual connotations of this word, which explains the reference to "heaven and earth" and, subsequently, "[man's] hearing and sight".
The people referred to here are those who believe, firstly, that there are beings endowed with certain divine or semi-divine qualities, thus having, as it were, a "share" in God's divinity; and, secondly, that by worshipping such beings men can come closer to God. This idea obviously presupposes belief in God's existence, as is brought out in the "answer" of the people thus addressed (cf. 7:172 and the corresponding note [139]); but inasmuch as it offends against the concept of God's oneness and uniqueness, it deprives those people's belief in God of its true meaning and spiritual value.
Sustenance may be understood in the sense of all the provision necessary for maintaining physical life as well as mental and spiritual development and well-being. Examples of the former are light and rain from heaven and the produce of the earth and facilities of movement on land and sea and in air. Examples of the latter are the moral and spiritual influences that come from our fellow-men, and from the great Teachers and Prophets.
Just two of our ordinary faculties, hearing and sight, are mentioned, as examples of the rest. All the gifts of Allah, physical and spiritual, are enjoyed and incorporated by us by means of the faculties and capacities with which He has endowed us.
Cf. iii. 27 and n. 371; vi. 95 and n. 920; and xxx. 19.
This is the general summing-up of the argument. The government of the whole Creation and its maintenance and sustenance is in the hands of Allah. How futile then would it be to neglect His true worship and go after false gods?
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Lit., "this [or "such"], then, being God, your Sustainer, the Ultimate Truth" - i.e., "seeing that, on your own admission, He is the One who creates and governs all things and is the Ultimate Reality behind all that exists" (see surah {20}, note [99]): which implies a categorical denial of the possibility that any other being could have a share, however small, in His divinity.
Lit., "How, then, are you turned away?" - i.e., from the truth.
The wonderful handiwork and wisdom of Allah having been referred to, as the real Truth, as against the false worship and false gods that men set up, it follows that to disregard the Truth must lead us into woeful wrong, not only in our beliefs but in our conduct. We shall err and stray and be lost. How then can we turn away from the Truth?
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See surah {2}, note [7], as well as 8:55 and the corresponding note [58]. In this particular context, "the Sustainer's word" seems to be synonymous with "the way of God" (sunnat Allah) concerning deliberate sinners and deniers of the truth (Manar XI, 359). The particle anna in annahum (lit., "that they") is, thus, indicative of the purport of the divine "word" referred to, and is best expressed by a colon.
Disobedience to Allah brings its own terrible consequences on ourselves. The Law, the Word, the Decree, of Allah must be fulfilled. If we go to false gods, our Faith will be dimmed, and then extinguished. Our spiritual faculties will be dead.
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This rhetorical question is connected with the false belief that those idolatrously worshipped beings are no more than "intercessors" between their followers and God (see verse {18} above): and so, even their misguided votaries cannot possibly attribute to them the power to create and to resurrect. See also note [8] on verse {4} of this surah. In its wider sense, this question (and the subsequent answer) relates to the God-willed, cyclic process of birth, death and regeneration evident in all organic nature.
See surah {5}, note [90].
The argument is now turned in another direction. The false gods can neither create out of nothing nor sustain the creative energy which maintains the world. Nor can they give any guidance which can be of use for the future destiny of mankind: on the contrary they themselves (assuming they were men who were deified) stand in need of such guidance. Why then follow vain fancies, instead of going to the source of all knowledge, truth, and guidance, and worship, serve, and obey Allah, the One True God?
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Since the concept of "finding the right way" cannot apply to lifeless idols and idolatrous images, the above passage obviously relates to animate beings - whether dead or alive - to whom "a share in God's divinity" is falsely attributed: that is, to saintly personalities, prophets or angels whom popular fancy blasphemously endows with some or all of God's qualities, sometimes even to the extent that they are regarded as a manifestation or incarnation of God on earth. As for the act of God's guidance, it is displayed, primarily, in the power of conscious reasoning as well as of instinctive insight with which He has graced man, thus enabling him to follow the divine laws of right conduct (Zamakhshari).
Lit., "[and] how do you judge?"
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Lit., "conjecture can in no wise make [anyone] independent (la yughni) of the truth", i.e., of positive insight obtained through authentic revelation (to which the sequence relates). The people referred to here (and apparently also in the first sentence of verse {53} of this surah) are the agnostics who waver between truth and falsehood. - Some of the great exponents of Islamic Law - foremost among them Ibn Hazm - base on this verse their rejection of qiyas ("deduction by analogy") as a means of eliciting religious laws which are supposedly "implied" in the wording of the Qur'an or of the Prophet's teachings, but not clearly laid down in terms of law. In his commentary on this verse, Razi thus sums up the above view: "They say that every deduction by analogy is a conjectural process and is, therefore, of necessity, inadmissible [in matters pertaining to religion] - for 'conjecture can never be a substitute for truth'." (See also {5:101-102}, and the corresponding notes [120-123].)
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Lit., "but" (wa-lakin) - a stress on the impossibility of any assertion to the contrary.
The above passage has a twofold significance: firstly, the wisdom inherent in the Qur'an precludes any possibility of its having been composed by a human being; and, secondly, the Qur'anic message is meant to confirm, and give a final formulation to, the eternal truths which have been conveyed to man through a long succession of prophets: truths which have subsequently been obscured through wrong interpretation, deliberate omissions or interpolations, or a partial or even total loss of the original texts. For an explanation of the phrase ma bayna yadayhi, rendered by me in this context as "whatever there still remains [of earlier revelations]", see surah {3}, note [3].
The Book: Cf. iii. 23 and n. 366. Allah's revelation throughout the ages is one. The Qur-an confirms, fulfils, completes, and further explains the one true revelation, which has been sent by the One True God in all ages.
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According to the great philologist Abu 'Ubaydah Ma'mar ibn al-Muthanna (as quoted by Baghawi), the particle am which introduces this sentence has no interrogative connotation, but is - as in several other places in the Qur'an - synonymous with the conjunction wa ("and"), which in this case can be suitably rendered as above.
Cf. 2:23 and the corresponding note [15].
The Prophet (ﷺ).
Cf. ii. 23 and n. 42.
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Lit., "the knowledge whereof they do not encompass, while its inner meaning has not yet come to them". Most of the classical commentators explain this sentence in the way rendered by me, some of them, however (e.g., Tabari and Baghawi), interpret the term ta'wil ("final [or "inner"] meaning") in the sense in which it is used in 7:53 (see my translation of that passage and the corresponding note [41]).
Taawil: elucidation, explanation, final fulfilment, Cf. vii. 53, The Message of Allah not only gives us rules for our every-day conduct, but speaks of high matters of religious significance, which require elucidation in two ways: (1) by experience from the actual facts of life, and (2) by the final fulfilment of the hopes and warnings which we now take on trust through our Faith. The Unbelievers reject Allah's Message simply because they cannot understand it and without giving it even a chance of elucidation in any of these ways.
Wrong-doers always came to grief ultimately. The true course of history shows it from a broad standpoint. But they are so headstrong that they prejudge issues in their ignorance before they are decided.
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The verb yu'minun, which occurs twice in this verse, can be understood as connoting either the present tense - "[such as] believe", resp. "[such as] do not believe" - or the future tense. The future tense (adopted by me) is the meaning unequivocally attributed to it by Tabari and Ibn Kathir; some of the other authorities, like Zamakhshari and Razi, prefer the present tense, but nevertheless regard the other interpretation as legitimate. (See also Mandr XI, 380.)
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When the Prophet of Allah is rejected and charged with falsehood, he does not give up his work, but continues to teach and preach his Message. He can well say to those who interfere with him: "Mind your own business: supposing your charge against me is true, you incur no responsibility: I have to answer for it before Allah: and if I do my duty and deliver my Message, your rejection does not make me liable for your wrong-doing: you will have to answer before Allah."
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Cf. vi. 25, 36, 39 and notes. Hypocrites go to hear and see some great Teacher, but they get no profit out of it because they are not sincerely seeking the truth. They are like the blind, or the deaf, or the imbeciles. It is impossible to guide them, because they have not the will to be guided.
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This refers metaphorically to the pagans who fail to see and hear the truth.
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Allah cannot be blamed for man's evil, nor will He deal unjustly with man. He has given him faculties and means of guidance. If man goes wrong, it is because he wrongs himself.
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I.e., their past sojourn in this world, during which they were bound to one another by various ties of human relationship, will appear to them like a short moment as compared with the timeless duration of the life that awaits them after resurrection (see note [19] on {79:46), with all their past relationships cut asunder. See also 6:94 , which describes the condition of the deniers of the truth on the Day of Resurrection: "And now, indeed, you have come unto Us in a lonely state, even as We created you in the first instance"; and later on, in that same verse: "Indeed, all the bonds between you [and your earthly life] are now severed...."
i.e., only for a short period of time.
In eternity our life on this earth will look as if it had been just a little part of our little day, and so also will appear any interval between our death and the call to Judgment.
We shall retain some perception of our mutual relations on earth, so that the righteous judgment which will be pronounced will be intelligible to us, and we shall be convinced of its righteousness.
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