Surah 41. Fussilat

42Now the discourse turns to the common people and they are made to understand the truth in a few sentences.

43That is, "They are not the objects of Divine power that you may start worshiping them, thinking that Allah is manifesting Himself in their form, but they are the Signs of Allah by pondering over which you can understand the reality of the universe and its system, and can know that the doctrine of the Oneness of God which the Prophets arc teaching is the actual Reality. The mention of the night and day before the sun and moon has been made to give the warning that the hiding of the sun and appearing of the moon at night, and the hiding of the moon and appearing of the sun in the day clearly point to the fact that neither of them is God or object of Divine power, but both are helpless and powerless objects, and are moving subject to the law of God.

44This is an answer to the philosophy that the intelligent among the polytheists generally used to propound to prove that polytheism was rational. They said that they did not bow to these objects but bowed to God through them. An answer to this has been given, so as to say: "If you really are Allah's worshipers, there is no need of these intermediaries: why don't you bow down to Him directly?'

45"If they show arrogance": If they think it is beneath them to listen to you and persist still in the ignorance in which they are involved.

46It means this: "The system of this whole universe, whose agents these' angels are, is running on the basis of Allah's Oneness and His servitude. The angels who are its agents are testifying every moment that their Lord is pure and exalted far above that another should be His associate in His Divinity and worship. Now, if a few foolish persons do not believe even after admonition, and turn away from the way that is being followed by the whole universe and persist in following the way of shirk only, let them remain involved in their folly."

The consensus is that it is obligatory to perform sajdah (prostration) here, but the jurists differ as to which of the two preceding verses requires the performance of sajdah. Hadrat 'Ali and Hadrat 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud performed the sajdah at the end of v. 37, while Hadrat Ibn 'Abbas, Ibn 'Umar, Said bin Musayyab, Masruq, Qatadah, Hasan Basri, Abu 'Abdur Rahman as-Sulami, Ibn Sirin, Ibrahim Nakha'i and several other prominent jurists have expressed the opinion that it should be performed at the end of v. 38. The same also is the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifah, and the Shafe'ites also have held the same view as preferable.