Surah An-Nahl 16:77-83 - Quran Translation Commentary

77. To Allah are known the Unseen (secrets of) the heavens and the earth, and the matter of the Hour (of Doom) is but a twinkling of the eye, or it is nearer still.¹¹⁴ Verily Allah has power over all things.

78. And Allah brought you out of the wombs of your mothers, (while) you had no knowledge; and gave you ears, eyes and hearts so that you may be grateful.¹¹⁵

79. Do they not see the birds subservient (hanging) in the heavens’ vault (atmosphere)? None holds them except Allah. Verily in that is a sign for the people who believe.¹¹⁶

80. And Allah has provided you from your houses an abode,¹¹⁷ and has provided you of the skins of cattle houses which you find light¹¹⁸ on the day of your travel and on the day of camping; and of their wool and their fur and their hair, various kinds of articles of value and comfort for a while.¹¹⁹

81. And Allah has made for you of what He has created shades¹²⁰ and has made you places of refuge in the mountains,¹²¹ and has provided you with garments to protect you from the heat;¹²² and coats (of armour) to shield you in your wars.¹²⁴ Thus does He perfect his favours to you, in order that you may submit to Him.

82. Even then if they turn away, your duty is only clear conveyance (of the message).¹²⁵

83. They recognize the favours of Allah., yet they deny them¹²⁶ and most of them are ungrateful.

Commentary

114. It means that for the Creator who has created this system of the universe, it is not at all difficult to destroy it and then create a new system and a new world. On the day on which Allah would like to cause the Doomsday to occur, it would occur in the twinkling of an eye, nay even quicker than that.

Man of ancient times considered the occurrence of Doomsday as unreasonable, because he thought that the system of the universe and this world are very strongly built entities. How can they be destroyed, how can these great mountains be razed to dust, but the modern scientific progress has shown that the energy released by the splitting of an atom is so great that it can destroy the entire city in no time: So the Being who has control over every atom of the universe, a slight hint from Him is sufficient to split the atoms of the universe, and release unimaginable energies and cause the explosion, which is known as the Doomsday. The Creator of this universe is undoubtedly, powerful to cause the explosion of the Doomsday, destroying the world in one second.

115. When a man is born, he is totally devoid of knowledge, but in his infancy he gradually, gets his faculties for properly seeing, hearing and thinking, which give him distinction over other creatures. These faculties are granted to man by Allah only, therefore, these favours demand that man should recognise his benefactor and should be thankful to Him. But man is careless and is ungrateful.

116. That is: If people really open their eyes and see the birds flying in the sky they will see the signs of Allah’s Lordship and might and they would then believe in Him. How do these birds fly in the atmosphere without taking help of any artificial contrivance? How do they hang in the air and do not fall down to the ground? Who it is that has given them wings to fly, and trained them to fly for miles in the sky without falling? Who is it that has caused them to be subservient and obedient to His command?

117. The art of building houses is also taught to man by Allah and He also provided the materials for the same. The comfort and tranquility man gets in the house is also provided by Allah.

118. That is: From the hides and skins of the animals’ tents are made, which can be folded and carried while traveling, and it is also easy to open them and pitch a tent when required to make a halt. In other words, they are folding houses, gifted by God.

119. Wool is obtained from sheep, fur from camels, etc., and hair from goats. Blankets, garments and flooring materials are made from these.

120. Shades of trees and mountains.

121. Caves and pits and pot-holes.

122. Garments which protect from sunstroke and heat of the sun. Above were mentioned those things which helped in making garments to protect from cold. Therefore, here particularly are mentioned garments which are made from cotton, and which protect from the sun, and which are a necessity in the hot countries like Arabia.

123. That is: Coat of arms, or mail.

124. Allah has showered on you so many blessings and favours that there is no physical and natural need of you that is not being met by these provisions. These favours have been granted to you so that you may recognise your Lord and become obedient to Him.

125. Even if after what has been stated above, ‘they do not find in their hearts a feeling of indebtedness and subjugation for the Lord and they still want to stick to their false beliefs, then they are responsible for their acts. The responsibility of the Prophet (S.A.W.) was merely to convey Allah’s message to them.

126. The polytheists did not deny that these good things of life were created by God, but when someone was a recipient of a particular blessing, he considered it a favour of such and such saint or angel instead of Allah, or that it was the result of the intercession of recommendation of some other being through their ‘wasila’ or agency. On account of this belief this ‘wasila’ or ‘wasta’ (agency) were considered by them as worthy of their gratitude. Then they used to deal with them as they dealt with God only. Thus they admitted the blessings of God on the one hand, on the other they denied it by adopting a policy which was in contravention of that admission. This wrong attitude and wrong acts of the polytheists is being reproached here.