Surah An-Nahl 16:71-76 - Quran Translation Commentary

71. And Allah has favoured some of you above’ others in provision. Then those who are more favoured will not share equally with their slaves their (excess) provision.¹⁰⁵ Do they then deny the grace of Allah? ¹⁰⁶

72. And Allah has provided you wives from among yourselves,¹⁰⁷ from your wives, sons and grandsons, and has provided you with clean food. Do they then believe in falsehood and do they deny the favours of Allah? ¹⁰⁸

73. And they worship beside Allah what cannot give them any food from the heavens and the earth, it is not at all in their power.

74. Do not then coin similitudes for Allah. Verily He knows and you know not.¹⁰⁹

75. Allah gives an example:¹¹⁰ There is a slave, who has control of nothing, and there is one on whom We have bestowed a good provision from Us, and he spends therefrom secretly and openly. Are these two equal?¹¹¹ Praise is for Allah (alone), but most of them do not know.¹¹²

76. And Allah gives one (more) example: There are two men, one of them dumb, having power over nothing, and he is a burden on his master; wherever he sends him, he brings no good (result). Is he equal with one who enjoins justice and follows a straight path? ¹¹³

Commentary

105. It is a fact that all persons are not equal in the matter of their earnings and the comforts of the world available to them. Some have all the luxuries and some have very little to eat. And so far as the slaves are concerned, their rights apart, it is an accepted principle that slaves do not share the property of their master and cannot enjoy equal status. If that were to be so, then a slave would not have remained a slave. Therefore, when a man does not permit a slave to enjoy the status of a partner in his property, then how does he allow Allah’s slaves to be partners in His godhood? How does man allow this to be attributed to God which he does not like for himself?

It should be noted that this example is given merely to clarify the wrong mentality of those who assign partners to Allah. It is similar to criticising their practice of declaring angels to be the daughters of Allah. It was then remarked that they had chosen sons for themselves but for Allah they assign daughters. The idea is to bring into focus the corruption in their mentality and falsehood of their belief, and not to give a certificate of approval for men to consider daughters as objectionable things. Here also the example of the slaves is given taking into consideration their basic status and not to deal with the problem of treating them. Therefore, the discussion should not be carried over to irrelevant fields. Some people have brought in economic philosophy in this connection, which is quite irrelevant here.

106. That is: When they properly understand the relation between a master and his slave, then how can they attribute the favours bestowed by God to have been bestowed by His slaves? Are God’s slaves and His creatures partners in His godhood and property? If not, and surely not, then on receiving any bounty and worldly comforts man should be thankful to God alone. But those who assign partners to Allah, on receiving good things of life do not thank God, but thank His slaves and His creatures that they received those worldly goodies by their favours.

This was about the practice of the polytheists. But in the present day same is the case of the ‘bidatloving’ Muslims. Whenever anyone of them gets a son or some wealth, etc., he considers it as the grace of Khwaja Gharib Nawaz and ‘Piran-i-Pir’ etc. and as a mark of gratitude offers ‘niaz’ and presents in their name. Inspite of these polytheistic activities these people think that their belief in tawheed is not at all affected. Would that they consider the teachings of Qur’an sincerely!

107. That is: For you wives are not provided from any other species but from your own species, from human beings so that you may be able to have relations of love and kindness with them.

108. Their case is very strange. They reap the benefits from the favours granted by Allah, but they are grateful to others. It should be noted that the polytheists of Makkah do not deny that these blessings and worldly good have been created and granted by God, but with this belief they also believe that so and so are their interceders with God on their behalf, and through their recommendation they get Allah’s blessings and favours, therefore, it is necessary to thank them. This belief placed the interceders on the pedestal of God and they treat them as if they are the gods.

109. The practice of coining examples and similitudes for Allah has opened the way for polytheism, e.g. in the beginning the concept of sons and daughters for Allah was only as an example or similitude, but when this concept became a firm belief, the example or the similitude disappeared, and the sons and daughters proposed by them became gods. Similarly, God was considered to be like a worldly king, and as it is necessary to have some agency or ‘wasila’ to get one’s request heard by the king, similarly it was considered, on the same lines, to have ‘wasila’ to get one’s prayer for help heard by God. When this concept became a belief, these agencies and ‘wasila’ achieved the position of godhood, after which they came to be invoked directly for help in prayer, to them the appeals for succour were made, to them pledges were made, offerings were presented, In short, different ways were adopted to worship them. The result was that the relation with one’s own real God weakened and relation with the selfmade gods was strengthened.

By forbidding to coin examples and similitudes for Allah, Qur’an has closed the door for committing polytheism. It says that to allow the imagination to run riot in relation to God is an act of ignorance. The wise and learned thing is to believe in the attributes of Allah which He himself has conveyed to us, for who can be more knowledgeable than Allah in the matter of His own attributes?

110. An example which refutes polytheism.

111. That is: A person is helpless and a slave and another person is independent and also munificent. Do you consider such two persons equal? No. Whenever you would like to go for help, you would approach the second person, and not the first person, because you know that he is helpless, he has no control over anything. In your personal and mutual dealings you will understand the difference between a helpless person and a person with power, and you act according to their status. But when the question of praying for getting your needs fulfilled arises, instead of turning to the Creator you turn to the creatures, and you consider His helpless slaves as your benefactors and you are grateful to them. Is this not an obvious act of ignorance.?

112. That is: real benefactor is Allah only and He only deserve to be thanked. But many people do not know this obvious fact, that is why they consider others as their benefactor instead of Allah and they are grateful to them.

113. The first example was concerning tawheed. This second example is concerning prophethood: that on the one side are those sardars and leaders whose mouths are sealed, who do not speak out the truth, are deprived of doing any good, eat of the provision provided by their Lord but are ungratefully, they do not perform the good acts for which their Creator has sent them to this world. On the other side there is this messenger of Allah who follows the straight path of his Lord, and he is using his power of speech for speaking truth and for enjoining justice. Then who, between these two deserves to be made leader? It is obvious, it is the messenger of Allah. But it is amazing that instead of following the messenger of Allah people are going after these good for nothing leaders.