Surah Fatir 35:1-7 - Quran Translation Commentary

1. Praise be to Allah, Creator ¹ of the heavens and the earth, who makes angels messengers ² having wings two, three and four.³ He multiplies ⁴ in creation what He will. Verily, Allah is able to do all things.

2. The (gate of) mercy which Allah opens for mankind, none can withhold it, and that which He withholds, none can release thereafter.⁵ He is the Mighty, the Wise.

3. O People! Remember Allah’s favours on you. Is there any creator other than Allah who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? There is no god except Him.⁶ Where then are you turned? ⁷

4. If they deny you (O Prophet!), messengers before you were also denied. To Allah all things shall return.⁸

5. O People! Verily, the promise of Allah is true.⁹ So let not the life of the world deceive you¹⁰, and let not that big deceiver ¹¹ deceive you with regard to Allah.

6. Satan is your enemy, so treat him, as an enemy.¹² He only summons his faction so that it may become people of the Fire. ¹³

7. Those who disbelieve, theirs will be a severe punishment, and those who believe and perform good acts, theirs will be forgiveness and great reward.

Commentary

1. Allah’s being the Creator of the heavens and the earth is an incontrovertible reality, and when He is the Creator, then He alone is worthy of being praised and thanked. ‘Therefore, only His praises be sung and only He may be thanked. And this is the origin and reality of Tawheed, and it cuts at the root of polytheism.

It is also included in the sense of the ayah that Allah can only be praised for creating this universe, because it is beautiful and attractive and it is a manifestation of the fact that its Creator is the Possessor of great excellence. The present day atheists say that there is no creator of the universe, but this statement of theirs is without any proof and quite senseless. If it were to come into existence without a creator, then there would have been no changes in it, nor there have been any creatures in it, but we observe that changes take place in the matter and we also believe that the present development of the universe has gone through various stages of evolution, and we also know that the existence of man on the earth manifested much later. The question is: how did man, who is a very high kind of creature and who rules over the land and the sea, come to exist on the earth suddenly? Does this universe have in itself the attributes of intellect, knowledge, will and method? These questions have their answers in the negative, because it does not conform to our observation, nor is there any reasonable argument in its favour. Therefore the denial of the existence of the Creator is the denial of the most open, clear and bright reality.

2. Angels are sent as messengers to the prophets (peace be upon them), who convey to them Allah’s revelation. Apart from this in what way the work of sending messages is taken from them and to which creatures they are sent is known to Allah only.

3. Wings are the symbols of power of flight. The more wings an angel has, the more powerful it is in its flight. In a hadith the Prophet has said that the Archangel Jibril has six hundred wings. By stating that the angels have more than one wings, the Quran has added to our knowledge, otherwise we had no other source to know it.

4. It is not so that once what He had created, His work is over and he has nothing to create. He goes on adding to His creation, as can be seen from the continuous increase in the human population, and its noble example will be the next world which will appear after this world is wound up.

5. This reality has been expressed by the Prophet in the language of prayer thus:

“O Allah! whatever You give, there is none to stop it, and whatever you withhold, there is none to give it, and no riches of a wealthy man can benefit him against Allah’s will. -(Muslim-Kitabus Salat).

6. That is: Whoever is the Provider, he is worthy of being worshipped. Those who are not providers, how can they be gods?

7. That is: Where you are being misled turning away from Allah? It means that Satan is enticing you and turning you away from Allah, so act intelligently and do not be misled by Satan.

8. Therefore, this dispute of yours will also be decided on the Day of Judgment in the court of Allah, and at that time you will realise what a big crime you had committed by denying the messenger of Allah.

9. Means the promise of the Day of Resurrection and the Hereafter.

10. The apparent attraction of the world is such that it turns away man’s attention from the Hereafter and makes him a worshipper of the material pleasures. This is a great deception and the people have been warned to be wary of that. Even today when man’s intellect has passed many stages of progress, man is regularly being deceived by the charms and attractions of the material world. Accordingly, a majority of people of the world are not prepared to care for the next world in preference to this world.

11. By big deceiver is meant Satan, who is continually deceiving men by his promptings concerning Allah.

12. To consider Satan as a friend is the greatest idiocy. It is necessary to consider him an enemy and to be wary of his tricks.

Quran has alerted man that mischievous elements are present to influence him from outside, who although are not discernible, they are doing their nefarious work. These are satans, from whose evils man should always be wary.

13. Those who make friends with Satan, they enter his group, and he lead his group to the path of Hell. His purpose is only to mislead men, so that they may be sent to Hell.