Surah Al-An'am 6:1-10 - Quran Translation Commentary

1. Praise¹. be to Allah, who created the heavens and the earth,² and made the darkness and the light.³ Yet those, who reject Faith, hold (others) as equal with their Lord. ⁴

2. He it is who created you from clay,⁵ and then decreed a fixed term ⁶ (for life). And there is also a term fixed with Him.⁷ Yet you are the people who doubt.⁸

3. And He is Allah in the heavens and on the earth.⁹ He knows your secrets and your open (acts), and He knows what you earn.¹⁰ (good or bad)

4. Never did a single one of the signs of their Lord reach them, but they turned away from that.¹¹

5. So they denied the truth when it came to them;¹² but soon there shall come to them the tidings of what they used to mock at.¹³

6. Do not they see how many a community we destroyed before them, whom we had established on the earth more firmly than we have established you,¹⁴ and we sent down on them abundant showers from the sky, and made the rivers flow beneath them.¹⁵ Yet for their sins, we destroyed them, and raised in their wake other generations.

7. And (O prophet!) had We sent to you a book written on parchment so that they could touch it with their hands, the disbelievers would have been sure to say: “This is nothing but obvious magic.”

8. And they say: “why has not an angel been sent down to him?” Had we sent down an angel, the matter would have been settled at once, and no respite would have been granted them. (Al-Quran)

9. And (O prophet!) had We sent to you a book written on parchment so that they could touch it with their hands, the disbelievers would have been sure to say: “This is nothing but obvious magic.”¹⁶ And they say: “why has not an angel been sent down to him?” Had we sent down an angel, the matter would have been settled at once, and no respite would have been granted them.¹⁷ And had We sent down an angel as a messenger, we should have sent him as a man, and we should have certainly made obscure for them that which is already obscure for them.¹⁸

10. And (O prophet!) messengers before you were also mocked but the scoffers were overtaken by the thing that they mocked at.”

Commentary

1. The explanation of the Praise has been given in Note No.2 of Surah Fatiha.

2. That Allah is the Creator of the heavens and the earth is so obvious a reality that needs no proof. Not only the Jews and the Christians believed in this reality, but the polytheists of Arabia also did not deny it. So far as the divine books are concerned, the oldest of them all, Torah, begins with these words:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

Only the atheists have dared to deny this accepted truth, or those people who do not think wisely and have involved themselves in useless philosophical argumentation. This is the reason why in the Hindu religion the concept of the Creator of the universe is very much involved and complicated. In the Rig Veda nowhere it is mentioned that the world was created by an Exalted Being. The achievements of the various deities that have been mentioned refer only to their having given a particular form or shape to the world, they do not mention about their having brought the world into existence from non-existence:

“It has not been said anywhere in the Rig Veda that there was a creation of the world, the bringing into being of what was not existing, by some Superior power. The various gods are related to the formation of the world. But not one of them ‘created’ the world. They gave the world a form and a position.” – (The Quintessence of the Rig Veda, P.103).

However, in the Upanishad it is mentioned that in the beginning there was Atma, and it created the worlds:

“In the beginning all this was, verily, the Atman alone, there was nothing else living He created these worlds.” – (The Essence of Principal Upanishads by Swami Sivananda, P.136).

On the one side there are these involved and complicated statements. while on the other there is that clear, unambiguous and the most reasonable statement of the Quran about the Creator of the universe. which straightaway appeals to the heart!

3. This refutes the belief of the Zoroastrians that there are separate deities for the light and the darkness. They have named these separate gods as ‘Yazdan’and ‘Ahriman’. Yazdan is the god of light and goodness, while Ahriman is that of darkness and of evil. This concept led them to worship fire. The meaning of believing in the dualism of god is to accept that two antagonistic gods rule over this world. But had it been so, how the working of this world would have gone so harmoniously’? In such a case this world would have become the battlefield of two hostile powers. Only this one argument is sufficient to clinch the issue against this false belief.

4. That is: When this is an undeniable fact that this whole universe has been created by Allah. then where does the question of anyone else’s being a god, a devi or devta arise?

5. That is: Adam was created from clay, and the human race began from Adam.

6. Respite for action, which ends with death.

7. That is: That time which is fixed for raising up again all the humans from their graves, that is the Doomsday, or The Day of Resurrection.

8. That is: Man is unnecessarily in doubt about being revived after death. The Being that has created man from clay, how can that Being find it all difficult for resurrecting man after death’? Why is it not possible for the Being who has fixed the time of the death of every human, which is unavoidable, to fix the time of the occurrence of the Doomsday? When man cannot avert the time of his death; then how can he avert the time of the Doomsday? As man is helpless in the matter of dying at the fixed hour, similarly he is helpless in the matter of being raised up again at the fixed hour.

9. The simple meaning of this verse is the same which a common reader understands and which is supported by the following verse also that is Allah is present everywhere and He can see everything. His power is operative in every part every nook and corner of the earth.

As regards the philosophy of dissolution (‘Hulool’), that is the idea that the spirit of God has dissolved into everything or the concept of ‘Hama Oust’ (All is He) or whatever is, is God. then such a concept is totally polytheistic and is the result of imagining the Creator to be like His creation.

10. And the demand of His knowledge is that He should establish the Day of Judgement and should give everyone what he has earned. The Being who knows all the good and bad deeds of every one of the humans, how is it that He would not settle the accounts of all?

11. Every verse of the Quran is a sign of Allah, because from it the path of Allah becomes clear, and because it is a talking miracle. But the people are so mindless that they disregard these signs.

12. In the beginning people paid no attention to the divine verses, but when through them the Truth was revealed to them clearly, they decided to refute it.

13. That is: They mock at the things which the Quran invites people to believe in. But when the consequence of their action would come before them,they would realise what was the reality.

14. The address is to the community of Quraish. that is the idolaters of Makkah to shake them out of their pride. If they prided on their national power, then they should know that before them many more powerful nations existed. whose might and power was acknowledged in their time; but when they belied the messengers of Allah and rebelled against Him, then Allah destroyed them. The same fate awaits the polytheists of Makkah. if they did not reform.

The chronicles of the communities which were destroyed because of their sins have been related in Surah A’raf.

15. That is: In addition to abundance of power these nations were granted by Allah abundance of provisions and food.

And (O prophet !) had We sent to you a book written on parchment so that they could touch it with their hands, the disbelievers would have been sure to say: “This is nothing but obvious magic.” And they say: “why has not an angel been sent down to him?” Had we sent down an angel, the matter would have been settled at once, and no respite would have been granted them. (Al-Quran)

16. Those, who have decided not to believe in truth, would not believe in it, whatever signs may be shown to them. If this Qur’an were to be sent down from the heaven in the form of an already written book, even then these obstinate people would not have accepted it as a book from Allah. and would have advanced some excuse for their disbelief. And if no excuse were possible for them to offer, they would have termed it as magic. Therefore, the objections of people of this kind should not be taken into consideration at all.

17. Another objection of the rejectors was this that: if this man is a prophet then why an angel does not come to him from heaven so that they should also see him, and that the angel should have declared that he is the prophet of Allah. This objection is answered in this way that if the’angel would have been sent down as demanded by them, then they would not be given the respite the time for doing good deeds, as it is given now, but that it would be the time for giving the final judgement. because the respite for action is till there is time for giving the test. But when the angels begin to descend openly, then the Unseen would not remain unseen. Then the question of accepting faith would not arise as the matter would have become quite obvious. Therefore, the sending down of the angel is contrary to the divine plan under which Allah has decided to test the humans.

18. The other alternative to sending down an angel would have been to send him as the Messenger or prophet in the shape of man. In such a case also the same doubt and confusion would have arisen for them which they already had, that is they would have said he is a man, how can he be a Messenger of God.