Surah Al-An'am 6:61-70 - Quran Translation Commentary

61. And he reigns Supreme over His slaves¹⁰⁰, and He sends forth guardians¹⁰¹ over you till death comes to one of you, when Our messengers (angels) seize his soul, and they never fail in this duty¹⁰².

62. Then are all restored to Allah, their true Master¹⁰³. Beware! His is the Judgement¹⁰⁴, and He is most swift in taking account¹⁰⁵.

63. “Who delivers you from the darkness¹⁰⁶ of land and sea when you call out to Him humbly and in secret, saying: If He delivers us from these, we will truly be thankful’?”

64. Say: “Allah delivers you from that and from all afflictions, and yet you ascribe partners to Allah.¹⁰⁷”

65. Say: “He has power to send punishment on you from above, or from beneath your feet, or to divide you into discordant factions making you taste the violence of one another¹⁰⁸.” See how We explain our signs in different ways that they may understand¹⁰⁹.

66. Your people have rejected this ¹¹⁰, although it is the very truth. Say: “I am not over you a keeper¹¹¹.

67. “There is a fixed time¹¹² for every prophecy to take place, and soon shall you know it.”

68. And when you see people engaged in playful discourse about our revelations, withdraw from them till they engage themselves in other talk. And if Satan causes you to forget this, sit not, after the remembrance, with the evil-doers¹¹³.

69. Those who fear Allah are not accountable for anything for them, but there is need to remind so that they may also fear Allah¹¹⁴.

70. Leave alone those that take their religion as a play and a pastime¹¹⁵, and are deceived by the life of this world¹¹⁶. Remind them hereby lest no person’s soul be damned by his own earnings (sins); he will have beside Allah, no friend or intercessor; and if he offered every ransom, none will be accepted from him¹¹⁷. Such are those that are damned by their own sinful acts. For their drink they will get boiling water, and they will have to suffer painful punishment for the unbelief in which they persisted.

Commentary

100. That is: All the slaves are under His rule and power, and all the evil beings and Satans are under His control.

101. Means those angels whose duty it is to record the acts of all humans. For further explanation, please see Surah Infitar, Note No.10.

102. Man’s death is in Allah’s control. None, not even angels, can interfere in this. Angels merely take away the souls of humans by the command of God.

103. That is: After death man’s career does not end; after death he goes into the presence of Allah.

104. That is: Be alert that after your death your fate is to be decided by Him only, and you should not be under this wrong impression that by attaching yourself to someone else you will be achieving salvation.

105. That is: Allah will not at all find it lengthy or delaying to take the account of billions and billions of humans.

106. By darkness is meant that darkness which assumes the shape of calamities, e.g. when there is blinding darkness, caused by the black clouds and stormy winds, or there are the ravages of hurricanes in the desert, or when the mountainous waves of the sea engulf man in their fathomless embrace.

107. That is: What was required was that utter deliverance from the afflictions and calamities, you should have shown gratitude to Allah, but instead you are thanking your false deities that were invented by you.

108. When those who disobey God see that even after indulging into evil and sinful acts, Allah’s punishment does not overtake them, they feel assured that no punishment would come. Such people are being warned here that the bell signaling danger is ringing. But those who have purposely blocked their ears, cannot hear this ringing. But they should realize that it does not take very long for the punishment of God to overtake anybody. A sudden cyclone can destroy you in no time. A flash flood can wash you away with your ready crops in minutes. A slight shaking of the earthquake can turn your cities into ruins in the twinkling of an eye. And it is also not impossible that there may occur some disagreement and discord among you and you may fall a prey to infighting, or as a result of the enmity of the nations you may be made to taste the bitterness of the wrath of the other nations.

109. These realities which have been related in the verses of the Quran have been presented in different styles and from varying aspects, so that people may find it easy to understand.

110. That is: Quran.

111. The work that has been assigned to me is to propagate and convey to the people the message from God. I have not been made responsible for pressurizing others to accept faith.

112. That is: The information which the Quran is giving you, e.g. punishment in the event of denying the prophet, the information about the Day of Resurrection, about the awaiting Hell-fire for the infidels, etc. A time is fixed for the occurrence of every one of these items of information or prophecy, and each one of it will definitely occur at the appointed time.

113. This is an important direction in connection with dawah and recitation that has been given to people of faith. To participate or to sit in a meeting where the holy Qur’an or its verses are being made fun of or where playful and blasphemous discourse about Qur’an is being indulged into is against the honour of a faithful person. No sincere Muslim can tolerate sitting with such people who engage themselves in insulting his religion. With this direction, it is also being instructed that if you forget it, having been duped by Satan, then act on it and leave the meeting as soon as you remember it.

On the one hand is this emphatic direction for Muslims and on the other hand we find the present day’s ‘secularist Muslims’ who invite non-Muslims to their meetings to make fun of the Islamic Shariah, and whenever they themselves get a chance they also attack their own religion, in order that they may appear to be sincere secularists.

A reference to the instruction given in this verse has been made in Verse No.140 of Surah Nisa.

114. That is: No responsibility has been placed on the people of the faith about the act of the rejectors of faith. They have only been made responsible for reminding them. Then why should they worry about undue tolerance? Their duty is merely to remind and advise whenever there is an opportunity to do so, and if they see that their addressee is acting in a slovenly manner and is insulting their religion, then they should get away from him and leave him to his own fate.

115. By religion here is meant Islam. It has been referred here in the general terms, referring to all peoples, because Allah had sent down Islam for the guidance of the entire humanity. Therefore, this religion is the religion of every single human individual. But these detractors have made it a matter of play and amusement, instead of making it a guiding star of their life.

people of such a mentality are found in every age. Today’s ‘modern’ man also makes fun of the teachings of Islam and thinks that it is Dawatul Qur’an 415 S.6 uuuu S.6 416 Dawatul Qur’an progressive thinking.

116. That is: They are unable to appreciate the religion of Allah because they have been so much fascinated with the life of this world that they are not prepared to even conceive any other life higher in value than this life.

117. First of all he will have nothing’to offer as ransom on that day, but supposing that he had the entire riches of the world with him, then he would have willingly given all those riches to be spared on that day from receiving his due punishment, although during his worldly life he had followed the wrong path in order to amass wealth, and had not cared for the adverse consequences in the world after death.

When night drew its shadow over him, he saw a star. He said; “This is my Lord.” But when it set, he said: “I do not like those that set.” Then when he saw the moon rising in splendour, he said: “This is my Lord.” But when it set, he said: “If my Lord does not guide me, I shall surely be of those who go astray.” (Al-Quran)