Surah Al-A'raf 7:54-58 - Quran Translation Commentary

54. Verily, your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six days.⁸² Then He ascended the Throne.⁸³ He covers the night with the day, which chases it in haste, and He created the sun, and the moon and the stars, and made them subservient by His command.⁸⁴ Lo ! To create; is for Him alone and to command is for Him alone.⁸⁵ Blessed is Allah.⁸⁶ Lord of the Worlds.

55. Invoke your Lord with humility and in secret.⁸⁷ Verily, Allah does not like those who trespass beyond limits.⁸⁸

56. And do not act corruptly in the earth after it has been set in good order,⁸⁹ and invoke Him with fear and hope.⁹⁰ The mercy of Allah is, indeed, near to the righteous.

57. It is He who sends forth the winds as harbingers of His mercy.⁹¹ Then, when they bear a heavy cloud, we drive it to a dead land, then cause water to descend thereon, and thereby bring forth fruits of every kind. Thus do We bring forth the dead to life so that you may be reminded.⁹²

58. And the vegetation of a good land comes forth (easily) by the permission of its Lord, and that which is bad, brings forth nothing but a little produce.⁹³ Thus do We explain our signs differently to those who are grateful.

Commentary

82. Means the Divine Days and not the worldly days, because our usual days of twenty-four hours did not exist before the creation of the heavens and the earth. Besides. in the holy Quran at another place it has been stated that for Allah one day is equivalent to one thousand years ( Al-Hajj—47). At another place one day is stated to be equivalent to fifty thousand years, which means that in Quran on such occasions the word day is used to denote period. Therefore, here six days means six periods. the exact duration of which is known to Allah alone.

83. The manner of Allah’s ascension to ‘Arsh’ (Throne) is beyond our knowledge and comprehension’ therefore, in accordance with the practice of our righteous predecessors, to avoid indulging on a discussion on this issue or to try to explain it is necessary in the interest of safeguarding our faith. When Imam Malik was asked about this he replied: “Allah’s ascending the Throne is known, but its manner cannot be comprehended by the Intellect, and believing in it is essential. and to query about it is innovation (bida’t).” –(Roohul Ma’ani-Vol. VIII, page 134)

As for the question, what is the purpose of its mention in the Quran: the answer is that its purpose can be understood from the context. Here it should be kept in mind that after creating the heavens and the earth, Allah did not remain unconcerned with them, the entire creation was declared as His kingdom, and He took the administration of the entire universe in His hands after ascending the Throne. His rule is established on the entire universe and He is exercising control over it. Nobody has anything to do in the administration of this universe; only the commands of one God rule supreme and are in force in every nook and cranny of the entire universe. At different places in Quran mention is made of Allah ascending the Divine Throne, but immediately thereafter there is the mention of administering or managing, etc., e.g. in Surah Yunus, Verse No.3 it is stated:

“Then He ascended the Divine Throne and is directing all things.”

That is: the reins of control are in His hands only and He alone is managing all the matters. In this way, from the context the meaning of ascending the Divine Throne becomes quite clear.

84. That is: they are performing the duties which have been assigned to them.

85. To bring something into existence from non-existence is only His attribute, and His commands alone are enforced on His creations. No one else’s commands can be enforced in His kingdom.

86. That is: He has excellent attributes, and all His acts are means of blessings and good. Do not think that by creating this universe He has created evil. Nay, He has created a very great virtue. In other words, the purpose behind the creation of this universe is very sublime and totally virtuous.

87. That is: When Allah is your Lord, then He will be the one who will meet your needs. Therefore, invoke Him, and bow down before Him in humility and pray for His help.

The method which fully indicates man’s state of obedience in invoking Allah is to beg and pray to Him in the humblest way. Another important point is to beg of Him with sincerity, that is, our praying to Him for something should be free from pretence and show. By invoking Allah in secret man remains free from the evil of pretence, therefore, to invoke Him in low and gentle tones and in secret, is preferable.

88. That is: Those people who invoke other gods along with Allah, or those who do not believe in God and do not invoke Him at all. The first practice is ‘shirk’ (polytheism) and the other thing is ‘kufr’ or infidelity. Both the forms are transgression from the state of obedience.

89. The land or earth here means the people of the earth or the human society, and not to corrupt it after it has been set in good order means: Allah has created the human society in a right and healthy condition. Accordingly, man is by nature monotheist and prefers good to evil. Allah sends down His Messengers to the earth to keep it in the right and healthy condition, which His Messengers attempt by propagating His teachings and enforcing His system of justice. After this, to spread polytheism and evil in the human society is to disturb its healthy and right condition and to corrupt it. The idolaters and the infidels are guilty of this sin.

90. To invoke Allah with fear and hope means that man should have, in his heart, fear of Allah only and should hope to get his desired object from Him only, and when he may invoke Allah, he should do it with the feelings of fear and hope.

91. By mercy is meant the rain.

92. This phenomenon is observed by you daily that the dead piece of land has become live and crop-yielding with the rainfall, and it gave plentiful , produce. The God who accomplishes such a phenomenon, why should it be difficult for Him to revive the dead humans? Then. why do not you accept the information about the Day of Resurrection that Quran is giving as correct?

93. After presenting the argument of the revival of the land after rainfall in support of the belief of the life after death, another aspect with a moral is brought to our notice. The usefulness of the merciful rain is general, but only that piece of land yields crops and fruits which is itself good. bad soil cannot get any benefit from the rain. Similarly, the blessing and mercy of God which come down in the form of revelation provide benefit to only those who have the ability to accept the truth, and those who have lost the faculty of accepting truth cannot benefit from it. This very fact has been mentioned by the prophet (peace be upon him) in a hadith as under:

“The example of the knowledge and guidance with which Allah has sent me is like that of the rainfall. when it fell on the ground, it absorbed the water and plenty of grass and greenery grew on it; and the part of its land, which was deep, retained water; thus Allah benefited the people through it. so the people drank the water themselves and gave it to others to drink. But the part of the land, which was a flat ground, did not retain any water when rain fell on it, nor did the grass grow on it. So this first example is of those people who received the knowledge of Allah’s religion, and Allah benefited them with the knowledge and guidance with which I have been sent down. Accordingly, they themselves received the knowledge of the religion and taught it to others. And this second example is of those people who did not pay any attention to this knowledge, and did not accept the guidance with which I have been sent down.” –-(Muslim --Kitabul Fazail)