Surah Al-A'la 87:1-19 - Quran Translation Commentary

1.”Lord” has been explained in the earlier Note No.4 of Surah Fatiha.

Here the attribute of the “Lord” is mentioned as the Most High, which means that the God who is the Sustainer and Master of all mankind and the creatures is the Most Superior and High Being His magnificence and grandeur are incomparable. Man knows Him by nature and human intellect recognizes Him. Here it may be understood that all efforts to learn the reality of the self of this High and Exalted Being will be useless, as the poet says:

“One who came within the understanding how could that one become god?

One who is surrounded by the intellect, how could that one be limitless.”

Those who try to find out the basic reality about Allah, instead of merely trying to understand Him have been entangled in philosophical cobwebs and have gone off the track. for example, those who have declared Him to be “Atma” (soul),believed in His dissolution in all the existing things:

“The sage sees all beings in the Atman and the Atman in all beings.”

(The Essence of Principal Upanishads -P.5)

This is a very low image of God, which is the basis of polytheism. Quran demolishes this basis, and totally disallows speculating and inventing philosophical discussion about the self or person of God. It provides such an understanding about God which sparkles the intellect, satisfies the heart and makes man knowledgeable about God in the true sense of the word. This understanding is achieved by thinking about His attributes, and therefore, Quran discusses very often and in detail the attributes of Allah.

The attribute of the Lord of being the Most High negates the polytheistic idea that among the gods there are some big and some small, and that if one is dev (god) then the other is Mahadev. Furthermore, it explains the reality that there is only one God, and the same is the Most High and Superior, Besides Him, there is no other God and therefore, where is the question of any other being superior? And since there is no dev then where is the question of any other being a Mahadev?

2. There are three important directions hidden in this command: first Allah should be remembered only by those names which are, in their meaning and connotation, clean and pure and are appropriate according to His station. It is not necessary that they should be the words from the Arabic language. They can be from any other language, provided they do not carry with them any sense of polytheism, or also they may not express any detect or disrespect. For this reason, Allah is called ‘Khuda’ and ‘Parwardigar’ in the Urdu language. The Marathi language is very much influenced by polytheistic ideas, therefore, great precaution must be taken before suggesting any name for Allah in this language. For example,’Ram is the name of a religious personality, which is considered an avatar of Vishnu.

(Moles worth’s Marathi English Dictionary) P.693

This word, i.e. Ram cannot use for Allah, considering an equivalent of “Rahim” Similarly Shiva is the name of one of the three gods (trimurti) of the polytheistic religion. It also means “sexual organ of man” (vide Students’ Sanskrit English Dictionary by Apte p-556). And ‘Shiv-ling’ is also worshipped. It gives an idea what mentality the polytheists had while naming their gods.

Secondly, the direction is to relate His purity, that is He should be remembered as free from all defects and associations; and the third direction is that keeping in mind His purity His name should be recited as His name only is worthy of being recited by men.

It is mentioned in the hadith that on account of this verse, the Prophet directed his followers to recite “Subhan Rabbi-al-A’la (Holy is my Lord, the Most High) in Sajda (prostration) of every salat, (Abu Dawood Kitabus Salat) as if this recitation in the prostration is the obeying of the command given in this verse.

3. If man came into existence merely as an accident, then there could not be such proportion and shapeliness in his parts and body. This is a clear indication that he was created by the Most High Being Allah.

4. That is: Man was not created without planning. Man’s Creator had made a definite plan, according to which man has to work in this world for a limited period. Briefly, this plan is like this: The life in this world will only be a trial. And the stages of trial and test through which every person will have to pass, and the powers and the capabilities that every person will be given and the resources and the opportunities that he will be provided will be according to a predetermined decision, and the same is called in the technical term of the Quran “Taqdeer,” that is God’s pre-designed plan.

5. Allah has not kept man unaware of this plan, but has placed the consciousness of its cardinal points in man’s nature, on account of which a man’s conscience admonishes him on a wicked thing and feels satisfied on a virtuous act. Man wants that his life should end happily, and does not want that his end should be bad. Looked from this point of view it will be seen that man himself feels by nature that he is in a testing place. The thing which refreshes this feeling and makes him well aware of the divine plan is the Revelation from Allah, which is being mentioned in the coming verse. It shows as if the Creator of man has provided for guiding man both in a concealed and an open way. If the voice of nature is a concealed guidance then the Divine Revelation is an open guidance. After this man himself is responsible for whatever he does, and there is no chance for a man to say that his Lord had not provided for his guidance.

6. That is: When the grass comes out of the earth and grows, it is green. But a time comes when this grass or other vegetables become dark stubble and straws. This is an example of Allah’s planning that is working in this world, which guides us to the fact that there is also a Divine Plan for the whole world, and that plan is that this world will also compulsorily experience autumn so that the period of Hereafter may start. Therefore, man, on seeing this world green and flourishing, should not be under the wrong impression that it will always be ever-green and will never experience autumn.

7. In this verse the addressee is the Prophet. He is being re-assured that the responsibility of correctly preserving the Quran, which Allah is revealing to him, in his memory has been taken by Allah himself, therefore there is no fear of the Prophet’s forgetting any part of Quran. It may be mentioned that in the beginning fearing that he might forget some words or verses of Quran, the Prophet tried to hastily remember the part of the Quran when it used to be revealed. This assurance of Allah, is the proof of the truth of the Prophet and the Quran, because the whole Quran was so well memorized by the Prophet that he did not forget even its single word at any time, and he communicated the whole Quran to the Ummah. And today we have with us in lakhs and crores the copies of the Quran in its original form in such a way that its preservation till the Doomsday is most certainly assured. In other words, Quran is a permanent and everlasting miracle, which can be observed by men of all ages.

8. That is: If Allah wants that he should forget anything, then it is a different matter.

9. Refers to the fear that the Prophet had in connection with correctly. remembering the revelation, and about which Allah has full knowledge; that there is no cause for anxiety, because the Quran is being revealed by such a Being who has knowledge of all things, and He has decided that the Prophet should correctly remember the Quran revealed to him.

10. In this verse further comfort is given to the Prophet. The task of communicating Quran to the people in its correct form is most difficult, bufort Allah will make his task easy and will guide him to an easy path amongst the difficult terrain. This prophecy of the Quran was completely fulfilled. Although the Prophet was unlettered, yet it became easy him not only to correctly memorize the entire Quran but also to communicate it to the people, to teach it, to admonish, to explain and clarify it, to relate its finer points, to draw conclusions from it, and to enforce its commands. And Allah provided him in a short time such companions that very ably performed the work of copying and writing Quran, so that it could be preserved for the benefit of the coming generations. Similarly, he could gather around him such companions that memorized the Quran completely and preserved it in their hearts. These were called. “Huffaz” and ‘Qurra’ They rendered very valuable services in spreading and propagating Quran.

11. The missionary work or the task of religious propagation and admonition is not the job of a village yokel, but it is an intellectual work of wise men, which requires them to watch the proper occasion and opportunity. To give lectures at inopportune moments proves useless, nor does admonishing the blind and deaf help in any way. Therefore when the missionary feels that the people are not in a mood to listen to his admonition, he should not waste his breath by forcing them to hear him.

It does not mean that seeing corruption and evil people should decide in advance that all attempts at admonishing and communicating the message of Allah will have no effect, and therefore, it should not be undertaken at all. It is like a doctor’s closing his dispensary on observing patients disregarding his directions; or like the Public Health Department on seeing the people disregarding all instructions regarding hygiene and a steady increase in the use of the harmful articles, abandoning all its duties and work. Those who have the missionary work of the Prophets before them will never take such a decision, because in the work of the Prophets regard for the proper occasion and opportunity can be discerned but no trace can be found of their abandoning their work of reform and mission on seeing the general corruption and evil. On the contrary, they had to pass through storms of oppositions constantly, and whatever work of reform they did and whatever successes they achieved was after undergoing considerable hardships. From the context it is clear that conveying the message of Quran should be general and common so that the acceptor of the message may accept it and rejecters may leave it.

12. One who will have Allah’s fear in his heart, will listen to the talk of he Prophet with attention, and will accept his admonition, which is revealed to him by Allah in the form of Quran.

13. That is: In the Hell he will neither enjoy the pleasure of living nor will he die, bringing all his hardships to an end. He will be in the throes of the struggle for life and death, the imagining of which is spine-chilling, and from which he will seek Allah’s shelter.

It may be noted that here the punishment of those persons is mentioned who may run away from the Prophet’s admonition and till the last may not accept the Prophet’s ‘words’ which were revealed to him.

14. By purifying himself is meant the purification and cleaning of the mind and heart and also clean conduct and acts. To obtain purity of the mind and heart, it is necessary for man to purify himself from the Impurities of polytheism and infidelity and apostasy and believe in Allah and the Hereafter. For attaining purity in conduct and acts it is necessary that man should give up evil acts and perform righteous deeds.

15. To recite the name of the Lord does not mean that merely it should’ be recited as a formality, because this kind of saying the name of Allah is done by the polytheists and disbelievers also. Reciting his name means that He should be remembered from the heart and in the real sense, and also his name should be recited correctly.

16. ‘Recited the name of the Lord and offered Salat’ throws light on the fact. that the real motivation for salat(prayer) is the act of remembering Allah. This remembrance prompts a man to worship Him. This shows the difference between the real prayer and the formal prayer. The real prayer is the outcome of remembering Allah and it is blended with it like soul, as if this Lord’s remembrance makes him restless and he finds solace and relaxation in prayer only. As opposed to this the formal prayer is like the work of removing a burden, and therefore, it does not give satisfaction. The manner in which salat (prayer) is mentioned here shows what place it has in Islam. This Surah was revealed in the early stages in Makkan and in this the qualities which are shown as necessary for success in the Hereafter also include offering of prayers. In the commands of Shariah, prayer also enjoys first rank. It should be noted that the Islamic prayer (salat) has no relation whatsoever with yoga, because salat is exclusively a form of worship of Allah, while yoga, is a polytheistic type of exercise.

17. That is: You are not prepared to adopt this path of the welfare in the Hereafter, by traversing which a man can reform his internal and external self, because in your eyes this material world and not the next world, holds the real importance. Your anxiety is for this world, and you seek comfort in this world only. You are not prepared to sacrifice any interest of this world, and you think that it is wise to achieve the ‘cash” benefits in this world only.

18. The Hereafter is preferable to this world because the life in the Hereafter is better, and the blessings and pleasures in the next world are much superior and better than in this world. Beside, the Hereafter is everlasting while the world is perishable.

19. This teaching of the Oneness of Allah and the Hereafter presented by Quran is not a new thing that has been put forth for the first time, but such a guidance was being sent down by Allah off and on and always and the most ancient Scriptures (Divine Books) contained almost the same teachings. It is another matter that their followers have forgotten these teachings or they have changed and modified them considerably. Therefore, these teachings are being revived with the help of the Quran. Among the Divine Books, the most ancient Book is that of Hazrat Ibrahim (Abraham), but it is not extant. As regards Moosa ‘scriptures, it is Torah, which does not exist in its original form, but some of its parts are found in the five books of the Old Testament, which are known as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Particularly the teaching about the oneness of Allah can still be clearly seen in that, for example; “You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself a graven image,” -(Exodus 20: 3,4) “And the Lord said to Moses, say to all the congregation of the people of Israel, You shall be holy; for the Lord your God holy ………..Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods.”-(Leviticus 19: 1 to 4) You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him and cleave to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise; he is your God. (Deuteronomy 10; 20,21) While departing from this world, Moosa gave a message to Bani Israel, an extract of one of its portion is given below:- “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distil as the dew, as the gentle rain upon the tender grass and as the showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock; his work is perfect; for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity. Just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32: 1 to 4)