Surah An-Nahl 16:41-50 - Quran Translation Commentary

(16:41) Those who emigrated in Allah’s cause,⁵⁹ after they were wronged, We shall surely lodge them in this world in a goodly (lodging),⁶⁰ but, truly, the rewards of the Hereafter are greater,⁶¹ if they knew.⁶²

(16:42) (It were) Those who observed patience⁶³ and placed their trust in their Lord.⁶⁴

(16:43) And, We did not send before you except men,⁶⁵ revealing unto them. Ask then the people of Remembrance - if you do not know.⁶⁶

(16:44) (We sent them) with clear signs and Scriptures. And (similarly) We have sent down unto you (O Muhammad) the Remembrance,⁶⁷ that you may make clear unto the people what has been sent down for them,⁶⁸ that haply they may reflect.

(16:45) Do those then who plot evils,⁶⁹ feel secure that Allah will not cause the earth to swallow them, or chastisement comes to them from quarters they did not reckon?

(16:46) Or He might seize them in (the midst of) their to and fro movements, and they will not be able to frustrate (Him)?

(16:47) Or He might seize them little by little (through gradual depletion)?⁷⁰ Indeed, your Lord is All-clement, All-compassionate.⁷¹

(16:48) Do they not see that all things⁷² that Allah has created, how their shadows incline towards right and left,⁷³ in prostration to Allah,⁷⁴ and they are humbly submitted?

(16:49) And to Allah prostrates whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth of the moving creatures,⁷⁵ and (so do) the angels - and they do not wax proud.

(16:50) They fear their Lord above them⁷⁶ and do as they are ordered.

Commentary

59. Although a literal translation should be “in Allah”, but Alusi explains, with an example from hadith usage, that in this kind of construction the meaning would be “in Allah’s cause.”

60. The allusion is to the emigration to Madinah, escaping persecution at Makkah (Ibn ‘Abbas and Qatadah: Ibn Jarir). But it could as well be to the earlier emigration to Abyssinia. Some eighty men and women, including the Prophet’s own daughter Ruqayyah and son in law ‘Uthman and his other relatives such as Ja`far b. Abi Talib - the Siddiqun and the Siddiqat of this Ummah - migrated when staying in Makkah became impossible for them. Allah’s promise came true and they became “leaders of the pious” (Ibn Kathir).

61. It is widely reported that during his caliphate when ‘Umar distributed wealth from the state treasury he would say to the emigrants, “Here take it. This is what Allah had promised you as rewards of this world. As for what is in store for you in the world to come, it will be much more” (Zamakhshari, Razi, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

62. The verse might be addressing those who had already emigrated, or were in the process of making up their minds (Au.).

Thanwi extends the rule contained in the verse: “In the like manner of those who abandon their homes for the sake of Allah, those will also be rewarded in both the worlds who abandoned things prohibited by Him.”

63. That is, those Makkan Muslims who bore oppression patiently.

64. Shafi` takes us back to Qurtubi’s discussion under verse 100 of Surah Nisa’. He wrote there that there are several kinds of Hijrah:

• (i) From the land of the unbelievers to the land of Islam; this becomes obligatory when it is not possible to follow Islam even in important affairs.

• (ii) From the land of innovations (dar al-bid`ah). Imam Malik has written that it is not allowed to live in a place where pious scholars of the past are insulted following the rule that if you cannot remove wrongs, remove yourself from the wrongs.

• (iii) From a place where the unlawful is overwhelmingly prevalent.

• (iv) To escape persecution

• (v) For reasons of health

• (vi) To save one’s wealth - if it is threatened.

65. When the pagans said that Allah could not choose a man to be a Messenger, rather, he should have been one of the angels, Allah revealed this verse (Kashshaf, Ibn Kathir). In fact, Jiba’i has said that Allah did not send angels to the Prophets, carrying His commandments, except in the form of human beings (Razi, Shawakani).

As regards the question of women raised as Prophets refer to Surah Yusuf, note 153.

66. That is, the pagans could get over their skepticism by referring to the People of the Book (Ibn ‘Abbas, Mujahid and other others: Ibn Jarir). Zajjaj however has removed all doubts that accompany the question whether the People of the Book could be consulted (Au.), by saying, ‘ask anyone who will reply in the light of knowledge and research’ (Razi).

Yusuf Ali’s explanation further clarifies: “If the Pagan Arabs, who were ignorant of religious and other history, wondered how a man from themselves could receive inspiration and bring a Message from Allah, let them ask the Jews, who had also received Allah’s Message earlier through Moses, whether Moses was a man, or an angel, or a god. They would learn that Moses was a man like themselves, but inspired by Allah.” (It could) “also mean any men of wisdom, who were qualified to have an opinion in such matters.”

Taqlid

(Although it is a matter of common sense, but it needs to be reiterated because of people’s habit to lose sight of some basic principles in religious affairs: Au.). A wider implication of the verse is that, there is no alternative for the common man but to follow a reputed scholar (mujtahid). Apart from other, several reasons, the following verse (no. 44) gives the guideline:

وَأَنْزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الذِّكْرَ لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ مَا نُزِّلَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ [النحل : 44]

“We have sent down unto you (O Muhammad) the Remembrance, that you may make clear unto the people what has been sent down for them.”

So, the people needed Prophetic words to explain to them Allah’s revelation. Now, further down the line of argument, who will explain to the people the utterances of the Prophet? Or those statements of the Qur’an that pertain to the Law? Obviously, not everyone can do it unto himself. We know what will happen if the constitution of a country was published in newspapers, and people told to follow ‘the laws of the land,’ as best as they understood. There would be less injury to the body if laymen prescribed drugs for themselves, instead of the doctors, than there would be to their souls if they worked out the law by themselves, without referring to the scholars. Alusi writes, “Jalaluddin Syuti has said in his ‘Iklil’ that the common people should follow the scholars in fru`at (minor details). But, the condition of ‘fru`at’ is unwarranted. For, the verse itself is unconditional. The truth is, as is reported of the other Jalal (Jalal al-Mahalli, the co-writer of Tafsir Jalalayn along with Jalaluddin al-Suyuti: Au.) that a mujtahid maybe followed in all matters: in principles as well as details, in law as well as in creed, whether the mujtahid be dead or alive. Jalal as well as others have also stated that a non-mujtahid may not be followed. Hafiz ibn Hajr has added another condition: the madh-hab (school of fiqh) of the mujtahid being followed has to be a well documented and preserved one, that meets the conditions of trustworthiness, and not such of those as Imam Al-Awza`i, Thawri or Ibn Abi Layla and others (whose rulings do not meet these conditions). Further, if a school other than the four well-known ones is followed, then that should only be in one’s own private affairs. As for offering religious rulings in its light, that would not be correct. That should be done in the light of the four schools of law alone. This last condition, states Alusi, is only a precautionary step.

Razi advances another step and says that even a mujtahid should follow a more knowledgeable mujtahid when in doubt. This, he adds, is, if not obligatory, then, to say the least, certainly permissible.

67. That is, this Qur’an (Ibn Jarir).

68. The Qur’an consists of two kinds of verses: the muhkam and the mujmal. Muhkam (those whose meaning is well established) explain themselves. The mujmal (synoptic) were explained by the Prophet (Razi).

69. The direct allusion is to Makkan pagans who plotted against the spread of Allah’s message (Ibn Jarir). It could also be to the assassination they were plotting after they had begun to suspect that the Prophet might emigrate to another place (Au.).

Asad writes: “To my mind, by ‘evil schemes’ are meant here systems of God-denying philosophy and of perverted morality.”

70. “Takhawwuf” of the text expresses gradualism, to which Farra’ (the famous grammarian) added that it implies taking away (something) from borders and edges (Ibn Jarir). Thus, a beautiful term that expresses first the pagan’s territorial losses that were to come over the next ten years at the hands of the Prophet, and then the rest of the world’s losses in another twenty years at the hands of his followers (Au.).

Ibn Kathir however prefers the meaning involving fear. That is, seize them while they are in fear, or dreadful, or apprehensive, that they’d be seized. But, since this implies foreknowledge of the descending chastisement, Zamakhshari and Shawkani do not approve of this meaning in view of the words of the passage which said, “from quarters that they did not reckon.”

Zamakhshari in fact narrates that once ‘Umar asked the people how they understood the term “takhawwuf.” Nobody answered except for an old man of the Hudhayl tribe. He said his tribe would understand it as meaning gradualism. ‘Umar asked him if he could support it with a poetical piece. When the man did, ‘Umar remarked, “People. Do not neglect pre-Islamic poetry, for therein lies the meaning of the Qur’an.”

71. These words were both the statement of a fact as well as a promise that, since ‘your Lord is All-clement, All-compassionate’ He will allow the second option to prevail, that of gradual annihilation, which proved to be less painful, than a one-stroke destruction threatened in the earlier two verses (with a point from Ibn Jarir).

72. Asad clarifies, “In view of the separate mention, in the next verse, of animals and angels, the ‘things’ referred to here apparently denote inanimate objects and perhaps also living organisms like plants.”

73. The textual word is in plural (lit., “lefts”). Ibn Jarir quotes some poetical pieces to show that usage of this kind was not uncommon in earlier times. In fact, Shawkani says, it is right there in the Qur’an also. It said (Al-Baqarah, 7),

خَتَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَى قُلُوبِهِمْ وَعَلَى سَمْعِهِمْ [البقرة : 7]

“Allah has sealed their hearts, and their hearing” where “hearts” in the original is in plural, but “hearing” in singular.

Imam Razi quotes other examples from the Qur’an, for e.g. (54: 45)

وَيُوَلُّونَ الدُّبُرَ [القمر : 45]

“They will show their back” (instead of backs, adbar).

74. The accepted meaning is that the shadows of all things prostrate to Allah, and their prostration is manifested by their movement from left to right as the sun rises and then sets throwing shadow of everything from one extreme (left) to another extreme (right) - Ibn Jarir.

In other words, add Zamakhshari and Razi, “yesjudu” of the text implies submission. In Asad’s words, “... is obviously a symbolism expressing the intrinsic subjection of all created beings and things to God’s will.”

75. The textual word “dabbah” draws the following comment from Asad, “The term dabbah denotes any sentient, corporeal being capable of spontaneous movement, and is contrasted here with the non-corporeal, spiritual beings designated as angels.”

76. The translation of the words “min fawqihim” is literal. Another possible meaning, as Zajjaj has said, is that this is for exaltation (ijlal), just as in verse (Al-An`am, 18),

وَهُوَ الْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِ وَهُوَ الْحَكِيمُ الْخَبِيرُ [الأنعام : 18]

“And He is the Irresistible, above His slaves.”

Or (Al-A`raf, 127),

وَإِنَّا فَوْقَهُمْ قَاهِرُونَ [الأعراف : 127]

“We are above them, irresistible” (Kashshaf, Shawkani).

Imam Razi refutes here the idea of some of the anthropomorphists that the fawqiyyah (above-ness) is in the physical sense. Rather, the “fawqa” of the text is the “fawqiyyah” of rank, honor, power and irresistibility (Razi).

This kind of usage is common in every language. We say, “He has officers above him,” which does not mean they sit above him in the upper floor (Au.).

Also see note 8 and 29 of Surah Al-An`am for further explanation.