Surah Al-Haj 22:65-72 - Quran Translation Commentary

(22:65) Have you not seen that Allah has subjected to you all that is in the earth,¹¹¹ and the ships that sail through the sea by His command? And He holds back the heaven lest it should fall upon the earth, except by His leave.¹¹² Verily, Allah is All-gentle to man and All-merciful.¹¹³

(22:66) It is He who gave you life; then He shall deal you death, then He shall (again) give you life. Truly, man is most ungrateful

(22:67) To every people have We appointed rites¹¹⁴ which they observe. Let them not, therefore, dispute with you on the matter;¹¹⁵ but (on your part) invite to your Lord. Surely, you are on a straight guidance.

(22:68) But if they should contend with you, say, ‘Allah knows well what you are doing.’¹¹⁶

(22:69) Allah will judge between you on the Day of Judgment concerning that over which you were differing.¹¹⁷

(22:70) Do you not know that Allah knows whatsoever is in the heaven and the earth? Indeed, that is in a Record.¹¹⁸ Indeed, that is easy for Allah.¹¹⁹

(22:71) And they worship apart from Allah that for which He has sent down no authority, and that of which they have no knowledge.¹²⁰ The transgressors shall have no helper.¹²¹

(22:72) When Our revelations are recited to them as clear evidences, you will notice denial in the faces of the unbelievers.¹²² They would almost pounce upon those who recite Our revelations to them.¹²³ Say, ‘Shall I then tell you of something worse than that? (It is) the Fire - Allah has promised it to the unbelievers - an evil destination.’

Commentary

111. That is, Asad writes, “(He) has enabled you to benefit from all..”

112. Another meaning of samaa’ is rains (Majid). But most commentators of old have treated it as heaven. However, which samaa’ is this that Allah holds lest it should fall on the earth? Is it the atmospheric layer around the earth, the cosmos above, or something else? Most have believed that, in the words of Asad, “`the sky’ – used here as a metonym for the stars and planets, which are held on their courses by the God-willed laws of cosmic movement.” Hence his next note, “(the leave will be given) at the Last Hour, which – as the Qur’an so often states – will manifest itself in a universal cosmic catastrophe.”

Sayyid Qutb writes: “It is Allah who created the laws that allow for the ships to sail through the seas and who taught man how to make use of those laws for his own benefits and purposes. And it is He who created the cosmos following a certain system chosen for it; and the set of laws that allow for the distantly placed stars and planets to remain in their orbits without crashing on into each other. Every cosmological theory that is offered to explain how the system works does no more than explain the powers of the One who brought them into being and sustains them. But some of the people forget this basic fact and attempt at explaining the working as if there is no such hidden hand handling it. This is strange of the theorists. For, every explanation, its correctness taken for granted, does no more than reflect the main fact of Divine control behind the apparent while the explanation itself - that might sound true today but could be rejected tomorrow - cannot deny the existence of laws that help the cosmos function the way it does.”

Alusi however points out that the Salaf were of the common opinion that the (Qur’anic) samaa’ is different from the cosmic material we see above us. It is the samaa’ that creaks as mentioned in a Prophetic statement:

إِنِّي لأَسْمَعُ أَطِيطَ السَّمَاءِ ، وَمَا تُلامُ أَنْ تَئِطَّ ، وَمَا فِيهَا مَوْضِعُ شِبْرٍ إِلا وَعَلَيْهِ مَلَكٌ سَاجِدٌ أَوْ قَائِمٌ

“I hear the ‘samaa’ creaks and it is right of it that it should creak for there is not a hand-space but upon which is an angel either standing or in prostration.”

Haythamiyy declared the above report weak (Au.).

That said, we cannot be too sure about what the allusion is to, by the word samaa’: whether it is to the cosmic heaven, or that of the hadith. It could well be both (Au.).

113. What’s the difference between ra’fah and rahmah? Alsui presents a short discussion. Ra’fah demands prevention of harm while rahmah demands bestowal of blessings. Some others have said that ra’fah is deeper of meaning. The great majority have believed that rahmah is more general in nature.

Also see Surah al-Tawbah, note 245.

114. Literally, mansak, or mansik, applies to a place to which one returns often: whether for good or bad purposes. Hence manasik al-Hajj, that is, places to which people return year after year. (That led to its application to acts that are repeated: Au.). Hence Ibn `Abbas said that here it applies to the day of `Eid which reappears year after year. Mujahid however said that the specific allusion here is to sacrifice. Qatadah extended it to include Hajj rites (Ibn Jarir).

Alusi adds: The differences between rituals in various religions have been of the order of differences between, so to say, various kinds of cloth. Say one gives one of his daughters a red shroud as a gift, to another blue, to a third green, and so on. One would then say, “I gave my first daughter what I did not give to my second,” etc. In the like manner, every nation was given rituals of worship different from another although, in sum, substance, and spirit, they all amounted to the same. Therefore, Allah followed up the statement with the directive, Let them not, therefore, dispute with you over the matter.” That is, every nation was given a different Shari`ah, which now stands cancelled except for the current one, viz., that of Islam. There need be no argument over this.

115. “For,” writes Sayyid, “disputation helps against people who seek after the truth and accept the evidences but not such hearts and minds that insist on error and turn a blind eye to facts spread all over around them in the earth and in the cosmos. Allah alone will judge them.”

116. Yusuf Ali’s practical philosophy comes in handy. He writes: “Rites and ceremonies may appear to be an unimportant matter compared with ‘weightier matters of the Law’ and with the higher needs of man’s spiritual nature. But they are necessary for social and religious organization, and their effect on the individual himself is not to be despised. In any case, as they are visible external symbols, they give rise to the most heated controversies. Such controversies are to be deprecated. That does not mean that our rites and ceremonies are to be made light of. Those in Islam rest on the highest social and religious needs of man, and if we are convinced that we are on the Right Way, we should invite all to join us, without entering into controversies about such matters.”

117. Yusuf Ali once again comments, and in keeping with his own subtle style, without naming those addressed: You are only wrangling about matters about which you have no knowledge nor any deep religious feeling. The springs of your conduct are all open before Allah, and He will judge you.”

118. At this point Yusuf Ali hits hard with soft words: “You not only find fault with the very few and simple rites and ceremonies in Islam: you, outside Islam, have no rites and ceremonies which you are yourselves agreed upon, either as Christians or as Jews, or one compared with the other.”

To paraphrase verses 67-69: To every people Allah appointed rites which they observe. So, why should they dispute with you over the issues, say of sacrifice of animals? But if they persist, then, to defeat their polemical purposes, invite them, O Muhammad, to your Lord. However, if they should refuse and insist on contentions, then tell them, “Allah knows well what you are doing. He will judge between you on the Day of Judgment concerning that over which you were differing.” (Based on Thanwi).

119. By Kitab, the allusion is to the Umm al-Kitab. Ka`b al-Ahbaar is reported to have said when asked about the Mother of the Book (Umm al-Kitab), “Allah knew what He was going to create and how His creation was going to be. So, He said to His Knowledge, ‘Be a Book’” (Ibn Jarir).

There are a few ahadith on this topic. One is in Abu Da’ud, Tirmidhi and others. The Prophet said, “First thing that Allah created was the Pen. Then He commanded it, ‘Write.’ It asked, ‘What shall I write?’ He said, ‘Write all that is going to be.’ So, it moved, recording all that was to be until the Day of Judgment. And that happened ages before. A hadith of Muslim says, “Allah determined the proportions of the creations before the creation of the heavens and the earth, by fifty thousand years, while His `Arsh was on water” (Ibn Kathir).

120. While some have thought that the words, “That is easy for Allah” are in reference to the writing in the Record, the preferred opinion is that the reference is to the statement in the previous verse, viz., “Allah will judge between you on the Day of Judgment concerning that over which you were differing.” It is another of way of saying, judging between the people is easy for Allah (Ibn Jarir).

121. In other words, writes Alusi, they have neither a revelational support for what they worship (‘they worship apart from Allah that for which He has sent down no authority’), nor have a good rational reason for doing so (‘that of which they have no knowledge’). And the inference that can be drawn from the order of placement of the two arguments against their action is that revelational support is weightier than rational if the matter pertains to the Shari`ah. As for intellectual matters, the order is reversed. This was the position maintained by Ibn al-`Arabiyy also.

122. Yusuf Ali once again: “When plain common-sense shows the absurdity of false worship, behind which there is neither knowledge, intelligence, nor authority (quite the contrary), who or what can help the false misguided creatures who dishonor Allah by false worship?”

123. Sufi commentator Thanwi writes: The ayah is also applicable to the so-called Sufis, who, when Allah’s verses are read out to them (in face of some of their deviations), you notice a dislike in their faces.