Surah Al-Furqan 25:45-60 - Quran Translation Commentary

(25:45) Have you not regarded your Lord,⁴⁷ how He stretches the shadow?⁴⁸ If He willed, He could have made it stand still; but then, We have made the sun its guide.⁴⁹

(25:46) Then We draw it in toward Us⁵⁰ - an easy drawing.⁵¹

(25:47) He it is who made for you the night a covering, the sleep a (means of) rest,⁵² and made the day a (time) to spread around.⁵³

(25:48) And He it is who sends the winds bearing glad tidings before His mercy.⁵⁴ And We send down from the sky pure water.⁵⁵

(25:49) So that We might revive thereby a dead land, and water thereby great many of those We created of livestock and men.

(25:50) And We have distributed it amongst them so that they might remember.⁵⁶ But most people are averse except to unbelief.⁵⁷

(25:51) Had We willed We could have raised into every town a warner.⁵⁸

(25:52) So, obey not the unbelievers and strive against them therewith⁵⁹ – a great striving.⁶⁰

(25:53) It is He who has let forth the two bodies of water: this one palatable and sweet, while the other salty⁶¹ and bitter. And He placed between the two a barrier, and a partition unbreachable.⁶²

(25:54) And it is He who created man out of water⁶³ and then made him kindred of blood and marriage.⁶⁴ And your Lord was ever Able.

(25:55) But they worship apart from Allah what can neither benefit them nor harm them. And the unbeliever is ever a partisan against his Lord.⁶⁵

(25:56) And We have sent you not (O Muhammad) but as a bearer of glad tiding and a warner.

(25:57) Say, ‘I ask of you no wage for this, save that whosoever will, might take unto his Lord a way.’⁶⁶

(25:58) And place your trust in the Ever-Living who will not die,⁶⁷ and celebrate His Praise. And sufficient is He to be acquainted with the sins of His servants.⁶⁸

(25:59) (He) who created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six periods⁶⁹ and then attained Istawa’ on the `Arsh:⁷⁰ Al-Rahman, so ask any well-informed about Him.⁷¹

(25:60) And when they are told, ‘Prostrate yourselves to Al-Rahman,’ they ask, ‘And what is Al-Rahman?⁷² Should we prostrate ourselves to what you bid us?’⁷³ And it increases in them aversion.⁷⁴

Commentary

47. The translation is literal, otherwise, most scholars have understood the construction as meaning, “Have you not regarded the power of your Lord?..” The form employed suggests that all observations of nature and its wonders should ultimately lead to the Lord of the world, His powers and His complete control (Au.).

Sayyid Qutub prefaces this passage with a few lines that could be profited from: “Time and again, the Qur’an seeks the attention of the minds and hearts to the scenes of nature spread above us, and relates them with the minds and hearts. It awakens the senses in order to be ready to receive the effects in a renewed conscientious manner – receiving its lights and echoes – in order to interact and respond. It takes a journey into the universe so as to pick up during the excursion, signs that are spread all over, abundantly, in every corner, written over every of its page. The soul sees the Hand of the Maker behind them; that of the Planner and the Deliberator. As the mind saunters about, it can feel this Hand in everything over which the eyes fall, everything that it can sense and feel, everything that the ears pick up, and then, uses the information as guidelines to reflect deeper and reach his Lord.

“When a man learns to live in this world with his eyes and hearts open, when he is awake to his senses and spirit, is well connected with ideas and sentiments, then his life rises up against the allurement of this little earth. His perceptions of life also rise up along with his spirit. Every moment adds to his feeling that the horizons of the universe are far wider than the surface of the earth, that all that he sees is the product of a single Will, and is bound to a single set of laws ..( leading up inexorably to a single Lord).”

48. The allusion, according to Ibn `Abbas, Sa`id b. Jubayr, Dahhak and others, is to the (lengthening and shortening of the) shadow from dawn to the rise of the sun (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir). The report is in Ibn Abi Hatim and others (Shawkani).

That is, the darkness extends itself from the dawn until the rise of the sun (Au.).

49. An alternative translation could be, as done by Majid and others, “And then We have made the sun for it an indication.”

50. Asad explains the change in pronoun: “As in so many other instances in the Qur’an, the abrupt change from the third-person pronoun ‘He’ to ‘We’ is meant to illustrate the fact that God is undefinable, and that it is only the inadequacy of human speech – and, hence, of the human mind – that makes it necessary to refer to the Supreme Being by pronouns which in reality are applicable only to finite, created ‘persons.’”

51. That is, every time a part of it is withdrawn, some amount of darkness is placed in its wake, so that it does not disappear altogether, at once (Qurtubi).

The pronoun in “qabadnaahu” (the “it” of “We draw it”) has been explained by the ancient scholars as referring to the shadow. In other words, “Then We draw in the shadow toward Us..” And the meaning is, “We make the shadow disappear unnoticed and quickly,” where “quickly” is the explanation of “khafiyyah” offered by Ibn `Abbas (Ibn Jarir).

Yusuf Ali stretches the verse to cover the whole day: “As the sun rises higher and higher, the shadows contract. In regions where the sun gets actually to the zenith at noon, there is no shadow left at that time. Where does it go to? It was but a shadow cast by a substance and it gets absorbed by the substance which produced it.” Further, “The shadows are constantly in a state of flux; so are all things in Creation, all things we see or covet in this life. Allah, if He wills, can give some of them greater fixity or comparative stability.”

Mawdudi thinks on the same lines. He explains the in-drawing toward Allah in the following words, “.. for, whatever vanishes or becomes extinct returns to God. From Him everything issues and to Him everything ultimately returns.”

It might be interesting to note that modern science tells us that everything has a shadow of itself, even under a shade. A man for example, has a shadow of himself falling on the earth even when he is standing under a shade. Thermal photography can photograph it even 72 hours after he has left the place. Could this be another implication of the words “stretches the shadow?” - Au.

Imam Razi and Qurtubi add that the allusion by “in-drawing” could as well be to the darkening of the sun at the approach of the Hour when it will be gradually indrawn, (meaning, shrunk in size), to ultimately go out of existence.

With the above meaning before us, it might be useful to know that the scientific position is very near to this. Our sun, a medium sized star among the billions of stars in our galaxy, is calculated to be about 5 billion years old. At present it is burning its hydrogen. When its hydrogen is burnt out, it will begin to burn its helium. At that point in time, about 5 billion years from now, it will become a red giant of such size as to enclose the earth in its radius. Obviously, everything on earth will be reduced to ashes. After it has burnt out its helium, the sun will begin to contract, get reduced to a very small size, a white dwarf in scientific jargon, and fade into oblivion. But of course, the Final Day scenario drawn by the Qur’an is quite different from the death of the sun as predicted by modern science (Au.).

52. “Sabt” has several meanings such as, e.g., stretching. When a woman lets her tresses down, they say, “sabatat al-mar’atu.” Another meaning is to severe, hence sleep, which severs a man from activities. This is the connotation in the Jewish “sabbat” since they cease from all worldly activities. Khalil (the grammarian) said that “sabt” is used for heavy sleep (Qurtubi).

53. The word “nushoor (from nashara)” of the text could also mean, a time for people to spread around (looking for sustenance) - Ibn Kathir.

54. That is, the rains.

55. “Tahoor” has a second connotation of “Taahir”, meaning, a purifying agent. Ahmed b. Yahya has said that Tahoor is something that is pure by itself and capable of purifying other things (Zamakhshari). And, according to Imam Abu Hanifah, it is the disappearance of one of the three cardinal qualities of water that renders it impure eliminating its purifying quality: change in its (i) taste, (ii) color and (iii) smell (Qurtubi).

56. The pronoun of “sarrafnaahoo” (We distribute it) alludes to the rain. Ibn Mas`ud and Ibn `Abbas have said that rainfall of any particular year are no different (in quantity) from those of another year. But Allah distributes them the way He wishes. Mujahid, Ibn Zayd and others expressed similar opinions (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

One wonders what was the source of Ibn `Abbas’ opinion about a fact discovered more than a thousand years after him (Au.).

But another possibility is that the pronoun in sarrafnaahoo is for this Message. That is, the Qur’an has been well-rehearsed in a variety of ways so that people might be reminded and admonished, although most people prefer to disbelieve (Zamakhshari, Qurtubi).

57. What Allah meant when He said, “But most people are averse except to unbelief,” is, ‘(Although it is Allah who distributes the rains) people say, “it happened because of such and such star-effects’” (Mujahid: Ibn Jarir).

Hence the hadith of Muslim which says that one morning, after the previous night had rained, the Prophet asked his Companions,

هل تدرون ماذا قال ربكم ؟ قالوا الله ورسوله أعلم قال أَصْبَحَ مِنْ عِبَادِي مُؤْمِنْ وَكَافِرٌ فَأمَّأ مَنْ قَالَ : مُطِرْنَا بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَذَلِكَ مُؤْمِنٌ بي وَكَافِرٌ بالكواكب . وأمَّأ مَنْ قَالَ : مُطِرْنَا بِنَوْءِ كَذَا مُؤْمِنٌ أَوْ نَوْءِ كَذَا فَذَلِكَ كَافِر بي مُؤْمِنٌ بالكواكب

“Do you know what your Lord said?” They replied, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said, “Some of my slaves did their morning in faith, while others in disbelief. He who said, ‘It rained on us by the grace of Allah and His mercy,’ believed in Me and denied the stars. While he who said, ‘It rained on us because of such and such a star,’ he then, is the disbeliever in Me and believer in the stars’” (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir). Hakim declared the report Sahih (Alusi).

Zamakhshari and Imam Razi add: Whoever attributed the falling of rains to stars or planets or to cosmic elements, in the absolute sense, committed kufr. However, it is not kufr to attribute to an external agent the immediate physical cause appointed by Allah.

58. That is, ‘just like We send down rain to every patch of the earth, We could also send a Warner to every town’ (Qurtubi).

59. That is, Ibn `Abbas and Ibn Zayd said, strive with the help of this Qur’an (Ibn Jarir).

60. The Prophet is being directed to put up a “great striving” because Allah did not send a Messenger to every town of his time. He was supposed to, therefore, contribute efforts, equivalent of the combined efforts of several Prophets to achieve the desired results in every town (Zamakhshari, Razi, slightly reworded).

61. Although the textual word is “milh” meaning salt, most have understood it as “maalih” or “maleeh.” The latter in fact happens to be a variant reading (Qurtubi). Alusi shows however that linguistically it is perfectly alright to say “maa’un milh” as it is also perfectly alright to say “maa’un maalih” (both meaning, salty water).

62. Mujahid’s opinion was that the letting forth of the two waters meant letting one of them flow into the other (Qurtubi), as it happens when river water joins with the sea (Au.).

According to the ancient scholars, the allusion is to the two bodies of water: of the rivers and of the seas. Allah has placed a barrier between them so that one does not spoil the other and both retain their qualities. The barrier between them is the land that prevents the seas from joining with the rivers. Mujahid however added that he was told by someone who had some naval experience that when Dijlah water (Euphrates) falls into the sea it doesn’t mix up with the seawater but rather, a line separating the two remains visible. After reporting the above, Ibn Jarir expresses his own opinion that the land could not be considered as the barrier mentioned. But rather, the allusion is to the invisible barrier that is placed between them that prevents one from mixing with the other when the two waters meet (in the sea). This is because, Ibn Jarir adds, when the two waters are let forth, then, there is no barrier of dry land between them. Further, the aayah is speaking of the Power of Allah, (which is more apparent when the barrier is invisible between two adjacent bodies of waters).

Yusuf Ali considers both the meanings as possible whom Majid quotes, “Maraja: literally, let free or let loose cattle for grazing. Bahrain: two seas, or two bodies of flowing water; for bahr is applied both to the salty sea and to rivers. In the world taken as a whole, there are two bodies of water, viz.,: (1) the great salt Oceans, and (2) the bodies of sweet water fed by rain, whether they are rivers, lakes or underground springs: their source in rain makes them one, and their drainage, whether above-ground or underground, eventually to the Ocean, also makes them one. They are free to mingle, and in a sense they do mingle, for there is a regular water-cycle .. and the rivers flow constantly to the sea, and tidal rivers get sea-water for several miles up their estuaries at high tide. Yet in spite of all this, the laws of gravitation are like a barrier or partition set by Allah, by which the two bodies of water as a whole are always kept apart and distinct. In the case of rivers carrying large quantities of water to the sea, like the Mississippi or the Yangtse-Kiang, the river-water with its silt remains distinct from sea-water for a long distance out at sea. But the wonderful Sign is that the two bodies of water, though they pass through each other, remain distinct bodies, with their distinct functions.”

He adds, “Incidentally, this verse points to a fact which has only recently been discovered by science. This fact relates to the oceans of the world: they meet and yet each remains separate for Allah has placed ‘a barrier, a partition’ between them.” [However, this does not adequately explain the present verse which speaks of two bodies of water, one sweet, the other bitter. It could be used to explain another passage of the Qur’an (55: 19-22) which we shall attempt when we arrive at it by Allah’s will (Au.)].

Mawdudi comments: “This happens whenever a large river flows into the sea. There are springs of sweet water at several locations in different seas where the sweet water remains separate from the salty water of the sea. Sayyidi `Ali Ra’is, a Turkish Admiral of the sixteenth century, mentions in his work, Mir’aat al-Mamalik, one such place in the Persian Gulf. He writes that he found springs of sweet water under the salty waters of the sea and drew drinking water from them for his fellow sailors. In more recent times, when the Arabian American Oil company began drilling oil wells in Saudi Arabia, they used the water of the same springs of the Persian Gulf as drinking water until the wells in the vicinity of Dhahran were dug. Also, near Bahrain, there are springs of sweet water under the sea from which people have drawn upon for ages.

“This verse identifies the wondrous manifestation of God’s omnipotence as evidence of His Unicity. But there is an additional, albeit more subtle, meaning implicit in the verse too. No matter how bitter and salty the ocean of human society may become, God can always produce a righteous group of people in the same manner that He can produce a spring of sweet water in the depths of a salty ocean.”

Shabbir remarks, “It is reported that from Arakaan to Chaatgaam (in Bangladesh) one can see two separate and distinct bodies of water: one clear (that of the river) while the other dark (that of the sea). This is visible for miles and miles. One of them remains sweet, while the other bitter. The interesting thing is that while the black body of water shows tempestuous characteristics, the clear water remains calm. “Here at (Gujarat) where I am staying,” adds he, “it is people’s daily experience to watch sea water rush into the land riding over the river water, for quite some distance, at the time of heavy tides. However, even when the river mouth is filled with bitter sea water, at bottom the water remains sweet. The two do not mix.”

Asad adds: “Some Muslim mystics see in this stress on the two kinds of water an allegory of the gulf – and, at the same time, interaction – between man’s spiritual perception, on the one hand, and his worldly needs and passions, on the other.”

63. “That is, (out of the) seminal fluid” (Majid). But the other meaning, viz., of creation out of water is also possible (Au.).

64. There are seven kindred through direct lineage and five through marriage both of which are mentioned in the Qur’anic verse 23 of Surah al-Nisa’ which says:

{حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ أُمَّهَاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ وَعَمَّاتُكُمْ وَخَالَاتُكُمْ وَبَنَاتُ الْأَخِ وَبَنَاتُ الْأُخْتِ وَأُمَّهَاتُكُمُ اللَّاتِي أَرْضَعْنَكُمْ وَأَخَوَاتُكُمْ مِنَ الرَّضَاعَةِ وَأُمَّهَاتُ نِسَائِكُمْ وَرَبَائِبُكُمُ اللَّاتِي فِي حُجُورِكُمْ مِنْ نِسَائِكُمُ اللَّاتِي دَخَلْتُمْ بِهِنَّ فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُونُوا دَخَلْتُمْ بِهِنَّ فَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَحَلَائِلُ أَبْنَائِكُمُ الَّذِينَ مِنْ أَصْلَابِكُمْ وَأَنْ تَجْمَعُوا بَيْنَ الْأُخْتَيْنِ إِلَّا مَا قَدْ سَلَفَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ غَفُورًا رَحِيمً} [النساء: 23]

“Forbidden unto you are your mothers, daughters, sisters, paternal aunts, maternal aunts, brother’s daughters, sister’s daughters, foster mothers who gave you suck, foster sisters by the suck, your mothers in law, step daughters who are in your care - of those women with whom you have consummated the marriage, however, if you have not consummated the marriage, then there is no harm, wives of those of your sons who are of your loins, and that you should bring together (in wedlock) two sisters, save for what is of the past. Surely Allah is All-forgiving, All-merciful.” Thus, the seven kindred of lineage are: (1) mothers, (2) daughters, (3) sisters, (4) paternal aunts, (5) maternal aunts, (6) brother’s daughter, and (6) sister’s daughter.” As for the five kindred through marriage, they are: (1) foster mothers, (2) foster sisters, (3) mothers in law, (4) step daughters, and (5) daughters in-law (Ibn Jarir).

That said, there is no consensus of opinion over what constitutes kindred of marriage (sahr). When asked, `Umar ibn al-Khattab said that parents in law and wives were the sahr; the report being in `Abd b. Humayd (Shawkani). `Ali (ra) for instance said that “nasab” kindred is that which disallows marriage, whereas “sahr” allows it. According to another opinion coming down from him as well as from Dahhak, “sahr” is that relationship that accrues from suckling (Alusi). In short, sahr is the relationship that develops with marriage, from the woman’s side (Au).

65. Partisan in the sense that he is a helper to Shaytan against his Lord. This is how many of the Salaf understood it (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

66. In his own style and words Ibn Jarir expresses the following: The Prophet does not seek wages for his efforts, he is in no need of it, being provided by Allah, yet, if someone wished to expend and thus take a way to Allah, he could do so by expending his wealth on charity among the needy. That would be taking a way to Allah.

Or, Imam Razi adds, Ii he wished he could spend in charity after embracing Islam.

In his translation Asad suggests another possible connotation, and quite a nice one for that: The man who wishes to take a way unto his Lord, could himself be a reward unto the Prophet.

67. “The epithet .. ‘who dies not,’ or ‘Imperishable’ may have been necessitated by the very widely prevalent custom of deicide or godslaughter. ‘Deicide, once supposed to find its only example in the crucification, has been, in fact, a wide-spread custom, which has left a deep impress on the religious thought of the race.’ (ERE. IV. P. 523). The God of Islam, it required special emphasis, is the Immortal, the Imperishable, the Deathless” (Majid).

68. The fact that words, “And place your trust in the Ever-Living who will not die,” are followed by “And sufficient is He to be acquainted with the sins of His servants” leads one to believe that to place trust in other than Allah is a kind of sin that the Lord is Aware of (Au.).

69. Zamakhshari and Imam Razi point out that Allah was quite capable of creating the universe in one go. But creation in stages is more miraculous than a sudden creation which could have been attributed to an accident.

As to why six, the answer is, says Zamakhshari, there is no significance attached to them. It could have been any other number. There are nineteen keepers of Hell-fire, the bearers of `Arsh are eight, a week has seven days, there are five Prayers a day, and so on. Allah knows best why in each case He chose those numbers.

The textual word is “yawm” (day). But what day was it? Obviously not the day and night caused by the sun, for, as Zamakhshari has pointed out, the sun had yet to be created. Therefore, it could only have been “days” of another definition. Imam Razi speculates that perhaps Allah first created “time” and then created the heavens and the earth in six days. He is inclined to believe that those were six earth-days. But of course this is only a guess. For even now the days of the Hereafter are different. Verse 5 of Al-Sajdah tells us that the day of the other world is equal to one thousand years of ours. Another verse says (70: 4),

{ تَعْرُجُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْدَارُهُ خَمْسِينَ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ} [المعارج: 4]

“The angels and the Ruh rise up to him in a day whose measure is fifty thousand years.”

See detailed discussion at verse 54, note 81 of Surah Al-A`raf.

70. Imam Razi points out that our knowledge that the `Arsh was created before the heavens and the earth, should teach us caution in fixing the meaning of Allah’s “istawaa’” on it.

71. “I.e., (questions such as) ‘what is His name? What are His attributes?’” (Majid), etc., maybe addressed to him who has knowledge of Him, such as the Prophet (Alusi and others). Or, in the words of Asad, “Ask God Himself: since He alone holds the keys to the mysteries of the universe, it is only by observing His creation and listening to His revealed messages that man can obtain a glimpse, however distant, of God’s Own reality.”

72. The pagans of the Prophet’s time denied that Allah could be designated as Al-Rahman. They said that the only Al-Rahman they knew was that of Yamamah, (that is, Musaylimah the Liar).

At Hudaybiyyah, when the Prophet began to dictate the letter of armistice saying, “Write, ‘In the name of Allah, Al-Rahman, Al-Raheem,’” they said, “Neither do we know Al-Rahman, nor Al-Raheem. But rather, write as you used to write, ‘In your name O Allah’” (Ibn Kathir).

73. This question was asked by the Makkan pagans in the same vein as Fir`awn had done with Musa when he offered him faith in the Lord of the worlds. He asked (26: 23),

{ وَمَا رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ } [الشعراء: 23]

“And what is (this) Lord of the worlds?” – Razi, Alusi.

74. That is, the call to prostrate themselves to the All-Compassionate increases only aversion in them.