Surah Ar-Rum 30:20-27 - Quran Translation Commentary

(30:21) And among His signs is that He created for you, of yourselves, spouses, so that you might repose in them;²⁹ and He placed between you love and tenderness. Surely, in that are signs for a people who reflect.

(30:22) And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth,³⁰ and the diversity of your tongues and your colors. In that indeed are signs for the knowledgeable.

(30:23) And among His signs is your sleep by night and day, and your seeking of His bounty. Surely, in that are signs for a people who hearken.³¹

(30:24) And among His signs is: He shows you the lightning - generating fear and hope; and He sends down out of heaven water reviving the earth therewith, after its death. In that indeed are signs for a people who think.

(30:25) And among His signs is that the heaven and earth stand firm by His command. Then, when He calls you, by a single call (coming) from the earth, behold, you shall (all) come forth.

(30:26) And to Him belongs whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, and all are devotedly obedient to Him.³²

(30:27) And He it is who begins the creation, then repeats it, and that is easier for Him.³³ To Him belongs the loftiest similitude in the heavens and the earth.³⁴ And He is the All-mighty, the All-wise.

Commentary

27. A hadith preserved by Ahmad, Abu Da’ud and Tirmidhi (who declared it Hasan Sahih), has Abu Musa al-Ash`ari as saying that the Prophet said,

إِنَّ اللَّهَ خَلَقَ آدَمَ مِنْ قَبْضَةٍ قَبَضَهَا مِنْ جَمِيعِ الأَرْضِ فَجَاءَ بَنُو آدَمَ عَلَى قَدْرِ الأَرْضِ جَاءَ مِنْهُمُ الأَحْمَرُ وَالأَبْيَضُ وَالأَسْوَدُ وَبَيْنَ ذَلِكَ وَالسَّهْلُ وَالْحَزْنُ وَالْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ - قال أبو عيسى هذا حديث حسن صحيح

“Allah created Adam from a handful of dust that consisted of material taken from all over the earth. That is how Adam’s progeny came: in varieties as the earth varies: they came as white, red, and black – and between them – wicked and the well-disposed, the pliant and the rough to handle – and between them rotten and good ones” (Ibn Kathir).

28. Whether for good or bad reason, or for no reason at all, living organisms must migrate. It is firmly planted in their nature. They do not seem to be able to stay in one place for long. Some of them must keep moving out to new lands, no matter at what cost of physical pain bordering to suffering. From fishes to shrimps, birds to creepers, human beings to insects, they all seem to suffer an urge to venture into new lands. Butterflies have been found at Mount Everest, on their way across the Himalayas (Au.).

29. “That is,” writes Mawdudi, “he Creator’s perfect wisdom is that He created human beings in two sexes. In their humanness they are identical to each other, yet with different physical features, different mental and psychological qualities, and different emotions and desires. Yet there is perfect harmony between the two in that each is the counterpart of the other.”

With reference to the repose that one finds in the other, Qurtubi writes that a woman should respond when her husband invites her to the bed, otherwise, she will be putting him into a restless state. The Prophet (saws) has said (as in a hadith of Bukhari),

إِذَا بَاتَتْ الْمَرْأَةُ مُهَاجِرَةً فِرَاشَ زَوْجِهَا لَعَنَتْهَا الْمَلَائِكَةُ حَتَّى تَرْجِعَ [صحيح البخاري]

“When a woman spends a night having abandoned her husband’s bed, angels curse her until she returns.”

Majid adds: “The word connotes companionship and mutual love, which is distinct from mere sexual pleasure. This determines the proper status of the wife in Islam. She is not a handmaid, but a lifelong companion of her husband, his consort. Her function is to be, by her words, acts, or by mere presence, a source of comfort and solace to him. She must constitute the chief consoling, soothing element of his life. And a relation of affection, harmony, and mutual happiness and goodwill out to subsist between man and wife. Contrast this with the attitude of the early Church. ‘We cannot but notice, even in the greatest of the Christian fathers, a lamentably low estimate of women, and consequently of the marriage relationship. Even St. Augustine can see no justification for marriage, except in a grave desire deliberately adopted for having children; and in accordance with this view, all married intercourse, except for this single purpose, is honestly condemned … This idea of the mutual society, help and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity, hardly existed, and could hardly exist.’ (DCA, II, p. 1909).”

30. The coming into existence of the heavens and the earth from nothingness, and their being established on an unchangeable law, functioning of great many forces within them, in harmony and equilibrium, contain many signs of their Creator, One God. Reflecting over the initial pure energy assuming the form of matter, the transformation of matter into so many elements and then combining themselves into this wonderful world, every unbiased mind is bound to conclude that the whole could not have happened all by itself. Further, the fact that the most distant part in the cosmos is made up of the same stuff, and follows the same laws, should lead a man to One God who made this possible. Could several gods have achieved this? (Au).

31. Yusuf Ali summarizes the message contained in the above few verses: “From verse 20 to verse 25 are mentioned a series of Signs or Miracles, which should awaken our souls and lead us to true Reality if we try to understand Allah. (1) There is our own origin and destiny, which must necessarily be our subjective starting point: ‘I think; therefore I am’: no particular exertion of our being is here necessary (xxx. 20). (2) The first beginnings of social life arise through sex and love: see iv. 1, and n. 506; to understand this in all its bearing, we must ‘reflect’ (xxx. 21). (3) The next point is to understand our diversities in speech, color, etc., arising from differences of climate and external conditions; yet there is unity beneath that diversity, which we shall realize by extended knowledge (xxx. 22). (4) Next we turn to our psychological conditions, sleep, rest, visions, insight, etc.; here we want teaching and guidance, to which we must hearken (xxx. 23). (5) Next, we must approach the higher reaches of spiritual hopes and fears, as symbolized by such subtle forces of nature as lightning and electricity, which may kill the foolish or bring prosperity in its train by rain and abundant harvest; to understand the highest spiritual hopes and fears so symbolized, we want the highest wisdom (xxx. 24). (6) And lastly, we may become so transformed that we rise above all petty, worldly, ephemeral things: Allah calls to us and we rise, as from our dead selves to a Height which we can only describe as the Heaven of stability: here no human processes serve, for the Call of Allah Himself has come (xxx. 25-27).‏”

32. “All nature in Creation not only obeys Allah, but devoutly obeys Him, i.e., glories in its privilege of service and obedience. Why should we not do likewise? It is part of our original unspoilt nature, and we must respond to it, as all beings do, by their very nature” (Yusuf Ali).

33. Some commentators, such as Qurtubi, have pointed out that since nothing is difficult for Allah, “ahwan” should be understood in the sense of “hayyin” i.e., “easy.” Others have said however that if re-creation is easier, first time creation was not any difficult for Allah. Therefore, the translation as “easier” should be acceptable; in Majid’s words, “(It is) easier from the stand point of man, not of God; for to Him everything is equally easy (Th.).”

Allah says in a hadith preserved by Bukhari,

كَذَّبَنِي ابْنُ آدَمَ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ ذَلِكَ وَشَتَمَنِي وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ ذَلِكَ فَأَمَّا تَكْذِيبُهُ إِيَّايَ فَقَوْلُهُ لَنْ يُعِيدَنِي كَمَا بَدَأَنِي وَلَيْسَ أَوَّلُ الْخَلْقِ بِأَهْوَنَ عَلَيَّ مِنْ إِعَادَتِهِ وَأَمَّا شَتْمُهُ إِيَّايَ فَقَوْلُهُ اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَدًا وَأَنَا الْأَحَدُ الصَّمَدُ لَمْ أَلِدْ وَلَمْ أُولَدْ وَلَمْ يَكُنْ لِي كُفُواً أَحَدٌ - [صحيح البخاري]

“Son of Adam lays the lie on Me, which is not right of him. He reviles Me, which is not right of him. As for his laying the lie, he says, ‘He will not recreate me as He created me at first’ – although the first creation was not easier for Me than the recreation. As for he reviling Me, it is his saying, ‘Allah took a son,’ – while I am the One, the Eternal; who did not beget nor was begotten, and none is there comparable unto Him” (Ibn Kathir).

34. Except for the last sentence, Asad’s following note finely sums up commentaries of the classical commentators. He writes: “Primarily, the term mathal denotes a ‘likeness’ or ‘similitude’, and hence is often used in the Qur’an (e.g., in the next verse) in the sense of ‘parable’. Occasionally, however, it is synonymous with sifah, which signifies the intrinsic ‘attribute’, ‘quality’ or ‘nature’ of a thing, concept, or living being (cf. the reference to ‘the nature of Jesus’ and ‘the nature of Adam’ in 3: 59). With reference to God, who is ‘sublimely exalted above anything that men may devise by way of definition’ … the expression mathal clearly points to a quality of being entirely different from all other categories of existence, inasmuch as there is ‘nothing like unto Him’ (42: 11) and ‘nothing that could be compared with Him’ (112: 4): hence, the rendering of mathal as ‘essence’ is most appropriate in this context.” And Majid adds the note of warning: “I.e., none in the heaven and earth is comparable to Him, seeing He is the Creator of all. In speaking of Him and His attributes, we must make use of most noble and magnificent expression we can possibly desire and even then we shall fall far short of the actual reality.”