Surah As-Sajdah 32:1-11 - Quran Translation Commentary

(32:3) Or, do they say, ‘He forged it?’⁴ But rather, it is the truth from your Lord that you might warn a people unto whom no warner came before you,⁵ haply that they may be rightly guided.⁶

(32:4) Allah it is who created the heavens and the earth and what is between the two in six periods.⁷ Then He assumed istawa on the `Arsh.⁸ You have no protector besides Him, nor an intercessor. Will you not then be admonished?

(32:5) He directs the affair from heaven to earth, then it rises up to Him⁹ in a day whose measure is a thousand years of your reckoning.¹⁰

(32:6) That is the Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Mighty, the Compassionate,

(32:7) Who perfected everything that He created;¹¹ and who began man’s creation from clay.¹²

(32:8) Then He made his progeny from the quintessence of a despised liquid.

(32:9) Then He proportioned him and blew in him a spirit from Him.¹³ And He made for you the (faculties of) hearing, sights and hearts.¹⁴ Little it is that you thank.

(32:10) But they said, ‘Is it, when we are lost in the earth, are we in a new creation?’ Nay, but they are disbelievers in the encounter with their Lord.

(32:11) Say, ‘The angel of death given charge of you¹⁵ draws your souls,¹⁶ then to your Lord you will be returned.’¹⁷

Commentary

3. The translation reflects the understanding of Qatadah as in Ibn Jarir.

4. One has to be a man of poor intellect, who after having read the Qur’an, could hold the opinion that Prophet Muhammad wrote this Book, and started the Islamic movement, depending, for its accomplishment, on his own genius and abilities. It is a matter of common sense, writes Shabbir in effect, that movements are started by men in response to needs and aspirations of the milieu in which they live. When someone presents a new program of action, he does it out of assurance that the public mood – or of a sizable number of them - is with him, that it will provoke an enthusiastic response on the part of a predictable majority. He will never present ideas that go completely against the spirit of his times. The Prophet’s time too, carried its own spirit. His times had been molded by ideas inherited over ages, from generation to generation. This spirit stood entirely in contrast and opposed to the message that the Prophet presented. Not surprisingly, his call was summarily rejected without any serious consideration. Nor did the Arabs contemporary to the Prophet betray any signs of the abilities that the movement required to win good number of followers, and, as it became successful, implement its program of action - such abilities as upon which the Prophet could depend as he launched his movement.

But the problem with the human beings is the phenomenon as puzzling, as commonly observed, that when it comes to religion, the best minds pack off their intellect and begin to talk, think, argue, and behave in a manner that can only be described as ridiculously irrational, and take a position that is hopelessly irredeemable (Au.).

5. The address is to the Quraysh among whom no Messenger had been raised. Until the advent of the Prophet, they were required to follow the Shari`ah as revealed to the ancient Prophets Ibrahim and Isma`il. Thus, the allusion by the word “nazir” in this instance is to a Prophet or Messenger, since, after all, there did appear a few non-prophetic warners among the Quraysh who warned them of the consequences of abandoning one True God in preference to idols and deities. (Mawdudi traces no less than 16 such warners: Au.) Asma’ bint Abi Bakr says she had seen Zayd b. `Amr b. Nufayl resting his back on a wall of Ka`ba and saying, “O Quraysh. By him in whose hands is my life, none of you remains on the religion of Ibrahim except me.” Musa b. `Uqba has mentioned in his Maghazi that he used to reproach the Quraysh over their slaughtering of animals in other than Allah’s name. He himself never ate out of such sacrifices. It is in his person that the Qur’anic truth was expressed which said (35: 24),

{وَإِنْ مِنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلا خَلا فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ} [فاطر: 24]

“There has not been a nation but there was a warner among them.”

That is, Zayd and his kind were merely warners, but not Prophets (Alusi). Perhaps the allusion could be to this class of people among the Israelites, when it is said that so many hundreds or thousands of Prophets appeared among them (Au.).

Nonetheless, Asma’ bint Abi Bakr’s report about Zayd b. `Amr has been judged weak, as stated by Mahdi Rizqallah in his Sirah. But it must also be kept in mind that strict hadith principles of criticism and evaluation cannot be applied to pre-Islamic reports (Au.).

6. If it is said, writes Zamakhshari, in view of the fact that no Prophet was raised among the Makkans, those who went before our Prophet should be absolved of any responsibility for their worship of false gods, the answer would be, yes, insofar as Divine Laws are concerned, the generations immediately before Prophet Muhammad could be declared absolved of any crime for non-conformation. But, as far as the knowledge of Allah and His Oneness is concerned, they cannot be absolved because man’s own reason and innate nature leads him to these fundamental truths.

In their case, they were not left to their innate nature alone, but rather, Isma’il was raised among them, whose message of Allah’s Oneness was not entirely obliterated by the tides of time (Au).

7. The rendering of the textual “yawm” as periods is not only following deductive reasoning in the light of several authentic traditions, but also happens to be the direct interpretation by some of the Salaf. Ibn `Abbas for instance, is reported to have said, as in Ibn Jarir, that this and the next verse should be paraphrased in the following manner: ‘Allah created the world in six days, each of which days was equal to a thousand years.’

At this point Ibn Kathir quotes a hadith that he had quoted earlier from Muslim (see Surah 7, note 81). [He mentions it as found in Nasa’i, but it is not in Nasa’i: Au.]. Nonetheless, it is as follows: Abu Hurayrah (ra) says,

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ أَخَذَ رَسُولُ اللّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم بِيَدِي فَقَالَ: "خَلَقَ اللّهُ، عَزّ وَجَلّ، التّرْبَةَ يَوْمَ السّبْتِ. وَخَلَقَ فِيهَا الْجِبَالَ يَوْمَ الأَحَدِ. وَخَلَقَ الشّجَرَ يَوْمَ الإِثْنَيْنِ. وَخَلَقَ الْمَكْرُوهَ يَوْمَ الثّلاَثَاءِ. وَخَلَقَ النّورَ يَوْمَ الأَرْبِعَاءِ. وَبَثّ فِيهَا الدّوَابّ يَوْمَ الْخَمِيسِ. وَخَلَقَ آدَمَ، عَلَيْهِ السّلاَمُ، بَعْدَ الْعَصْرِ مِنْ يَوْمِ الْجُمُعَةِ. فِي آخِرِ الْخَلْقِ. فِي آخِرِ سَاعَةٍ مِنْ سَاعَاتِ الْجُمُعَةِ. فِيمَا بَيْنَ الْعَصْرِ إِلَىَ اللّيْلِ". (المسلم)

“The Prophet (saws) took me by my hand and said, ‘Allah created the heavens and the earth and what is between them in six days. He created the dust on Saturday; mountains on Sunday; trees on Monday; the Makruh(at) on Tuesday; Nur on Wednesday; beasts on Thursday; and Adam on Friday - in the last hours of the day, after `Asr.”

Ibn Kathir combines two narratives here to make one. We take the second part from Hakim who declared it Sahih on the conditions set by Bukhari and Muslim. It says,

خَلَقَ اللَّهُ آدَمَ مِنْ أَدِيمِ الأَرْضِ كُلِّهَا فَخَرَجَتْ ذُرِّيَّتُهُ عَلَى حَسَبِ ذَلِكَ مِنْهُمُ الأَبْيَضُ وَالأَسْوَدُ وَالأَسْمَرُ وَالأَحْمَرُ وَمِنْهُمْ بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ وَمِنْهُمُ السَّهْلُ وَالْخَبِيثُ وَالطَّيِّبُ (الحاكم وقال هذا حديث صحيح الإسناد، ولم يخرجاه).‏

“Allah created Adam from (various) hues of the earth so that his progeny came out in accordance with it: of them there are whites and blacks, browns and reds, while some of them are in between. Some of them are pliant, while others vicious or yet, decent” (Au.).

Ibn Kathir also tells us that Bukhari, as also others, was not happy with the chain of narrators that goes with this hadith. Nevertheless, as we have stated at an earlier point in this work, notwithstanding the dissatisfaction with the chain, text-wise it reflects modern understanding of the sequence of creation of life and its various forms, culminating in man. Opinions vary between the scientists over the exact time when man appeared: through whatever process they conjecture it happened. Some say modern man appeared about 100,000 years ago; others say a million years ago, while a few recent findings would lead them to believe that he appeared ten million years ago. Our point is, whatever figure we take, when it is compared with the 4.5 billion years since the creation of earth, man’s appearance is indeed in the last hours of the final phase of creation. A scientific work has remarked that if the time-period is one mile long, we humans appeared at the last inch (Au.).

8. For a detailed discussion of the issue of “istawa” see Surah al-A`raf, note 82 and al-Qasas, note 23 of this work.

9. What is it that rises up to Him? It is the affair (taken up by an angel). Hence a possible meaning is that the affair (whatever it is) rises up to Him in one thousand years (Alusi); and not coming down and rising up in one thousand years, although quite a few have believed that the whole affair of coming down and rising up happens within this period (Au).

Qurtubi sums up: Yahya b. Salam said that the allusion by “it” is to Jibril who goes back to the heaven after delivering the revelation. Naqqash said it is to the angel who organizes the affairs of the earth from the heaven.

It is also said that the verse is saying that the news of the Earthians is taken up by the angels. This was Ibn Shajarah’s opinion. It is also said that the allusion is to an affair, which, after its execution, will be returned to Him after cessation of life on earth, on a day which will be one thousand years long, namely, the Day of Judgment.

Thus the ayah is of the “mutashabihat” (uncertain of meaning to most but not to those who possess deep understanding). Hence we have a report in `Abdur Razzaq, Sa`id b. Mansur, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abi Hatim, Ibn al-Anbari, and Hakim, who declared it trustworthy, that `Abdullah ibn Abi Mulaykah said, “I entered upon Ibn `Abbas along with `Abdullah b. Fayroze the freed slave of `Uthman. He asked Ibn `Abbas about this ayah. But Ibn `Abbas seemed to be displeased. He asked him in return, ‘So what about the day ‘“whose measure is a thousand years of your reckoning?”’ He (ibn Fayroze) said, ‘I only asked you hoping you would educate me.’ He (Ibn `Abbas) said, ‘These are two days that Allah mentioned in His Book. He knows best what is meant by them. Should I say in reference to the Book of Allah, something I have no knowledge of?’ Some time elapsed after that incident until I found myself in the assembly of Sa`id b. al-Musayyib. Someone asked him about the same two days (a day to come down and another to rise up). But he did not say anything. In fact, he said he did not know. So, I asked him whether I should tell him what I had heard from Ibn `Abbas? He said, yes. I told him the story. He turned to the inquirer and said, ‘Here is Ibn `Abbas who refused to say anything about them although he was more knowledgeable than me’” (Alusi).

10. Mujahid, Qatadah, Dahhak, `Ikrimah and others are in agreement over the opinion that when Allah (swt) sends down an angel with a command, it takes him, by our reckoning 500 years to descend, and 500 years to ascend back: one day by heavenly measure. This is because (as Prophetic statements tell us: Au.) the distance between the first heaven and the earth is 500 years, by our reckoning.

Another opinion is that the rising of the angel to the heaven takes a day, which is equivalent of our thousand years (Ibn Jarir).

Ibn Kathir mentions that whatever the travel time by our reckoning, the angel takes no more than the wink of an eye by our measure to cover the distance.

A third opinion is that the affair will rise up to Him on the Day of Judgment, which will be one thousand years long for some, while fifty thousand for others.

At all events, this ayah is a clear reference to the relativity of time, stated fourteen centuries earlier than modern scientific findings, and so close in agreement as to strike a chord of wonder. Modern science tells us that measurement of time – and its passage - depends on the speed of an object: the higher the speed, slower the time-travel. At the speed of light, (300,000 km per second) time comes to a halt, that is, it should register any elapsed time as zero. Accordingly, if someone traveled on the back of a photon, for say a few minutes, those that are stationary on the earth, would experience the elapse of thousands of years during those same few minutes of the traveler saddled on the back of the photon. Little wonder then that a day of the angel, traveling at, perhaps faster than the speed of light, could be a thousand years for us. It is another thing that a day of the angel could as well be an instant, and the thousand years of the earthlings actually a tremendously higher figure, since it is the relativity of time that is intended by the verse, and not the exact ratio (Au.).

As this writer revises this work in November 2011, news has arrived that several experiments have consistently yielded the result that some sub-atomic particles travel faster than light and that, Einstein’s equations, based on the assumption that nothing can travel faster than light, have a question mark before them (Au.).

11. The generally accepted meaning of the words “perfected everything that He created” is that whatever Allah created, created to the greatest degree of perfection (Au.).

In Asad’s words, “He fashions every detail of His creation in accordance with the functions intended for it, irrespective of whether those functions can be understood by us or are beyond the reach of our perception.”

Ibn `Abbas (and Mujahid: Qurtubi) had remarked in reference to this verse that surely a monkey’s buttocks are not the best things to look at, but functionally, they are perfectly designed (Ibn Jarir, Shawkani).

It is reported in Tabarani through Abu Umamah that he said,

بَيْنَمَا نَحْنُ مَعَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، إِذْ لَحِقَنَا عَمْرُو بن زُرَارَةَ الأَنْصَارِيُّ فِي حُلَّةٍ إِزَارٍ وَرِدَاءٍ، قَدْ أَسْبَلَ، فَجَعَلَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَأْخُذُ بناحِيَةِ ثَوْبِهِ، وَيَتَوَاضَعُ لِلَّهِ، وَيَقُولُ:"اللَّهُمَّ عَبْدُكَ، وَابْنُ عَبْدِكَ، وَابْنُ أَمَتِكَ"حَتَّى سَمِعَهَا عَمْرُو بن زُرَارَةَ، فَالْتَفَتَ إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، فَقَالَ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ، إِنِّي أَحْمَسُ السَّاقَيْنِ، فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ:"يَا عَمْرَو بن زُرَارَةَ، إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ قَدْ أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ خَلْقِهِ، يَا عَمْرَو بن زُرَارَةَ، إِنَّ اللَّهَ لا يُحِبُّ الْمُسْبِلِينَ"

“While we were with the Prophet, we met with `Amr b. Zurarah the Ansari. He had a cloak on him which reached his ankles. The Prophet (saws) picked up one end of his cloak. He said in explanation, “Messenger of Allah, I have very thin legs.” The Prophet told him, “O `Amr b. Zurarah, Allah perfected everything He created. O `Amr b. Zurarah, Allah does not approve of those who let down their clothes below the ankles” (Shawkani).

Haythamiyy gave his approval to one of the two chains of narrators of this report (Au.).

12. Within the three or four years that have elapsed since we wrote the lines while discussing verse 26 of Surah Al-Hijr, (note 26 and 27), further biological researches are leading the scientist to the conclusions that add mystery to the question of life’s origins. For example, oxygen is necessary for “continuation” of life. But it is highly unfavorably disposed to “the first formation” of life. Its presence at the origin of life is ruled out because it would have immediately oxidized the newly formed living molecule and disintegrated them into fragments. But, in an oxygen-free atmosphere, ultraviolet-induced radiation would have immediately broken down any DNA molecule, which are highly sensitive to the ultraviolet flux. So, it seems we cannot accommodate (although necessary) oxygen-induced atmosphere at the beginning but cannot do without it later. So we are in a conundrum: we do not want oxygen at the start, but cannot run the life-machine without it later.

There are further twists. E.g., the protein synthesis apparatus in every cell requires energy. But production of energy depends on properly functioning protein synthesis apparatus. The two are interlocked. We cannot have one without the other. This is true of whatever level of organism that is examined and however back we go in earth’s history. Indeed the whole cell-apparatus is so complicated that we do not know where to begin for a clue to how life could have started. Francis Crick, the famous Nobel Prize winner, co-discoverer of the DNA wrote in his “Life Itself”: “An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.” (Evolution, a Theory in Crisis, Michael Denton, Adler and Adler, 1996, p. 268).

The idea that all life organisms have risen from previous species is also becoming difficult to assert with complete confidence. Fossil evidences show that probably in many earlier epochs several species have appeared on a sudden out of the blue. This does not sit well with the accepted notion that mutations (resulting in alteration of organs and functions) have to be gradual, leading up ultimately to the appearance of new species: from single-celled animal to multiple-celled organisms, culminating through the evolutionary tree in man. Geologists have found rock layers of all divisions of the last 500 million years but no transitional forms were contained in them: meaning, life forms appeared suddenly, just from nowhere. But the story goes beyond 500 million years. Biologists are now admitting that the simplest cell, e.g. that of a bacterium, “have nothing primitive” about them. Although they appeared very early in Earth’s history, they represent fully formed and highly complex machinery – just as a human cell - without any visible trace of a primitive structure. The plot does not end here either. It gets deeper with every new discovery. For example, an Australian group of researchers have recently reported the remains of a simple type of algae (a form of aquatic life) in rocks at least 3.5 billion years old. This means life appeared very early on the primitive earth without a trace of evolution. This sudden appearance of life has no explanation (Au.).

13. “(This) is a metaphor for the divine gift of life and consciousness, or of a soul..” (Asad).

“… a spirit from Him” is no more than a spirit from Allah (and not of Him). The Christians fasten a lie upon Allah when they say that `Isa was Allah’s own soul, emanating from Him, forgetting that every soul is from Allah (Razi).

One wonders whether there is room for understanding that man has a spirit from God in the sense of possessing some of the attributes that are those of Him – although in limited degree? (Au.).

14. Hearing, sight and heart: the order has been maintained everywhere in the Qur’an, (unless there was some reason to alter it). This is because, a man first hears of a thing, then uses his own sight for confirmation, then he uses faculties of his heart and mind to analyze, deduce, and arrive at his own conclusions and opinions (Razi - paraphrased).

15. Shanqiti comments: “Here, mention is made of a single angel. But at several other places in the Qur’an, several angels have been mentioned as participating in the drawing of the soul. E.g. (16: 28),

الَّذِينَ تَتَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلائِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنفُسِهِمْ (النحل - 28)

“Those, whose lives the angels took while they were wronging themselves..”

Or (6: 93),

وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذِ الظَّالِمُونَ فِي غَمَرَاتِ الْمَوْتِ وَالْمَلآئِكَةُ بَاسِطُواْ أَيْدِيهِمْ (الأنعام - 93)

“If you could see when the wrong-doers are in the agonies of death, angels stretching their hands.." (Adwa’ al-Qur’an).

A literary implication of the textual word “tawaffa,” as explained by Qurtubi, is: “to reckon (count), and, take (or accept) in full.”

The apparent meaning is that it is a particular angel that is meant, as a hadith would also lead us to believe. Some reports name him as `Izra’il ( عِزرائيل ) [which name means `Abdullah: Qurtubi].

Qatadah and others have said that he has assistants (for his task) - Qutrubi.

A hadith gives us to understand that it is the assistants who draw the soul until it is at the throat, and then `Izra’il takes over (Ibn Kathir).

16. Razi takes our minds beyond the information we receive and store, without realizing the significance. That our souls are drawn by the angels, and left in their custody is known by all and sundry. But our concern ends with death. What about the time our souls (our selves) will be in the custody of the angels? He writes: The clean and purified soul will remain with the angels like someone among his kinsfolk, for the great consanguinity with them (the pure with the pure). As for the wicked soul, it will remain with them like a prisoner, (lonely), not knowing their language, nor they its language, with nothing common between them and it.

Some ahadith lead us to believe that there are other angels to draw the souls of the Jinn, animals, insects, etc. (Alusi).

17. Mujahid has said that the whole earth is no more than a tray for the angel of death from which he picks souls with complete ease (Ibn Jarir, Zamakhshari, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Ibn `Abbas is also reported to have made the statement as above. In fact, a hadith says the same thing but it is Mursal (Ibn Kathir).

Those who bear some misgiving about how the angel of death can alone be drawing the souls of the thousands that die every day, may look again at the preceding ayah about relativity of time, although, in this case, in the reverse (Au.).