Surah Al-Jathiyah 45:22-26 - Quran Translation Commentary

(45:22) Allah created the heavens and the earth in truth so that every soul may be recompensed for what it has earned, and they shall not be wronged.³⁰

(45:23) Have you then seen him who has taken his base desires as his god?³¹ Allah has led him astray out of a knowledge,³² has sealed his hearing and his heart, and has placed a covering on his eyes. Who then shall guide him after Allah? Will you then not heed?

(45:24) They say ‘There is nothing but the life of this world: we die and we live;³³ and nothing but Time destroys us.’³⁴ Of that they have no knowledge; they merely conjecture.³⁵

(45:25) When Our clear revelations are recited to them their only argument was to say, ‘Bring back our forefathers if you are truthful.’

(45:26) Say, ‘Allah gives you life, then he will deal you death, and then he will gather you together on the Day of Standing,³⁶ about which there is no doubt, but most of the people know not.’

Commentary

30. When Allah said that a believer and unbeliever cannot be treated equal, He cited the creation of the world in truth as evidence. How can the Creator of the world in truth, allow that a pious and a wrongdoer be treated equal? If He treated them equal, then, the created world is reduced to meaninglessness. Therefore, He must establish a Day in which the pious is compensated for his good deeds and a wrongdoer is punished for his evil deeds and beliefs (Razi).

31. Qurtubi comments as follows: The Qur’an has several passages condemning the following of “hawa” (base instinct, or desire). The following maybe brought to notice:

“And he followed his base desires; and so, his example is like that of a dog..” (7: 176). Or,

“And he followed his base desires and so his affair is ever in excess.” (18: 28). Or,

“And, who can be in greater wrong that he who followed his base desires without a guidance from Allah?” (28: 50). Or,

“And follow not base desires, or they will deflect you from Allah’s path.” (38: 26).

And a hadith of this context says, “One of you will not believe until his base instinct follows what I have brought.”

(But this hadith does not appear in sahih works: Au.). ???

On the other hand we have a hadith which says,

“An intelligent person is he who takes account of himself and works for what is going to be after death, while, weak is one who followed his base desires but fastens good hope on Allah.”

(This hadith is found in Tirmidhi [who declared it Hasan], Hakim [who declared it sahih but Dhahabi disagreed] and in other works: Haythami in Majma`). Yet another hadith on the topic has the following text:

“Three (things) are destructive while three are means of salvation. As for the destructive, they are: a miserliness that is obeyed, a base self that is followed, and a man pleased with himself. As for the means of salvation, they are: justice in anger or agreeableness, moderation in richness and poverty, and Allah’s fear in secret and open.”

(This report – popularly found in many collections, and in variety of texts - is declared Hasan by Albani: Au.).

Accordingly, we have Abu Darda’s statement: “When a man does his morning his base desires, his deeds and his knowledge gather together. Now, if his deeds follow his base desires, that is an evil day for him. But if his deeds follow his knowledge, his day is propitious for him.” Allah said (79: 40-41),

“Then, as for him who feared the standing before his Lord and denied the inner self base desires, then surely Paradise is his abode.”

Quotation from Qurtubi ends here.

32. The interpretation of Ibn `Abbas in reference to “out of a knowledge” is: “in view of His eternal knowledge” or, the “knowledge that has preceded” (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi). Another possible meaning is, “despite the man’s knowledge that devotion to deities is neither profitable nor harmful.”

33. That is, we die and are replaced by our children who live on, and so on it goes (Zamakhshari).

34. (But Time, in the sense of what happens day in and day out, throughout the universe, throughout time, is Allah (swt) Himself: Au.). Says a hadith:

Adam’s son vexes Me. He speaks of Time in evil terms, while I am the Time. In My hands is the affair. I alternate the night and day.” This hadith comes to us from Abu Hurayrah, through several chains of narration (Ibn Jarir, Zamakhshari).

Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir present a few other reports of the same meaning from the Sahihayn and other works. They also point out that (according to Imam Shafe`i and a few others: Ibn Kathir), the Arabs of pagan past used to attribute evil occurrences to Time saying, when they met someone struck by ill-fortune, “O the one struck by evil Time.” But since all that happens is by Allah’s will, to blame Time is to blame Allah; hence the hadith, “Do not speak Time in evil terms.”

At all events, adds Ibn Kathir, Ibn Hazm and a few others are not right in claiming, in view of the ahadith of this nature that “Al-Dahr” is one of the Names of Allah. It is not.

35. Had they said, (as should the scientists of today be saying: Au.), that “we do not know whether there is any life after death or not,” or, “we do not know whether man’s soul is seized by God after death or not,” then, it would have been reasonable on their part. But these are not the kind of answers they give when asked about life after death, or about souls being taken back by Allah. Instead, these people, who seem to be otherwise reasonable and scientific, make statements based entirely on conjecture misleading themselves as well as others (Mawdudi).

36. When the pagans demanded that their forefathers be brought back to life, this is the answer the revelation gave: “This bringing back to life will not happen now, at individual basis, but rather, the entire humanity will be brought to life on a day which is determined by none other than Allah himself (Mawdudi).