Surah Al-Jathiyah 45:1-11 - Quran Translation Commentary

(45:5) And in the alternation of night and day,⁶ and in what Allah sends down of provision⁷ from heaven, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and in turning about of the winds – are signs for a people who reason.⁸

(45:6) These are the verses of Allah that We recite upon you in truth. In what discourse then will they believe - after Allah and His signs?⁹

(45:7) Woe unto every lying¹⁰ slandering sinner.¹¹

(45:8) He hears Allah’s revelations rehearsed to him, yet persists arrogantly, as if he heard them not. So give him glad tidings of a painful chastisement.

(45:9) When he comes to know of anything about Our revelations, he takes them in jest.¹² They, for them is a humiliating chastisement.

(45:10) Behind them is Jahannum.¹³ What they earn shall not avail them aught, nor will those that they took as protectors apart from Allah.¹⁴ For them is a mighty chastisement.

(45:11) This is guidance. As for those who disbelieved in the signs of Allah, for them is punishment of a painful, devastating nature.

Commentary

2. To take a quick example, there is perfect balance between the short wave radiation originating from the sun and the long wave radiation originating from the earth. If this balance is minutely disturbed, life cannot exist on the earth. There are signs for those who wish to believe in this phenomenon (Au.).

Sayyid writes, “The signs that are spread in the heavens and the earth are not any less in anything when compared to another, nor change from place to place; so that in whichever direction man extends his sight, he will find signs staring upon him in the universe full of wonders … What is there that has no signs?

“These heavens that include huge cosmi bodies, their various levels of existence, which, although massive beyond imagination, are spread like specks in space .. the space itself so imposing .. so vast .. so beautiful.

“And this earth, so vast by human measure, but less than a mentionable speck in comparison to the huge universe, is, so to say, lost in this vast, expansive space .. lost, if not for the Power that holds it in place and administers it, binding it to the massive universe in which nothing gets lost.

“And, in what Allah (swt) has placed in the earth as its qualities, by placing it in a well-determined position in the space, which allows for the appearance, sustenance and growth of life .. and the earth endowed with the well balanced conditions that alone allow life to flourish on it, without one of which conditions it could not have flourished, (are signs for the people).

“Every little thing on this earth .. every living thing .. and every little part of a whole on this earth is a sign by itself .. And, in being a sign, every little thing is as good as any large thing. This little leaf, of this large tree, or a little plant on the ground, is a sign .. it is a sign in its size and shape, in its color and touch .. a sign in its function and composition. And this hair on the body of an animal or man .. is a sign .. a sign in its specialties, in its size, color and its functions. This feather in a bird’s wing .. is a sign .. it is a sign in the material of its composition, placement and functions. In whatever direction a man may stretch his sight, in the heavens or the earth, he will find signs of all sorts spread all over.

“But! Who is it that sees the signs and perceives them? To whom do these signs announce of their existence? To whom?

“To those who believe!”

“Consider the creation of humans endowed with amazing qualities. It is a miracle; except that it does not strike us as a miracle because of our daily experiencing of it, because of our familiarity with it. Otherwise, every joint, every limb, every organ is a miracle.

“A one-celled ameba is a miracle. (It has more DNA than the cell of a human being: Au.). If an amoeba is a miracle, then what about those biological organisms that are smaller than ameba? And what about the whole of man? And the life organisms around him, each a miracle in its own right.

“Take the world around man. The eagle (which can see a rat on the earth from one km distance in the sky: Au.) is a destroyer of bird life. It lives long but has few progeny. The lion also lives long, but its population is low. Sparrows on the other hand live a short life, but are in millions. Flies live just for 15 days, but are in millions. Who decided on this balance so that neither is the forest filled with just a single animal, nor, if left to itself, any species suffers extinction. Surely, in this are signs for those who wish to believe.”

3. Life defies laws of nature. If there was no life, and, if it was suggested by a hypothetical being that life should be created, the answer would be, the laws of nature will have to be altered before any such attempt at plant life, animal life or human life can be made. This is because natural laws do not support life’s emergence. The basic problem is, matter constantly undergoes erratic changes. It is unstable and disorganized. Water turns into vapor, or solidifies. Other materials keep polluting it. On the other hand, life is highly organized matter to which no element can be added. For example, humans are made of 24 elements in all: silicon, phosphate, carbon, oxygen, etc., in certain proportions. No 25th element can be added to the humans. If fed, the body rejects them, or may die out. There can be no life organism which has, e.g., 40 elements in it. Again, there is no chaotic action in the body, as against the chaotic movement of the air or liquids, or even matter. We might take blood circulation as an example, or, movement of food taken in, movement of material within the cells, or movement of cells within organs. All these movements are highly organized. No organelle within the cell’s protoplasm can penetrate into the cell nucleus. These are simple examples to demonstrate how life defies laws of nature prevalent everywhere but not within life systems. In this – and this only one in a million - are signs for those who are ready to believe.

After facing the difficulty with the laws of nature, we come across the question of the “state of the earth” to create life. The present state of the earth does not allow for origination of life. The chemical combinations required for the creation of first life, do not exist anywhere in the earth nor can those conditions be created in which life can originate. For example, oxygen is essential for life. But oxygen is a strong reactant. As soon as those materials that are essential life-elements are brought into contact with oxygen, it immediately reacts to produce another substance. In other words, we need oxygen, but without its characteristics. The characteristics of oxygen should be suspended for a while until life has come into existence, but should be brought back immediately after the combination is made. Thus, life contradicts nature’s laws in many ways and the scientists have no doubt about it that life cannot be created by any means. It can only be replicated from life forms that already exist. These are only introductory remarks for a subject which requires volumes to explain. Are there no signs in this for those who use their reason? (Au.)

4. Just as there is perfect balance between long and short waves, between the laws of nature, or between the distances between the planets revolving around the sun, there is a perfect balance between the animals that have been scattered abroad by Allah. Every forest has a balanced stable animal population. But the scattering abroad has its role to play. Animals that migrate over thousands of miles play their role in maintaining the balance, removing extra living organisms from one place, and providing food to other living organisms in another place. Some birds migrate to places 12,000 km. away and return within the same year by flying back the same 12,000 km. In so doing, they play important eco role. From fishes to butterfly to ants, they all migrate, in tens of thousands, and for no apparent reason. In this scattering abroad of animals are signs for those who have minds that ponder (Au.).

5. “The intricate nature of human and animal bodies, and the life-preserving instincts with which all living creatures have been endowed, make it virtually impossible to assume that all this has developed ‘by accident;’ and if we assume, as we must, that a creative purpose underlies this development, we must conclude, too, that it has been willed by a conscious Power which creates all natural phenomena ‘in accordance with an inner truth’” (Asad).

6. Alternations are of two kinds: first, that of the day following the night and night following the day, and, second, the alteration in the length of the days and nights (Razi).

7. The allusion by provision is to rains, the prime cause of vegetation (Au.).

8. One notes the various terms in verses 3-5: “Signs for those who believe; signs for those who are of assured faith; signs for a people who reason.” There seems to be an ascending order. There are signs that are easily discernable to one and all, if they have some faith in God. In the second stage, greater signs are visible to those who have firm faith. Finally, armed with firm faith, and knowledge of both the kinds: sacred as well as profane (meaning scientific), coupled with righteous living, a believer is able to discern more subtle signs (Au., with a point from Alusi).

9. “After Allah and His signs” i.e., after Allah’s discourse and the signs He has spread around (Tabari).

Sayyid adds: “There are innumerable, undeniable signs of Allah around man. The hearts feel them, the soul recognizes them, the mind is awakened by them. These signs speak the language of nature, understood by all - there being such close relationship between man and nature. The Qur’an, therefore, gives the hints and moves on. Yet, and despite these signs apparent to all, if someone will not believe, then there is nothing that can make him believe. He who is not woken up by these whispers, will not be woken up by shouts.”

10. “Affak” is a habitually lying person, or a big liar (Au.).

11. That is, (a totally corrupt man: Au.): a liar in his words and a sinner in his deeds (Ibn Kathir).

12. Accordingly, the Prophet (saws) prohibited that one travel with a copy of the Qur’an to a land whose people are at war with the Muslims, in fear that it might fall in the hands of the enemy (Ibn Kathir). The hadith in Sahih of Muslim is as follows:

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(Sami).

13. That is, in front of them. We say, “He was planning those cunning movements but his fate was smiling at him from behind him” (Au.).

14. Mawdudi points out that the term “waliyy” has been used in two senses: (1) deities, male and female, whom they think will save them from Allah’s wrath if they devoted themselves to them enough, and (2) those who the people treat as guides and patrons, in whose obedience they would even disobey their Lord. Both these kinds of “awliya’” will avail them not aught.