Surah Al-An'am 6:101-110 - Quran Translation Commentary

(6:101) Originator¹⁷⁵ of the heavens and the earth: how should He have a child when He has not a female companion,¹⁷⁶ when He created all things and is Aware of all things?¹⁷⁷

(6:102) That is your God, your Lord. There is no god save He; Creator of all things,¹⁷⁸ therefore, worship Him. He is the Care taker of all things.

(6:103) Visions cannot grasp Him,¹⁷⁹ while He grasps the visions. He is the All subtle, the All aware.¹⁸⁰

(6:104) Surely, clear proofs¹⁸¹ have come to you from your Lord. Whoso sees, does it for himself. Whoso remains blind, does it to his own loss.¹⁸² (Tell them), ‘I am not a keeper over you.'¹⁸³

(6:105) Thus We propound the revelation variously¹⁸⁴ so that they may say, ‘You have taken lessons;'¹⁸⁵ and so that We may make it plain to a people who know.

(6:106) Follow that which has been revealed unto you by your Lord; there is no god save He; and turn aside from the associators.

(6:107) Had Allah willed, they would not have associated.¹⁸⁶ We have not appointed you a guardian¹⁸⁷ over them nor are you a keeper¹⁸⁸ over them.

(6:108) And revile not (O Muslims) those whom they invoke besides Allah or they will, in their ignorance, spitefully revile Allah.¹⁸⁹ That is how We have decked out fair to every people their deeds.¹⁹⁰ Then, unto their Lord is their return and He shall declare unto them what they were doing.

(6:109) They swore by God the most earnest oath that if a sign came to them they will believe in it. Say, ‘Signs are only with Allah.'¹⁹¹ And what will make you realize (O Muslims) that when it comes they will not believe.¹⁹²

(6:110) We shall turn away their hearts and eyes because they did not believe in it in the first instance,¹⁹³ and leave them in their insolence stumbling blindly.

Commentary

175. The textual word "Badi`" is to produce something without an earlier example; hence the word "bid`ah" which is to introduce a new practice in religion (Ibn Kathir).

176. Majid writes: "This refutes the polytheism of several peoples like the Hindus, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians, which maintained that each god had a female companion or consort. Indian polytheism went further. ‘Even God', according to the Upanishads ‘had a desire for progeny and wished a wife for propagation' (Indira, Status of Women in Ancient India, pp.129 130)."

177. That is, since Allah is the Creator, He has knowledge of all things. Now, if He had children He would have known them better than the creations who attribute sons and daughters to Him (Manar).

178. Sayyid Qutb quotes Frank Allen as saying in one of his works: Quite often it is said that this material world does not need a creator. But if we admit that this world is in existence then we run into the difficulty of explaining it. There can be four possible explanations. Either (i) this world is only a dream and a vision, (but that seems to contradict many evidences we have of it being real, although Sir James Jeans also held the view that this is a world of illusions which has no reality beyond our minds), or, (ii) it came to existence by itself by its own force (which no man in his right mind would accept), or, (iii) it has been there since eternity (but, that leaves greater room for the acceptance of a "living" eternal power as its creator rather than a "lifeless" matter in existence since eternity), or, (vi) it should have a creator, which seems to be the most plausible alternative.

In an earlier passage he quotes John Cleveland C. as saying in his work "God Appears in the Age of Knowledge": Chemistry tells us that the elements are in a state of decay: some slow some fast. This means that matter will not last for ever, which also means that it has not been there since eternity. We also have evidence that the creation of matter was not a gradual affair. Rather it sprang up suddenly. Science can even tell us when that happened. It also tells us that from the beginning of the affair the physical world has been following a set of laws. These are strong proofs that it has a creator.

Further, if the material world could not be its own creator, then the non material world, (the living) is all the more impossible of self creation. There is sufficient evidence to prove that the force that brought this world into existence is endowed with the powers of intellect and wisdom. He also seems to have a will. Obviously, these facts point to a creator.”

That this world has to have a creator is a matter of common sense. But the scientists who take up this discussion, in their effort to demonstrate that it need not, are running into huge difficulties. To take just one aspect, they are discovering that fine-tuning of the universe, the laws governing it, the origin of life and its continuance, all point to a designing agent. Dr. Michael Behe writes: “A planet in the right region of the solar system, in the right region of a galaxy, in a universe with the right kinds of laws to produce chemicals with the right kinds of properties – this is all necessary for life, but still very far from sufficient. The planet itself has to be not too big and not too small, with enough but not too much water, the right kind of minerals in the right places, a core active enough to power plate tectonics but not so active as to blow everything apart, and much, much more. Some of these factors considered in isolation may be less improbable, others more improbable, but all are critical. If one of them were missing, intelligent life would be precluded.” (The Edge of Evolution, p. 212, The Free Press, 2007). And, “The laws and constants of the universe are finely tuned to allow life. So, too, are the physical and chemical properties of elements such as carbon and simple compounds such as water. So, too, is earth’s location in the galaxy and solar system. So, too, are details of the earth’s size, composition, and history .. The physical and chemical properties of DNA, proteins, lipids, and other substances are superbly fit for the roles they play in the cell. No other kinds of molecules are known that could plausibly fill those roles.. one would be hard pressed to find a category of biomolecule or basic feature of life that isn’t finely tuned.” (Ibid, p. 214).

179. The word in the original is yudrikuhu. Most commentators have understood it in the way we have translated it here. Alternatively, it could be rendered as "encompass Him." That is, a vision of Allah (swt) is not denied, but a vision that can fully encompass Him, comprehend Him, or grasp Him in full, has been denied. This is how `A'isha (ra) understood it. When Masruq asked her (in a report in Ibn Abi Hatim: Ibn Kathir), whether Muhammad saw his Lord, she replied: "Glory to Allah. My hair stands on ends for what you say." Then she recited this verse: "Visions cannot grasp Him. But He can grasp visions. He is the All subtle, the All aware."

The Beatific Vision, however, will not be denied to the dwellers in Paradise. It will be denied to those who deny His vision anywhere: in this world or the next. This is proven by several ahadith. One of them says:

إِنَّكُمْ سَتَرَوْنَ رَبَّكُمْ كَمَا تَرَوْنَ هَذَا الْقَمَرَ لَا تُضَامُّونَ فِي رُؤْيَتِهِ

"You shall see your Lord in the Hereafter just as you can see the full moon now, without doubting your sight."

(A report in Muslim narrated by Suhayb says:

إِذَا دَخَلَ أَهْلُ الْجَنَّةِ الْجَنَّةَ، وَأَهْلُ النَّارِ النَّارَ، نَادَى مُنَادٍ: يَا أَهْلَ الْجَنَّةِ، إِنَّ لَكُمْ عِنْدَ اللَّهِ مَوْعِدًا يُرِيدُ أَنْ يُنْجِزَكُمُوهُ، فَيَقُولُونَ: وَمَا هُوَ؟ أَلَمْ يُثَقِّلْ مَوَازِينَنَا، وَيُبَيِّضْ وُجُوهَنَا، وَأَدْخَلَنَا الْجَنَّةَ، وَأَخْرَجَنَا مِنَ النَّارِ، قَالَ: فَيُكْشَفُ الْحِجَابُ، فَيَنْظُرُونَ إِلَيْهِ، فَوَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ مَا أَعْطَاهُمْ شَيْئًا أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّظَرِ إِلَيْهِ

“When the people of Paradise would have entered Paradise, and the people of Fire, the Fire, a caller will call: "O people of Paradise. Allah has made a promise to you which He wishes to fulfill." They will enquire: ‘What is it? Did He not effect increase in the weight of our balance, brightened our faces, admitted us into Paradise and released us from the Fire?' At that the veil will be removed and they will see Him. And, He would not have given them anything dearer than to be seeing Him.”

Therefore, the interpretation of the present verse is: Visions cannot sight Him in this world. In the Hereafter, the true believers will see Him, but they will not be able to encompass Him fully. Some scholars have stressed that humans with these five senses can never see Him. Therefore they will be granted a new sense by which they will be able to see Him (Ibn Jarir). `Amr b. al Kufiyy was also of this opinion (Razi). Further, Razi adds a few lines later, the posterity might note the point that two major Companions of the Prophet held different opinions about the Prophet having seen or not seen his Lord in his nocturnal journey (`A'isha being of the opinion that he did not see his Lord, but Ibn `Abbas maintaining that he did). But that did not lead them to calling each other misguided, or innovators (bida`i).

Razi also writes: Allah has spoken of His vision being granted to the believers in several other parts of the Qur'an. In one place (10: 26) He said:

لِلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا الْحُسْنَى وَزِيَادَةٌ [يونس : 26]

"For those who do good, there will be good, and more," where "more" has been explained as the Beatific Vision; and (18: 110),

فَمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُو لِقَاءَ رَبِّهِ [الكهف : 110]

"Therefore, whoever desires meeting His Lord," which promises the Vision; and (83: 15),

كَلَّا إِنَّهُمْ عَنْ رَبِّهِمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ لَمَحْجُوبُونَ [المطففين : 15]

"Nay. That Day they shall be veiled from their Lord."

And, Qurtubi adds another example (75: 23):

وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَاضِرَةٌ (22) إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ [القيامة : 22 ، 23]

"Faces that Day will be bright. Looking at their Lord."

Ibn Kathir writes: Thus it turns out that it is in the sense of comprehending a reality that the word idrak has been used in this verse. That is, something the believers would never attain even when they are granted the Beatific Vision, just as one sees the moon, without comprehending its reality in full. When `Ikrimah was asked about this verse (in a report in Ibn Abi Hatim) he responded in the following manner: ‘Do you see the sky?' The questioner replied: ‘Of course.' `Ikrimah asked: ‘Do you see the whole of it?!' Hence, Qatadah has said: ‘Allah is greater than that anyone should ever comprehend Him.'

As for the question, can anyone see Allah with these physical eyes, it is well known that Ibn `Abbas held an opinion different from `A'isha. Treating a report as of the same standard as those of the Sahihayn, although they did not narrate it, Hakim has recorded `Ikrimah as saying: "I heard Ibn `Abbas say that Muhammad saw His Lord. I asked him, ‘Has not Allah said, "Visions cannot grasp Him"?' He replied, ‘May you lose your mother. The allusion there is to the Nur (Light). If He appears in His Nur, none can grasp Him.'" According to another version he said, "Nothing can withstand Him." Of course, Ibn Kathir adds, there is a tradition of the Prophet too which conforms the latter part of what Ibn `Abbas said. One in the Sahihayn narrates Abu Musa al Ash`ariyy as saying that the Prophet said:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَنَامُ وَلاَ يَنْبَغِى لَهُ أَنْ يَنَامَ يَرْفَعُ الْقِسْطَ وَيَخْفِضُهُ وَيُرْفَعُ إِلَيْهِ عَمَلُ النَّهَارِ بِاللَّيْلِ وَعَمَلُ اللَّيْلِ بِالنَّهَارِ حِجَابُهُ النُّورُ لَوْ كَشَفَهُ لَأَحْرَقَتْ سُبُحَاتُ وَجْهِهِ مَا انْتَهَى إِلَيْهِ بَصَرُهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ

"Allah does not sleep and it behooves Him not to sleep. He raises and lowers the Scale. The deeds of the day are raised up to Him by the night, and the deeds of the night by the day. His veil is Nur. If He were to remove the veil, the Glory of His Face will burn down His creations to the extent of His vision."

Quote from Ibn Kathir ends here.

180. Allah is too subtle for visions to grasp Him. Yet He is All aware, so He can grasp all visions, no matter how subtle they be (Razi, Alusi, Manar).

Asad comments: "The term latif denotes something that is extremely subtle in quality, and therefore intangible and unfathomable. Whenever this term occurs in the Qur'an with reference to God in conjunction with the adjective khabir ("All Aware"), it is invariably used to express the idea of His inaccessibility to human perception, imagination or comprehension, as contrasted with His Own all awareness (see apart from the above verse, also 22: 63, 31: 16, 33: 34). In the two instances where the combination of latif and khabir carries the definite article al (6: 103 and 67: 14), the expression huwa 'l latif has the meaning of "He alone is unfathomable" implying that this quality of His is unique and absolute."

181. Razi writes: Just as idrak is to comprehend fully with one's physical eye, basirah (pl. basa'ir) is to comprehend a thing fully with one's internal eye. Allah said (75: 14):

بَلِ الْإِنْسَانُ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ بَصِيرَةٌ [القيامة : 14]

"Rather, man is well aware of himself"

The textual word herewith is basa'ir, plural of basirah, which means light of the heart (Shawkani).

182. Qadi has pointed out that this refutes any misgiving about the concept of fatalism in Islam. Further, the verse demonstrates by implication that someone who refuses to think, rationalize things, or follow the course of reason, does it to his own loss. He closes the doors of bestowal both from his self as well as his Lord (based on Razi).

183. That is, ‘I am not a keeper of the record of your deeds so that I may punish or reward you. I am only a warner' (Razi).

184. Another possible rendering could be, in the words of Asad: "And thus do We give many facets to Our messages."

185. The word darasta of the text has been variously read, allowing for other meanings such as: "you have studied (the older Scriptures)," "you have learnt (from others)," "you have read (books)," "you have been taught," etc. And the purport of the verse ("Thus We make distinct the signs so that they may say, ‘You have taken lessons;' and so that We may make it plain to a people who know") is: That is how We present the Qur'anic text in a variety of styles so that you might not conclude (O unbelievers) that Muhammad learnt it from others; and We do that because We have taken it upon Ourselves to make the message clear to those who have knowledge (Ibn Jarir). A report in Hakim however, declared sahih of narrators although Bukhari and Muslim did not include in their compilation, has Ubayy b. Ka`b saying: "The Prophet taught me to read it as "darasta" (Ibn Kathir).

186. Asad explains: "I.e., no mortal has it in his power to cause another person to believe unless God graces that person with His guidance."

187. Hafiz: i.e., someone who makes note of their words and deeds (Ibn Kathir).

188. Wakil: i.e., someone who is made in charge of their sustenance and their behavior (Ibn Kathir). Penrice defines the word as: "One who takes care of anything for another, guardian of one's interests, a patron, administrator, disposer of affairs, witness over a bargain."

189. According to a report in Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim and Ibn Marduwayh, when the Prophet belittled pagan deities, the Makkans threatened that if he would not desist they would in retaliation condemn his Lord. This verse was revealed in response (Shawkani). It has also been reported that some Muslims used to revile pagan gods for which Allah expressed His disapproval through this verse. Further, the rule is general. That is, when there is fear that a good deed will become the cause of an evil, it better be avoided. For example, it is good to forbid the vice. But, when it is strongly felt that preventing it will lead to greater evil, then forbidding it is a sin and not a virtue (Zamakhshari, Razi).

It is reported of Abu Mansur that he asked: "How come Allah forbid us to revile something that deserves to be reviled, (although so displeasing to Him) that He asked us to wage a war against them?!" Then he answered himself that reviling false gods is not an obligation while fighting in the cause of Islam is an obligation. That is, if reactions of a severe nature result from a non obligatory action, then that action becomes unlawful (Alusi, Manar).

The Prophet once said:

عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَمْرِو بْنِ الْعَاصِ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- قَالَ :مِنَ الْكَبَائِرِ شَتْمُ الرَّجُلِ وَالِدَيْهِ. فَقَالُوا : يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ هَلْ يَشْتِمُ الرَّجُلُ وَالِدَيْهِ؟ فَقَالَ :« نَعَمْ يَسُبُّ أَبَا الرَّجُلِ فَيَسُبُّ أَبَاهُ وَيَسُبُّ أُمَّهُ فَيَسُبُّ أُمَّهُ

The Prophet said, "It is major sin for a man to revile his parents." They asked: "Messenger of Allah. Can someone revile his parents?" He replied: "Yes. He reviles another’s father, and he revile his parents" (Ibn Kathir, Shawkani). The hadith is in Muslim and Tirmidhi (S. Ibrahim).

Zamakhshari adds: It is said that both Hasan al-Busri and Ibn Sirin came to attend a funeral. They found some women also attending the event. When Ibn Sirin saw them he turned back and left. But Hasan did not, saying, "If we give up an obligation because of an accompanying evil, then we will have to do without many obligations."

Hence, Shafi` adds, if it is known that admonishing a man will invoke him out of spite to greater evils, then he should not be admonished.

Asad adds: "This prohibition of reviling anything that other people hold sacred even in contravention of the principle of God's oneness is expressed in the plural and is, therefore, addressed to all believers. Thus, while Muslims are expected to argue against the false beliefs of others, they are not allowed to abuse the objects of those beliefs and to hurt thereby the feelings of their erring fellow men."

Rashid Rida writes that by implication the word Kafir ought not be used for the unbelievers in general. That is because originally the word Kafir stood for concealing or hiding something, in which sense the Qur'an used the word for a farmer (48: 29). In earlier times it was used for those unbelievers who concealed the truth in their hearts of Allah's Oneness. But, with the passage of time, the word has acquired the connotations of insult and humiliation. Now, since insulting or humiliating the people is not allowed in Islam, the unbelievers may not be called Kafirs now. The Hanafiyyah, for instance, state (in Mu`in al Hukkam) that if a Muslim insults a Dhimmi, he deserves retribution. They have also ruled that if a Muslim said to a Dhimmi "O Kafir" and he felt humiliated, (he has to be compensated).

Sayyid Qutb adds: "The previous verse instructed the Prophet to "turn aside from the associators." This one instructs the believers how they should do it. It should be done with grace and not in the cheap manner of calling their deities names or disparaging them in some manner. This is the kind of attitude that is becoming of the believers: those who have confidence in their faith, whose hearts and minds rest assured in the correctness of the opinions held by them."

190. Asad writes: "(This implies) that it is in the nature of man to regard the beliefs which have been implanted in him from childhood, and which he now shares with his social environment, as the only true and possible ones with the result that a polemic against those beliefs often tends to provoke a hostile psychological reaction."

As for Allah decking out fair their evil deeds to the unbelievers, Mawdudi offers the following explanation: "Here we should understand .. that God declares those things which take place as a result of the operation of the laws of nature to be His own act, for it is He Who has made those laws. Whatever results from the operation of those laws, therefore, results from His command. Whenever God states that a certain act was His, the same might be described by humans as occurring in the natural course of things."

Rashid Rida puts it in another way: The "becoming fair" of the evil deeds is because of the actions which preceded those deeds and which were themselves a matter of choice. The unbelievers chose to disbelieve in the message, and clung to their old ways. When they re confirmed their attitudes to the old ways, they began to approve of them and love them. That love (of what is in one's practice), is the law of nature, a making of Allah. Yet they are fully responsible for it since they are in the situation of approving the reprehensible by their choice. Allah only created a liking for one's own practices. He did not impose the likings and those practices. Belief and disbelief are not planted in the hearts. They are a matter of choice.

191. "Here is one of the most important teachings of Islam: Miracles, signs, wonders, portents, or whatever they might be called, in no case occur by any action of the messenger of God, but by the power of God Himself. No miracle, however clear its evidentiary value, is ever an act of a mortal. The prophet or apostle has no hand in its causation: he only uses it by the command of God, as an evidence of the veracity of his claims. A miracle is nothing but an invasion of the order of nature, as known to us in common experience, by the command of the Creator of nature, to exhibit the veracity of the claims of His messenger" (Majid).

192. It is reported that once the Prophet invited the Quraysh to Islam. They said: Muhammad, you tell us that Musa had a rod with which he struck a rock and it sprouted 12 springs. You say `Isa quickened the dead. You say Thamud were given a (miraculous) camel. Bring us a sign too. The Prophet asked them what sort of a sign would satisfy them. They said, “Let Mount Safa be converted to gold.” He asked them if they would believe if that was done. They assured him that they would. The Prophet got up to supplicate. Jibril appeared and told him that if they would not believe after the sign they would be destroyed, but, if left alone, some of them would surely turn to their Lord in repentance. The Prophet agreed to the proposal and this verse was revealed (Ibn Jarir, Razi, Qurtubi).

Further, in the words of Rashid Rida, if they denied the Qur'an, which throws out so many challenges and is an irrefutable Sign by itself, then denying anything else would be much easier. They could easily say to a physical sign that it was magic, a sleight of hand, a deception of the eye, and so forth.

193. That is, even if Allah were to send a fresh sign, He would turn away the hearts of the unbelievers from believing in it because they refused to believe at the first instance the message became clear to them as something from their Lord (Au.).

Asad writes: "... so long as they remain blind to the truth in consequence of their unwillingness to acknowledge it and this in accordance with the law of cause and effect which God has imposed on His creation."

That is the Sunnah of Allah, writes Rashid Rida. The "causes" belong to the creations and are their making. But Allah attributes the "effects" of those "causes" to Himself, since, after all, nothing comes to being but by His leave. Yet many are misguided by this kind of statements because they refuse to think.

Sayyid adds: "It is not the lack of evidences or proofs that leads the hearts to disbelief. It is the sickness of the heart, the despoiling of its true nature, the abstruseness of the self. On the other hand, guidance is something that does not come to those who do not go for it, who do not strive for it."