Surah Al-Haqqah 69:38-52 - Quran Translation Commentary

22. Asad has a philosophic comment: “The phrase ‘all that you can see’ comprising all the observable phenomenon of nature – including man himself and the organic conditions of his own existence – as well as the configuration of human society and the perceptible rules of its growth and decay in the historical sense; whereas ‘that which you cannot see’ relates to the intangible spiritual verities accessible to man’s intuition and instinct, including the voice of his own conscience; all of which ‘bear witness’, as it were, to the fact that the light which the divine writ (spoken of in the sequence) casts on the innermost realities and interrelations of all that exists objectively – or, as the case may be, manifests itself subjectively in man’s own psyche – must be an outcome of genuine revelation, inasmuch as it goes far beyond anything that unaided human intellect could ever achieve.”

Sayyid Qutub has another point of view: “Surely those who confine themselves within the boundaries of the sight and perception .. are the poor luckless ones. They are imprisoned in their limited perceptions by physical senses. They are bound to a small, constricted world; small, when compared to the vast world.

“During various phases in the history of man there were few or large number of people who imprisoned themselves in a little prison of what can be seen and felt, shutting against themselves the windows of knowledge and cognition, refusing any contact with the Truth through belief and true knowledge. And they try to shut these windows – after having shut them for themselves – sometimes in the name of false knowledge, and sometimes in the name of secularism. This is the prison in which they live..”

We might add: Angels, Shayateen, microbes, our own cells are things that we do not see. Nor do we see how the brain works or the child learns. Radio waves, electromagnetism, gravity, nucleic arrangement, or the other forces of nature, are things we do not see and will never see. In fact, what we do not see is more than what we see. The universe is made up of four elements: visible matter, dark matter measurable energy and dark energy. Visible matter makes up for 4% of the mass of the universe. About 22% is dark matter; so called because it is invisible. The rest of the 74% is in the form of dark energy that prevails everywhere in space.

Stars at the edge of the spiral galaxies are revolving around the center of the galaxies much too fast than they should. At that speed, they should break away from the pull of the galactic center; just as a rocket accelerated to a speed of more than 12 km. per second, breaks away from the earth’s gravitational pull. Similarly, calculations show that galaxies in the clusters should have by now broken away from the clusters and receded far into empty space, beyond vision.

What holds the stars at the edge of the galaxies, and the galaxies themselves in the clusters? It is this mysterious dark matter that works against gravity of known and visible matter. The theoretical, but reliable studies that have been augmented by X-ray satellite observations, have led to the conclusion that there is far more of invisible matter around us than there is visible matter.

The discovery in 1990 that the universe is accelerating in its expansion shocked the cosmologists and has led to revision of many theories. Even the Big Bang theory is now being questioned. A mysterious antigravity force seems to be opposing gravity and, so to say, is tearing the visible matter apart at speeds that are accelerating all around. This antigravity force, which cannot be seen, or measured, is known as the Dark Energy; and because of its effect, it is speculated that much visible matter might have already been pushed out so far that light emanating from them may never reach the earth. Thus, once again, the visible world is not only much less than the invisible, it is likely to get lesser because of the ever increasing rate of expansion. As light leaves one part of the universe to chase the part on the other accelerating side, matter of the two sides increase their space at speeds greater than the speed of light, which can never catch up, and so anyone on one side will never know whether there is any matter on the other side.

Science is ever adding newer invisible materials to the list. For instance, String Theory predicts that matter could be made up of not three or four dimensions but ten. The matter of this class will remain invisible. And how much of this matter could there be? Well, scientists say that infinite numbers of whole universes of this class could be there, which will ever remain invisible because of the dimensional problem (Au.).

23. The allusion is to Prophet Muhammad (Ibn Jarir). That is, it is he who delivers (Ibn Kathir).

But Hasan, Kalbi and Muqatil said that the allusion is to Jibril, although the other opinion has also been held as true (Qurtubi).

24. Shabbir addresses the unbelievers: “It is apparent that impressed by the Qur’anic style and content, some amount of faith grows in your heart. But you tend to dismiss it by saying that this is poetry. Really! Can you assure yourself that this is poetry? You know that poetry has rhyme and rhythm. But the Qur’an is free of them. Poets make statements that have no basis in reason. Most of their ideas are windy and abstruse. In contrast, the Qur’an offers distinct concepts based on sound principles of logic. (How do you compare this with that)?”

25. Shabbir again addresses the skeptics: “Think about it. This cannot be a soothsayer’s speech. Among the Arabs of the past there were plenty of soothsayers (as there are plenty of them now in the east and the west: Au.). They had contacts with the demons, Jinn, ghouls and witches. They used to feed these soothsayers with news of the future in words and phrases that could be best described as incongruous and mysterious. But their orations were not unique. One soothsayer’s oration matched with another’s. Anyone with a will could learn to say the same things. But this Qur’an is inimitable, unmatchable. The orations of the soothsayers are filled with redundant words. But the Qur’an has not a word in its entire content which is redundant. Soothsayers’ orations bore no message. The Qur’an has a coherent message that appeals to reason. It has laws and principles, a constitution and a model, information about this world and the next, past, present and future. (How does this compare with the orations of the soothsayers)?”

26. It is reported that when the Quraysh gathered together to arrive at a common response to the Prophet and his message, Nadr b. al-Harith said, “O Quraysh. By God you face a challenge, to face which you have not yet come up with any proper strategy. Muhammad has been among you the most pleasing person, the most trustworthy one, until when you had seen grey hair on his cheek, he came with that which you know. Now you say he is a sorcerer. No by God, he is not one. We have seen sorcerers, their blowing and their knots. Then you said he is a soothsayer. No by God, he is no soothsayer. We have seen soothsayers, their enigmatic sayings and utterances. Then you said he is a poet. Nay, he is no poet either. We have heard poetry of all kinds and classes. Then you said he is mad. But we have seen madness. None of its signs can be discerned here. O Quraysh, look into your situation, for you are facing a great challenge” (Sayyid).

27. We have a report in Ahmad’s collection,

`Umar ibn al-Khattab said, “Once I went out hoping to encounter the Prophet. That was before I embraced Islam. I found that he had overtaken me to the Grand Mosque. I stood behind him. He had started reciting Surah al-Haqqah. I was amazed by the composition of the Qur’an. I said, ‘By Allah, this is a poet as the Quraysh have been saying.’ Then he recited, ‘Surely, it is the words of a noble messenger. It is not the words of a poet; little it is that you believe.’ I said, ‘(He must be a) soothsayer.’ He recited, ‘Nor the words of a soothsayer. Little it is that you heed. A sending down by the Lord of the worlds’ .. to the end of the chapter. It was then that Islam entered into my heart to take firm root there” (Ibn Kathir, Alusi).

Haythami remarks that the above report is on the authority of Shurayh b. `Ubayd. But he had not met `Umar (Au.).

28. Another connotation is, “We shall seize him strongly” (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir), and Naftawayh explained that it means, “We would have strongly held him from interpolating in the Qur’an” (Qurtubi).

Thanwi says that the rule is applicable in a lesser degree to the common men. If a charlatan claims “wilayah,” sooner or later he is exposed. If not, a simple rule may be employed. When scholars begin to doubt someone who lays a claim, he may be shunned.

29. That is, before the punishment.

That is, the pronoun “it” refers to the punishment. In other words, none of you could come between him and the punishment (Ibn Kathir, Thanwi).

30. That is, the Qur’an.

31. “It”, i.e., either this Reminder, or alternatively, this rejection (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

32. Majid comments: “Every truth is itself certain, but certainty has degrees. First there is a certainty of reasoning or inference, known as Úáã ÇáíÞíä . Next there is a certainty of sense-perception called Úíä ÇáíÞíä . Last, there is a certainty, the highest degree of it, the absolute certainty, with no possibility of error, either of judgment or perception, and this is what is termed as ÍÞ ÇáíÞíä.”

33. That is, writes Shafi` Deobandi, ignore, O Prophet, the reaction and responses of the pagans, polytheists and other unbelievers, and busy yourself with the exaltation of your Lord, as it was said elsewhere:

“And, certainly We are aware that your heart constricts over what they say. Therefore, celebrate the praises of your Lord and be of those who prostrate themselves.”