Verse:1 Commentary - - - Verse:2 Commentary - - - Verse:3 Commentary Commentary

عَالِمِ الْغَيْبِ (the knower of the unseen). This is an attribute of the Rabb (Lord) in whose name an oath has been taken in verse 3. At this place, out of the many attributes of Allah Ta' ala, the attribute of all-encompassing knowledge and the knowledge of the unseen has, perhaps, been mentioned particularly because the text is dealing with the matter of the deniers of the day of Resurrection. The major reason why the disbelievers rejected the inevitability of Qiyamah, the day of doom, was their inability to comprehend how the whole thing would work out. When all human beings die, and become dust, and the particles of this dust get scattered all over the world, they wondered, how would it be possible to collect all these particles, separate the particles belonging to each human being from the particles of all others, and then go on to put the relevant particles back into the frame of everyone's existence? And they took it as impossible because they had very conveniently taken the knowledge and power of Allah Ta' ala on the analogy of their own knowledge and power! Allah Ta' ala has told them that His knowledge encompasses the entire universe in a manner that He knows everything in the heavens and the earth to the extent that He also knows where and in what state it is. Not a single particle of what has been created remains outside His knowledge - and this comprehensive and all-encompassing knowledge is hallmark of Allah Ta' ala. No created entity, whether an angel or prophet, can ever have such an all-encompassing knowledge that no particle of this universe remains outside it. Then, for a Being that has such an all-encompassing knowledge, why would it be difficult to reclaim the scattered particles of a human being from all over the universe, each separate from the other, and reconstitute their bodies from these once again? Verse:4 Commentary لِّيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا

(So that He rewards those who believed - 4)

This sentence is connected with the earlier one: لَتَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ that is, al-Qiyamah or the Doomsday is bound to come and its purpose will be to reward believers and to provide for them the best sustenance from Jannah (Paradise). Verse:5 Commentary And in contrast to them stand: الَّذِينَ سَعَوْا فِي آيَاتِنَا (5) i.e. those who made efforts to find faults with Our verses and tried to stop people from believing in them.

The word: مُعَاجِزِينَ which appears immediately after the verse cited above means that this effort by them was as if they would render Us helpless in seizing them and would thus go scot-free from having to be present on the last day of Qiyamah.

The sentence that follows immediately after: أُولَـٰئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مِّن رِّ‌جْزٍ أَلِيم ; means that these people shall receive punishment, a severe punishment that will be painful. Verse:6 Commentary Verse 6: وَيَرَ‌ى الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ (34:6) talks about believers in contrast with those who denied the coming of the Qiyamah. The former had put their faith in it and became the beneficiaries of the knowledge given by Allah Ta' ala to the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم by revelation. Verse:7 Commentary Reported in verse 7: وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُ‌وا هَلْ نَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَ‌جُلٍ يُنَبِّئُكُمْ إِذَا مُزِّقْتُمْ كُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ إِنَّكُمْ لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ (Shall we point out to you a man...). There is a statement of disbelievers who denied the coming of Qiyamah. In an exercise of mockery, they used to say, 'come, let us identify an unusual person for your benefit, a person who loves to tell you how, when you die and become dust, totally powdered into countless particles, even after all that, you will be brought into a new creation - and that you, all reshaped into the form you once were, will be made to stand up alive!'

It is obvious that the person alluded to here is no other but the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم who used to tell people that Qiyamah will come when the dead will become alive once again, and exhorted people to put their faith in it. All these people who were deriding him knew him perfectly well, but in the present context, they have mentioned him in a manner as if they knew nothing else about him - nothing else but that he tells people about the dead rising alive on the day of Qiyamah. They had purposely elected to refer to him in that manner just to mock and deride him.

The word: مُزِّقْتُمْ (when you are totally torn into pieces) is a derivation from: مزقِ (mazq) which means splitting apart and rendering to pieces, and: كُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ (kulla mumazzaq: (totally torn) means the disintegration of the human body in a manner that all its particles get dispersed separately. Onwards from here, they take up another mode to comment on his statement relating to the Qiyamah. Verse:8 Commentary They say: أَفْتَرَ‌ىٰ عَلَى اللَّـهِ كَذِبًا أَم بِهِ جِنَّةٌ (Has he forged a lie against Allah, or is there a madness in him?"- 34:8). The drive of their remark is that the idea that all totally disintegrated particles of the body will stand reassembled together, turn into the human body once again and be alive as well, is so unreasonable, to start with, that there remains practically no question of entertaining or accepting it. Therefore, this claim of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is either a deliberate attempt to fabricate a lie against Allah Ta' ala, or the person who says so is insane and no premise of his statement is correct. Verse:9 Commentary The last verse (9): أَفَلَمْ يَرَ‌وْا إِلَىٰ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُم (Have they not, then, looked to the sky and the earth that lies before them and behind them? ) carries two chastening messages:

(1) It proves that one can come to believe in the coming of the Qiyamah by pondering over what has been created in the heavens and the earth, and once the perfect power of Allah Ta' ala becomes visible through observation, the element of improbability which prohibited its deniers from accepting it could stand removed.

(2) Then, right along with this positive invitation to see and learn on their own, the deniers have also been served with a warning of punishment. They have been told that should they continue to hold firmly to their attitude of rejection and denial, then, they should also realize that it is within this power of Allah Ta' ala which could make the very same blessings to become a punishment for them, such as, the earth swallows them, or that the sky cracks apart and falls on them. Verse:10 Commentary Commentary

The preceding verses have addressed the arguments of those who denied the possibility of the life after death, and believed it to be irrational that a person may be revived after he has died and the parts of his body are decomposed and turned into dust. Now the stories of Sayyidna Dawud and Sulayman (علیہما السلام) have been narrated in the present verses to show that Allah Ta' ala has already demonstrated His power by the miraculous acts that were deemed by people to be impossible, like making iron as soft as wax, subjugating the wind and making copper as liquid as water.

The word: فَضل (fadl) in the opening sentence of verse 10: وَلَقَدْ آتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ مِنَّا فَضْلًا (And surely We bestowed grace from Us on Dawud) means excess, favor or grace. The reference is to particular attributes bestowed on him in excess of others. Allah Ta' ala has blessed every prophet with some unique attributes that are considered to be their distinctive excellence. Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) was given a few of his own. Besides being a prophet and messenger of Allah, he was also blessed with power over the world of his time. Then there was his gifted voice. When he was busy with the dhikr of Allah or the recitation of Torah, the birds flying above would converge over him to listen. He was blessed with similar other miracles which find mention a little later.

The word: أَوِّبِي (awwibi) in the direct address appearing next: يَا جِبَالُ أَوِّبِي (ya jibalu awwibi) is a derivation from: تَاوَیب (ta'wib) which means to return or repeat. The sense is that Allah Ta' ala had commanded the mountains that once Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) starts making Dhikr and Tasbih (the glorification of Allah), the mountains too should start reciting the same words after him.

Similar to this is the tafsir of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ who has explained: أَوِّبِي (awwibi: return, or repeat after) as being in the sense of: سَبِّحِی (sabbihi: glorify, recite the praise of Allah). (Ibn Kathir)

This Tasbih (glorification of Allah) the mountains used to do along with Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) is in addition to the universal Tasbih done by the entire creation of Allah that goes on everywhere, all the time, in every age - as said in the noble Qur'an: وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَلَـٰكِن لَّا تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ (And there is not a single thing that does not extol His purity and praise, but you do not understand their extolling - 17:44). The tasbih mentioned here has the status of a miracle shown at the hands of Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) . For this reason, it is obvious that common listeners would be hearing and understanding this Tasbih. Otherwise, it would have just not been a miracle.

From here we also learn that the mountains synchronizing their voice with the voice of Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) and repeating the Tasbih after him was not in the manner sound reverberates, something commonly heard when someone calls inside a dome or well or elsewhere and the voice reverberates or returns. The reason is that the noble Qur'an has mentioned the manifestation of this phenomenon as a special gift and grace bestowed upon Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) . The reverberation of sound is a physical thing. It has nothing to do with someone's excellence. It will work for anyone, even for a disbeliever. At a place where sound reverberates, his or her voice too will shoot back.

The word: وَالطَّيْرَ‌ (wattair: and you too 0 birds) refers to the phenomenon of birds joining up in the air at his voice and doing tasbih like the mountains - as it has been mentioned in another verse of the Qur'an: إِنَّا سَخَّرْ‌نَا الْجِبَالَ مَعَهُ يُسَبِّحْنَ بِالْعَشِيِّ وَالْإِشْرَ‌اقِ وَالطَّيْرَ‌ مَحْشُورَ‌ةً (We had subjugated the mountains to join him (in) making tasbih (i.e. pronouncing Allah's purity) at evening and sunrise, and the birds as well mustered together 38:18). Verse:11 Commentary In the last sentence of verse 10 and the first sentence of verse 11, it was said: وَأَلَنَّا لَهُ الْحَدِيدَ أَنِ اعْمَلْ سَابِغَاتٍ وَقَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (And We made the iron soft for him (saying to him) " Make coats of armour, and maintain balance in combining (their) rings,' - 34:10). This is another miracle that iron was made soft for him. Early tafsir authorities - Hasan Basri, Qatadah, A'mash, and others - said that Allah Ta' ala had, by way of a miracle, turned iron soft as wax for him. To make something out of it, he needed no fire, or hammer, or any other tools. The part of the statement appearing in verse 11 goes on to state that the iron was made soft for him so that he could easily make coats of mail with iron. In another verse, it has also been mentioned that Allah Ta' ala had Himself taught him the making of coats of mail: وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ صَنْعَةَ لَبُوسٍ لَّكُمْ (And We taught him making of armour as dress for you - 21:80). And what appears later in this very verse وَقَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (and maintain balance in combining (their) rings) also leads to the final stage of training in this craft. The word: قَدِّرْ‌ (qaddir) is derived from: تَقدِیر (taqdir) which means making on a certain measure while the word: سَرد (sard) literally means to weave. The sense thus released is to make a coat of mail in a manner that its links come out balanced and proportionate without one being small and the other being big, so that it turns out strong as well as looks good when seen. This tafsir of: قَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (and maintain balance in combining (their) rings) has been reported from Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn ` Abbas ؓ . (Ibn Kathir)

Special Note

1. This also tells us that the consideration for apparent beauty in man-made things is desirable, since Allah Ta' ala has given a particular instruction for it.

2. Some early commentators take taqdir in: قَدِّرْ‌ فِي السَّرْ‌دِ (qaddir fi's-sard: and maintain balance in combining (their) rings) to mean that there should be a fixed measure of time devoted to this craft, lest most of the time is consumed in that single pursuit causing disruption in duties of 'ibadah and responsibilities of the office and state. In the light of this tafsir, we come to know that people in areas of industry and labor should also spare some time for ` ibadah and personal enrichment while remaining duly organized as far as the necessary management of time is concerned. (Ruh ul-Ma' ani)

The merit and grace of inventing, making and producing things

The verse under study proves that making and manufacturing things of need is so significant that Allah Ta' ala has taken it upon Himself to teach its mores to His great prophets. That Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) was trained to make coats of mail already stands proved from this very verse. Then, this is how Sayyidna Nuh (علیہ السلام) was inducted into boat building. He was told: وَاصْنَعِ الْفُلْكَ بِأَعْيُنِنَا : "Build the boat before Us" [ literally, 'with Our Eyes' or 'under Our Eyes ] - 11:37. 'Build before Us' simply means 'build the way We tell you to.' That some other prophets were also taught the making of different things in a similar manner stands proved from some narrations of Hadith. There is a published book with the title of al-tibb al-nabawii attributed to Hadith authority, Hafiz Shamsuddin adh-Dhahabi. It contains a narration to the effect that the making of almost all important and necessary things in human life - such as, house-building, cloth-weaving, tree-planting, food-processing and wheel-based conveyances for transportation etc. - was taught by Allah Ta' ala to His prophets (علیہم السلام) through the medium of wahy (revelation).

It is a sin to take the labourers as low in rank

In Arabia, different people used to go in different professions. No profession or occupation was considered low or disgraceful and no one was taken to be any better or worse on the basis of work, trade, or occupation, nor would brotherhoods and communities rise solely on the basis of occupation. The promotion of the idea of such communities as based on occupation and the attitude of taking some professions low and mean as such was alien there. This was a product of Hindu India. Having lived there with them, Muslims too were influenced by it.

The wisdom of having Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) trained into the making of coat of mail

From a narration of the Hadith authority, Hafiz Ibn ` Asakir, it has been reported in Tafsir Ibn Kathir that during the period of his rule, Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) used to visit bazaars and public places while in disguise and would ask people coming in from different sides as to what they thought about Dawud. Since, justice reigned in the kingdom of Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) ، people were living a good life, no one had any complaints against the government of the time, therefore, whoever he asked, the addressee would have words of praise for him and express his gratefulness for the prevailing equity and justice.

It was for his education and grooming that Allah Ta' ala sent an angel in the shape of a man. When Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) came out on his routine quest for truth, this angel met him. As usual with him, he put the same question to him. The angel said, 'Dawud is a very good man and as compared to everyone, he is doing better for himself and better for his people and subjects too. But, he has one habit which, if it were not there, he would have been perfect.' Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) asked, 'What habit is that?' The angel said, 'He takes the expenses on himself and his family from the property of Muslims, that is, from the Baytul-Mal (The Public Treasury of a Muslim State).'

Hearing this, Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) made it a point to immediately turn to Allah subhanahu wa Ta' ala with self-reproach, lamentation and prayer, saying, 'Teach me to do something for which I have to work with my own hands and support myself and my family with wages from it while working gratis (free, without compensation) to serve Muslims and run their state.' Allah Ta' ala answered his prayer and taught him the art of making coats of mail and the honor, befitting a prophet, He bestowed on him was that iron was made wax for him so that it became unusually easy for him to earn his sustenance within a short period of time and thus use the rest of his time for ` Ibadah (worship) and obligations of state management.

Ruling

For a Khalifah (Muslim head of an Islamic state) of the time, or a king, or ruler who spends all his time in taking care of state affairs, it is permissible in the Shari' ah of Islam that he takes his average living expenses from Baytul-Mal. But, should there be some other means of livelihood available, then, that would be more desirable - as it was with Sayyidna Sulayman (علیہ السلام) . Allah Ta' ala had put the treasures of the whole world at his disposal. Gold, precious stones and everything needed was available to him in abundance. Then Allah Ta' ala had also allowed him to expend whatever he wished from the holdings of the Baytul-Mal, and according to the verse: فَامْنُنْ أَوْ أَمْسِكْ بِغَيْرِ‌ حِسَابٍ (So, do favour (to someone) or withhold (it) with no (requirement to give) account - 38:39), he was also given the assurance that he could spend in whatever manner he wished and that he did not have to account for it. But, this event came to pass because Allah Ta' ala, in His wisdom, would have the noble prophets occupy a very high station and, it was after that, that Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) - despite being the ruler of an empire - used to earn his living with his own hands, and was always satisfied with it.

` Ulama' (religious scholars) who serve the religious cause of education and communication (Ta'lim and Tabligh) without remuneration, and the Qadi (judge) and Mufti (juri-consult, Muslim jurist highly trained to deliver authenticated rulings on problems and issues for the benefit of the community at large) who spend their time in public service are also governed by the same injunction, that is, they can take their living expenses from the Baytul-Mal. But, should there be some other way to eke out a living - which does not hinder the ongoing religious service being performed - then, that would be better.

Special Note

From this conduct of Sayyidna Dawud (علیہ السلام) ، whereby he demonstrated the great concern he had to find out the informal, free and totally unfettered opinions of people about his ways of doing things, it is proved that one usually does not know his own shortcomings, therefore, this should be found out from others. The well-known jurist of Islam, Imam Malik (رح) also paid particular attention to find out what common people thought about him.