Verse:22 Commentary - - - Verse:23 Commentary Commentary

مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَـٰهَهُ هَوَاهُ ("Have you seen him who has taken his desires as his god...45:23) In other words, he who has made his selfish desires his object of worship. Obviously, no unbeliever claims that his desires are his object of worship. Keeping this in view, this verse of the Qur'an indicates that ` worship' actually means ` obedience'. Thus anyone who undertakes to obey someone against the obedience of Allah makes him the object of his worship instead of Allah. There are people who ignore what Allah has declared lawful and unlawful or what He has permitted and what has forbidden. People who do not care what Allah has forbidden and follow their whims and fancies, their desires are their god, in this sense, although they may not have uttered it by word of mouth. The same theme has been versified by an ` Arif:

سودہ گشت از سجدہ راہ بُتَاں پیشانیم چند برخود تھمت دین مسلمانی نھم

"My forehead has swollen by prostrating before the statues of beauty, although I claim to profess the religion of Islam."

In this couplet, the poet has portrayed selfish desires as statues. He who takes his desires as his leader and follows them is as good as their worshipper, that is why they have been described as their deities. Sayyidna Abu ` Umamah narrates that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: "Of all the deities worshipped under the firmament of the earth, the most detestable one in the sight of Allah is hawa, that is, selfish desires. Sayyidna Shaddad Ibn ` Aws ؓ narrates that the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلمٍ said: "A wise person is he who keeps his desires under control and works for life after death; and sinful is he who runs after his desires and yet expects the best in the Hereafter." Sayyidna Sahl Ibn ` Abdullah Tustari ؓ said: "Your ailment is your selfish desires. And if you oppose them, it will turn into your cure." (All these narratives have been adapted from Qurtubi). Verse:24 Commentary وَمَا يُهْلِكُنَا إِلَّا الدَّهْرُ‌ "...and nothing destroys us except time...(45:24) " The word dahr means ` time from the beginning of the world to its end'. It also refers to ` a very long period of time'. The atheists alleged that their life and death have nothing to do with Divine will and command. They happen under natural causes. Death is a process which they say they experience when their human limbs, organs and abilities diminish on account of constant use and, with the passage of time, the matter becomes dissolved and is destroyed; and that this is the be-all and end-all of human existence, there being no life hereafter. Likewise, life has nothing to do with Divine will and command. Life too, like death, happens under movement of material causes.

Reviling Time Is Inappropriate

Atheists believed that ` Time' is the cause of life, death, vicissitudes of conditions and adversities, and also the cause of the revolution of the entire universe. Every happening used to be attributed to ` Time' by them as indicated in this verse, whereas the fact is that everything happens with the Divine will and volition. Therefore, authentic Traditions prohibit reviling of time. The power which the unbelievers describe as ` time' is in fact the Divine power. When people curse or revile time for their adversities, they are in fact directing their reproach to Allah. The Messenger of Allah said: "Do not revile time because time actually is Allah." The ignorant who claim that a particular work was done by time is actually the work of Divine power - time is nothing. It does not necessarily follow from this proposition that ad-dahr is one of the names of Allah. Here Allah is referred to as ad-dahr metaphorically or figuratively. Verse:25 Commentary - - - Verse:26 Commentary - - -