Surah 35. Fatir

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Verses [Section]: 1-7[1], 8-14 [2], 15-26 [3], 27-37 [4], 38-45 [5]

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Quran Text of Verse 8-14اَفَمَنْThen is (he) whoزُیِّنَis made fair-seemingلَهٗto himسُوْٓءُ(the) evilعَمَلِهٖ(of) his deedفَرَاٰهُso that he sees itحَسَنًا ؕ(as) goodفَاِنَّFor indeedاللّٰهَAllahیُضِلُّlets go astrayمَنْwhomیَّشَآءُHe willsوَ یَهْدِیْand guidesمَنْwhomیَّشَآءُ ۖؗHe willsفَلَاSo (let) notتَذْهَبْgo outنَفْسُكَyour soulعَلَیْهِمْfor themحَسَرٰتٍ ؕ(in) regretsاِنَّIndeedاللّٰهَAllahعَلِیْمٌۢ(is) All-Knowerبِمَاof whatیَصْنَعُوْنَ they do وَ اللّٰهُAnd Allahالَّذِیْۤ(is) the One Whoاَرْسَلَsendsالرِّیٰحَthe windsفَتُثِیْرُso that they raiseسَحَابًا(the) cloudsفَسُقْنٰهُand We drive themاِلٰیtoبَلَدٍa landمَّیِّتٍdeadفَاَحْیَیْنَاand We reviveبِهِtherewithالْاَرْضَthe earthبَعْدَafterمَوْتِهَا ؕits deathكَذٰلِكَThusالنُّشُوْرُ (will be) the Resurrection مَنْWhoeverكَانَ[is] desiresیُرِیْدُ[is] desiresالْعِزَّةَthe honorفَلِلّٰهِthen for Allahالْعِزَّةُ(is) the Honorجَمِیْعًا ؕallاِلَیْهِTo Himیَصْعَدُascendsالْكَلِمُthe wordsالطَّیِّبُgoodوَ الْعَمَلُand the deedالصَّالِحُrighteousیَرْفَعُهٗ ؕraises itوَ الَّذِیْنَBut those whoیَمْكُرُوْنَplotالسَّیِّاٰتِthe evilلَهُمْfor themعَذَابٌ(is) a punishmentشَدِیْدٌ ؕsevereوَ مَكْرُand (the) plottingاُولٰٓىِٕكَ(of) thoseهُوَitیَبُوْرُ (will) perish وَ اللّٰهُAnd Allahخَلَقَكُمْcreated youمِّنْfromتُرَابٍdustثُمَّthenمِنْfromنُّطْفَةٍa sperm-dropثُمَّthenجَعَلَكُمْHe made youاَزْوَاجًا ؕmatesوَ مَاAnd notتَحْمِلُconceivesمِنْanyاُنْثٰیfemaleوَ لَاand notتَضَعُgives birthاِلَّاexceptبِعِلْمِهٖ ؕwith His knowledgeوَ مَاAnd notیُعَمَّرُis granted lifeمِنْanyمُّعَمَّرٍaged personوَّ لَاand notیُنْقَصُis lessenedمِنْfromعُمُرِهٖۤhis lifeاِلَّاbutفِیْ(is) inكِتٰبٍ ؕa RegisterاِنَّIndeedذٰلِكَthatعَلَیforاللّٰهِAllahیَسِیْرٌ (is) easy 35. Fatir Page 436وَ مَاAnd notیَسْتَوِیare alikeالْبَحْرٰنِ ۖۗthe two seasهٰذَاThisعَذْبٌ(is) freshفُرَاتٌsweetسَآىِٕغٌpleasantشَرَابُهٗits drinkوَ هٰذَاand thisمِلْحٌsaltyاُجَاجٌ ؕ(and) bitterوَ مِنْAnd fromكُلٍّeachتَاْكُلُوْنَyou eatلَحْمًاmeatطَرِیًّاfreshوَّ تَسْتَخْرِجُوْنَand you extractحِلْیَةًornamentsتَلْبَسُوْنَهَا ۚyou wear themوَ تَرَیand you seeالْفُلْكَthe shipsفِیْهِin itمَوَاخِرَcleavingلِتَبْتَغُوْاso that you may seekمِنْofفَضْلِهٖHis Bountyوَ لَعَلَّكُمْand that you mayتَشْكُرُوْنَ be grateful یُوْلِجُHe causes to enterالَّیْلَthe nightفِیin (to)النَّهَارِthe dayوَ یُوْلِجُand He causes to enterالنَّهَارَthe dayفِیin (to)الَّیْلِ ۙthe nightوَ سَخَّرَand He has subjectedالشَّمْسَthe sunوَ الْقَمَرَ ۖؗand the moonكُلٌّeachیَّجْرِیْrunningلِاَجَلٍfor a termمُّسَمًّی ؕappointedذٰلِكُمُThat (is)اللّٰهُAllahرَبُّكُمْyour Lordلَهُfor Himالْمُلْكُ ؕ(is) the Dominionوَ الَّذِیْنَAnd those whomتَدْعُوْنَyou invokeمِنْbesides Himدُوْنِهٖbesides Himمَاnotیَمْلِكُوْنَthey possessمِنْevenقِطْمِیْرٍؕ(as much as) the membrane of a date-seed اِنْIfتَدْعُوْهُمْyou invoke themلَاnotیَسْمَعُوْاthey hearدُعَآءَكُمْ ۚyour callوَ لَوْand ifسَمِعُوْاthey heardمَاnotاسْتَجَابُوْاthey (would) respondلَكُمْ ؕto youوَ یَوْمَAnd (on the) Dayالْقِیٰمَةِ(of) the Resurrectionیَكْفُرُوْنَthey will denyبِشِرْكِكُمْ ؕyour associationوَ لَاAnd noneیُنَبِّئُكَcan inform youمِثْلُlikeخَبِیْرٍ۠(the) All-Aware

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Translation of Verse 8-14

(35:8) (How¹⁵ awful is the straying of the person) for whom his evil deed has been embellished so that it looks fair to him?¹⁶ The fact is that Allah causes whomsoever He will to fall into error and shows the Right Way to whomsoever He will. So, (O Prophet), let not your life go to waste sorrowing over them.¹⁷ Allah is well aware of all that they do.¹⁸

(35:9) It is Allah Who sends forth winds which then set the clouds in motion, which We drive to some dead land giving a fresh life to earth after it had become dead. Such will be the resurrection of the dead.¹⁹

(35:10) He who seeks glory, let him know that all glory belongs to Allah alone. ²⁰ To Him do good words go up, and righteous action uplifts them.²¹ But those who contrive evil deeds,²² a severe punishment lies in store for them, and their contriving will come to naught.

(35:11) Allah²³ created you from dust, then from a drop of sperm,²⁴ then He made you into pairs. No female conceives, nor delivers (a child) except with His knowledge. None is given a long life nor is any diminished in his life but it is written in a Book.²⁵ Surely that is quite easy for Allah.²⁶

(35:12) The two masses of water are not alike.²⁷ The one is sweet, sates thirst, and is pleasant to drink from, while the other is salt, bitter on the tongue. Yet from both you eat fresh meat,²⁸ and extract from it ornaments that you wear;²⁹ and you see ships cruising through it that you may seek of His Bounty and be thankful to Him.

(35:13) He causes the night to phase into the day and the day into the night,³⁰ and He has subjected the sun and the moon, each running its course to an appointed term.³¹ That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs the Kingdom; but those whom you call upon, apart from Allah, possess not so much as the skin of a date-stone.³²

(35:14) If you call upon them, they cannot hear your prayer. And if they hear it, they cannot answer it.³³ On the Day of Resurrection they will disown you for associating others with Allah in His Divinity.³⁴ No one can inform you of the truth save the All-Aware.³⁵

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Commentary

15. The preceding verses are addressed to the common people. From here on, the discourse turns to those exponents of erroneous doctrines who spared no effort to frustrate the Prophet's mission and reduce it to humiliation and ignominy.

16. There are some evil-doers who, notwithstanding their lapses, realize that they are indeed guilty of committing evil deeds. Good counsel and admonition are likely to help such people to mend themselves. The reproach of their conscience also occasionally directs them to righteous conduct. This because even though their conduct might not be all that good, their outlook nonetheless remains sound.

There are, however, also others whose outlook is vitiated, who fail to have any sense of distinction between good and evil. As a result, a life immersed in sin beckons to them as the very zenith of high living. Such people are repelled by uprightness whereas evil conduct instinctively appeals to them as the very essence of culture and refinement. Such people look down upon uprightness and piety as incorrigible reactionaries and perceive evil-doing and sinfulness as progressivism. Thus their judgements are reversed: they mistake guidance for error and error for guidance. Understandably, no one’s counsel avails them. They are neither conscious of their follies nor heed the words of their well-wishers. It is futile to run after such people and consume oneself out of concern to guide them to the Right Way. One should, instead, pay attention to those whose conscience is still pulsating with life, those who have not bolted their hearts against the Truth.

17. In between the two parts of the statement it has been said that “Allah causes whomsoever He will to fall into error and shows the Right Way to whomsoever He will”. The earlier part refers to those diehard unbelievers who allow their minds to utterly wallow in error. When such people are fully immersed in error, God deprives them of His succor that would direct them to the Right Way. He lets them stumble around in the erroneous ways that they insist upon. After clarifying this point, God apprises the Prophet (peace be on him) that it is simply beyond his power to direct those who are so deeply mired in error to the Right Way. He is, therefore, asked to be patient and not to torment himself on account of those for whom God does not care or who have no value near God.

Two points in this context merit attention: i. The above statement was not made in regard to all Makkan unbelievers as such. It was made, instead, in regard to their chiefs who had no compunction even in resorting to lies, deception and fraud to frustrate the Prophet's call to Islam. Their situation was quite different from those who had fallen prey to some misconception about the Prophet (peace be on him).

As distinct from ordinary unbelievers, these people knew well enough what the Prophet (peace be on him) was calling them to. They were also well aware of the false beliefs and moral corruptions that they wanted to hold on to. They knew all these things and understood them perfectly well. Despite this, they nonetheless had resolved in quite a cool, calculated manner to oppose the Prophet (peace be on him). In opposing him, they felt no qualms of conscience in resorting to all possible means, howsoever lowly or ignoble. They willfully invented ever new lies against the Prophet (peace be on him) and actively went about spreading them. Such people might deceive the whole world but as far as they themselves were concerned, they fully knew themselves to be liars. They were also quite aware that the Prophet (peace be on him) was free of the charges they levelled against him. Furthermore, they knew that the Prophet (peace be on him) was an utterly truthful, upright and straightforward person. This because even in face of their vile opposition he never deviated from truthfulness and honesty. These people, however, felt no remorse at their misdeeds and persisted in lying and this in sharp contrast to the Prophet's truthfulness.

Their unrepentant adamancy was sufficiently indicative that they had been overtaken by God's curse and had lost all sense of distinction between good and evil.

ii. The other point to be borne in mind is that God did not simply want to intimate the truth of the matter to the Prophet (peace be on him). Had that alone been the purpose this could have been done without making the matter public. God, however, disclosed it to everyone by a revelation to that effect. The purpose of bringing all this into public knowledge was to alert the common people and make them cognizant of their leaders’ mettle ~ religious as well as otherwise. The crookedness of their mental orientation and the utter corruption of their conduct loudly proclaimed that they were under God’s curse.

18. Implicit in this is the unmistakable note of warning that God will ultimately punish them for their misdeeds. A sovereign’s declaration that he is well aware of his criminal subjects’ deeds is not simply a statement of fact. Such a statement also necessarily carries the message that he will take them to task.

19. The unbelievers foolishly dismiss the Hereafter simply as something that can never take place. They are under the illusion that regardless of whatever they do in the world, the moment will never come when they will be made to stand before God to render an account of their deeds. Such thinking by the unbelievers, however, is sheer fantasy.

For, on the Day of Judgement, at a simple command from God, all the dead will be raised to life. This will happen in the same manner as when a shower of rain revives a seemingly sterile patch of land, causing the long dormant roots that had remained buried in the recesses of earth to blossom forth.

20. It may be noted that whatever the Quraysh chiefs did to oppose the Prophet (peace be on him) was motivated by their privilege and their desire to retain their prestige in society. They thought that should the Prophet's teachings gain currency they would lose their power and pelf over the length and breadth of Arabia. Accordingly, they are told that the prestige they enjoyed was a sham, it lacked firm foundation to sustain it, and was thus bound some day or other to come crashing down.

Conversely, true honor and prestige never change into disgrace. Such honor and prestige is only derived by servitude to God. If you turn to Him, you will be honored. If you turn away from Him, disgrace is your fate.

21. This is the right way to attain glory. False, impure and evil words can never rise in God’s sight. He exalts only the word that is true and pure and is grounded in reality, the word that faithfully represents a sound worldview and a wholesome outlook on life. Moreover, what leads to the exaltation of such a word is human Support and reinforcement of it by acting according to it. Whenever one’s practice goes contrary to the good word, its purity begins to shrink. For, mere verbal exuberance does not exalt a word. It is rather the power of righteous deeds that exalts it and makes it flourish.

It is pertinent to note that the Qur’an considers a good word and a good deed to be mutually dependent. No deed can be considered righteous unless it rests on the bedrock of right belief. Right belief, on the other hand, is unauthentic if it is not corroborated by righteous action. If a person claims to consider the One True God as the sole object of his worship but in practice worships others than God, this amounts to giving the lie to his claim. To take another instance, a person claims that he considers intoxicating drinks to be forbidden, but at the same time drinks them.

In such a scenario, the claim is neither acceptable to God’s creatures, nor will it be accepted by God.

22. This refers to people who proclaim false words. They attempt to publicize these through various tricks and fraudulent claims. Their aim is to belittle the true word, even by recourse to the most evil means available.

23. From here on the discourse again turns to the common people.

24. In the first instance, man was brought into being directly from mud. Thereafter, the continuity of his race was ensured by means of sperm drops.

25. God pre-ordains every person’s life-span. Those who have along life have it by dint of God’s command. God’s command also ensures that - some people’s life-spans are short. Some ignorant people, however, call attention to the fact that infant mortality rates have fallen dramatically owing to advancements in medicine. Furthermore, they claim that thanks to better resources and better medical care, the average life-span has increased. [The upshot of the claim being that the terms of men’s lives are determined by factors other than simply God’s will - Ed.] However, this argument can only hold water if it is established that someone’s life-span was extended beyond what was pre-ordained by God. Since this cannot be ascertained it is pointless to contest the Quranic statement. The decrease.

in infant mortality rates or the spurt in longevity does not indicate that man is now able to overrule God’s command. One may ask: what is the difficulty, from a rational point of view, in accepting the proposition that God has apportioned different life-spans for people in different times? Also, that it was part of God’s decree that man would be able to effectively treat certain diseases at certain periods of time or that he would be able to acquire the resources needed to ensure longevity.

26. It is not difficult at all for God to lay down detailed decisions in respect of His multifarious creatures.

27. One of these two masses of water lies in seas and oceans. The other is held in rivers, springs and lakes.

28. “Fresh meat” here refers to the flesh of water creatures.

29. That is, pearls, corals, precious stones, and gold.

30. At dusk, daylight begins to slowly recede and the darkness of the night eventually envelopes everything. Likewise, at dawn the initial streak of light gradually develops into bright daylight.

31. That is, God has strictly bound the sun and the moon to a set of laws.

32. Qitmir refers to the thin film covering a date-stone. The point of emphasis is that the idols worshipped by polytheists simply own nothing.

33. This does not necessarily mean that the deities they worshipped would cry out and tell them in so many words that their supplication had been accepted or not. Rather, it means that they do not have the power to respond to their supplications. If one pleads to someone who is not authorized to do anything in that matter, then that pleading goes to waste.

On the contrary, if a supplication is addressed to one who has the power to act on it, the matter is bound to receive due attention. Thereafter, it will either be accepted or rejected.

34. The deities they worship will plainly state that they never told their devotees that they had a share in God’s Divinity. Nor did they ever ask their devotees to worship them. They will further claim that they were not even aware that they were being taken as associates with the Lord of the universe in His Divinity or that prayers were being addressed to them. They will also contend that none of the polytheists’ prayers or any of their gifts and offerings ever reached them.

35. The “All-Aware” here is none other than God Himself. The point being made is as follows: The utmost that anyone other than God can do is to proffer rational arguments to refute polytheism and establish _the absolute ineffectuality of the polytheists’ deities. As distinct from all others, God alone is “All-Aware”. It is on the basis of His direct knowledge that He can categorically say that those to whom people had assigned some power and authority in God’s Godhead are all utterly powerless.

They have no power to make or mar someone’s life. God knows by dint of His knowledge that on the Day of Resurrection these deities will themselves refute the polytheistic notions of their devotees.