The Light of the Holy Qur'an Interpretation of Sura Al-fatir

Commentary : Verse 34

(34) وَقَالُوا الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَذْهَبَ عَنَّا الْحَزَنَ إِنَّ رَبَّنَا لَغَفُورٌ شَكُورٌ

34.“And they say: ‘Praise belongs to Allah, Who has removed from us (all) sorrow; verily our Lord is Forgiving, Thankful.”

Commentary:

The motto of the people of Paradise is the Praise of Allah. And there is not any grief or sadness inside Paradise.

Next to mentioning the material bounty, which was referred to in the previous verse, this verse points to a particular spiritual bounty, where it says:

“And they say: ‘Praise belongs to Allah, Who has removed from us (all) sorrow; …”

For this great merit which has been endowed on them, and, by the grace of Allah, all the factors of sadness have gone out from the environment of their living, and the sky of their spirit has been wiped out from the dark pieces of the cloud of grief, they praise Allah and thank Him. They have neither a fear from the Divine punishment nor are they afraid of death and annihilation. There is neither any cause of insecurity of mind for them, nor do hurt them the harm of malicious ones, the impositions of polluted tyrants, and companionship of evildoers and inept persons.

Some commentators believe that this grief and sorrow refers to the sadness similar to that which exists in the world, while some others believe that it refers to the grief that they will have in Hereafter concerning the result of their own deeds. These two commentaries do not contrast with each other and both can be considered for the meaning of the verse.

The Qur’a-nic words /hazan/ and /huzn/, as many books of philology and commentary indicate, both have the same meaning, and they originally are in the sense of unevenness and roughness of the earth; and since sorrow cause the man’s spirit to become uneven and rough, this meaning has been applied in this sense. Then, according to the verse, those people of Heaven will add:

“… verily our Lord is Forgiving, Thankful.”

By His forgiveness, He removes the heavy grief of faults and sins, and by the attribute of His thankfulness, He bestows the eternal merits on us which never will the shade of sadness fall on them. His forgiveness has covered our abundant sins, and, by His thankfulness, He has given us a great deal of rewards for our small and scanty deeds.

Commentary : Verse 35

(35) الَّذِي أَحَلَّنَا دَارَ الْمُقَامَةِ مِن فَضْلِهِ لاَ يَمَسُّنَا فِيهَا نَصَبٌ وَلاَ يَمَسُّنَا فِيهَا لُغُوبٌ

35.“He Who, of His grace, has made us to dwell in a house for ever, toil shall not touch us therein, nor shall fatigue therein afflict us.”

Commentary:

Paradise is eternal and the people of Paradise know that the bounties are because of the grace of Allah, not because of only their deeds.

This verse has referred to the bounty of the absence of the factors of toil, pain, and fatigue, and from their tongue, it implicitly says that praise belongs to Allah:

“He Who, of His grace, has made us to dwell in a house for ever, toil shall not touch us therein, nor shall fatigue therein afflict us.”

From one side, there is the place of residence and it is not such that before soon and before the time a person becomes familiar with it and likes it, he is called to come out of that place.

And, on the other side, although the long life in that world joins to eternity and in such a long time, principally, pain and fatigue are expected, there is nothing of these affairs there, at all. Even the length of time does not cause of tiredness and fatigue either, because every day a new bounty and a fresh manifestation of blessings from Allah is shown to the people of Paradise.

The Arabic word /nas?ab/ means toil and trouble, and many of the philologists and commentators believe that the Qur’a-nic term /luqu-b/ means the same, too; while some others have mentioned a difference between these two as follows: they say that the word /nas?ab/ refers to the bodily toils, while the term /luqu-b/ refers to the spiritual troubles. [^1]

Also, some commentators have taken the Qur’a-nic term /luqu-b/ in the sense of weakness and fatigue resulted from toil and pain, and thus, /luqu-b/ becomes the consequence of /nas?ab/.

Therefore, in the Heaven, there is neither any factor of bodily toils, nor any means of spiritual pain.

[^1] Rauh-ul-Ma'a-ly, Vol. 22, P. 184

Commentary : Verse 36

(36) وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَهُمْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ لاَ يُقْضَي عَلَيْهِمْ فَيَمُوتُوا وَلاَ يُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُم مِنْ عَذَابِهَا كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي كُلَّ كَفُورٍ

36.“And those who disbelieve, for them shall be the Fire of Hell, it shall not be decreed that they should die, nor shall the chastisement of it be lightened to them; even thus do We recompense every ungrateful one.”

Commentary:

Disbelief is a kind of ingratitude of bounties. The Qur’a-n, beside promises, usually refers to threats, and, beside glad tidings, it mentions warnings in order to strengthen two factors of fear and hope which are the motives of motion, because of the love of self, man is affected by the instinct of ‘acquiring benefit’ and ‘repelling harm’. So, following the former verses, which were about the great rewards of the believers who ‘outstrip in good deeds’, this verse is about the painful punishment of disbelievers. Here also the words are about the material and spiritual punishments. It says:

“And those who disbelieve, for them shall be the Fire of Hell, …”

In the same manner that Paradise is an eternal abode for the believers, Hell is also an eternal abode for this group. Then the verse adds:

“… it shall not be decreed that they should die, …”

Although all those painful punishments and the blazing Fire of Hell can cause them their death, since the command of Allah, that everything, including life and death, is in Whose authority, has not been issued; they will not die. They must be alive, and they will not be delivered from this toil, so that they taste the Divine chastisement.

For such persons, death is a way to deliverance, but by the aforementioned sentence this way has been closed to them. There will remain another way. It is in this that they should be alive and gradually their chastisement may decrease, or that their tolerance could be increased so that consequently their pain and toil may decrease. This way is also closed by another sentence which says:

“… nor shall the chastisement of it be lightened to them; …”

And, at the end of the verse as an emphasis upon the decisiveness of this Divine threat, it says:

“… even thus do We recompense every ungrateful one.”

Those who, firstly, showed ingratitude to the bounty of the existence of Divine prophets and heavenly Books, lost their Divine given capitals which could help them in gaining happiness.

Yes, the recompense of such evil-doers is burning in the painful chastisement of Fire, a Fire which they themselves lit in the life of this world and its fuel was their own evil thoughts and deeds.

Since the Qur’a-nic word /kafu-r/ is an amplification form in the Arabic language, it has a deeper meaning than the word /ka-fir/ (disbeliever). Moreover, the word ‘disbeliever’ is usually used as opposite to the word ‘believer’, while the Arabic word /kafu-r/ (ungrateful) is used as for the ingratitude of all blessings. Therefore, it has a vaster meaning. Thus, the word /kafu-r/ refers to those who have been ungrateful to all the divine bounties, and they have closed all the doors of His Mercy to them in this world. Therefore, in Hereafter, Allah will close all the doors of deliverance to them, too.