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

Commentary : Verse 19.20.21.22.23

(19) وَمَا يَسْتَوِي الأَعْمَي وَالْبَصِيرُ

(20) وَلاَ الظُّلُمَاتُ وَلاَ النُّورُ

(21) وَلاَ الظّـِلُّ وَلاَ الْحَرُورُ

(22) وَمَا يَسْتَوِي الأَحْيَآءُ وَلاَ الأَمْوَاتُ اِنَّ اللَّهَ يُسْمِعُ مَن يَشَآءُ وَمَا أَنتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَّن فِي الْقُبُورِ

(23) اِنْ أَنتَ اِلاَّ نَذِيرٌ

  1. “And the blind and the seeing are not alike,”

  2. “Nor the darkness and the light,”

  3. “Nor the shade and the heat”

  4. “Neither are the living and the dead alike. Verily Allah makes whom He pleases hear, and you cannot make those hear who are in the graves.”

  5. “You are naught but a Warner.”

Commentary:

The believers are some heartily and hale persons who enjoy the real life. Faith gives life to both an individual and society, while disbelief is a factor of spiritual death for both an individual and the society.

Pursuing the discussions about faith and disbelief in the former holy verses, the verses under discussion mention four interesting parables concerning the believers and disbelievers in which the signs of faith and infidelity have been illustrated in the most manifest form.

In the first parable, a disbeliever and a believer are likened to a blind person and a seeing person. It says:

“And the blind and the seeing are not alike,”

Faith is both light and light giver; and it gives light and cognition to man’s whole life in his world-view, belief, action. But infidelity is darkness in which there is neither a correct insight for the whole world of existence, nor a proper conviction, nor a righteous deed.

In this regard, the Qur’a-n in Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 257 expressively says: “Allah is the Guardian of those who have faith; He brings them out of darkness into light, and those who reject faith, their guardians are false-deities (T?a-qu-t), who bring them out of light into darkness; they are the inhabitants of the Fire wherein shall they abide forever.”

Then, it implies that since only the seeing-eye is not enough there must be a light, too, so that, by the help of these two factors, the things can be observed. The next holy verse concerning the equality of them, says:

“Nor the darkness and the light,”

The reason of it is that darkness is the cause of mislead. It is the factor of dangers, but light is the source of life, living, movement, growth, and development. If light were destroyed, all sources of energy in the world would be wiped out and death would dominate the whole world of matter. Such is the light of faith in the world of spirituality which is the cause of growth, development and life.

In the third sentence, it continues saying:

“Nor the shade and the heat”

A believer continues to live in peace, security and safety under the shade of his faith, but a disbeliever, because of his infidelity, is in inconvenience and pain. Ra-qib in Mufrada-t

says: “The word /h?aru-r/ means: ‘a hot and blazing wind’, (a drying and fatal wind)”.

Zamakhshary in Kashsha-f says: “The term /sumu-m/ is called to some harmful and fatal winds which blow during the day, while the Arabic word /haru-r/ is called to the same winds whether they blow during the day or at might.” Anyhow, how different is this wind and the cold cheerful shade which gives rest to both soul and body?

And finally through the last similitude in the fourth verse, the Qur’a-n says:

“Neither are the living and the dead alike. …”

The believers are the living ones who usually have effort, endeavour, movement and growth. They are somehow like plants which have leaves, flowers, and fruits; but disbelievers are like pieces of dry wood which have neither greenness nor flower, nor shade, and they are not useful but for burning.

Then, at the end of the verse, the Qur’a-n adds:

“… Verily Allah makes whom He pleases hear, …”

Allah makes him hear in order that he hears the invitation of the truth heartily and answers the call of the callers of Monotheism.

But the more your cry is loud, and your words are pleasant, and the more your statement is expressive, the dead do not perceive anything from it; and those who have lost their human soul as the result of continuously committing sins and being drowned in bigotry, enmity, injustice, and corruption, certainly are not ready to accept your invitation. The verse says:

“… and you cannot make those hear who are in the graves.”

In the fifth verse Allah implicitly says that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) should not be worried and anxious about the lack of faith in them, his duty was to convey it and to warn them. The verse says:

“You are naught but a Warner.”

Two Points:

The first is the effects of belief and disbelief:

We know that the Qur’a-n considers no importance for the geographical, racial, and classical boundaries which separate groups of human beings from each other. The only boundary in its view is the boundary of ‘Faith’ and ‘blasphemy’. Thus, all of the human societies are divided into two groups: faithful and unfaithful.

For introducing ‘Faith’, in many occurrences, the Qur’a-n has likened it to ‘light’, and ‘disbelief’ into ‘darkness’, and this is the most expressive simile of the Qur’a-n for introducing belief and disbelief. (You may refer to Sura Al-Baqarah, verse 257, Sura Al-Ma-’idah, verses 15 and 16, Ibrahi-m, verses 1 and 5, Sura Az-Zumar, verse 22, Al-Hadi-d, verse 9, and At?-T?ala-q, verse 11) Faith is a kind of perceiving and inner insight. It is a sort of knowledge and cognizance combined with heartily conviction together with movement. It is a kind of belief which has penetrated into the depth of man’s soul and becomes the source of instructive activities.

But disbelief is ignorance, unawareness, and the lack of certainty, the result of which is the absence of feeling of responsibility and the existence of Satanic destructive actions.

The second: Do the dead not perceive any reality?

Regarding to what has been said in the abovementioned verses, there appear two questions: the first is that how does the Qur’a-n say: “… you cannot make those hear who are in the graves”? or that a famous tradition indicates that on the day of the battle of Badr, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) ordered that the dead bodies of the pagans would be cast into a well at the end of the war. Then he called them and said: “Have you found truth what Allah and His Messenger promised? But I found truth what Allah promised me.”

Here ‘Umar protested and said: “O’ Messenger of Allah! How do you speak with some bodies in which there is no soul?”

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “You do not hear what I say better than that they do, except that they are not able to answer anything.” [^1]

Or that one of the rites of a dead is that the right beliefs are indoctrinated him (her). How does this action adapt to the verses under discussion?

With regard to one point, the answer to this question can be made clear. This is a fact that the verses under discussion speak about the lack of understanding in the dead in ordinary natural case, while the tradition of the Battle of Badr is different from the indoctrination of a dead. It relates to some extraordinary conditions by which Allah (s.w.t.) transfers the sayings of His Messenger (p.b.u.h.) extraordinarily to the ears of those dead bodies.

In other words, the communication of man in the purgatory world with this world will be ceased, except in the cases that Allah commands, and then this communication occurs. That is why, in ordinary circumstances we cannot communicate with the dead.

Another Question is: If our sound does not reach the dead, what is the meaning of our greeting to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.)

[^1] Tafsi-r-i-Rauh-ul-Baya-n, under the verse, and Sah)i-h)-Bukha-ri-, Vol. 5, P. 97

and to the Imams (a.s.), resorting to them, visiting of their tombs, and asking for intercession from them before Allah? Some extravagant Muslims, who are generally known for their thought conventionalism also relying on this very imagination, without considering other verses of the Qur’a-n, and without having any veneration for the abundant traditions narrated from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), have negated the subject of resorting and, as they think, they have nullified it.

Commentary : Verse 24.25.26

(24) اِنَّآ أَرْسَلْنَاكَ بِالْحَقّ‌ِ بَشِيراً وَنَذِيراً وَاِن مِنْ اُمَّةٍ إِلاَّ خَلاَ فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ

(25) وَإِن يُكَذّ‌ِبُوكَ فَقَدْ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ جَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِالْبَيّـِنَاتِ وَبِالزُّبُرِ وَبِالْكِتَابِ الْمُنِيرِ

(26) ثُمَّ أَخَذْتُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فَكَيْفَ كَانَ نَكِيرِ

24.“Verily We sent you with truth as a bearer of glad-tidings and a Warner, and there was not a people but a Warner having gone in them (in the past).”

  1. “And if they belie you, so indeed did belie those before them; their apostles had come unto them with clear proofs, and with scriptures, and with the enlightening Book.”

  2. “Then did I seize those who disbelieved, so how (severe) was My punishment?”

Commentary:

Allah is true, and He has appointed the training system by the means of prophets in the basis of the truth, too. So, in this verse, He says:

“Verily We sent you with truth as a bearer of glad-tidings and a Warner, and there was not a people but a Warner having gone in them (in the past).”

O’ Prophet! When you fulfil your duty in ‘glad tidings’ and ‘warning’ it is enough for you. You may convey them your call and give them the glad tidings of the Divine rewards and warn them of the retributions of Allah, whether they accept them or continue their stubbornness and enmity.

The Arabic word /xala-/, here, is derived from /xala’a/ which originally means a place wherein is not any curtain. This term is used for both time and place, and since time is always passing the ‘past times’ is called /’azminah xa-liyah/, because there is no trace from them at the present time and the world is empty of them.

Therefore the Qur’a-nic sentence saying: “… and there was not a people but a Warner having gone in them (in the past)” means that every nation of the ancient nations had had a Warner in the past.

This point is also noteworthy that according to the above verse all nations had a Divine Warner, viz., a Divine prophet, though some commentators have taken it with a vaster meaning which envelops the scholars, and learned ones who warn people, too.

Of course, this statement does not mean that in any town and city a prophet has been appointed, but when the invitation of Divine prophets and their words reach peoples it is enough, because the Qur’a-n says: “… a Warner having gone in them” (Fi-ha-) and it does not say /minha-/ (among them)

In the next verse, it implies that if they reject you it is not wonderful and, you should not be surprised and sorry, because the people who were before them rejected their prophets, too, while their messengers came to them with clear miracles, books containing admonitions, and the heavenly Books introducing ordinances, and enlightening laws to them. It says:

“And if they belie you, so indeed did belie those before them; their apostles had come unto them with clear proofs, and with scriptures, and with the enlightening Book.”

It is not only you who, with having miracles and heavenly Book, have been rejected by this ignorant group of people; the former prophets had encountered this difficulty, too. So you should not be sad and do stand firm in your path, and do know that those who must accept the truth will accept it.

What is the difference between ‘Bayyina-t’, ‘Zubur’, and ‘The enlightening Book’?

1- The Qur’a-nic term /bayyina-t/ means some clear proofs and miracles which prove the legitimacy of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.).

2- The purpose of Zubur is that part of the prophets’ Books which contained of only some admonitions, advices, and supplications, (like supplications of David) [^1]

3- The Qur’a-nic phrase /kita-b-il-Muni-r/ refers to that group of heavenly books which contain some ordinances, laws, and different social and individual instructions, such as Turat, Bible, and Qur’a-n.

In the last verse of the verses under discussion, the Qur’a-n, referring to the painful retribution of this group, implicitly says: It was not such that they could remain safe from the Divine retribution and would continue constantly their rejections, but Allah seized the disbelievers and punished them severely. The verse says:

“Then did I seize those who disbelieved, …”

The Arabic word /’axao(tu/ is derived from /’axao(a/ with the sense of ‘to take’, but its application in such cases indirectly means ‘punishment’, because taking and capturing someone is the beginning of punishment.

However, Allah caused some pagans to be faced with a tempest, another group with a destructive hurricane, and some [^1] The Arabic word /zubur/ is the plural form of /zabu-r/ which means the books the scriptures of which have been written to be permanent (like writings on the stone, and the likes that here it indicates to the firmness of their matters.

people were destroyed by the heavenly Blast, lightning, and earthquake. Then at the end of the verse, for emphasis and stating the greatness and severity of their punishment, the Qur’a-n says:

“… so how (severe) was My punishment?”

In any case, on one side, these verses console and encourage all those who pave the path of Allah, particularly the true leaders of any nation in any time that they should not be despaired of the murmurs of the opponents and know that the Divine invitations have always been faced with the intensive oppositions from the side of aberrant zealous ones and cruel profit seekers, and in the meantime, there have been some sympathetic pure lovers who sacrificed their souls helping the claimers of the path of the truth.

And, on the other side, it is a threat against these aberrant opponents that they should know that they cannot continue their disgraceful and destructive deeds forever. Soon or late, the divine punishments will encompass them.