Verse 110
Introduction
The verse completes the chapter and summarizes what was intended by the explanation in the chapter. It puts together all three roots of the religion, that is, belief in one God, prophethood, and resurrection:
- Belief in one God is in (the statement), that your god is one God.
- Prophethood is in (the sentence), I am only a mortal like you; it is revealed to me . . . he should do good deeds.
- Resurrection is in (the clause), therefore whoever hopes to meet his Lord . . .
Commentary
قُلۡ إِنَّمَآ أَنَا۠ بَشَرٞ مِّثۡلُكُمۡ يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَيَّ أَنَّمَآ إِلَٰهُكُمۡ إِلَٰهٞ وَٰحِدٞۖ فَمَن كَانَ يَرۡجُواْ لِقَآءَ رَبِّهِۦ فَلۡيَعۡمَلۡ َ َ ٗ صَٰلِحٗا وَلَا يُشۡرِكۡ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِۦٓ أَحَدَۢا ١١٠
(18:110) Say: I am only a mortal like you; it is revealed to me that your god is one God, therefore whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and not join anyone in the service of his Lord.
The first restriction (I am only a mortal like you) is with regard to his humanity, which is just like everyone else’s humanity. He has nothing more than they do and does not make any claim for himself counter to the claim they made—that if he was claiming to be a Prophet, he was claiming divine essence and power pertaining to the unseen world. That is why they demanded of him what God alone knows and what God alone is capable of. However, he denied his knowing or being capable of any of that by God’s command, confirming of himself only that revelation comes to him.
The second restriction (your god is one God) is the god who is their God being just one God, that is, monotheism which says that everyone’s god is one God.
The clause, therefore whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and not join anyone in the service of his Lord, contains a summary of the religious invitation, that is, to do good for the sake of God alone without any associate. It follows on logically from the hope to meet the Lord, that is, to return to Him because if there is no reckoning or requital, there would be nothing to make it necessary to adopt the religion and clothe oneself in belief. As He says: . . . those who go astray from the path of God, they shall surely have a severe punishment because they forgot the day of reckoning ().
Doing good deeds is a consequence of not associating partners in worshiping the Lord because believing in His oneness while associating partners in one’s actions are two contradictories which do not go together. Thus if God is one, then He is one in all attributes including His being an object of worship—without the worship of any other associated with it.
Adopting the religion is a consequence of hoping (although not necessarily having certain belief in) resurrection because a belief that it is possible is enough to make one wary of it. This is because of one’s duty to keep possible harm away. It may be claimed that meeting means encountering esteem which is hoped for, but not something which one is certain of.
Hoping to meet God is made a logical consequence of the clause, And your god is one God, because the servants return to Him is part of the full sense of His divinity. He has every desirable perfection and every beautiful attribute, including doing what is right and ruling justly. They both dictate His servants’ coming back to Him and His judging them. He says: And We did not create the heaven and the earth and what is between them in vain; that is the opinion of those who disbelieve, then woe to those who disbelieve on account of the fire. Shall we treat those who believe and do good like the mischief-makers in the earth? Or shall We make those who guard (against evil) like the wicked? (), And most of them do not believe in God without associating others (with Him) ().
Examining Narrations
- Al-Durr al-manthūr says Ibn Manda, Abū l-Naʿīm in al-Ṣaḥāba and Ibn ʿAsākir via al-Suddī al-Ṣaghīr cite on the authority of al-Kalbī on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās:
“Whenever Jundub b. Zuhayr prayed, fasted or gave charity and was spoken well of he would become comfortable. He grew more and more so as people spoke and so God reproached him. The verse, therefore whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and not join anyone in the service of his Lord, was then revealed in relation to the matter.”
Author’s comment: Many other similar oral traditions which do not mention his name [Jundub] are narrated but they should be construed as the verse’s being applicable to the situation. It would be surprising for the end of any chapter to be revealed for a reason all of its own.
- Al-Durr al-manthūr also says about the same verse on the authority of Abū Ḥātim on the authority of Saʿīd b. Jubayr:
“The Prophet said, Your Lord says: ‘I am the best partner. I will leave all the work of anyone who associates anyone from My creation with Me in his work to (that associate) and will only accept what is for Me alone’. The Prophet then recited, therefore whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and not join anyone in the service of his Lord.”
- Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī says on the authority of ʿAlī b. Sālim on the authority of Abū ʿAbdullāh:
“I am the best partner. I will not accept (the work) of anyone who associates a partner with Me in his work apart from what is for Me alone.”
Al-ʿAyyāshī says in another oral tradition on his authority: God says: “I am the best partner. The work of anyone who acts for Me and another is for the one he did the work for, not Me.”
- Al-Durr al-manthūr says, cited by Aḥmad and Ibn Abī l-Dunya, al-Mardawayh, and deemed to be authentic by al-Ḥākim; cited by al-Bayhaqī on the authority of Shidād b. Aws, I heard God’s Messenger say:
“Whoever prays and shows off, attributes a partner. Whoever fasts and shows off, attributes a partner. Whoever gives charity and shows off, attributes a partner.” He then recited, therefore whoever hopes to meet his Lord, he should do good deeds, and not join anyone in the service of his Lord.
- Tafsīr al-ʿAyyāshī says on the authority of Zurāra and Ḥamrān on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar and Abū ʿAbdullāh:
“If a servant does a deed seeking God’s mercy and his abode in the hereafter in exchange for it but then includes some person’s pleasure in it, he is one who associates partners (with God).”
Author’s comment: The oral traditions under this heading via the Shī‘ah and Sunnī are too numerous to mention. What is meant in them by associating partners to God (shirk) is latent association of partners which does not negate belief itself but rather the perfection of belief. He says: And most of them do not believe in God without associating others (with Him) ().
Thus, the non-superficial meaning of the verse but not the context in which it was revealed applies to latent association of partners.
- Al-Durr al-manthūr says:
al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mardawayh cite Abū Ḥakīm as saying: “God’s Messenger said, If nothing but the end of Sūrat al-Kahf had been revealed to my nation it would have been enough for them.”
Author’s comment: The reason for it is in the above commentary.