Verses 65–88
This is the final section of this chapter commanding the Prophet to deliver his warning and invitation to the oneness of God (tawḥīd). It also tells him to convey this sentiment: turning away from the truth and following Satan will lead a person to punishment in the Fire; this has been irrevocably decreed for Satan and his followers. With this, the chapter ends.
Commentary
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا مُنْذِرٌ ۖ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ إِلَّا اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ ٦٥ رَبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفَّارُ ٦٦
(38:65–66) Say: “I am but a warner, and there is no god but Allah—the One, the Subduer, the Lord of the heavens and the earth and what lies between them—the Mighty, the Forgiving.”
These two verses command the Prophet to proclaim that is a warner, and that God is one in His divinity. I am but a warner confines his aim to warning people, as opposed to other aims that people might suspect him of in his prophetic mission, like seeking wealth or position, as is alluded to in: Say: “I do not ask you for any reward for it, and I am not a pretender ().
“There is no god but Allah—the One, the Subduer, the Lord of the heavens and the earth and what lies between them—the Mighty, the Forgiving”: This asserts the oneness of God through the proof vested in His attributes or divine names.
There is no god but Allah denies any other divinity. A god (ilāh) is something which is rightfully worshipped other than God. Establishing the divinity of God thereby requires the concession that there is no god but Him. Islam and polytheism (shirk) have no quarrel over God’s divinity; rather, the quarrel is over whether God alone has the right to be worshipped, or whether there are others.
The divine attributes mentioned in these two verses are attributes which establish God’s divinity since they act as proof that there are no other gods but God.
The One, the Subduer (al-wāḥid, al-qahhār): These attributes demonstrate God’s oneness and grasp over all things. This is because God is the One whom nothing resembles. His perfection is infinite, and is the same with His existence as the Necessary Existent.. He is intrinsically and absolutely needless; however, other beings are in need of Him in all respects. Nothing enjoys existence or the effects of existence unless God blesses them with it and bestows it upon them. Hence He has power over all things, to do whatever He wills. All things obey His will and humble themselves before Him.
This intrinsic submission is the reality of servitude and worship. Suppose that it were acceptable to worship other things in existence, apart from God, in whatever manner could be deemed “worship”. This, in truth, would be worship of God, for all things are subject to His decree, under His power, and obedient to Him. They have no true control over themselves or anything else. They lack an independent existence as well as the corollaries of existence. Therefore, God—exalted be He!—is the only being truly worthy of worship—nothing else.
Lord of the heavens and the earth and what lies between them: Here, another argument is employed to argue for God’s oneness in divinity. That is, a single order flows through the natural world. The natural world is neither fragmented nor composed of separate precincts. This, in and of itself, is a sign that one divinity administers it all. Repeatedly, it has been said that the creation and management of the universe go hand-in-hand and are inseparable; fashioning a thing is essentially managing it, and vice versa. The creator and instantiator of the heavens and earth and all that lies between them is God. He is even the god of His foes! He administers everything, and therefore is singular in His divinity. Therefore, He is the only one to whom worship should be directed towards, since worship enacts the relationship of servitude, governance, and guardianship between existents and God as well as His bestowing of blessings and dispelling of anger with regards to the worshipper. So He is God, exalted be He, the god of the heavens and the earth and all between them. There is no god but He—understand that!
Possibly, Lord of the heavens and the earth and what lies between them is an elaboration on the attribute of God the Subduer (al-qahhār) or the phrase the One, the Subduer (al-wāḥid, al-qahhār).
The Mighty, the Forgiving: This presents another argument for God’s oneness in His godhood. That is, He is mighty: none can force him to do anything He does not will, nor prevent Him from exerting His will. He is absolutely mighty, whereas other things fall meek and obedient before Him. Since worship is a demonstration of one’s meekness, it is unfit for anyone except the Mighty, and all might is vested in Him.
Furthermore, the underlying goal of worship—and by this is meant performing acts of worship—is to come closer to the worshipped, to dispel the blemish of remoteness. This is accomplished through the forgiveness of sins. God alone dispenses His never-ending treasuries of mercy and brings His servants to the honorable abode in the hereafter. Therefore, He is the Forgiving who must be worshipped out of eagerness for His forgiveness.
Possibly, the Mighty, the Forgiver hints at the underlying impetus behind the Prophet’s call to the oneness of God, or why one should have faith in it. This is because There is no god but Allah—the One, the Subduer can be taken to mean: “I call you to the oneness in God, so believe! For He is mighty, untarnished by meagerness. And He forgives sins; therefore, He must be the true deity.”
قُلْ هُوَ نَبَأٌ عَظِيمٌ ٦٧ أَنْتُمْ عَنْهُ مُعْرِضُونَ ٦٨
(38:67–68) Say: “It is a tremendous tiding; you are turning aside from it.
It (huwa) refers to what was spoken of regarding the oneness of God, in there is no god but Allah… ().
Some exegetes say that it refers to the Qur’an since it is the tremendous tidings (nabaʾ ʿaẓīm) which they are turning away from. To them, this better suits the preceding verses, which are about the Qur’an, as well as the subsequent verse: I had no knowledge of the exalted assembly when they disputed (). That is, he had no knowledge of this until the Qur’an spoke of it. Some say that it actually refers to the Day of Judgment, but this is the least likely of the above views.
مَا كَانَ لِيَ مِنْ عِلْمٍ بِالْمَلَإِ الْأَعْلَىٰ إِذْ يَخْتَصِمُونَ ٦٩
(38:69) I had no knowledge of the exalted assembly when they disputed.
The exalted assembly (al-malaʾ al-aʿlā) is an assemblage of angels. It seems to refer to this:
When your Lord said to the angels, “I am placing a caliph on earth,” they said, “What? Are you going to place someone on it who will cause mischief and shed blood, while we glorify, praise, and sanctify You?” He said, “I know what you do not.” ()
Therefore, this verse comes across as meaning: “I did not know about the dispute among the angels on high until God revealed it to me in His book. I am but a warner and follow the revelation.”
إِنْ يُوحَىٰ إِلَيَّ إِلَّا أَنَّمَا أَنَا نَذِيرٌ مُبِينٌ ٧٠
(38:70) “Naught is revealed to me save that I am a clear warner.”
This verse reinforces “I am but a warner” () and explains why “I had no knowledge of the exalted assembly when they disputed” (). It means: “I did not know that because my knowledge does not come from my own self. Rather, it comes from revelation, and I only receive the revelation that pertains to [the divine] warning.”
إِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي خَالِقٌ بَشَرًا مِنْ طِينٍ ٧١
(38:71) When your Lord told the angels: “I am going to create a mortal from clay.”
From the text, it can be deduced that this and the next verse are not part of what the Prophet was being told to say [in verses ]. This can be understood from the expression your Lord (rabbuka, with a singular “you”). They refer to the time when the angels deliberated on high. The when in when your Lord told the angels either refers to the time when they disputed () or refers to something left unspoken which would mean something along the lines of: “Recall when your Lord said to the angels….” God’s two utterances to the angels—“I am placing a caliph on earth” () and “I am going to create a mortal from clay” ()—are intertwined and occur in the same time frame, denoted by when (idh).
Therefore, when your Lord told the angels can be best explicated as: “Remember the time when your Lord said this-and-that; this was the time that they disputed.”
Some exegetes hold that when your Lord said… explicates when they disputed. They take these statements as a dialogue between God, the angels, and Iblīs. God says: “I am placing a caliph on earth” (). They say: What? Are you going to place someone on it who will cause mischief and shed blood, while we glorify, praise, and sanctify You?” () Then, the dialogue continues with what God says to Adam, and what Adam says back to God. After that, God tells them: “I am creating a mortal” (), at which time Iblīs says what he says, followed by God’s reply.
Taking dispute (yakhtaṣimūn) to mean “quarrel” or “disagreement”, they hold that when they disputed indicates that the disagreement occurred between the angels themselves, not between the angels and God. When God says “I am placing a caliph on earth…I am creating a mortal,” He says this through the intermediary of an angel. Similarly, when God speaks to Adam and Iblīs, he also does it through an angel. When the angels say things like, “Are you going to place someone on it who will cause mischief and shed blood,” they are also speaking to the angelic representative. Thus, the disagreement occurs between the angels themselves.
However, you can see that not a single iota of this view can be deduced from the text.
I am creating a mortal from clay: Bashar (“human”, “mortal”) means the human being. al-Rāghib says:
Bashar is used for the outer layer of human skin and adamah for the inner layer. Therefore, the literati have said that bashar is used as an expression for the human being since the human being is covered in skin and human hair, as opposed to animals, which have wool or fur. Bashar may be used for the singular or plural. However, the Qur’an uses basharayn as the dual form: “Should we have faith in two men (basharayn)” (). Bashar is used in the Qur’an to speak about the human body and outer human form.
This verse says that the human being was made from clay (ṭīn), but Sūrah al-Rūm says that the human being was made from dust (turāb, ), Sūrah al-Ḥijr says that the human being was made from “dried clay, made of moulded mud” (ṣalṣālin min ḥamaʾin, ), and Sūrah al-Raḥmān says that the human being was made of “dry clay like pottery” (ṣalṣāl kal-fakhkhār, ). However, this is fine, since these are all varying states of the original material that the human being was created of; each of these verses refers to one of the states.
فَإِذَا سَوَّيْتُهُ وَنَفَخْتُ فِيهِ مِنْ رُوحِي فَقَعُوا لَهُ سَاجِدِينَ ٧٢
(38:72) When I have fashioned him and breathed part of My spirit into him, fall before him in prostration.”
Fashioned (sawwaytuhu) here means to equip the human being with his limbs and complete the human form. Breathed part of My spirit into him means to give the human being a living human spirit. My is used in My spirit as an expression of honor. Fall is a command for them to fall from the verb root w-q-ʿ. The implication is that they should fall because God has fashioned the human and breathed part of His spirit into him.
فَسَجَدَ الْمَلَائِكَةُ كُلُّهُمْ أَجْمَعُونَ ٧٣
(38:73) The angels did obeisance, all of them.
The readiest interpretation of the verse is that all the angels did prostration without exception.
إِلَّا إِبْلِيسَ اسْتَكْبَرَ وَكَانَ مِنَ الْكَافِرِينَ ٧٤
(38:74) Except Iblis; he was proud and faithless.
However, Iblīs was too proud and did not prostrate; he was a faithless ingrate, as God says in Sūrah al-Ḥijr: “I am not one to prostrate to a moral whom You created from dried clay, made of moulded mud” ().
قَالَ يَا إِبْلِيسُ مَا مَنَعَكَ أَنْ تَسْجُدَ لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيَّ ۖ أَسْتَكْبَرْتَ أَمْ كُنْتَ مِنَ الْعَالِينَ ٧٥
(38:75) He said: “O Iblis! What stopped you from doing obeisance to the one whom I created with My two hands? Are you too proud or too exalted?”
Created with My two hands expresses a special relationship between God and the human being. It conveys a sense of being honored, as does [I] breathed part of My spirit into him (). My two hands—instead of My single hand—conveys God’s full care and attention to His creation, for when a human does something that is important to him, he uses both hands. The expression I created with My two hands resembles the expression of what Our hands wrought ().
Some exegetes take hand to mean “power” and two hands as a form of emphasis, such as in the expression Turn your gaze back twice (). This interpretation is also mentioned in narrations.
Some exegetes also understand two hands to mean the blessings of this world and the next. Possibly, it could be taken to mean the material and spiritual aspects of the human being, or body and soul; or else the divine attributes of grandeur and beauty (jalāl and jamāl). However, there is no evidence for these views in the text.
“Are you too proud or too exalted (min al-ʿālīn)?” This question censures him. Why is it you did not prostrate? Are you too arrogant? Or are you too lofty to be ordered to prostrate?
Some exegetes deduce from this verse that the ʿālīn are a group of created beings who are so immersed in their Lord that they sense nothing but Him.
Other exegetes take ʿālīn to mean arrogance, as in Pharaoh was high and mighty (ʿālin) in the land (). In this case, the verse would mean, “Did you wax arrogant only after you were ordered to prostrate, or were you always that way?” However, this interpretation does not concord with the text, since the verse is asking why he is arrogant, not clarifying whether he had always been arrogant or had recently become that way.
Some exegetes say that the ʿālīn are the angels of the heavens, whereas the angels who were ordered to prostrate were the angels on the earth. However, the verse does not support this view since it implies that the angels, in general, were ordered to prostrate.
قَالَ أَنَا خَيْرٌ مِنْهُ ۖ خَلَقْتَنِي مِنْ نَارٍ وَخَلَقْتَهُ مِنْ طِينٍ ٧٦
(38:76) He said: “I am better than him. You created me from fire, and you created him from clay.”
Here, Iblīs explains why he did not prostrate: it is because he feels he is innately superior to human beings. Since he was created from fire, he is better than Adam, who was created from clay. In his answer, Iblīs hints that he feels that divine commands should only be obeyed if they seem right to him, not simply because they have been commanded or for their own sake; since he felt this was not right, he did not do it. This, in turn, is rooted in the fact that Iblīs did not accept God’s overarching dominion or rule. This is the root of all sins and acts of disobedience; they arise when someone considers himself to be outside the realm of worshipping God and outside of His domain. Then, deeming it better to abstain from the divine command, he turns away from it; thus are misdeeds perpetrated.
قَالَ فَاخْرُجْ مِنْهَا فَإِنَّكَ رَجِيمٌ ٧٧ وَإِنَّ عَلَيْكَ لَعْنَتِي إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ ٧٨
(38:77–78) He said: “Go forth! You are now outcast (rajīm). And My curse shall be upon you until the Day of Judgment (yawm al-dīn).”
Rajīm means rejected. Yawm al-dīn is the Day of Resurrection.
And My curse shall be upon you (wa inna ʿalayka laʿnatī): Sūrah al-Ḥijr says: And upon you is the curse (wa inna ʿalayka al-laʿnah). Although the two expressions are subtly different, it has been observed that whether the definite article al- in laʿnah denotes something already known (lām al-ʿahd) or a general type of something (lām al-jins), there is no difference between the expressions, since, in addition to the divine curse, the curse of angels and humans is also upon him. He is truly outcast, banished from divine mercy at the command of God.
قَالَ رَبِّ فَأَنْظِرْنِي إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ ٧٩ قَالَ فَإِنَّكَ مِنَ الْمُنْظَرِينَ ٨٠ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ الْوَقْتِ الْمَعْلُومِ ٨١
(38:79–81) He said: “My Lord, reprieve me until the day they are raised.” He said: “You are one of those who has been granted respite until the known time.”
Although Iblīs asks to be reprieved until the Day of Judgment, God grants him a reprieve until “the known time” (yawm al-waqt al-maʿlūm, lit. “the day of the known time”). The known time refers to the last day of the world, since this is the last day on which a person can disobey their Lord; it occurs before the Day of Judgment. Day denotes a time when [rather than a specific day or a solar day], as emphasized by waqt (time).
قَالَ فَبِعِزَّتِكَ لَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ٨٢ إِلَّا عِبَادَكَ مِنْهُمُ الْمُخْلَصِينَ٨٣
(38:82–83) He said: “By Your might (bi-ʿizzatika), I will beguile them, all of them—except your purified servants.”
The bi- in bi-ʿizzatika denotes an oath, meaning, “I swear by Your might, I shall mislead them all,” except for the purified, who are the ones whose souls God has purified; neither Satan nor anyone else can tinker with them.
قَالَ فَالْحَقُّ وَالْحَقَّ أَقُولُ ٨٤ لَأَمْلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنْكَ وَمِمَّنْ تَبِعَكَ مِنْهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ٨٥
(38:84–85) He said: “This is the truth, and the truth I speak: I shall fill hell with you and your followers, all of them.”
This is God’s reply to Iblīs. It pronounces the divine decree against Iblīs and his followers: the Fire.
The truth (fal-ḥaqq): Either the subject or predicate of this sentence is elided. Fa- here denotes a sequence of events. Truth here means the opposite of falsehood, especially since it is repeated twice and is preceded by the definite article al-. It refers here to anything whatsoever that opposes falsehood. The expression means: “I swear by it, I shall fill hell with you and whoever follows you” or “My word is true; I shall fill hell with you and whoever follows you.”
The truth I speak (wal-ḥaqq aqūl): This is a parenthetical sentence conveying that this is an irrevocable divine decree. It also refutes Iblīs’s claim that I am better than him. You created me from fire, and you created him from clay () or that God ordered him to prostrate unrightfully. Truth comes before the verb and is preceded by the definite article al- to indicate limitation [that is, God speaks nothing but the truth].
I shall fill hell with you and your followers, all of them: This is the decree passed against Iblīs. You refers to shayāṭīn in general, including Iblīs, his descendants, and his tribe. Your followers refers to humans who follow Iblīs.
We have already discussed this sufficiently in the exegesis on similar verses in Sūrah al-Ḥijr, Sūrah al-Baqarah, Sūrah al-Aʿrāf, and Sūrah al-Isrāʾ; the reader may refer to them.
قُلْ مَا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْرٍ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُتَكَلِّفِينَ ٨٦
(38:86) Say: “I do not ask you for any reward for it, and I am not a pretender.”
This returns to the theme introduced at the beginning of the chapter and developed throughout: the Qur’an is a reminder, and the Prophet is but a warner, nothing else. It also refutes their view that they should just “Keep adhering patiently to your gods. This is what is desired” ().
I do not ask for you any reward for it shows that the Prophet is not seeking wealth or status. I am not a pretender means that the Prophet is not a charlatan. A pretender (mutakallif) is a person who makes up something and dresses it up as something that it is not.
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا ذِكْرٌ لِلْعَالَمِينَ ٨٧
(38:87) “This is naught but a reminder to the nations.”
Meaning, the Qur’an is a reminder to all peoples, of all tribes and nations; it is not only for one group but not another, such that they might take money for reciting or teaching it. Rather, it is for all.
وَلَتَعْلَمُنَّ نَبَأَهُ بَعْدَ حِينٍ ٨٨
(38:88) “And certainly you will come to know about it after a time.”
Meaning, you will come to know of what the Qur’an has said about the Resurrection, the prevalence of Islam over other faiths, and other things after the passage of time.
Some exegetes say that after a time refers to the Day of Judgment. Others say it is the moment of death, or the Battle of Badr. It is not unreasonable to say that there may be several times intended here for each type of thing that will be come to be known. That is, after a time does not specify one single day; rather, each type of thing will be known in its own time.
Examining Narrations
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, with a chain of narration from Ismāʿīl al-Juʿfī, in a long narration which mentions Prophet’s heavenly ascent (miʿrāj), Imām al-Bāqir relates from the Prophet:
God said: “O Muḥammad!”
I said: “I am here, O Lord!”
He said: “What did the angels on high dispute over?”
He said: “Glory be to You—I have no knowledge except what You have taught me.”
He placed His hand—meaning the Hand of Power—in the middle of my chest, and a chill struck between my shoulders. Whenever He asked me about something that had happened or what would happen, I knew it.
Then He said: “O Muḥammad! What did the angels on high dispute about?”
I said: “Expiations (kaffārāt), degrees (darajāt), and divine reward (ḥasanāt).
- In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, Ibn ʿAbbās relates from the Prophet:
My Lord said to me: “Do you know what the angels on high disputed about?”
I said: “No.”
He said: “They disputed about expiations (kaffārāt) and degrees (darajāt). Expiations (kaffārāt) are performing ablutions on cold nights, walking to the congregational prayers, and waiting for one prayer after another. Degrees (darajāt) are greeting others, feeding others, and performing the midnight prayers (ṣalāt al-layl) while people are sleeping.”
Author’s comments: This is also related in al-Khiṣāl from the Prophet, except that the explanations of kaffārāt and darajāt are flipped. It is also related in al-Durr al-Manthūr. The narration in Majmaʿ al-Bayān has many chains of narration from a number of the companions from the Prophet, although the narrations differ with each other.
In any case, applying these narrations directly as interpretations of the verse does not concord with the text itself. Furthermore, there is no evidence that these narrations were intended as exegesis of this verse. Possibly, the angels’ dispute mentioned here was over something else, not what was mentioned in the verse.
- In Nahj al-Balaghāh [it is related that Imām ʿAlī said]:
Praise be to God who has clad Himself with honor and dignity, and chose these things for Himself and none others in His creation. He made them part of His inaccessible inner sanctum, and chose them due to His glory. Then he placed a curse upon any of his servants who might try to strip Him of them.
Thus He tested his closest angels, to distinguish the humble from the arrogant. Although He knows what lies hidden in the hearts and inner secrets, he said: “I am going to create a mortal from clay. When I have fashioned him and breathed part of My spirit into him, fall before him in prostration.” The angels did obeisance, all of them—except Iblis…. ()
Iblīs’s pride swelled. Feeling that he was innately better than Adam, he was prejudiced against him from the start. So God made him the leader of the nationalist fanatics and the forebear of the arrogant—and arrogance is the basis of prejudice and partisanship. He grasped at God’s cloak of grandeur and donned the garment of haughtiness, while shedding the vestments of humility. Do you not see how God belittled him for his arrogance and humiliated him for feigning to be high? God made him an outcast in this world and kindled an inferno for him in the next.
- In ʿUyūn Akhbār al-Riḍā, it is related via a chain of narration from Muḥammad ibn ʿUbaydah:
I asked [Imām] al-Riḍa about what God said to Iblīs: “O Iblis! What stopped you from doing obeisance to the one whom I created with My two hands” () [That is, what is the meaning of My two hands?]
He said: “It means ‘by My power and Might’.”
Author’s comments: Something similar is related in al-Tawḥīd via a chain of narration from Muḥammad ibn Muslim from [Imām] al-Ṣādiq.
We have mentioned other narrations about this story in the exegesis of Sūrah al-Baqarah, Sūrah al-Aʿraf, Sūrah al-Ḥajar, and Sūrah al-Isrāʾ, which the reader can refer to.
- In Jawāmiʿ al-Jāmiʿ, it is related from the Prophet:
There are three signs of a pretender: he disputes with the one who is superior to him, he pursues what he never attains, and he speaks of what he does not know.
Author’s comments: Something similar is related in al-Khiṣāl from [Imām] al-Ṣādiq in an account of Luqmān’s exhortation to his son. It is also related via Sunni chains; some narrations say yunāzil man fawqihi (“he fights with his superior”) instead of yunāziʿ man fawqihi (“he disputes with his superior”).
As in Qur’an . See the exegesis for that section (Volume 40 of the English translation) for ʿAllāmah’s view on whether or not al-nabaʾ al-ʿaẓīm there can be taken to mean the Qur’an. ↩︎
That is, how these attributes are manifested in human beings. Attributes of jalāl express God’s awesomeness and grandeur, and attributes of jamāl express God’s beauty and lovingness. These two categories are sometimes considered to be archetypal male and female qualities. [Trans.] ↩︎
That is, in this interpretation, the question would be asking if Iblīs is one of these ʿālīn who is unable to perceive anything but God, rather than just asking if he is too high and mighty to prostrate. [Trans.] ↩︎
Nationalism, as a term, is rather modern, but seems to express what is meant here in a way meaningful to the contemporary world. [Trans.] ↩︎