Verses 13–20
Having divided humankind into those who return to God and follow his way and those who deny his signs and resort to falsehoods, the present verses argue for God’s unity and deliver a warning to their audience.
Commentary
هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُنَزِّلُ لَكُمْ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ رِزْقًا ۚ وَمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ إِلَّا مَنْ يُنِيبُ ١٣
(40:13) It is He who shows you His signs and sends down for you provision from the heavens. Yet no one takes admonition except him who returns penitently.
The meaning of signs (āyāt) here are those indications and proofs of God’s oneness in both lordship and divinity, as shown by the beginning of the following verse. So supplicate Allah, putting exclusive faith in Him…, which presents itself as the logical corollary of being shown these signs. The term signs is also used in a general sense and includes both the signs visible in the natural world to any person of good sense, the signs brought by the divine messengers, and the proofs established by way of divine revelation.
This verse also contains the following argument: If there was a deity whose worship was incumbent for the human being, and this worship was a source of flourishing and felicity for the human being, then it would be obligatory for this deity—because of His perfect governance of the cosmos and complete concern for the human being—to guide the human being towards this worship. And the one to whose lordship and divinity all the signs of the cosmos point, and in this they are supported by the miracles and preaching of the prophets and the messengers, is the One God. As for the deities that the idolaters worship besides God, they have no sign indicating any of this for themselves. Therefore, it is God alone who is the deity worthy of worship. It is to this fact that Imām ʿAlī alluded with the words: If your Lord had a partner, this partners messengers would have come to you as well.
…and sends down for you provision from the heavens: This is another proof for God’s oneness by way of provision, as providing for the denizens of the earth is one of the functions of lordship and divinity, but provision is from God and not from His supposed partners. Therefore, He is the lord and the god, not them.
Provision (rizq) here has been understood as a reference to rain, while the heavens (samāʾ) is taken as a reference to the terrestrial sky. However, provision could also mean the things themselves from which humans take provision and the descent of these things from the heavens could mean their emergence into the visible realm from the unseen one, as suggested by the verse: There is not a thing but that its sources are with Us, and We do not send it down except in a known measure ().
Yet no one takes admonition except him who returns penitently: This is an interjection that indicates that only one of the two groups of humans mentioned above takes a lesson from these signs, and it is the group who turn penitently to God rather than those who reject and argue obstinately. This is because disbelief and rejection remove a persons ability to take a lesson from proofs or follow the truth.
فَادْعُوا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ ١٤
(40:14) So supplicate Allah, putting exclusive faith in Him, though the faithless should be averse.
Based on the context, the most appropriate reading of this is that it is directed to everyone, whether a believer or not, based on the proofs laid out in the previous verse. However, it does not include the disbelievers mentioned at the end of itself, who are the ones who deny and argue with the Messenger through recourse to falsehood.
It is as though God means to say: Insofar as these signs demonstrate God’s oneness, and He alone is the sender of provision, then aside from those disbelievers who deny and debate, everyone should supplicate to God and dedicate their religion to Him. As for the disbelievers who detest the idea of divine unity, there is no hope for them, no sign will avail them, and no proof will convince them. So, you worship God and devote your faith to Him and let the faithless detest that if they wish.
رَفِيعُ الدَّرَجَاتِ ذُو الْعَرْشِ يُلْقِي الرُّوحَ مِنْ أَمْرِهِ عَلَىٰ مَنْ يَشَاءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ لِيُنْذِرَ يَوْمَ التَّلَاقِ ١٥
(40:15) Raiser of ranks, Lord of the Throne, He casts the Spirit of His command upon whomever of His servants that He wishes, that he may warn of the Day of Meeting.
These are three attributes of God, each of which grammatically takes the form of a series of predicates for the pronoun in the previous verse: It is He who shows you His signs… and this verse and those that follow it are in the context of a warning.
A number of interpretations have been offered for the phrase rafīʿ al-darajāt (Raiser of ranks). For example, that it means the one who raises the ranks of the Prophets and God’s allies in paradise. Some have said it means the one who raises the seven heavens through which the angels ascend to the throne. Others have argued it means the one who raised the supports of the throne. Finally, there are those who say it means that God is the one who is raised in rank, status, and authority.
Reflecting on the meaning of this verse and the one after it, they appear to be concerned with describing God’s sovereignty and dominion over His creation by saying that He has a throne in which are gathered all the reins of power and from which descends His commands, and that this throne is elevated to the loftiest ranks of His creation. These ranks are, perhaps, a reference to the heavens that He describes as the abodes of the angels; His command descends through these ranks, and it is these heavens that veil his throne from humankind.
Then, there will be a Day of Convergence, in which this veil that separates the throne from humankind will be pulled back such that their sights can penetrate the depths of the heavens and His throne will become visible for them. Whereat, it will be clear to them that He is the sovereign over all things, and there is no dominion except His, which allows Him to judge between people.
Therefore, the meaning of darajāt (ranks) here are the levels through which one ascends to His throne and through which one returns from it. Therefore Raiser of ranks, Lord of the Throne is an allusion to how exalted the Throne of His dominion is above the level of His creation, to the extent that it is hidden and veiled from them until the Day of Judgment by lofty ranks and distant intervals.
He casts the Spirit of His command upon whomever of His servants that He wishes: This refers to the matter of prophethood, one of whose functions is to warn others. He qualifies the word rūḥ (Spirit) with of His command to show that Spirit here refers to the same spirit mentioned in the verse, The Spirit is of the command of my Lord (), which is what accompanies the angels of revelation as they descend, as per the verse: He sends down the angels with the Spirit of His command to whomever He wishes of His servants… ().
The meaning of casts the Spirit… upon whomever of His servants that He wishes… means that He sends it down to them with the angels of revelation. Whomever of His servants that He wishes is a reference to the Prophets and Messengers whom He chose to carry His message to mankind. There are other theories with reference to this idea of a spirit cast upon the Prophet, but these do not concern us here.
…that he may warn of the Day of Meeting: This is the Day of Resurrection; it is called a meeting because it represents the meeting of all of God’s creatures together, or the meeting of the Creator and His creation, or the meeting of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, or the meeting of the oppressor and the oppressed, or the meeting of a person and their deeds. All of these meanings have been suggested by different commentators.
The second of these meanings can be supported by the repeated references the Qur’an contains to the Day of Judgment as an meeting (liqāʾ). For example: Indeed many of the people disbelieve in the meeting with their Lord (), Indeed they will encounter their Lord (), and O man! You are labouring toward your Lord laboriously, and you will meet Him (). This is called a meeting because it represents the severing of the human being from all distractions, so that it becomes self-evident that God is the Manifest Truth, and because they will go forth from their graves to Him.
يَوْمَ هُمْ بَارِزُونَ ۖ لَا يَخْفَىٰ عَلَى اللَّهِ مِنْهُمْ شَيْءٌ ۚ لِمَنِ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ ۖ لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ ١٦
(40:16) The day when they will emerge, nothing about them will be hidden from Allah. To whom does the sovereignty belong today? To Allah, the One, the All-dominant!
This is an explanation of the Day of Meeting, and when the verse says they will emerge it means that the truth will become apparent to them and all of their imagined bonds will be removed—the same bonds that led them astray, veiled their Lord from them, and made them forget that His sovereignty is all-encompassing, that Judgment alone belongs to Him, and that lordship and divinity belong to Him alone.
The day when they will emerge refers to the removal of every bond and every veil that prevented them from recognizing the truth.
…nothing about them will be hidden from Allah: This explains the meaning of their emerging. In short, their hearts and deeds will be clearly visible to God; their inner and outer beings, whatever they remember and whatever they have forgotten—all will be unveiled and plain to see.
To whom does the sovereignty belong today? To Allah, the One, the All-paramount! The question and the answer both emanate from God and make clear the reality of the Day, which is the manifestation of God’s sovereignty and authority over the entirety of creation.
God is described with the attributes of the One (al-Wāḥid) and the All-dominant (al-Qahhār) to show why sovereignty belongs to Him alone. To dominate a thing is to have sovereignty and authority over it by depriving it of its independence. Equally, He is the One, and therefore this sovereignty belongs to Him alone.
الْيَوْمَ تُجْزَىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ ۚ لَا ظُلْمَ الْيَوْمَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ١٧
(40:17) Today every soul shall be requited for what it has earned. There will be no injustice today. Indeed Allah is swift at reckoning.
This verse explains the significance of the Day, namely that each soul will be requited with exactly what it has earned; its recompense will be its own deeds. God says: O faithless ones! Do not make any excuses today. You are only being requited what you used to do ().
When God says, Indeed Allah is swift at reckoning, this explains why there will be no injustice (ẓulm) on that Day, namely that God is swift in reckoning, meaning that judging one soul does not distract Him from judging another at the same time, such that He might err and recompense a soul with other than what it has earned and, in doing so, commit an injustice against it.
This explanation intends to negate any injustice that emanates from an error. As for the kind of injustice that is done knowingly and wilfully, this is also precluded by the fact that each soul will be requited with the same deeds it has done, and this cannot be conceived of as unjust or unfair.
وَأَنْذِرْهُمْ يَوْمَ الْآزِفَةِ إِذِ الْقُلُوبُ لَدَى الْحَنَاجِرِ كَاظِمِينَ ۚ مَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ حَمِيمٍ وَلَا شَفِيعٍ يُطَاعُ ١٨
(40:18) Warn them of the Imminent Day when the hearts will be at the throats, choking with suppressed agony.
Throats (pl. ḥanājir, sing. ḥanjara) refers to the epiglottis, which is located at the back of the mouth. Saying the hearts will be at the throats is a figure of speech that is meant to show extreme fear (akin to the English expression: my heart is in my mouth), as though the heart has leapt up from its place and reached the back of the throat out of fright. Choking with suppressed agony (kāẓimīn) refers to extreme grief.
The wrongdoers will have no sympathizer, nor any intercessor who might be heard—A sympathizer (ḥamīm) is a close associate who will come to your aid because of their relationship with you. God says elsewhere: there will be no ties between them on that day (). Nor will there be any intercessor whose request for intercession will be heeded.
يَعْلَمُ خَائِنَةَ الْأَعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِي الصُّدُورُ ١٩
(40:19) He knows the treachery of the eyes, and what the breasts hide.
Some have said that khāʾina (translated as treachery here) is an infinitive (maṣdar) akin to khiyāna (same meaning), in the same way as kādhiba is used for kadhb (both meaning deception) and lāghiya for lughuww (both meaning vain).
Treachery of the eyes… does not refer to just any sin committed by the eyes, but rather those sins of the eyes that are hidden from others—like a stolen glance—because this is mentioned alongside what the breasts hide to illustrate God’s total knowledge.
It is said that the Arabic phrase khāʾinat al-aʿyun (treachery of the eyes) is a possessive construct in which the adjective is associated with its noun, which would render the meaning He knows the treacherous eyes. However, the previous meaning is more apposite.
…and what the breasts hide: What the soul keeps secret and hidden, such as disbelief, hypocrisy, and sinful thoughts.
وَاللَّهُ يَقْضِي بِالْحَقِّ ۖ وَالَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ لَا يَقْضُونَ بِشَيْءٍ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ ٢٠
(40:20) Allah judges with justice, while those whom they invoke besides Him do not judge by anything. Indeed it is Allah who is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.
This is another proof of His oneness in divinity, which He lays out after discussing how sovereignty belongs to Him alone on the Day of Judgment and how He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the breasts hide, where these two points serve as a preliminary for this one.
The summation of the proof is as follows: It is a necessary requirement of divinity that a deity judges his servants and judges between them; God is the one who judges the creation and judges between them on the Day of Resurrection. On the other hand, those whom the idolaters invoke beside God do not judge anything, because they are also servants and subjects of God without any sovereignty of their own.
Part of God’s Judgment (qaḍāʾ) is His governing the particular affairs of His servants through creation upon creation, as this too is an example of Judgment and decree. God says: All His command, when He wills something, is to say to it “Be,” and it is () and When He decides on a matter He just says to it “Be!” and it is (). No other deity has any share in creation. Therefore, no other deity has any share in Judgment.
Another part of God’s Judgment is His promulgation of the religion and His choosing it as a means to reach Him, as He says: Your Lord has decreed that you shall not worship anyone except Him ().
Indeed it is Allah who is the All-hearing, the All-seeing: In other words, He possesses the true knowledge of all objects of hearing and objects of sight by virtue of His own divine essence. No one else has access to this save those whom God endows with these senses and grants permission to use them. No one has them innately.
Examining Narrations
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, regarding the verse He casts the Spirit of His command upon whomever of His servants that He wishes (), we read: It is the Holy Spirit (Rūḥ al-Qudus), which is exclusively for God’s Messenger and the Imāms.
- In Maʿānī al-akhbār, Shaykh al-Ṣadūq narrates via a chain of narrators from Ḥafṣ b. Ghiyāth, from Abū ʿAbd Allāh [Imām al-Ṣādiq]: The Day of Meeting is the day on which the inhabitants of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth will meet.
Author’s comments: The same tradition is transmitted in Tafsīr al-Qummī with an incomplete chain of narrators.
- In al-Tawḥīd, al-Ṣadūq narrates via a chain of narrators from Ibn Faḍḍāl, from [Imām] al-Riḍā, from his forefathers, from ʿAlī, a tradition in which he said: God says “To whom does the sovereignty belong today?” Then the spirits of His prophets, messengers, and representatives say: “To Allah, the One, the All-dominant!” Then God says: “Today every soul shall be requited for what it has earned.”
- In Nahj al-balāgha, we read: Surely, after the extinction of the world, God the Glorified will remain alone with nothing else beside Him. He will be, after its extinction, as He was before its origination: without time, or place, or moment, or duration. At this moment, duration and time will not exist, and the years and the hours will disappear. There will be nothing except God, the One, the All-dominant. To Him is the return of all matters. The worlds origination was not in its own power, and the prevention of its extinction was also not in its power. For, if it had the power to prevent it, it would have existed for ever.
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, it is narrated via a chain of narrators from Thuwayr b. Abī Fākhita, that [Imām] ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn was asked about the two soundings of the Trumpet, how much time would elapse between them? He answered: As much as He wills. Then he described how the Trumpets would be sounded and the death of the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth, before saying: They will remain in that state for as long as God wills. Then, He will command the heavens and they will be set whirling, then He will command the mountains and they will be set moving, and this is His saying: “On the day when the sky whirls violently, and the mountains move with an awful motion” ()—meaning that they will expand—“The day the earth is transformed into another earth” ()—meaning an earth on which no sins have been earned will emerge, without mountains or vegetation, as it was when He unfurled it for the first time. His Throne will return to the waters as it was the first time, absolute in His tremendousness and power. Then, he said: Whereat He will call the mountains with a great shout that will be heard throughout the heavens and the earths: “To whom does the sovereignty belong today?” And no one will answer Him. Then, the Almighty will answer Himself: “To Allah, the One, the All-dominant!”
Author’s comments: Reflecting on the last three verses suggests that what will be extinguished from creation is the independence of its being and the bonds and connections of causality that existed between its parts. This is what the Qurʾānic verses suggest. The spirits will not die, and there is no time between the two soundings of the Trumpet, so they will not be neglected. These narrations contain many subtle points that will be apparent to one who contemplates on them. However, they also contain some details that run contrary to the apparent meanings of the verses.
- In Rawḍat al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates via a chain of narrators from Ibn Abī ʿUmayr, from [Imām] Mūsā b. Jaʿfar a tradition, in which he says: O Abū Aḥmad, no believer commits a sin except that it distresses him and he regrets it. The Prophet has said: “Regret is repentance enough.” And he said: “Whoever is gladdened by his good deeds and grieved by his bad ones is a believer.” So, if he does not regret the sin he has committed, he is not a believer, and no intercession will be granted on his account, and he is a wrongdoer. God says: “The wrongdoers will have no sympathizer, nor any intercessor who might be heard” ().
- In Maʿānī al-akhbār, Shaykh al-Ṣadūq narrates via a chain of narrators from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Salama al-Ḥarīrī, who said: I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh about the verse “He knows the treachery of the eyes” (). He told me: “Do you not see that a man will look at a thing without showing that he is looking at it? That is the treachery of the eyes.”
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, al-Suyūṭī narrates from Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mardawayh from Saʿd, who said: On the day of Meccas conquest, God’s Messenger granted safety to the people, except for four men and two women. He said: “Kill them, even if you find them clinging to the Kaʿba!” One of them was ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd b. Abī Sarḥ, who sought refuge with ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān.
So, when God’s Messenger called people to pledge allegiance to him, ʿUthmān brought him to the Prophet and said: “O Messenger of God, let ʿAbd Allāh pledge allegiance”—three times he refused and, each time, ʿUthmān asked again—so he received the pledge of allegiance from him, then turned to his Companions and said: “Was there not any man of good sense amongst you who could see I was refusing his pledge of allegiance and might have killed him?” They said: “We did not know, O Messenger of God, what you had in mind—would you not have given us a sign with your eyes?” He said: “It does not befit a prophet to have treachery of the eyes (khāʾinat al-aʿyun).”