Verses 55–60
In the previous section, the Qur’an recounted the story of Moses: How he was sent to bring the truth to Pharaoh and his people, how they disputed God’s signs using falsehoods and schemed against him, how God sent help to His prophet, through which He thwarted their plots, and the terrible fate that befell them as a result of this. In this section, God enjoins His Prophet to be steadfast and patient, and reminds him that God’s promise of divine help is true and that the plots of his own people, their disputing God’s signs using falsehood, and their arrogant refusal to accept his message will all come to nothing. In fact, all of this will rebound onto them as a burden of their own making. So, they cannot do anything to thwart God’s plan, and when the Promised Hour sets in, they will be consigned to Hell for all eternity.
Commentary
فَاصْبِرْ إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لِذَنْبِكَ وَسَبِّحْ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّكَ بِالْعَشِيِّ وَالْإِبْكَارِ ٥٥
(40:55) So be patient! Allah’s promise is indeed true. And plead for forgiveness for your sin, and celebrate the praise of your Lord morning and evening.
This is the conclusion drawn from the previous section, which began with the verse: Have they not travelled over the land so that they may observe how was the fate of those who were before them? (), followed by the story of Moses, what became of those who obstinately and falsely disputed his message, and God’s promise to help the truth and its people.
Therefore, this verse means: If this is the case, then you must be steadfast and patient in the face of the idolaters persecution and false disputations. Surely, God’s promise is true, and He will deliver what He has guaranteed. Here, the content of God’s promise is reflected in the verse: Indeed We shall help Our messengers and those who have faith… ().
When God says, And plead for forgiveness for your sin… this means to plead for forgiveness for what is a sin in relation to him, even if this is not a sin in the sense of contravening God’s command because of his infallible status. We have already discussed the meaning of both sin (dhanb) and forgiveness (maghfira) at the end of the sixth volume of this work.
As for the meaning of sin in relation to the Prophet, we will discuss this further at the beginning of our commentary on Sūrah al-Fatḥ. Some scholars have said that the meaning of sin here is not the sin of the Prophet himself, but of his nation (umma), and pleading for forgiveness for this is a reference to intercession (shafāʿa) on their behalf.
…and celebrate the praise of your Lord morning and evening: In other words, declare Him transcendent while praising Him for His blessings continuously, each and every day (if we take morning and evening as an allusion), or each morning and evening (if we take it literally).
Some scholars have said that this is a reference to the prayers of the morning (subḥ) and the afternoon (ʿaṣr), and that this verse is Medinan.
However, it is clear from the narrations—including the accounts of the Prophets Night Journey—that the five daily prayers were all instituted in Mecca before the Emigration. Therefore, if this verse is a reference to two obligatory prayers, then this would have been in Mecca prior to the institution of the five daily prayers.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي آيَاتِ اللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ سُلْطَانٍ أَتَاهُمْ ۙ إِنْ فِي صُدُورِهِمْ إِلَّا كِبْرٌ مَا هُمْ بِبَالِغِيهِ ۚ فَاسْتَعِذْ بِاللَّهِ ۖ إِنَّهُ هُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ ٥٦
(40:56) Indeed those who dispute the signs of Allah without any authority that may have come to them there is only vanity in their breasts, which they will never satisfy. So seek the protection of Allah; indeed He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.
This confirms the message of the previous verse to the Prophet to be patient and steadfast. It also reassures him of God’s promise to come to his aid. It means that those who dispute God’s signs are not succeeding in their aims and will never succeed in their aims, so do not be grieved by their disputations and let yourself feel reassured with regards to them.
Therefore, when God says there is only vanity in their breasts, He means that this is their only reason for disputing His signs. In other words, it is not because they are interested in seeking the truth or because they have any genuine doubt about these signs, nor is it because they have any proof or authority that they wish to make known. On the contrary, it is the pride and vanity contained in their hearts that motivates them to argue and to try and extinguish the truth.
…which they will never satisfy: Meaning, they will never satisfy their vanity through their disputations; this is because they only dispute in order to invalidate the truth and refute the call of truth. But they will never attain this goal, which is only motivated by their pride and their vanity in the first place.
So seek the protection of Allah: Means, seek refuge with God from them and their vanity, just as Moses sought refuge from every arrogant disputer: Moses said, “Indeed I seek the protection of my Lord and your Lord from every arrogant one who does not believe in the Day of Reckoning” ().
…indeed He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing: Meaning that God hears all of the supplications of His servants, and He sees all of their needs, and He is the one who can see whether they are in difficulty or ease.
لَخَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ أَكْبَرُ مِنْ خَلْقِ النَّاسِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ ٥٧
(40:57) Surely the creation of the heavens and the earth is more prodigious than the creation of mankind, but most people do not know.
The phrase the heavens and the earth refers to the totality of the cosmos. Based on its context, this verse means that those who dispute God’s signs will neither attain their goals nor thwart God’s plans. After all, God is the one with the power to create the entirety of the cosmos, and He was not hindered in this by its tremendousness, so how could he be thwarted by a tiny part of it—humankind—when they are His creatures and even more miniscule in relation to Him compared to it? However, most people are ignorant and imagine in their ignorance that they can thwart God’s plans through their vain disputations and pointless scheming.
وَمَا يَسْتَوِي الْأَعْمَىٰ وَالْبَصِيرُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَلَا الْمُسِيءُ ۚ قَلِيلًا مَا تَتَذَكَّرُونَ ٥٨
(40:58) The blind one and the seer are not equal, neither are those who have faith and do righteous deeds and the evildoing. Little is the admonition that you take!
Having mentioned that the majority of people do not know, God emphasizes this by highlighting that not all people are alike, for some are blind while others see, and the two are not equal. Those who have faith and do righteous deeds are compared to those with sight, while the evildoing are compared to those whose hearts God has made blind so that they cannot take admonition.
Little is the admonition that you take! God addresses His audience directly to rebuke them by switching from the third person (they) to the second person (you).
إِنَّ السَّاعَةَ لَآتِيَةٌ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهَا وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ٥٩
(40:59) Indeed the Hour is bound to come; there is no doubt in it. But most people do not believe.
In this verse, God reminds His audience that the Hour is coming, while the next verse reminds them of God’s call for them to call on Him and worship Him. This evokes the admonition delivered by the believer from Pharaoh’s clan in the previous section, in which he too emphasized the immanent coming of the Hour and called attention to the fact that God has issued a call upon the earth and in the hereafter, while their idols have not.
وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِي سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ ٦٠
(40:60) And your Lord has said: “Call Me, and I will answer you!” Indeed those who are disdainful of My worship will enter hell in utter humility.
This is a summons from God to His servants, in which He tells them to call on Him and guarantees that He will respond. The summons to call on God is universal, and so is His promise to answer His servants prayers—meaning it is not restricted to any one group or dependent upon any conditions. We have already discussed the meaning of supplication (duʿāʾ) and God answering supplications in our commentary on the verse in Sūrah al-Baqarah: I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he calls on Me ().
Indeed those who are disdainful of My worship will enter hell in utter humility: This verse has used the term worship (ʿibāda) in place of supplication (duʿāʾ), which shows that supplicating to God is an act of worship.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya, about the verse, “Call Me, and I will answer you!” Indeed those who are disdainful of My worship will enter hell in utter humility, we read: You have called Your supplication worship and called forsaking it disdain, and You have promised those who forsake it that they will enter Hell in utter humility.
- In al-Kāfī, al-Kulaynī narrates via a chain of narrators from Ḥammād b. ʿIṣā, from Abū ʿAbdallāh [Imām al-Ṣādiq]: Supplicate to God, and do not say: “It has already been decided,” for supplication is an act of worship. God says: “Indeed those who are disdainful of My worship will enter hell in utter humility.” And He says: “Call Me, and I will answer you!”
Author’s comments: When Imām al-Ṣādiq says …for supplication is an act of worship, and quotes the passage, Indeed those who are disdainful… in utter humility, this is the evidence he adduces for his first command, namely: Supplicate to God. At the same time, when he quotes the passage, Call Me, and I will answer you, this is the evidence he adduces for his second point, namely: and do not say: “It has already been decided.” This is why the Imām changes the order of the verse, placing its coda before its opening.
- In al-Khiṣāl, Shaykh al-Ṣadūq narrates from Muʿāwiya b. ʿAmmār, from Abū ʿAbdallāh [Imām al-Ṣādiq]: O Muʿāwiya! Whoever is granted three things will not be denied three others: Whoever is granted supplication (duʿāʾ) will be granted a response, and whoever is granted thanksgiving (shukr) will be granted an increase, and whoever is granted trust in God (tawakkul) will be granted sufficiency. For surely God has said: “And whoever puts his trust in Allah, He will suffice him” (), and “If you are grateful, I will surely enhance you” (); and “Call Me, and I will answer you.”
- In al-Tawḥīd, Shaykh al-Ṣadūq narrates via a chain of narrators from Mūsā b. Jaʿfar: Some people said to al-Ṣādiq: “We call on Him but we receive no answer!” He said: “Because you call on someone who you do not know!”
Author’s comments: We have quoted some of the narrations about supplication in our commentary on the verse, I answer the supplicants call when he calls Me (), in the first volume of this work.