Verses 61–68
In this section, God returns again to the signs of His oneness in lordship and divinity, which He invoked earlier in this chapter with the verse: It is He who shows you His signs… ().
Commentary
اللَّهُ الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ اللَّيْلَ لِتَسْكُنُوا فِيهِ وَالنَّهَارَ مُبْصِرًا ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ ٦١
(40:61) It is Allah who made the night for you, that you may rest in it, and the day to provide visibility. Indeed Allah is gracious to the people, but most people do not give thanks.
In other words, He made the night dark for you so that you could rest therein from the labours of your day, in which you sought your provision, and He made the day bright for you so that you could seek His grace therein and earn a living. These are the pillars of the organization of human existence.
From this, it is apparent that crediting the day with providing visibility is a figurative abstraction, but it is not hyperbole, as some have claimed.
Indeed Allah is gracious to the people, but most people do not give thanks: God reminds them of His generosity towards them and scolds them for their failure to give proper thanks to Him for His abundant grace. And if they had wanted to give thanks to Him, they would have worshipped Him. This verse repeats the word people (nāss) instead of using a pronoun such as them to show that ingratitude is an ingrained characteristic of human beings, as He says elsewhere: Indeed man is most unfair and ungrateful ().
ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ ٦٢
(40:62) That is Allah, your Lord, the creator of all things, there is no Allah except Him. Then where do you stray?
In other words, the one who looks after the affairs of your life and provides you with the night for rest and the day for striving is God Almighty; He is your Lord because He is the one who looks after your affairs.
…the creator of all things: Meaning that He is also the Lord of all things, because He created everything, and creation (khalq) cannot be separated from governance (tadbīr). As a consequence, there can be no lord in existence other than Him for you or for anything else. That is why he follows this statement with the phrase, there is no Allah except Him. In other words, there is none worthy of worship except Him, for if there was another object of worship besides Him, then it would be a lord as well, because divinity (ulūhiyya) is a function of lordship (rubūbiyya).
Then where do you stray? In other words: So how is it that you turn away from His worship and worship others?
كَذَٰلِكَ يُؤْفَكُ الَّذِينَ كَانُوا بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ يَجْحَدُونَ ٦٣
(40:63) Thus are made to stray those who are used to impugning the signs of Allah.
In other words, it is in this way that those who obstinately reject God’s signs go astray, for these signs are obvious and not at all hidden, so the only way someone could not see what it is they point towards is if that person was in wilful denial.
اللَّهُ الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ قَرَارًا وَالسَّمَاءَ بِنَاءً وَصَوَّرَكُمْ فَأَحْسَنَ صُوَرَكُمْ وَرَزَقَكُمْ مِنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ ۖ فَتَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ ٦٤
(40:64) It is Allah who made the earth an abode for you, and the sky a canopy, and He formed you and perfected your forms, and provided you with all the good things. That is Allah, your Lord! Blessed is Allah, Lord of all the worlds!
An ‘abode’ (qarār) means a place in which one resides and dwells, while a canopy (bināʾ)—according to what others have said—is a dome like that which Arabs would erect on their buildings. In this verse, God calls attention to the blessing of living on the earth under the sky.
…and He formed you and perfected your forms…: The [conjunction] ‘and’ (fa) here is expository, meaning that He created your forms perfectly. Consider the fine tools with which God has endowed the human being in his form, which allow him to perform a wide range of incredible feats, some of which no other living creature has shown themselves capable of doing. Moreover, the human being is able to derive enjoyments from life that would never be possible for other life-forms on this earth.
…and provided you with all the good things: Namely, with all manner of provisions that are in harmony with the human beings different appetites, such as grains, fruits, meats, and others. No other animal eats such a varied diet as human beings do.
…That is Allah, your Lord!—[the director of your affairs]—Blessed is Allah, Lord of all the worlds! This passage praises God for His lordship over all of the worlds. Taking His exposition of His lordship and governance over the human realm as a starting point, He now highlights that there is only one domain of lordship and that His governance of the human realm is no different from his governance of all the worlds. This is because there is but a single cosmic order that governs all things, and that order runs by His commands alone. Therefore, it is God—and only God—who is the source of all the abundant good in the world, so blessed is He, Lord of all the worlds!
هُوَ الْحَيُّ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ فَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ ۗ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ٦٥
(40:65) He is the Living One, there is no Allah except Him. So supplicate Him, putting exclusive faith in Him. All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds.
The sentence, He is the Living One is absolute and unqualified by either rational or textual sources; it also indicates exclusivity. Therefore, the meaning is that God alone is pure and everlasting life uncontaminated by death; He is living in of Himself, while everything other than Him—whatever it may be—depends upon something else for its life.
If we suppose that one thing is inherently alive, while another depends upon another being for its life, only that which is inherently alive is inherently worthy of worship. That is why after saying, He is the Living One, the verse continues, there is no Allah except Him.
The context of both of these sentences is that they are intended to prepare the way for the command to supplicate to God, and not just any kind of supplication, but a supplication that recognizes His oneness and in which the supplicant dedicates their faith to Him alone, because He alone is the Living One and because He alone is inherently worthy of being worshipped. That is why God follows He is the Living One, there is no Allah except Him with So supplicate Him, putting exclusive faith in Him.
Then the phrase, All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, praises Him again for His lordship over all the worlds.
قُلْ إِنِّي نُهِيتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ لَمَّا جَاءَنِيَ الْبَيِّنَاتُ مِنْ رَبِّي وَأُمِرْتُ أَنْ أُسْلِمَ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ٦٦
(40:66) Say, “I have been forbidden to worship those whom you invoke besides Allah, since there have come to me manifest proofs from my Lord, and I have been commanded to submit to the Lord of all the worlds.”
The meaning of this verse is clear, and its message to the idolaters is that they should give up any hope of convincing the Prophet to worship their idols. The same message is found in Sūrah al-Zumar, and a comparison of the passages in both chapters of the Qur’an suggests that this chapter was revealed after Sūrah al-Zumar.
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ نُطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ مِنْ عَلَقَةٍ ثُمَّ يُخْرِجُكُمْ طِفْلًا ثُمَّ لِتَبْلُغُوا أَشُدَّكُمْ ثُمَّ لِتَكُونُوا شُيُوخًا ۚ وَمِنْكُمْ مَنْ يُتَوَفَّىٰ مِنْ قَبْلُ ۖ وَلِتَبْلُغُوا أَجَلًا مُسَمًّى وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ ٦٧
(40:67) It is He who created you from dust, then from a drop of fluid, then from a clinging mass, then He brings you forth as infants, then so that you may come of age, then that you may become aged though there are some of you who die earlier and so that you may complete a specified term, and so that you may apply reason.
When God says He created them from dust, He is referring to their forefather Adam, as if He had created anyone else from dust, they would not have been a descendant of Adam. So their creation from dust refers to their creation from Adam, who was made from dust. Alternatively, this may be to call attention to the fact that the drop of fluid from which they are created is composed of terrestrial elements.
Then from a drop of fluid…: Then We created you from a lowly drop of semen—then from a clinging mass—and in this way—then He brings you forth—from your mothers wombs—as infants…. Some have said that the Arabic word ṭifl (infant, pl. aṭfāl), while often thought of as singular, can be used to refer to both one and many, as in the verse: …or children uninitiated to women’s parts (; where the word children is also ṭifl rather than aṭfāl).
…then so that you may come of age…: There is an implicit meaning here, namely then He nourishes you so that you may come of age, which refers to the time when a persons faculties are fully developed.
…then that you may become aged…: This is connected to so that you may come of age, meaning He nourishes you so that you may come of age, then that you may become aged.
…though there are some of you who die earlier…: That is, and do not reach these stages of life, such as old age, coming of age, or others.
…and so that you may complete a specified term…: Which is the end of the maximum time allotted for you in this world, which there is no way to alter or delay, for it is the universal end of all people no matter how much they age: the specified term is with Him (). Hence, this sentence is not joined to the previous one by ‘then’ (thumma) in order to distinguish it from the previous two stages of life.
…and so that you may apply reason: So that you might ascertain the truth through applying the intellect with which you have been endowed, which is the ultimate purpose for which human beings we created in terms of their spiritual existence, just as coming of age is the goal of their material worldly life.
هُوَ الَّذِي يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ ۖ فَإِذَا قَضَىٰ أَمْرًا فَإِنَّمَا يَقُولُ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ ٦٨
(40:68) It is He who gives life and brings death. So when He decides on a matter, He just says to it, Be! and it is.
He is the one who causes life and death, in which He moves the living from one world to another, both of which are venues in which He disposes His blessings for those whose affairs He governs.
So when He decides on a matter, He just says to it, “Be!” and it is: We have explained this multiple times already.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd and Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrate via an authentic chain of narrators from Ibn al-ʿĀliya that the Jews came to the Prophet and said: The Dajjāl will be from amongst us in the End Times…—then they magnified his affair and described what he would do. In response, God revealed the verse: 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 (). God told His Messenger, He will not achieve what they claim, then He revealed: So seek the protection of Allah and instructed His Prophet to seek His protection from the tribulation of the Dajjāl: Surely the creation of the heavens and the earth is more prodigious than the creation of mankind—meaning the Dajjāl.
- In the same source, Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrates from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār concerning the verse, Indeed those who dispute the signs of Allah without any authority: They are the Jews. This was revealed about them because of their expectations about the Dajjāl.
- In the same source, Ibn al-Mundhir narrates from Ibn Jarīḥ concerning the verse, Surely the creation of the heavens and the earth is more prodigious than the creation of mankind that the Jews claimed: There will be a king from us in the End Times; the sea will reach up to his knees, and the clouds will be beneath his head. He will catch birds as they fly through the air. He will have a mountain of bread and a river. Whereat the verse was revealed: Surely the creation of the heavens and the earth is more prodigious than the creation of mankind.
Author’s comments: You will have noticed from the commentary above that the central concern of this chapter of the Qur’an, based on the context of its verses, is the disbelievers arrogance and their disputing God’s signs untruthfully. It is with this topic that the chapter begins, and it is to this topic that it returns time and again. For example, see the verses:
No one disputes the signs of Allah except the faithless (40:4)
…and disputed erroneously to refute the truth (40:5)
Those who dispute the signs of Allah without any authority that may have come to them are greatly outrageous (40:35)
Indeed those who dispute the signs of Allah without any authority that may have come to them there is only vanity in their breasts (40:56)
Have you not regarded those who dispute the signs of Allah, where they are being led away? (40:69)
Therefore, the context and tone of the verses precludes the possibility of only some of them being associated with a particular occasion of revelation (sabab al-nuzūl) but not others, which is the import of the three narrations quoted above.
Moreover, these accounts about the Jews foretelling the coming of the Dajjāl do not accord with the apparent meaning of these two verses, as is plain to see with the slightest reflection on them: Indeed those who dispute the signs of Allah… but most people do not know (40:56–7).
It is also on the basis of these accounts that some have claimed that the verses in question were revealed in Medina, because that is where the Jewish tribes were based.