Verses 1–14
بِسۡمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the most Merciful, the most Compassionate
This sūrah is composed as a warning (indhār) as evinced by its opening, its conclusion, and the topics that intervene between them. The obvious exception being the digression that takes place between verses 67 and 73, beginning with the phrase …except for the Godwary, “O My servants! Today you will have no fear, nor will you grieve…” ().
It says that it is the Divine Custom (sunnah ilāhiyyah) to send reminders with prophets and messengers. People’s immoderation in words and deeds do not prevent God from doing this; in fact, He sends prophets and messengers and causes those who deride and deny them to perish before driving them towards eternal punishment.
At first, the sūrah mentions sending prophets in general, before naming Abraham, Moses, and Jesus one after another. Thereafter it turns to discuss the immoderation of the faithless; things like them wilfully claiming that God has a son or that the angels are His daughters. This sūrah demonstrates a special concern with negating the idea that God has any offspring by repeating this, refuting it, and threatening them with punishment for claiming it. In addition to this, various other realities are also discussed.
Based on the content of the verses, the sūrah appears Meccan, except for the verse Ask those of Our Messengers We have sent before you… (). However, as we shall hopefully discuss, this has not been established.
Commentary
حم ١وَالْكِتَابِ الْمُبِينِ ٢
(43:1-2) Ḥā, Mīm. By the Manifest Book.
This appears to be an oath (qasam) whose consequent (jawāb) is We have made it an Arabic Qur’an… surely sublime and wise. When we call the Qur’an “manifest” (mubīn), this either means it makes visible and clarifies the path of guidance, as God says: We have sent down the Book to you as a clarification of all things (); or it means that it is clear in itself and without doubt, as in the verse This is the Book, there is no doubt in it ().
إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاهُ قُرْآنًا عَرَبِيًّا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ ٣
(43:3) We have made it an Arabic Qur’an so that you may apply reason,
It refers to the Manifest Book.
An Arabic Qur’an means recited in the Arabic language.
So that you may apply reason is the ultimate purpose for which it was made in this way.
That God makes so that you may apply reason the purpose for making it an Arabic Qur’an suggests that the Book has a level of existence and being which is beyond the reach of human intellects. It is the nature of the intellect to grasp any concept, no matter how subtle or delicate. So this verse shows that the Book, at its native level of existence, is suprarational; something alien to human thought. God only made the Qur’an Arabic and clothed it in human language in order that human intellects could become acquainted with it and comprehend its meaning. And when God says so that you may, the element of possibility rests with the context or the addressee but never with the speaker, as we have mentioned more than once.
وَإِنَّهُ فِي أُمِّ الْكِتَابِ لَدَيْنَا لَعَلِيٌّ حَكِيمٌ ٤
(43:4) and indeed it is with Us in the Mother Book, surely sublime and firm.
This confirms and clarifies the implication of the previous verse, namely that the Book, at its native level of existence, is beyond the comprehension of the human intellect.
It refers to the Book.
The Mother Book (umm al-kitāb) means the Guarded Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ), as the verse says: Rather it is a glorious Qur’an in a preserved tablet (). It is called “the Mother Book” because it is the origin from which all the revealed scriptures were transcribed. Qualifying “the Mother Book” as being “with Us” is to clarify rather than distinguish it from any other. This means that its state of being in the Mother Book with Us—a necessary state—is sublime and wise. At the end of Sūrah al-Jāthiyah there is another mention of the Mother Book which we shall look at, God-willing.
Based on the tenor of the previous verse, sublime (ʿalī) means its value is too great and its station too exalted for human minds to reach. On the other hand, firm (ḥakīm) suggests that it is epistemically dense (muḥkam) and not elaborated or divided into sūrahs, verses, sentences, and words, as it is once it has been made an Arabic Qur’an. We can deduce this from God’s saying: a Book, whose signs have been made definitive and then elaborated, from One all-wise, all-aware ().
These two qualities—sublime and firm—are what necessitate its being beyond the grasp of human intellects, for the intellect can only grasp things that are first composed of concepts and words, then from logical propositions that follow on from one another, as we see in the verses and sentences of the Qur’an. However, if something exists beyond the realm of concepts and words without being divided into parts and sections, there is simply no way for the intellect to grasp it.
So, in short, these two verses mean that the Book with Us in the Guarded Tablet has an exalted station too lofty and dense for the human intellect to grasp. And We only sent it down by making it an Arabic recitation in order that people could comprehend it.
If one were to argue (in qulta): The apparent meaning of the words so that you may apply reason is in order that people could comprehend this Arabic Qur’an completely. So what we read and comprehend here either corresponds fully to the contents of the Mother Book or it does not, and the latter is definitely false. How? Because of God’s saying And indeed it is in… the Mother Book, Rather it is a glorious Qur’an in a preserved tablet (); This is indeed a noble Qur’an in a guarded book (). This shows that it must correspond fully to the contents of the Mother Book. With this in mind, what sense does it make to say that we can understand the Arabic Qur’an we have in our possession, but not what is with God in the Mother Book?
Reply: The relation between that which is in our possession and that which is in the Mother Book could be that of a similitude to the thing it represents (nisbat al-mithl wa al-mumaththal); a similitude is identical to the thing it represents but the one for whom it is made only understands the similitude. So understand this.
From the above, the weakness of interpretations offered by other commentators for these two qualities becomes clear. For example, some say that it is sublime in its eloquence and its clarification of what people need. Others say that this means it is above all other books because of its inimitable eloquence and because it abrogates all other books but no other book abrogates it. Still others say this means that the angels and the believers praise it.
As for firm, some say this means it displays extreme wisdom. Others say it means that whatever the Qur’an says is wise, true, and correct, and it can be called “wise” (ḥakīm) for the purposes of hyperbole.
The weakness of all these interpretations is all obvious when you reflect on the previous verse, and its apparent meaning that making it an Arabic Qur’an involved sending it down from the Mother Book.
أَفَنَضْرِبُ عَنْكُمُ الذِّكْرَ صَفْحًا أَنْ كُنْتُمْ قَوْمًا مُسْرِفِينَ ٥
(43:5) Shall We then strike the Reminder from you unconcernedly, because you are a profligate lot?
This is a rhetorical question intended as a rebuke. Then (fa) indicates it follows logically from the above.
…strike the Reminder from you means to turn it aside from you. Ṭabriṣī says in Majmaʿ al-Bayān:
The origin [of this figure of speech] is that when a rider wanted to turn his mount away from a certain direction, he would strike it with a stick or whip on that side to turn it in another direction. Then “strike” (ḍarb) gradually took on the meaning of “to turn aside.”
Unconcernedly (safḥ) literally means “to turn away” (iʿrāḍ), so this is the act’s motivational object (mafʿūl lah).
This renders the meaning: Shall we then withhold the Reminder—which is the Book which we made an Arabic Qur’an for you to read—from you out of a lack of concern for you because you are a profligate lot, or should we not?
وَكَمْ أَرْسَلْنَا مِنْ نَبِيٍّ فِي الْأَوَّلِينَ ٦ وَمَا يَأْتِيهِمْ مِنْ نَبِيٍّ إِلَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ ٧
(43:6–7) How many a prophet We have sent to the ancients! There did not come to them any prophet but that they used to deride him.
How many… (kam) signifies a great multitude.
The ancients (al-awwalūn) refer to the well-known peoples.
The sentence there did not come to them… is adverbial (ḥāl) for the verb We have sent.
These two verses and those that follow them should be read in the context of explaining why God does not withhold the Reminder from them. They say: Just because you are a profligate people, this does not prevent us from applying the Divine Custom of giving guidance through Divine Revelation. Many a time have We sent a prophet to earlier nations, even though they would always deride them, and this led us to destroy nations who were much mightier than you!
So just as the Reminder was never withheld from them as a consequence of their profligacy and derision, but rather they were destroyed, your profligacy shall have the same outcome. So as you can see, these three verses implicitly promise the Prophet divine support and threaten his people with punishment.
فَأَهْلَكْنَا أَشَدَّ مِنْهُمْ بَطْشًا وَمَضَىٰ مَثَلُ الْأَوَّلِينَ ٨
(43:8) So We destroyed those whose violence was more severe than these, and the example of the ancients has passed.
Rāghib says: Violence (baṭsh) means “to take something by force.”
In this verse there is a transition from addressing the audience in the second-person (“you”) to speaking about them in the third-person to the Prophet—than these. The reason for this is because they do not pay any attention to these stories or draw any lessons from them, and in preparation for the phrase: and the example of the ancients has passed. This is supported by Him saying to the Prophet at the beginning of the next verse: If you [sing.] ask them…
When God says the example of the ancients has passed, this means that sūrahs of the Qur’an revealed before this one describe these nations and how the very thing they derided befell them.
وَلَئِنْ سَأَلْتَهُمْ مَنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ خَلَقَهُنَّ الْعَزِيزُ الْعَلِيمُ ٩
(43:9) If you ask them, “Who created the heavens and the earth?” they will surely say, “The All-mighty, the All-knowing created them.”
This verse and the six that follow it provide a conclusive argument for God’s Lordship (rubūbiyyah) and the fact He is the sole possessor thereof by referring to the resurrection. They also rebuke them for their profligacy on the basis of their confession that God is the creator of everything. Then they look at the different dimensions of the Creation which reveal that He looks after the affairs of His servants, such as making the earth a cradle for them, carving out routes upon it for them to follow, and sending down rains. They conclude that God alone is the Sovereign and Organizer of their affairs. He is the Lord and there is no Lord besides Him.
With this in mind, the present verse clearly serves as an introduction to the arguments contained in the following verses. We have already mentioned elsewhere in this work that the Idolaters did not deny that the creation and origination of the universe went back to God alone; they merely claimed that the running of the universe went back to others as well.
الَّذِي جَعَلَ لَكُمُ الْأَرْضَ مَهْدًا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمْ فِيهَا سُبُلًا لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ ١٠
(43:10) He, who made the earth a cradle for you and made in it ways for you, so that you may be guided.
Meaning He made the earth a place in which you could grow just as infants grow in the cradle. He made ways and routes for you to travel upon in the earth and thereby be guided to your destinations.
It is said: So that you may be guided means so that you may be guided to know God and that only He is worthy of your worship. However the first reading is closer to the apparent meaning of the text.
In this verse we see God returns to address the people, having turned away from them to address the Prophet. Perhaps this is to demonstrate the importance of this concept about creation, namely that the running of the universe is identical with its creation. So when they admit that God alone created the universe but claim that other creations are responsible for running it, this is utterly incoherent. And He addresses them directly to strike them with this argument.
وَالَّذِي نَزَّلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً بِقَدَرٍ فَأَنْشَرْنَا بِهِ بَلْدَةً مَيْتًا ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ تُخْرَجُونَ١١
(43:11) And who sent down water from the sky in a measured manner, and We revived with it a dead country. Thusly you shall be brought forth.
God qualifies the sending down of water from the sky with in a measured manner to show that the quantity of rain is intentional and planned rather than random. “To revive” means to give life, and describing a country as “dead” suggests that it is a physical place, because a country can only be described as alive or dead insofar as it is considered a physical locale. We also see that God transitions from speaking about Himself in the third-person (and who sent down…) to the first-person (…and We revived…) to again convey His concern for this point.
But as well as arguing that He is the creator and organizer of the universe on the basis of sending rain and reviving a dead country, God derives a third conclusion from this; a conclusion, without which, Divine Unity could not be considered complete. That conclusion is Resurrection, which represents the return of everything to Him. He says: Thusly you shall be brought forth. This means: Just as He revives a dead land, so too shall you be resurrected alive from your graves.
It is said that when He calls bringing forth vegetation “revival” which means giving life to the dead, and calls their resurrection “bringing forth”, this magnifies the feat of bringing forth plants while belittling the difficulty of the Resurrection. And that He does this in order to provide an example of sound argumentation.
وَالَّذِي خَلَقَ الْأَزْوَاجَ كُلَّهَا وَجَعَلَ لَكُمْ مِنَ الْفُلْكِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ مَا تَرْكَبُونَ١٢
(43:12) And who created all the pairs and made for you the ships and the cattle such as you ride,
It is said: Pairs refers to all kinds of beings, whether male or female, black or white, etc.
It is said: Pairs refers to everything; so everything God has made, like up and down, right and left, or male and female, is a pair.
…and made for you the ships and the cattle such as you ride: In Arabic, the verb “ride” (rukūb) can be applied directly to animals such as horses and camels. So you would say: “I rode a horse.” However, when used in conjunction with something like a boat or a ship, it must be made transitive with the preposition “in/on” (fī). So you would say: “I rode on a boat.” That is why God says: When they ride on the ship… (). However, here “ride” is used without a preposition because boats are mentioned alongside animals.
لِتَسْتَوُوا عَلَىٰ ظُهُورِهِ ثُمَّ تَذْكُرُوا نِعْمَةَ رَبِّكُمْ إِذَا اسْتَوَيْتُمْ عَلَيْهِ وَتَقُولُوا سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي سَخَّرَ لَنَا هَٰذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لَهُ مُقْرِنِينَ ١٣
(43:13) that you may sit on their backs, then remember the blessing of your Lord when you are settled on them, and say, “Immaculate is He who has disposed this for us, and we were no match for it.”
Sit on their backs means to be steady on their backs, and the pronoun their (which appears as masc. sing.) refers to “such as” in such as you ride. And the pronoun them (also masc. sing.) also refers to this. For just as one can say “I sat upon the back of a beast”, you can also say “I sat upon a beast.”
…remember the blessing of your Lord when you are settled on them... meaning upon a beast of burden or a boat. It means remembering the ways in which man benefits from these modes of transportation to him which God has disposed for him. For example, he can move from one place to another or carry heavy loads with him. God says: And He disposed the ships for you so that they may sail at sea by His command (), and: He created the cattle… And they bear your burdens to towns which you could not reach except by straining yourselves (). It could also mean being inspired to remember all of God’s blessings by this particular one.
…and say, “Immaculate is He who has disposed this for us, and we were no match for it”: Meaning, they were not able to do it themselves.
Apparently, to remember a blessing when making use of it and benefiting from it means to thank the one who gave it. Therefore, remembering God’s blessing cannot just be to say Immaculate is He… as this is glorifying (tasbīḥ) and sanctifying (tanzīh) God of whatever does not befit His greatness, namely a partner in lordship or divinity. Remembering a blessing means giving thanks, and thanksgiving is not sanctification.
This reading is supported by what has been narrated from the Prophet and Imams of his Household, about what is said when sitting upon a mount, for despite their differences, these narrations all include descriptions of giving praise (taḥmīd) beyond the glorification Immaculate is He….
In Kashshāf, Zamakhsharī includes a narration from Ḥasan b. ʿAlī, which says he saw a man ride a beast and say: Immaculate is He who has disposed… So he said: “Were you commanded to do this?” The man asked: “So what were we commanded to do?” He said: “To remember the blessing of your Lord!”
وَإِنَّا إِلَىٰ رَبِّنَا لَمُنْقَلِبُونَ ١٤
(43:14) “Indeed we shall turn towards our Lord”
Meaning, they shall return to Him. This bears witness to the Resurrection.
Lit. “If you said….” This is a traditional prefix to signify that the author is introducing the counter-arguments to his own theories with the intention of rebutting them. [Trans.] ↩︎
This is a literal understanding of the Arabic ʿalī, which comes from yaʿlū (“to be above”). [Trans.] ↩︎
As one of the primary meanings for the adjective ḥakīm is “wise,” although the literal meaning of the root ḥ-k-m means “to be firm.” [Trans.] ↩︎