Verses 79–89
Now the sūrah returns to what was said before, rebukes the idolaters for plotting against God’s Messenger and threatens them with God’s devising. It rejects the notion that God has a son and refutes any notion of Him having a partner, before proving that He alone has absolute lordship. The sūrah concludes with threats and warnings.
Commentary
أَمْ أَبْرَمُوا أَمْرًا فَإِنَّا مُبْرِمُونَ ٧٩
(43:79) Rather have they settled on some plan? Indeed We too are settling.
“To settle” (ibrām) means to tighten.
Based on the context of this and the next verse, this means: “Rather they have devised some plot against you, O Muḥammad! But we too have devised a plot against them.” So this verse has the meaning of God’s saying: Do they seek to outmaneuver? But it is the faithless who are the outmaneuvered ones! ()
أَمْ يَحْسَبُونَ أَنَّا لَا نَسْمَعُ سِرَّهُمْ وَنَجْوَاهُمْ ۚ بَلَىٰ وَرُسُلُنَا لَدَيْهِمْ يَكْتُبُونَ٨٠
(43:80) Do they suppose that We do not hear their secrets and their secret talks? Yes indeed! And with them are Our messengers, writing down.
A “secret” (sirr) refers to a thought they conceal in their hearts or some whispered conversation between them to which no one else is a party. And insofar as a “secret” is the speech of someone’s heart, God refers to His knowledge of both as “hearing.”
Yes indeed! And with them are Our messengers, writing down: In other words, “Yes indeed! We hear their secrets and their whispers, and our messengers are entrusted with recording their deeds and writing them down.”
قُلْ إِنْ كَانَ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ وَلَدٌ فَأَنَا أَوَّلُ الْعَابِدِينَ ٨١
(43:81) Say, “If the All-beneficent had a son, I would have been the first of the worshippers.”
This refutes the divinity of a son of god by refuting the very fact of such a being’s existence, knowing that he does not. In this verse, the conditional particle in is used, rather than law, to indicate impossibility (while in this context one would expect it to be said: “If (law) the All-beneficent had a son…”) to force them to give up their arrogance and come down to the level of fairness.
So it means: “Tell them: If the All-beneficent had a son, as they claim, then you would have been the first to worship him, because a son must be of the same nature as the father. But I know that there is no such being, and that is why I do not worship him. It is not out of any ill-feeling or spite.”
Other meanings have also been suggested for this verse.
One is: “If God had a son, as you claim, then I would still worship God alone. I would not worship the son as you claim I should.”
One reads: The particle in is used here for negation, meaning: “God has no son, so I am the first to worship Him and believe in His Divine Unity amongst you.”
Another says: Worshippers (ʿābidīn) here actually comes from ʿa-b-d in the sense of “disdain.” So the verse means: “If the All-beneficent had a son, I am the first to refuse to worship him because whatever is born must have a body and whatever has a body cannot be God.”
Yet another is: “Just as surely as I am not the first person to worship God, God has no son.” In other words: “If you can claim such an impossible thing, then I can claim something just as impossible.”
There are other interpretations still, but the apparent meaning of the verse is as we have described it above.
سُبْحَانَ رَبِّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ رَبِّ الْعَرْشِ عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ ٨٢
(43:82) Clear is the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Throne, of whatever they allege.
This declares God free from whatever they ascribe to Him. It appears that the Lord of the Throne is an explanatory conjunction (ʿaṭf bayān) for the Lord of the heavens and the earth. This is because the heavens and the earth refer to everything in the perceptible realm (ʿālam al-mashhūd), and it is the Throne of His dominion upon which He reclines to govern it.
It also alludes to a conclusive argument for God’s oneness. Even the Prophet’s opponents admitted that the act of creation belongs to God alone, and this is one of the roles attached to the Throne of His dominion. Moreover, governance is a part of creation and origination, as this means originating the natural order that governs all His creations. So governance is also a role of His Throne. So His lordship over the Throne is His lordship over all the heavens and the earth.
فَذَرْهُمْ يَخُوضُوا وَيَلْعَبُوا حَتَّىٰ يُلَاقُوا يَوْمَهُمُ الَّذِي يُوعَدُونَ ٨٣
(43:83) So leave them to gossip and play until they encounter their day which they are promised.
Here, God issues a general warning to the faithless by bidding the Prophet to ignore them until they encounter the terrible punishment on the Day of Judgement about which they were warned.
The verse means: So leave them to gossip about their falsehoods and play in this world. They will be preoccupied with these things until they encounter the day of which they had been forewarned; the Day of Resurrection that was mentioned above in the verse: Do they await anything but that the Hour should overtake them suddenly, while they are unaware? ()
وَهُوَ الَّذِي فِي السَّمَاءِ إِلَٰهٌ وَفِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَٰهٌ ۚ وَهُوَ الْحَكِيمُ الْعَلِيمُ ٨٤
(43:84) It is He who is God in the heavens, and God on the earth; and He is the All-Wise, the All-Knowing.
Meaning He is the One God worthy of worship in heavens, and the One God worthy of worship in the earth. In other words, He alone is worthy of the worship of the inhabitants of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth. The repetition of the word “God” (ilāh) is said to be for emphasis. And saying He is in the heavens and the earth means that they are connected to his divinity; it does not mean He resides in one or both of them.
This verse stands in contrast with what the idolaters claim, namely that the heavens and the earth each have their own deities.
The coda and He is the All-Wise, the All-Knowing signifies that He alone is all-wise and all-knowing, and this also alludes to He alone possessing Lordship, of which knowledge and wisdom are logical corollaries.
وَتَبَارَكَ الَّذِي لَهُ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا وَعِنْدَهُ عِلْمُ السَّاعَةِ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ ٨٥
(43:85) Blessed is He to whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, and with Him is the knowledge of the Hour, and to Him you will be brought back.
This praises God for being blessed, which is being a source for abundant goodness. All three of the qualities mentioned in this verse are proof of his Divine Unity in lordship; as for the kingdom of everything, this is obvious—the Lord is the one who manages all the affairs of the kingdom; as for the fact that He alone has knowledge of the Hour, the station of the Hour is the utmost station in proximity to Him, to which all things must go, and how can anyone direct things without knowing their ultimate purpose? So He is the Lord and not those whom people invoke besides. As for the fact that everyone shall return to Him, this is because this return is for the purpose of judgement and recompense, which is the ultimate act of governance. Whomsoever it is that a thing returns to, He governs that thing, and whoever governs a thing is its Lord.
وَلَا يَمْلِكُ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِهِ الشَّفَاعَةَ إِلَّا مَنْ شَهِدَ بِالْحَقِّ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ ٨٦
(43:86) Those whom they invoke besides Him have no power of intercession, except those who are witness to the truth and who know.
The context here is general; those whom they invoke means those whom they worship besides Him. This includes anything taken as an object of worship that is not Him, whether angels, jinn, human beings, or something else.
To the truth means to Divine Unity, and being a witness to it means to acknowledge it.
And who know—such that they know the real condition of those for whom they intercede and the reality of their actions in this life, as God says elsewhere: None shall speak except whom the All-beneficent permits and who says what is right (). And when this is the condition of the intercessors, this means they do not possess the power of intercession until they bear witness to the truth. So they will only intercede for the monotheists (ahl al-tawḥīd), as God says: and they do not intercede except for someone He approves of ().
So this verse explicitly affirms the existence of intercession (shafāʿah).
وَلَئِنْ سَأَلْتَهُمْ مَنْ خَلَقَهُمْ لَيَقُولُنَّ اللَّهُ ۖ فَأَنَّىٰ يُؤْفَكُونَ ٨٧
(43:87) If you ask them, “Who created them?” they will surely say, “God.” Then where do they stray?
Meaning how much longer will they turn aside from the Truth which is Divine Unity and towards the falsehood of idolatry? After all, they already acknowledge that there is no creator except God, and that because He is the creator of all, He is also the governor of all. This is because, as has become clear, governorship (tadbīr) is inseparable from creation. So the only Lord worthy of worship is the one to whom all creation belongs, and that is God.
وَقِيلِهِ يَا رَبِّ إِنَّ هَٰؤُلَاءِ قَوْمٌ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ ٨٨
(43:88) And his plaint: “My Lord! Indeed these are a people who will not have faith!”
His refers to the Prophet without doubt, and “plaint” (qīl) is a verbal noun like qawl or qāl. It is said that his plaint is connected to the Hour in the verse and with Him is the knowledge of the Hour (), which makes the meaning: “And with Him is knowledge of what he says: ‘My Lord! Indeed these are a people who will not have faith!’”
فَاصْفَحْ عَنْهُمْ وَقُلْ سَلَامٌ ۚ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ ٨٩
(43:89) So disregard them, and say, “Peace!” Soon they will know.
Here God commands the Prophet to ignore them and not to have any hope of them believing. When He tells His Prophet say, “Peace!” He means to bid them farewell without any concern. But when He says Soon they will know, this is a threat and a warning.
Examining Narrations
- In Iḥtijāj, it is narrated from ʿAlī in a lengthy tradition:
When God says: If the All-beneficent had a son, I would have been the first of the worshippers—it means “of those who repudiate.” So this exegesis (taʾwīl) is such that its inner meaning (bāṭin) contravenes its apparent meaning (ẓāhir).
Author’s comments: It appears that by this he means that this interpretation is not what the word ʿābid would be taken to mean if it was used categorically.
- In al-Kāfī, with a chain of narrators from Hishām b. al-Ḥakam:
Abū Shākir al-Dayṣānī said: “This Qur’an contains a verse that accords with what we say.”
I asked him: “What is it?”
He said: “It is He who is God in the sky, and God on the earth” ().
I did not know how to respond to him, so I informed Abū ʿAbd Allāh [Imām al-Ṣādiq]. He told me: “This is the doctrine of an uncouth heretic. Next time you see him, ask him: ‘What is your name in Kufa?’ He will say: ‘such-and-such.’ Then ask him: ‘Now what is your name in Basra?’ He will tell you: ‘such-and-such.’ Then tell him: ‘In the same way, God is our Lord—He is God in the heavens and He is God upon the earth. He is God in the oceans and He is God in the deserts. In every place, He is God!’”
So I went back to Abū Shākir and told him this. Then he said: “You have brought this from Hejaz!”
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, about God’s saying Those whom they invoke besides Him have no power of intercession (), it says:
Meaning those whom they worship in this world shall not have the power of intercession for those who worship them.
- In al-Kāfī, in a chain of narrators from Abū Hāshim al-Jaʿfarī:
I asked Abū Jaʿfar the second [Imam Muḥammad al-Jawād]: “What is the meaning of ‘the One’ (al-Wāḥid)?”
He said: “The one whose oneness (waḥdāniyyah) all tongues are unanimous in declaring. Because of His saying: If you ask them, ‘Who created them?’ they will surely say, ‘God’ ().”