Verses 1–29
This chapter of the Qur’an calls the audience’s attention to God’s creation in all of its parts—the heavens and the earth, the land and the sea, the humans and the jinn—and the arrangement of these parts in such a way that the two species of humans and jinn benefit from them in their lives. In this way, the cosmos is divided into two stages of creation (nashʾatān): The creation of this world (nashʾa dunyā), which will pass away along with its inhabitants, and the creation of the next world (nashʾa ukhrā), which will endure, and in which felicity will be utterly distinct from misery, and blessings from afflictions.
On this basis, it is apparent that the cosmos—in both its this-worldly and next-worldly aspects—is governed by a single order that unifies its parts and brings together its components, and that this order rests on firm and mutually-supporting foundations, such that each part complements and completes the other.
So, all that this world contains, in both its causes and its effects, are the blessings and bounties of God, and for this reason, this chapter of the Qur’an repeatedly poses a question mixed with a rebuke, namely: ‘Which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?’ This question is repeated a total of thirty-one times in this chapter.
This is why the chapter begins by invoking God with the attribute of His universal and all-encompassing mercy (raḥma), which envelops the believer and the disbeliever in this world and the next world without discrimination, and concludes by celebrating His praise with the words: Blessed is the name of your Lord, the Lord of majesty and honour!
This chapter could be either Meccan or Medinan in its revelation, although it is closest to the Meccan chapters in style. It is also the only chapter of the Qur’an to open with one of the divine names immediately after the bismillāh. In Majmaʿ al-Bayān, it is narrated from Imām Mūsā b. Jaʿfar, from his forefathers, from the Prophet, who said: ‘Everything has its bride, and the bride of the Qur’an is Sūrah al-Raḥmān!’ And the same tradition is narrated in al-Durr al-Manthūr from al-Bayhaqī, from ʿAlī, from the Prophet.
Commentary
الرَّحْمَٰنُ ١ عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ ٢
(55:1–2) The All-beneficent has taught the Qur’an.
As has already been discussed in the explanation of Sūrah al-Fātiḥa, the divine name ‘the All-beneficent’ (al-Raḥmān) is a noun in the hyperbolic form (ṣīghat al-mubālagha)—a form which intensifies the meaning of its etymological root. In this case, al-Raḥmān signifies an abundance of mercy (raḥma) through the generous giving of blessings. As such, this name encompasses not only the worldly blessings received by both believers and disbelievers, but also the blessings exclusive to the believers in the hereafter. It is this divine name’s universality that makes it fitting to invoke at the outset of the present chapter of the Qur’an, as this chapter focuses on expounding the various blessings which God bestows on His creatures in this world and the next and by which the worlds of the two species of men and jinn are given order and direction.
Scholars have said that the name al-Raḥmān is one of God’s exclusive names, meaning that it cannot be applied to any other being. This contrasts with other names such as al-Raḥīm (‘Most-merciful’) or al-Rāḥim (‘Merciful’), which can be used for others.
God begins the enumeration of His blessings with ‘has taught the Qur’an’ because the Qur’an is the greatest of His blessings in terms of both its magnitude and importance, and it is the loftiest of them in status; it is the direct speech of God, which points to the straight path and contains a clear explanation of the way that leads to felicity. In short, it represents the highest ambition that anyone might hope for and the utmost desire that anyone might ask for. That is why the teaching of the Qur’an is mentioned before all the other blessings listed in this chapter, even before the creation of the jinn and humankind, for whose benefit and education the Qur’an was ultimately revealed.
Notice that the verse does not explicitly mention who is being taught the Qur’an, namely ‘humankind’ or ‘humankind and the jinn.’ So, the full meaning of the verse could be either ‘…taught humankind the Qur’an’ or ‘…taught humankind and the jinn the Qur’an.’ And although the Qur’an’s commentators have not discussed the second of these possibilities, the latter appears to be the more likely of the two. This is by virtue of the fact that the present chapter of the Qur’an addresses humankind and the jinn together through the use of the dual form in all of its verses. If the verse ‘…taught the Qur’an’ meant only ‘to humankind,’ then it would not be correct to mention it as a blessing to both the jinn and humankind through the use of this duality.
Some have said that this verse means God taught Prophet Muḥammad or Gabriel the Qur’an, but the most appropriate reading is the one presented above.
خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ ٣ عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ ٤
(55:3–4) He created man, taught him articulate speech.
God mentions the creation of the human being here, and He will explain a particular aspect of this creation in a subsequent verse: He created man out of dry clay, like the potter’s. The human being is one of God’s most wondrous creations, or in fact the most wondrous of them all, as is apparent when we compare his existence to the existence of other creatures and consider how the path to perfection has been laid out for him in his outward and inward aspects and in his worldly and next-worldly lives. God says: We certainly created man in the best of forms; then We relegated him to the lowest of the low, except those who have faith and do righteous deeds ().
When God says: taught him articulate speech (bayān), the term bayān literally means ‘to uncover something,’ and here it denotes the power to uncover what is in one’s own mind. This is one of the most profound of God’s blessings, and the fact that God taught this to the human being demonstrates the great care that God has for humanity.
Now, speech does not mean merely the process of bringing a sound into being using the lungs, trachea, and throat, nor even the variety of sounds that can be produced in the throat through the use of the various articulation points found in the mouth. On the contrary, the human being, having been granted innate inspiration by God, can take one of the sounds produced by one of these articulation points in their mouth—which is called a letter—or combine several of these letters and make them into a sign that refers to a particular concept, which represents something that is absent from the listener’s senses or perception. In doing so, the speaker can summon to the mind of the listener any object in the visible world, no matter how great or how miniscule, whether or not it exists, and whether it is in the future or the past. More than that, the speaker can summon to the listener’s mind intangible ideas which cannot be perceived by sense but which the human being reaches through contemplation. And, having summoned all of this to the listener’s mind, the speaker can present it to their senses as though the thing itself was there.
The human being could not function in civil society, nor could they have made such astounding progress in their life without being aware of the nature of speech and using it to open the doors of communication with and understanding of one another. Were it not for speech, there would be no difference between the human being and mute beasts—their life would be equally stagnant and monotonous.
The strongest argument for the fact that human beings were guided innately to develop articulate speech is the fact that different nations and peoples developed different languages according to their own spiritual qualities, dispositions of character, and according to the different natural regions in which they lived. God says: ‘Among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colors’ ().
When God says: ‘taught him articulate speech,’ He does not mean that God created all human languages and then taught them to humankind by revealing them to one of His prophets or by directly inspiring human beings with this knowledge. On the contrary, it is the fact that the human beings finds themselves enmeshed in society that naturally motivates them to develop methods of communication and understanding in the form of the signs and sounds, which we call speech or expression, and without which social and political life would be impossible.
When God acts, it is through creation and origination. However, the association of an utterance with its meaning in spoken language is a matter of social convention rather than of objective reality. Hence, God created the human being and endowed them with an innate nature (fiṭra) that predisposed them towards living in a society and developing language through the association of words with meanings such that if the word is presented to a listener, it is as though they have been given the meaning itself. Then, He disposed them to create written symbols whose specific shapes denoted words, such that writing was complementary to the purposes of speech and writing represented speech in the same way as speech represented meaning. It is through endowing humankind with this innate capacity that He can be said to have given them the gift of speech.
In short, the power of articulate speech is one of the greatest divine blessings and bounties given to humankind; for it preserves the humanity of the human species and guides them towards every good thing.
This is the apparent meaning that comes to mind from these two verses, but commentators on the Qur’an have offered other opinions as well. For example, some say that ‘man’ in this verse refers to Adam and ‘articulate speech’ refers to the names that God taught to him. Others say that ‘man’ refers to the Prophet Muḥammad and ‘articulate speech’ refers to the Qur’an, or to his teaching the Qur’an to the believers. Some say that ‘articulate speech’ refers to good and evil, which were taught to the human being. Others say that ‘articulate speech’ refers to the way of guidance and the way of error. There are other opinions still, all of which, however, are far from the apparent meaning of the verse.
الشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ بِحُسْبَانٍ ٥
(55:5) The sun and the moon by calculation
‘Calculation’ (ḥusbān) is a verbal noun, which has the same meaning as ḥisāb (‘accounting’). The sentence’s subject is ‘the sun,’ to which ‘the moon’ is joined by conjunction. Then, ‘by calculation’ is the predicate of the sentence. The whole sentence ‘The sun and the moon by calculation’ is itself a predicate for ‘The All-beneficent,’ above. The meaning of the sentence is that the sun and the moon ‘run’ by calculation, as God has disposed them to move through the sky.
وَالنَّجْمُ وَالشَّجَرُ يَسْجُدَانِ ٦
(55:6) and the herb and the tree prostrate
Scholars have said the word ‘herb’ (najm) refers to plants that sprout up from the ground without any trunk, while the word ‘tree’ refers to plants with a trunk. This is a good interpretation, which is supported by the fact that the word ‘najm’ (which can also mean ‘star’) is associated with the word ‘tree’ here. However, the fact that the preceding verse invokes the sun and the moon may suggest that the intended meaning is the celestial body rather than the variety of plant.
When the Qur’an says that the herb and the tree ‘prostrate,’ this signifies their obedience to the divine command to grow and flourish according to what has been determined for them, as some have said. However, a more precise understanding is that they strike out beneath the ground with their roots and veins to obtain the minerals and water that they need to sustain themselves. This spreading out through the ground is actually a manifestation of their innate need for a source that will suffice their needs—and, in reality, it is none other than God who nurtures them—and, therefore, this is a form of prostration to God.
Regarding the grammatical construction of the verse ‘and the herb and the tree prostrate,’ the particle ‘and’ joins it to the previous verse, and its structure resemble that verse as well: ‘The herb’ is the subject of the sentence, ‘the tree’ is joined to it by conjunction, and the predicate of the sentence is the verb ‘prostrate.’ Its meaning is: ‘And the herb and the tree prostrate to Him.’
In al-Kashshāf, we read: ‘If one were to ask: “How are these two sentences joined to ‘The All-beneficent,’ meaning everything between ‘The sun…’ and ‘…prostrate’?” I would say: “The obvious semantic connection between the two passages obviates any need for a literal one, as it is evident that the ‘calculation’ is God’s calculation and that they ‘prostrate’ to God rather than to anyone else!”’
And as for the question of why there are no connectives used between the previous verses: ‘He created man, taught him articulate speech, the sun and the moon by calculation,’ al-Zamakhsharī says that this is because God wishes to count out each of these points individually to reprimand those who deny the All-beneficent and His bounties. This is in the same way as one might, for example, reproach one who is ungrateful to their benefactor by saying: ‘Zayd helped you out of poverty, restored your dignity, and ensured you had plenty. He did for you what no person would do for another, so how can you show him such ingratitude?’
Having delivered this reproach, God returns to the usual manner of speaking; linking things together with connectives as befits them because of their association and proximity to one another. Now, He says: ‘And the herb and the tree prostrate, and He raised the sky….’
وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ ٧
(55:7) He raised the sky and set up the balance
If by ‘sky’ (samāʾ), God means the upward direction, then He raised it by creating it high up, rather than raising it after it had been created. On the other hand, if He means the celestial bodies that exist above us, then He raised them in the sense that he appointed them to a place that was high in relation to the earth by separating them after they had previously been joined, as He says elsewhere in the Have the faithless not regarded that the heavens and the earth were interwoven and We unravelled them (). In both cases, however, ‘raised’ is used in the physical sense.
On the other hand, if by ‘sky’ God meant the place which contains the stations of the heavenly angels and the origin of divine commands and revelation, then ‘raised’ is used in the spiritual sense or in a sense that combines the physical sense with the spiritual one.
Some have said that ‘the balance’ (mīzān) refers to the balance of justice, meaning ‘God has set up justice between you that you might maintain equality by giving each person their due.’
Others have said ‘the balance’ refers to the tool by which the weights of different things might be measured. However, the first meaning is broader and more comprehensive in its scope.
أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ ٨ وَأَقِيمُوا الْوَزْنَ بِالْقِسْطِ وَلَا تُخْسِرُوا الْمِيزَانَ٩
(55:8–9) Do not infringe the balance! Maintain the weights with justice, and do not shorten the balance!
The apparent meaning of ‘the balance’ is the common weighing scale. Assuming that the balance mentioned in the previous verse is indeed this common weighing scale, then the admonition in this verse ‘Do not infringe…!’ explains what it means for Him to have ‘set up’ the balance. In short: ‘“We have set up the balance between you” means that you should do justice when measuring weights and not deprive other people of their rights.’
On the other hand, if we were to assume that the balance refers to any method of determining someone’s rights or to the ideal of justice in general, then the admonition ‘Do not infringe…!’ represents a particular rule derived from a general principle. In which case, this verse means: ‘The fact that we have established a measure of rights and the ideal of justice between you means that you should measure weights fairly and not deprive people of their rights when doing so.’
In any case, the apparent construction of the verse is that the Arabic particle an in the phrase ‘Do not infringe…’ (allā taṭghaw) is intended to signify an explanation, while lā taṭghaw is a prohibition of infringing against the balance. Then, Maintain the weights with justice is an imperative command that is joined to this prohibition, where qisṭ (‘justice’) means the same as ʿadl. After this, and do not shorten the balance! is a second prohibition that explains what God meant by infringe the balance and places additional emphasis upon it. ‘To shorten the balance’ means to interfere with it so that either the buyer or the seller to lose out on their rightful due.
If, on the other hand, we read the verse such that the balance is accusative (nāṣiba) and not infringe is a negation rather than a prohibition, the meaning would become: ‘So that you do not infringe the balance.’ However, this would require some intellectual gymnastics to explain how an imperative sentence could be linked to a declarative one when we come to And maintain the weights….
وَالْأَرْضَ وَضَعَهَا لِلْأَنَامِ ١٠
(55:10) And the earth, He laid it out for humankind (anām).
There is a debate about whether the word anām here actually denotes ‘humankind,’ ‘humankind and the jinn,’ or ‘every kind of creature that crawls upon the land.’ Note also the deft use of the verb ‘laid out’ (waḍʿ) for the earth in this verse, which contrasts nicely with the use of ‘raising’ (rafʿ) for the sky in the previous one.
فِيهَا فَاكِهَةٌ وَالنَّخْلُ ذَاتُ الْأَكْمَامِ ١١
(55:11) In it are fruits and date palms with sheaths,
The Arabic word fākiha (translated as ‘fruits’) denotes all kinds of fruit aside from dates. Meanwhile ‘akmām’ (translated as ‘sheaths’) is the plural of kumm (also spelled kimm) and refers to the coverings of the date bunches. On the other hand, kumm in the sense of a garment is never spelled kimm, according to what others have said.
وَالْحَبُّ ذُو الْعَصْفِ وَالرَّيْحَانُ ١٢
(55:12) Grains with husks, and fragrant herbs.
This verse is joined to ‘fruits…’ in the previous verse, meaning ‘And in it are grains with husks, and fragrant herbs.’ Grains (ḥabb) are the part of the crop that is eaten, such as grain, barley, rice, and so on, while the husks (ʿaṣf) are the part that covers the exterior of those grains. Some have interpreted ʿaṣf to mean the leaves of crops generally, or the leaves of dried-up crops, while rayḥān (‘fragrant herbs’) refers to pleasant-smelling herbs.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ١٣
(55:13) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
Alāʾ (translated as ‘bounties’) is the plural of ilan, meaning ‘blessing.’
This verse is directed to the entirety of the two species of humans and jinn, as can be seen from the fact that subsequent verses address them directly: ‘We shall soon make Ourselves unoccupied for you, O you two weighty ones (thaqalān)!’ (); ‘O company of jinn and humans…!’ (); and ‘There will be unleashed upon you a flash of fire…’ (). Therefore, it cannot be argued that the ‘both of you’ in this verse is addressed to the male and female of humankind. Neither can it be claimed that it is using the dual to address an individual and that the use of dual signifies emphasis, as it is used in the Arabic sentence iḍribā ʿunuqah (lit. ‘Strike both of you his neck’) to signify a repetition of the command (i.e. ‘Strike his neck! Strike his neck!’).
The reason why the only valid interpretation of the dual in this chapter of the Qur’an is that it is being addressed to humankind and the jinn jointly is because, as we shall discuss below, it counts the tribulations of the Day of Resurrection and the punishment of the wrongdoers as instances of God’s blessings. Sending the sinners to be requited with the consequences of their deeds and dispatching the wretched to the fate that befits their wretchedness are part of the proper functioning of the universal order that governs over all the denizens of the cosmos. Therefore, this is a blessing in relation to the whole, even if it represents a curse for a specific part thereof—namely the wrongdoers. This is no different to the way in which customs and laws apply in human societies, where the use of coercive measures against unjust and corrupt persons is necessary for the wellbeing of society as a whole and its survival. It is not merely beneficial for righteous persons, but for everyone, and the same is true for righteous persons being recompensed with beautiful praise and divine rewards.
So, both the punishment and chastisement that hell has for its inmates and the blessings and rewards that paradise contains are a blessing and a boon from God for all human and jinn-kind. This is in the same way that the sun, the moon, the raised sky, the outspread earth, the herb, the tree, and other phenomena are blessings and boons for all the inhabitants of this world.
From these verses, it also becomes apparent that the jinn, as a whole, benefit from the blessings enumerated in these verses just as humans do. Were this not the case, after all, it would not have befitted God to rebuke them jointly with humankind.
خَلَقَ الْإِنْسَانَ مِنْ صَلْصَالٍ كَالْفَخَّارِ ١٤
(55:14) He created man out of dry clay, like the potter’s
‘Dry clay’ (ṣalṣāl) refers to clay that has dried out and hardened so that it makes a clinking sound when trodden upon.
In this verse, when God says ‘man’ (insān), He means the human species, and when He says He created him ‘out of dry clay, like the potter’s,’ He means that the created form of the human being will eventually become that.
Some have said that by ‘man’ God means Adam, the first human being.
وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِنْ مَارِجٍ مِنْ نَارٍ ١٥
(55:15) and created the jinn out of a flame of a fire.
A ‘flame’ (mārij) means a pure spark of fire—although some say it means fire mixed with soot—and the meaning of this with regards to the jinn is the same as that of clay with regards to the human being, so ‘jinn’ refers to the species of the jinn as a whole, and they are created from fire because that is what their created form will eventually become.
Some have also said that ‘jinn’ here refers to the first of the jinn.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ١٦
(55:16) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
See the explanation of verse 13 above.
رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ ١٧
(55:17) Lord of the two easts, and Lord of the two wests!
The meaning of ‘two easts’ (mashriqayn) is the place of sunrise in the winter and its place in the summer, by which the changing of the seasons takes place and the provision of sustenance for God’s creatures is arranged.
Some have said the ‘two easts’ refers to the rising points of the sun and the moon, while the ‘two wests’ are their respective setting points.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ١٨
(55:18) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
See the explanation of verse 13 above.
مَرَجَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ يَلْتَقِيَانِ ١٩ بَيْنَهُمَا بَرْزَخٌ لَا يَبْغِيَانِ ٢٠
(55:19–20) He merged the two seas, meeting each other. There is a barrier between them which they do not overstep.
Maraja (translated as ‘He merged’) can either mean that He mixed the seas, or that He sent them. However, the first meaning is closer to the apparent meaning of the verse. And it appears that ‘the two seas’ refers to fresh water and to salt water, as in the verse: Not alike are the two seas: this one sweet and agreeable, pleasant to drink, and that one briny and bitter, and from each you eat fresh meat and obtain ornaments which you wear ().
The most acceptable reading that has been proposed with regards to ‘the two seas’ is that they do not refer to any two specific seas, but to two types of sea: Salt water, which covers approximately three-quarters of the earth’s surface—this includes oceans and other seas—and fresh water, which is stored in underground reservoirs and comes to the surface via springs before flowing out to sea in great rivers. These two kinds of water are continuously meeting one another, but between them is a barrier, both in the physical form of underground reservoirs and in the non-physical form that prevents saltwater from mixing directly with fresh water and thereby contaminating it and ending life, while also preventing fresh water from flooding the oceans and making them fresh water also and thereby removing the benefits of their saltiness, such as purifying the air and so on.
The seas continue to replenish freshwater sources in the form of rainwater, which is carried from the seas in the form of clouds inland before raining down and being stored in the reservoirs of the earth. At the same time, fresh water continues to replenish the seas through rivers flowing out into them.
Therefore, the meaning of these two verses—and God knows best—is that God has merged the two seas of salt water and fresh water in that they are in constant contact while between them there exists a barrier which neither can overstep, such that one could overwhelm the other, remove its saltiness or freshness, and thereby destroy the natural order that sustains life in this world.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ٢١
(55:21) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
See the explanation of verse 13 above.
يَخْرُجُ مِنْهُمَا اللُّؤْلُؤُ وَالْمَرْجَانُ ٢٢
(55:22) From them emerge the pearl and the coral.
Meaning from the two seas of fresh and salty water both, and these are one of the many benefits that their combined existence provides to human beings. See also our commentary on the verse: Not alike are the two seas… ().
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ٢٣
(55:23) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
See the explanation of verse 13 above.
وَلَهُ الْجَوَارِ الْمُنْشَآتُ فِي الْبَحْرِ كَالْأَعْلَامِ ٢٤
(55:24) His are the ships sailing on the sea like landmarks.
‘Ships’ is a translation of jawārī (the plural of jāriya); ‘sailing’ is a translation of munshaʾāt, the passive participle of inshāʾ, which means to bring forth and nurture something; and ‘landmarks’ are the translation of aʿlām, meaning ‘mountains.’
This verse asserts God’s ownership of ships, even though these are man-made objects, because the material causes of their existence—wood, metal, and other components—and the human who assembles them—along with their senses, their mind, and their will—are all ultimately created by God and, therefore, belong to Him. Hence, whatever these creations produce belongs to God as well.
God has blessed the human being by inspiring them with the knowledge of how to manufacture things, the benefits that flow from them, and how to make the most of these benefits.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ٢٥
(55:25) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
See the explanation of verse 13 above.
كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ ٢٦ وَيَبْقَىٰ وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ ٢٧
(55:26–27) Everyone on it is ephemeral, yet lasting is the Face of your Lord, majestic and munificent.
‘On it’ means ‘on the earth.’ In other words, every sentient and thinking being upon the earth will perish. This verse consigns all of humankind and the jinn to extinction and oblivion.
This verse uses the expression ‘everyone’ (kullu man), which denotes every thinking creature, rather than ‘everything’ (kullu mā) because the purpose of this chapter of the Qur’an is to enumerate the boons and blessings that God has provided to humankind and the jinn in their this-worldly and next-worldly existences.
The apparent meaning of the word fānin (translated as ‘ephemeral’) is that it refers to the future, as can also be gleaned from its context. This suggests that Everyone on it is ephemeral alludes to the fact this worldly creation will come to an end with the extinction of those who dwell within it, namely the jinn and humankind. A new creation will then be inaugurated for them, and both the extinction of this worldly creation and the dawning of the new creation of recompense upon them are counted amongst God’s boons and blessings. This is because the life of this world is intended as a preliminary step towards the goal of the hereafter; and moving from a preliminary step to its ultimate goal is the highest form of blessing conceivable.
This is the answer to someone who asks: ‘How can the passing away of everything this world be considered a blessing?’ It is because the reality of this passing away is returning to God by leaving this world behind, as numerous verses of the Qur’an explain. ‘Ephemeral’ is not used here in the sense of undergoing total annihilation.
As for when God says: yet lasting is the face of your Lord, the face (wajh) of a thing is the aspect of itself with which it turns towards another and directs its attention to them. In the case of God Almighty, His Face refers to His noble attributes, which serve as intermediaries between Himself and His creation, through which He sends down the blessings of His creation and guidance upon them. Examples of these attributes include His knowledge, power, hearing, seeing, mercy, forgiveness, and provision. See our commentary on Sūrah al-Aʿrāf for the full discussion of how the divine names and divine attributes act as intermediaries between God and His creation.
As for His saying: majestic and munificent, the term ‘majesty’ (jalāl) is suggestive of spiritual elevation and superiority over others. This befits divine attributes that convey a sense of imperiousness and authority, such as exaltation, transcendence, greatness, grandeur, pride, encompassing, might, and overpowering.
By contrast, ‘munificence’ (ikrām) suggests magnificence and splendor that attract others and astound them. This befits divine attributes such as knowledge, power, life, mercy, generosity, beauty, splendor, and the like. These are commonly called ‘the attributes of beauty’ (ṣifāt al-jamāl), while the former category of attributes are often known as ‘the attributes of majesty’ (ṣifāt al-jalāl). The divine names are also categorized into beautiful and majestic names according to which of these attributes they reflect.
Hence, ‘majestic and munificent’ (dhū al-jalāl wa al-ikrām) is one of the divine names that unites in its meaning both the names of beauty and the names of majesty. And the real entity to which this name refers is none other than the divine essence (dhāt), as indicated by the final verse of this chapter, Blessed is the name of your Lord, the Lord of majesty and honour!
However, the present verse—yet lasting is the face of your Lord, majestic and munificent—focuses on God’s face. This is for one of two reasons: First, because the phrase majestic and munificent is not intended to be read as an adjective for face but is rather intended as praise for your Lord. In other words, it is to be read as yet lasting is the face of your Lord, and He is majestic and munificent. Second, because what is meant by ‘face’ here—as we have already said—is God’s attribute of munificence and the divine name associated with it, and to apply one divine name to another divine name is no different from applying that divine name to the divine essence itself.
If ‘face’ is understood to mean the aspect of a thing with which it turns itself toward another—meaning a divine name—then it is self-evident that the subsistence in objective reality of a name is subsidiary to the subsistence in objective reality of the thing it names. Based on this principle, the verse would mean: ‘But lasting is your Lord with His majesty and munificence, and He will not be affected by their passing in the least, nor will He be changed by it.’
On the other hand, if ‘face’ is understood to mean the means by which something directs its attention towards another, this would refer to everything that is attributed to Him and whatever He turns His attention towards, such as His prophets, His representatives, His religion, His reward, proximity to Him, and other things like this. In which case, the verse would mean: ‘Whatever is with God will survive the extinction of the inhabitants of this world, namely that which is in His proximity, such as the various kinds of divine recompense, reward, and nearness to Him.’ God says: That which is with you will be spent but what is with God shall last ().
Our commentary on the verse Everything is to perish except His Face. () contains other useful points in this regard.
فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ ٢٨
(55:28) So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?
See the explanation of verse 13 above.
يَسْأَلُهُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۚ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ هُوَ فِي شَأْنٍ ٢٩
(55:29) Everyone in the heavens and the earth asks Him. Every day He is engaged in some work.
Their asking him is the asking of their innate neediness, for they are in need of Him from every aspect of their being; their existence is utterly contingent upon Him, and they cling to the skirt of the richness of His being. God says: You are the ones who stand in need of God, and God He is the All-sufficient (), and the verb ‘ask’ appears in the same sense in the verse and He gave you all that you had asked Him ().
As for His saying: Every day He is engaged in some work, the word ‘some work’ (shaʾnin) is kept indefinite to emphasise the variety and diversity of this work. Thus, it means that at every moment, God is engaged in some work that is different to what came before it and what will come after it. He does not perform any action He takes more than once, nor does any work He undertakes resemble any other work He has undertaken from any angle. He only acts without prior example, and the term for this is ibdāʿ (origination). That is why God describes Himself as: The originator of the heavens and the earth ().
The verse says ‘every day’ to show that God’s agency and His direction of things is all-encompassing; He is present at every time, but He is never contained by time; He is present in every place, but He is never contained by place; He is with everything, but He does not approach anything.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Kāfī, Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir narrates from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: ‘When God’s Messenger recited al-Raḥmān to people, they fell silent and did not say anything. So, God’s Messenger told them: “The jinn gave a better response than you when I recited to them ‘So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?’” () They said: “No, we will not deny any of our Lord’s bounties!”’
Author’s comments: A tradition with a similar meaning is narrated in al-Durr al-manthūr from the compilers of a number of ḥadīth collections, and it is declared an authentic narration from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet.
- In ʿUyūn akhbār al-Riḍā, via a chain of narrators to (Imām) al-Riḍā: ‘One of the things about which the Syrian man asked ʿAlī was the name of the first jinn. He said: “Shuʾmān, and he was the one created ‘out of a flame of a fire’ ().”’
- In al-Ihṭijāj a tradition is narrated from (Imām) ʿAlī, which he says: ‘As for the verse “Lord of the two easts, and Lord of the two wests,” () the sun rises in winter in one place and in summer in another. Do you not know this from the sun’s getting nearer and farther away?’
Author’s comments: A tradition with the same meaning is narrated in Tafsīr al-Qummī with an incomplete chain of narrators.
- In al-Durr al-manthūr, Ibn Mardawayh narrates from Ibn ʿAbbās: Regarding the verse: ‘He merged the two seas, meeting each other,’ () he said: ‘ʿAlī and Fāṭima.’ Regarding: ‘There is a barrier between them which they do not overstep,’ () he said: ‘The Prophet.’ Regarding: ‘From them emerge the pearl and the coral,’ () he said: ‘al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn.’
Author’s comments: Ibn Mardawayh also narrates something similar from Anas b. Mālik. This is also narrated in Majmaʿ al-bayān from Salmān al-Fārsī, Saʿīd b. Jubayr, and Sufiyān al-Thawrī. And this is an esoteric interpretation of the verse.
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, concerning the verse: ‘Everyone on it is ephemeral,’ () he says: ‘Whoever is on the face of the earth,’ and concerning: ‘yet lasting is the face of your Lord,’ () he says: ‘The religion of your Lord. And (Imām) ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn said: “We are the face through which God dispenses blessings to His creatures.”’
- In the Manāqib of Ibn Shahrāshūb, concerning the verse: ‘yet lasting is the face of your Lord,’ it is narrated from (Imām) al-Ṣādiq: ‘We are the face of God.’
Author’s comments: There are narrations in addition to the two above that have the same meaning, and we have already explained how the term ‘face’ (wajh) can refer to either the religion (dīn) or the Imām.
- In al-Kāfī, there is a sermon of ʿAlī’s which reads: ‘Praise belongs to God who never dies and whose wonders never cease, for He is in every day engaged in some work of originating some amazing thing that did not previously exist.’
- And in Tafsīr al-Qummī concerning the same verse (), we read: ‘He gives life and causes death, increases and decreases.’
- In Majmaʿ al-bayān, it is narrated from Abī Dardāʾ, from the Prophet concerning the verse ‘Every day He is engaged in some work’ (): ‘Part of His work is to forgive sins and relieve sorrows, and to lift up some nations and humble others.’
Author’s comments: This is also narrated from him in al-Durr al-manthūr, and a narration with the same meaning is narrated from Ibn ʿUmar from the Prophet, but it reads instead: ‘…to forgive sins and to alleviate burdens.’