Verses 8–12
These verses serve as an admonition, a warning, and glad tidings, emphasizing the importance of adhering to the laws that God has established, particularly those related to divorce and the waiting period (ʿiddah). The Qur’an uniquely highlights and stresses the importance of laws regarding women, more than any other set of legislated rulings. This specific focus is due to the significant implications these laws hold.
Commentary
وَكَأَيِّن مِّن قَرْيَةٍ عَتَتْ عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهَا وَرُسُلِهِ فَحَاسَبْنَاهَا حِسَابًا شَدِيدًا وَعَذَّبْنَاهَا عَذَابًا نُّكْرًا ٨
(65:8) And how many a town (qaryatin) which rebelled (ʿatat) against the commandment of its Lord and His messengers, so We called it to account severely and We chastised it (with) a stern chastisement (nukran).
Al-Rāghib says: “Al-ʿutuw means to be recalcitrant regarding obedience.” It is near in meaning to istikbār (arrogance). He also says, “Nukr means ‘cleverness’ and ‘a difficult matter which had been unknown before.’” In this verse, nukr takes the second meaning.
Majmaʿ says, “Nukr means munkar, and means ‘something terrible which no one had seen the like of before.’”
Here, qaryah (“town”) means “its people”; it is used figuratively, like it is in the verse, ask the town ().
Rebelled against the commandment of its Lord and its messengers: This indicates that they denied God through associating partners with Him and also denied His messengers through belying their call.
Moreover, they rejected God through abandoning His ordinances and rejected His messengers and their authority (wilāyah), which they ordered them to follow, as is mentioned in verses such as: And obey God and obey the Messenger, and if you turn away, then it is only upon Our messenger to present a clear message ().
They were taken to account severely and vengefully. Here, “accounting” is speaking of them being taken to account in this world, not the hereafter. Evidence that their accounting occurred in this world can be found in the following verses: And whatever afflicts you is due to what your own hands have wrought, but God pardons much (); And were the people of the town to believe and fear God, We would have opened for them the blessings of the heavens and earth; however, they disbelieved and were overtaken for what they used to do ().
Whenever an affliction befalls someone—that is to say, something which is, in the view of religion, considered an affliction—it is a result of their actions, although God pardons much, indulgently and clemently, while accounting. However, God takes those who are insolent and arrogant towards His command and His Messengers to severe account through opposition, vengeance, and censure, and punishes them in unheard-of ways.
It means: How peoples who were rebellious and arrogant towards Our command and Our messengers—who did not obey God or His Messengers—did We take to account severely, through opposition and vengeance! We punished them harshly, with no limit; We eradicated them from the world.
Some say that “accounting” here refers to being taken to account in the hereafter, and the verse uses a past tense verb to indicate that it doubtlessly will have happened. However, this is incorrect.
So We called it to account severely and We chastised it: The verse shifts from the third person to the first person to indicate the enormity of the situation.
فَذَاقَتْ وَبَالَ أَمْرِهَا وَكَانَ عَاقِبَةُ أَمْرِهَا خُسْرًا ٩
(65:9) So it tasted the evil result of its conduct (amrahā), and the end of its affair was perdition.
Amr (translated as “conduct”) refers to their rebellion and arrogance. It means: We afflicted them with the consequence of their insolence, and the consequence of their insolence was loss. It is as if they bartered obedience for haughtiness, and, in the end, they received perdition.
أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يَا أُولِي الأَلْبَابِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا قَدْ أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَيْكُمْ ذِكْرًا ١٠
(65:10) God has prepared for them severe chastisement, therefore be careful of (your duty to) God, O men of understanding who believe! God has indeed revealed to you a reminder.
This speaks of their recompense in the hereafter, just as the previous verses (so We called it to account severely and We chastised it (with) a stern chastisement, so it tasted the evil result of its conduct, ) spoke of their recompense in this world.
The sentence God has prepared for them… begins without a linking conjunction, such as “and,” because it acts as a response to an implied question in the previous verse. That is, upon encountering the previous verse, one might ask, “What did it mean for them to receive perdition?” The response would then be, “God has prepared for them severe chastisement.”
Therefore be careful of (your duty to) God, O men of understanding who believe! God has indeed revealed to you a reminder: This concludes the previous discussion. The faithful are advised to be careful and guard themselves against being insolent towards the command of their Lord or rebelling against His obedience. Otherwise, they will be afflicted for their insolence and consequently receive perdition, just like the destroyed peoples were.
The faithful are described as ‘men of understanding’ (ulū al-albāb). God says O men of understanding who believe, since their intellects assist them in attaining the piety (taqwā) He desires from them. When they hear of the people who rebelled against the command of their Lord, were taken to account severely, and punished with an unheard-of punishment, and whose end was perdition—and then they heard that this had been repeated time after time—their intellects emptied themselves of insolence or arrogance towards the command of God in the face of God’s severe accounting. Thus, their intellects remind them of and induce them towards piety. God revealed to them this reminder to inform them of what is for and against them to guide them to the truth and the straight path.
رَّسُولا يَتْلُو عَلَيْكُمْ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ مُبَيِّنَاتٍ لِّيُخْرِجَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ وَمَن يُؤْمِن بِاللَّهِ وَيَعْمَلْ صَالِحًا يُدْخِلْهُ جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا قَدْ أَحْسَنَ اللَّهُ لَهُ رِزْقًا ١١
(65:11) A Messenger who recites to you the clear communications of God so that he may bring forth those who believe and do good deeds from darkness into light; and whoever believes in God and does good deeds, He will cause him to enter gardens beneath which rivers now, to abide therein forever, God has indeed given him a goodly sustenance.
“A Messenger” is either a new noun restating the previous noun (ʿaṭf bayān), or else it is a phrase which substitutes for the previous phrase (badal). (In either case, the previous noun was dhikran.) Therefore, dhikr (“reminder”) is understood to mean “Messenger.” He is called this because he is a medium through which people are reminded of God and His signs, and He is the path of calling towards the true religion. The context (“who recites to you the clear communications of God…”) clearly indicates that “Messenger” means Muḥammad.
Similarly, “sending the Messenger” means appointing him from the world of the unseen and making it clear to the people that He was a messenger from Him, whereas, before that, people had not recognized him as such. This is similar to how God says: And We sent down iron… ().
However, some exegetes take this to mean “sending from heaven.” For instance, the author of Tafsīr al-Kashshāf says that this refers to Gabriel when he recited verses to the Prophet, since he was followed by his people and was the means to convey them to them. However, the prima facie meaning of who recites to you the clear communications of God… is otherwise.
Possibly, “Messenger” could be the object of an elided verb, meaning, “We sent a messenger reciting the signs of God to you.” Here, dhikr would refer to the sending down of the Qur’an or its contents, such as its rulings and wisdom.
So that he may bring forth those who believe and do good deeds from darkness into light: This has already been explained previously with respect to similar verses.
And whoever believes in God and does good deeds, He will cause him to enter gardens beneath which rivers now, to abide therein forever: This is a beautiful, joyous promise.
God has indeed given him a goodly sustenance: The verb aḥsana (meaning “to do good to someone”) is used here to show the type of sustenance that God grants these people. Sustenance here refers to faith and righteous deeds in the world, and to the garden in the hereafter. Some exegetes just say that it refers to the garden.
اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَمِنَ الأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ يَتَنَزَّلُ الأَمْرُ بَيْنَهُنَّ لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا ١٢
(65:12) God is He Who created seven heavens, and of the earth the like of them; the decree continues to descend among them, that you may know that God has power over all things and that God indeed encompasses all things in (His) knowledge.
This pronouncement emphasizes the previous verses, namely: God’s lordship, the appointment of the Messenger, the sending down of the reminder so that they would obey regarding those things, the painful chastisement and severe punishment for those who rebelled against and opposed Him, and the eternal gardens for those who obey Him, since God is powerful and omniscient.
The phrase, God is He who created seven heavens has been previously discussed in the exegesis of Sūrah Ḥā Mīm Sajdah (Chapter 41).
In the phrase, And of the earth like them apparently, like them means “of like number.” This implies that God created seven earths, just as He created seven heavens. There are various interpretations: whether these seven earths are seven spheres like our earth, whether our earth consists of seven concentric layers, and we just live on the uppermost one, or whether it refers to the seven climatic zones of the inhabited globe. There are several viewpoints on each of these interpretations, and for another potential explanation one may refer to what was previously discussed in Surah Ham-as-Sajdah (Ch. 41).
Possibly, one could say that and of the earth like them means that God created a thing from the earth which is like the seven heavens, and that is the human being, who is compounded of earthly matter and a heavenly soul which is modelled after the higher spiritual realms.
The decree continues to descend among them seemingly refers to both the heavens and the earth. “The decree” (amr) is the divine command, as described in His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is (). This word of creation descends from its source through each heaven until it reaches the earthly realm, manifesting whatever is intended by the command, be it creation, effect, sustenance, death, life, honor, or humiliation, as indicated in And He revealed His command in each of the heavens () and He regulates the affair from the heaven to the earth; then shall it ascend to Him in a day the measure of which is a thousand years of what you count ().
Some say that command (amr) refers to the shari‘ah rulings which are revealed via the angels from heaven to the Prophet while he is on the earth. However, this is a restricted meaning, but the expression is not restricted, and the final part of the verse—that you may know that God has power over all things…—does not fit with it.
The statement, that God has power over all things and that God indeed encompasses all things in (His) knowledge is one of the goals behind creating the seven heavens and of the earth like them, and sending down the divine command through them. That is, since the creation and command are ascribed to God alone, a person who contemplates on this would have no doubt in God’s power over or knowledge of all things. Therefore, the faithful men of intellect would fear opposing His command, since the custom of this powerful and omniscient God has been to reward those who obey His command and to punish the rebellious and haughty. Similarly, your Lord took these wrongdoing peoples to account and punished them severely.
Examining Narrations
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, regarding and how many a town… (), it says:
(This means) the people of the town.
- In Tafsīr al-Burhān, it is related from Imām al-Riḍā, during a discussion with al-Maʾmūn:
The “reminder” (dhikr) is the Messenger of God, and we are his family (ahl). This is made clear in the Book of God where it says in Sūrah al-Ṭalāq: Therefore be careful of (your duty to) God, O men of understanding who believe! God has indeed revealed to you a reminder, a Messenger who recites to you the clear communications of God (). Therefore, the “reminder” is the Messenger of God, and we are his family.
- In Tafsīr al-Qummī, it is related from Abū al-Ḥasan (Imām) al-Riḍā:
I (Al-Ḥusayn ibn Khālid) said to him, “Tell me about the verse, by the heavens, full of ways (wa al-samāʾi dhāt il-ḥubuk, ).”
He said, “They are woven to the earth,” interlacing his fingers.
I said, “How are they woven to earth when God says He raised the heavens without any pillar that you see? ()”
He said, “Exalted be God! Does God not say, without any pillar that you see?”
I said, “Yes.”
He said, “So there is a pillar, but you do not see it.”
I said, “May God make me your ransom, how is that done?”
He opened his left hand, then placed his right hand atop it, and said, “This is this world’s ‘earth’, with its firmament (the first heaven) topping it like a dome. Then, above this world’s firmament (the first heaven) lies the ‘second earth’, with the second heaven topping it like a dome. The, above the second heaven, lies the ‘third earth’, with the third heaven topping it like a dome. Then, above the third heaven, lies the ‘fourth earth’, with the fourth heaven topping it like a dome. Then, above the fourth heaven, lies the ‘fifth earth’, with the fifth heaven topping it like a dome. Then, above the fifth heaven, lies the ‘sixth earth’, with the sixth heaven topping it like a dome. Then, above the sixth heaven, lies the ‘seventh earth’, with the seventh heaven topping it like a dome. The throne of the Merciful, blessed and exalted, lies above the seventh heaven. This is what God says: He Who created seven heavens, and of the earth the like of them; the decree continues to descend among them ().
“The owner of the command (ṣāḥib al-amr) is the Messenger of God, and the inheritor after the Messenger of God, standing on the face of the earth. The (divine) command descends to him from between the heavens and the earths above the firmament (of this world).”
I said, “So what lies beneath us other than the ‘first earth’?”
He said, “There is nothing beneath us other than the ‘first earth’. The six other ones are above us.”
Author’s comment: Something similar is related by al-Ṭabrisī from al-ʿAyyāshī from al-Ḥusayn ibn Khālid from Imām Riḍā.
This particular hadith is uncommon in its subject matter, and its content, especially the part about the descent of the divine command, lends itself more to an interpretation based on its underlying meaning rather than a literal interpretation, and God knows best.
Translator’s note: This is a discussion of the expression anzala Allāhu ʿalaykum dhikran, in . Anzala can be understood to mean “sent down” although, here, it has been translated as “revealed.” ↩︎
Translator’s note: That is, rather than sending iron down from the heavens, God made people aware of iron. Similarly, rather than sending the Messenger down from the heavens, God made people aware of him. ↩︎
Translator’s note: Possibly, the extent to which ʿAllāmah dwells on the severity of punishment experienced by those who rebel against God is reflective of his times, in that the ruling powers of his country and some other nearby countries at his time were engaging in a programme of enforced secularization and de-Islamization. Therefore, it can be taken not only as a general sentiment but also as a tacit criticism of the official policy of his time. ↩︎
This is related from Ibn Bābawayh with a chain of narration from al-Rayyān ibn al-Ṣalt. ↩︎
This is related from al-Qummī’s father, from al-Ḥusayn ibn Khālid, from Abū al-Ḥasan (Imām) al-Riḍā. ↩︎