The Cattle (Al-An‘am)
Verses 56-59 GROUP_215 6.56-59
56
قُلْ إِنِّي نُهِيتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ الَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللّهِ قُل لاَّ أَتَّبِعُ أَهْوَاءكُمْ قَدْ ضَلَلْتُ إِذًا وَمَا أَنَاْ مِنَ الْمُهْتَدِينَ
Say, ‘I am forbidden to worship those you call upon besides God.’ Say, ‘I do not follow your whims and desires. If I did, I would go astray and cease to be rightly guided.’
57
قُلْ إِنِّي عَلَى بَيِّنَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّي وَكَذَّبْتُم بِهِ مَا عِندِي مَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ بِهِ إِنِ الْحُكْمُ إِلاَّ لِلّهِ يَقُصُّ الْحَقَّ وَهُوَ خَيْرُ الْفَاصِلِينَ
Say, ‘I stand by the clear evidence from my Lord, yet you deny it. What you seek to hasten is not within my power. Judgement is for God alone. He declares the truth. He is the best of judges.’
58
قُل لَّوْ أَنَّ عِندِي مَا تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ بِهِ لَقُضِيَ الأَمْرُ بَيْنِي وَبَيْنَكُمْ وَاللّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِالظَّالِمِينَ
Say, ‘If what you seek to hasten were within my power, the matter would be settled between you and me. God best knows the evil-doers.’
59
وَعِندَهُ مَفَاتِحُ الْغَيْبِ لاَ يَعْلَمُهَا إِلاَّ هُوَ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَمَا تَسْقُطُ مِن وَرَقَةٍ إِلاَّ يَعْلَمُهَا وَلاَ حَبَّةٍ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الأَرْضِ وَلاَ رَطْبٍ وَلاَ يَابِسٍ إِلاَّ فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ
He holds the keys to the unseen; none knows them but He. He has knowledge of all that land and sea contain. No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the earth, or anything, wet or dry, but is recorded in a clear Record.
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
Commentary
(a) Man’s own wishful thinking—which he presumes to be a reality, is all too often raised to the status of something worth worshipping. Sometimes, just to save himself from the consequences of his negligence of religious duties, he accepts someone as God’s favourite and treats him as one who is supposed to support him before God and recommend his case to Him. Sometimes he imagines such a person to have charismatic, supernatural greatness in him, and that he could make up for his own shortcomings by attaching himself to him. Sometimes, due to his easy- going nature, he invents a god who is easy of access and who can easily be pleased with small things. But all such things are mere suppositions and suppositions can never lead anyone to reality. However, there are some who become so blinkered by cheap demands that they even challenge those who have rallied to the side of the real Lord of the Universe. They challenge them thus: ‘If all greatness and majesty belong to the one and only God whom you represent, then arrange to let His retribution come down upon us. Let us see.’ They dare to behave in this way, because they observe that they are much more surrounded by worldly glories than the dayees who work for the acceptance of God’s unity. They forget that the material amenities available to them are due to their devotion to worldly considerations and worldly interests, whereas the missionaries of God, who are bereft of all these things, are in such a condition because their yearning for the Hereafter has prevented them from stooping to the level of devotion to worldly goals. (a) The present world is one of test and trial. Therefore, what is truly significant here is not the material conditions in which a man lives, but whether he is taking a stand on the rationale of truth or on suppositions and false hopes. In the final analysis, only that person will be successful who takes a stand on the real rationale of Truth. The people who rely on suppositions in this world of God will be ultimately reduced to a state of utter helplessness. How could the final fate of the world, which is functioning under the strict control of the Almighty, become relegated to an abyss of false hopes?