Hud (Hud) هود 118–119
118
وَلَوْ شَاء رَبُّكَ لَجَعَلَ النَّاسَ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَلاَ يَزَالُونَ مُخْتَلِفِينَ
If your Lord had wished, He would have made mankind into one community. As it is, they will not cease to dispute,—
119
إِلاَّ مَن رَّحِمَ رَبُّكَ وَلِذَلِكَ خَلَقَهُمْ وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَةُ رَبِّكَ لأَمْلأنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ
and to this end He has created them [all], except for those to whom your Lord has shown mercy. The word of your Lord shall be fulfilled, ‘I will fill Hell with jinn and men all together.’
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
(a) In our world, there are innumerable creatures besides human beings. All these creatures follow the one fixed path of nature at all times. Similarly, God could have created human beings as compulsory followers of the straight path too. But this is in no way God’s scheme with regard to human beings. God’s plan was that they would be so created that they should, of their own accord, be able independently to make correct moral choices. The difference in the world of human beings (i.e. some of them adopting one way and others adopting an other way) is, in fact, due to this special plan of God. This plan was certainly a risky one, because it meant that many people had the opportunity to misuse their freedom and thus make themselves liable to be cast into hell. But, with the help of this very plan, such noble souls could be chosen as could be treated as deserving the special grace of God. God has blessed the entire universe with His bounties. Now, God devised this plan so that He might give His creatures the benefit of His grace, saying, ‘You are entitled to this.’ God’s grace will be granted to that person whose consciousness is so alert that he recognizes in the power given to him by way of testing him his real powerlessness. Such a person will be able to see through the veil of human power and have a glimpse of God’s power behind it. Such perceptiveness takes away the capacity for arrogance in a man. So much so that, when God grants him His Grace saying, ‘This is your entitlement,’ in his awareness of reality he cries out, ‘O God! This is also a manifestation of Your grace, otherwise my deeds have no value.’