| Chapter 55 : Surah Al-Rahman |
(Revealed before Hijrah) Date of Revelation and Context Subject-Matter Prophethood found its most complete and perfect manifestation in the person of the Holy Prophet Muhammad to whom God gave the Qur'an, the last and final code of Divine Laws for the guidance of the whole of humanity for all time. But God's gifts to man did not end with his creation. He made the whole universe subservient to him. The heavens with all the celestial bodies, and the earth with all its treasures, the deep seas and high mountains, were all created for his sake. Over and above all that God endowed him with great intellectual and discretionary powers so that by sifting the right from the wrong he might follow Divine guidance and thus attain the object of his creation. But man seems to be so constituted that, instead of benefiting from the endless vistas of spiritual progress and development opened up to him by the Gracious, Beneficent and Merciful Providence, in his conceit and arrogance he ignores and defies Divine Laws and consequently brings down upon himself God's displeasure. The disobedience and defiance of Divine Laws, the Surah hints, will assume a most heinous form in sometime to come (which seems to be the present time) and man will then be visited with such destructive and annihilating Divine punishment as he had not known before. But whereas punishment which will be meted out to the guilty and the iniquitous will be most grievous and frightful, the Divine favors which will be bestowed upon the righteous and the God-fearing in that age of Mammon-worship and hankering after pleasures of the flesh will also be beyond measure or count, and thus both Divine punishment and favors would show that whereas God is Swift at reckoning, He is also the Master of glory and honor. The Surah seems to deal particularly with the time when the power and prestige of Western nations will be at their highest.
2918. God revealed Himself through His Prophets and Messengers to whom He gave His Word. The Qur'an constituted the culmination of Divine revelation. This revelation of God to man through His Word was not due to any good act on his part. It was a sheer Divine gift flowing from God's beneficence. 2919. The word, 'man;' besides its general connotation, may here signify 'the perfect man,' i.e., the Holy Prophet, in whom Divine attributes found their most perfect and complete manifestation. The verse thus signifies that, out of beneficence, God created man in order that he may rise to the highest peaks of spiritual development and may reflect in his person Divine attributes. 2920. The verse, read along with the preceding one, shows that from the largest celestial body to the smallest stemless plant, all things are subject to certain laws, and they perform regularly, punctually and unerringly their allotted tasks. In the huge solar system which is but one of millions of such systems, every orb proceeds safely on its destined course and never deviates from it. 2921. The whole universe is subject to one uniform law and all its constituent parts unite to form a glorious harmony of structure and motion. If this harmony or equilibrium between different things is in the least disturbed, the whole universe would fall to pieces. But God has kept all the laws that regulate the world under His exclusive control, beyond the reach of man. 2922. AS there is an all-comprehensive harmony in the whole universe, so is man-the crown and object of creation-enjoined to maintain a just balance and to treat with equity and justice his fellow beings, giving everyone his due, and to avoid extremes and follow the golden mean in the discharge of his duties towards his Creator. 2923. The dual form in Tukadhdhibun may have been used for the two classes of jinn and men referred to in v. 34, or it may signify two classes of men, viz., believers and disbelievers, leaders and their followers, the rich and the poor, or the white and the coloured races. Or; the dual form may have been used to impart emphasis in order to denote the dignity of the commandment embodied in the various verses. Such dual form is generally used in the Arabic language. See also 50:25. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said that when this verse is recited the believers present should respond by uttering the words 'None of Thy favours, Our Lord, do we deny and for Thee is all praise' (Kathir). 2924. After having mentioned the creation of the celestial firmament and the placing in it of the sun and the moon, followed by a mention of the spreading of the earth and of the vegetables that grow on it, the Surah, in this verse, refers to the coming into existence of man. Man's creation from dry ringing clay may signify that man has been created from matter in which the faculty and attribute of speech lies latent. As Salsal emits a sound only when struck with something extraneous, the word is used here to hint that man's power to respond is subject to his being able to receive the Divine Call. Three words have been used in the Qur'an to express the different stages of the creation and spiritual development of man. The first stage is expressed by the words, 'God created him out of dust' (3:60). The second stage is described by the expression, 'He created you from clay' (6:3), which means that after having received a sprinklings of Divine Word man attained the power of discrimination by which he could distinguish between right and wrong. At the third stage, which is called the stage of "baked pottery," man is tested and tried and is made to pass through the fire of trials and tribulations. It is after he has successfully passed all the tests and has attained spiritual maturity that he is received into Divine Presence. 2926. Every spot on earth, in relation to other spots, is an East and a West. This phenomenon is described as the two Easts and the two Wests. Moreover, the earth being round, the East of the Eastern Hemisphere is the West of the Western Hemisphere and the West of the Western Hemisphere is the East of the Eastern Hemisphere, and thus there are two Easts and two Wests. In the modern political parlance the two Easts may be the Near East and the Far East, and the two Wests, Europe and America. The verse seems to signify that, God is being the Lord of the whole world, the light of the Qur'an will first spread in the East and then will illumine the West, and thus the 'whole earth will shine with the light of her Lord' (39:70). 2927. 'The two bodies of water' may be the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, or the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, particularly the former two seas. The verse embodies a great prophecy which was remarkably fulfilled by the construction of the Suez and the Panama canals, the former linking the first two seas and the latter the mighty Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The world had to wait for thirteen long centuries to see the fulfillment of this prophecy. Or, 'the two bodies of water' may signify the physical and spiritual sciences. Or, the natural laws and Divine revelation, which mistakenly considered to be mutually antagonistic, are corroborative of each other, the one being the Work of God and the other His Word. 2928. Curiously enough pearls and coral are found in both the Suez and Panama canals. 2929. The reference seems to be to modern "leviathans," which ride the seas like mountains. The Surah may be dealing with the progress and prosperity of the Western nations which are the result of their making proper use of the great sea-routes for extending their commerce and trade. 2930. The whole universe is subject to decay and death and eventually is destined to perish. God alone will abide because He is Self-Subsisting, All-Sustaining, Independent and Besought of all. 2931. Wajh, among other things, means, that which is under one's care; or; 'to which one directs one's attention (28539); the thing itself; favour; countenance (Aqrab). Since the earth will be reduced to nothing and heavenly bodies all brought to naught and the whole material universe made non-existent; still human reason demands that there should be a Being Who should never die nor be subject to change or decay. Such a Being is God Who created the whole universe and Who is the First and Final Cause of all things. The present and the previous verses point to two immutable laws of nature which work simultaneously, viz., (1) everything is subject to decline, decadence and death; and (2) compliance with Divine laws ensures continuity of life. 2932. All creatures depend for their life and sustenance on God Who is their Creator, Sustainer and Nourisher. His attributes know no limit or count, and they keep finding their manifestation in diverse ways all the time. 2933. Al-Thaqalan meaning two weighty things (Lane), may signify "the men" and "the jinn" as the context shows; or the Arabs and the non-Arabs or in the present political parlance the two main blocs-Russia or China and their allies on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other; or the word may signify the Capitalist and the Labour classes. From the way in which these two great blocs are behaving, it seems that any day they may become locked into mortal conflict, completely destroying man's accumulated labour of centuries, spent in developing arts and sciences, and may render life on earth almost extinct. The verse seems to embody a warning to that effect. 2934. The verse has been variously interpreted. According to one interpretation the scientists and philosophers, who are proud of the great advance they have made in the material sciences, have been told that they cannot, however great advance they might make in knowledge and science, so completely comprehend all the laws of nature governing the universe as to acquire their complete mastery. Try as they might, they will fail in their quest. According to another interpretation, the verse warns sinners: 'Let them dare break through the confines of the heavens and earth, they shall not be able to defy Divine laws with impunity and escape Divine punishment. The verse may also point to the making of rockets, sputniks, etc., by means of which the Russians and the Americans are seeking to reach heavenly bodies. 2935. The verse points to the most destructive and dreadful punishment which might overtake the two hostile camps. The world seems to stand on the brink of a terrible conflagration which threatens to consume in its flames the entire human civilization. 2936. What a graphic picture of the threatened punishment! 2937. The misdeeds of the guilty will be writ large on their faces so that they will not be asked whether or not they had committed them. As mentioned elsewhere in the Qur'an (41 :21); the very organs of the bodies of disbelievers will bear witness against them. 2938. The foregoing few verses together with the present one seem to point to the state of restlessness which will seize mankind when the two blocs referred to above are pitted against each other and the fear of atomic-war will, like the Sword of Damocles, hang over their heads. The present international groupings and tensions are bound to lead to an armed conflict of unparalleled destructiveness. The conflict itself would be a veritable Hell; but preparations for it have brought about conditions which are not far removed from perpetual torment of one kind or other. 2939. The "two gardens'' may signify, (1) peace of mind which is the result of leading a good life, and (2) freedom from gnawing cares and anxieties which come in the wake of life spent in the pursuit of material pleasures and comforts. One "garden" consists in giving up one's desires for the sake of God in this world and the other in being blessed with God's pleasure in the next. A true believer perpetually basks in the sun of God's grace in this life which cares cannot disturb. This is Paradise upon earth which is granted to a God-fearing man and in which he constantly dwells; the promised heaven in the next world is only an image of the present Paradise, being an embodiment of the spiritual blessings which such a one enjoys in this life. It is to this paradisiacal state of a true believer that the Qur'an refers in 10:65 and 41:32 The "two gardens'' may also be the two fertile valleys watered by two sets of rivers- 2940. Just as in the present life true believers undergo various kinds of tribulations for the sake of their Lord and do all sorts of good and righteous deeds, so in the next life those tribulations and good works will assume the form of flowers and fruits of various hues and tastes. 2941. The two fountains flowing freely may be the spiritual embodiments of (huquq Allah (the obligations owed to God) and (huquq al-'lbad (the obligations a Muslim owes to hisfellow-beings) which the believers fully and faithfully discharge in this life. The discharge ofthese two obligations would assume the form of two fountains in the Hereafter. As a truebeliever ceaselessly continues to discharge these obligations, the fountains have been depictedas constantly flowing. 2942. Again the word "pairs" may metaphorically represent two kinds of righteous works of the believers-(1) those they do for their own spiritual advancement and (2) those services which they render to their fellow-beings. 2943. Three times the words "two gardens'' have been used in this Surah. This is to emphasize that apart from the great blessings and boons of Paradise in the next world, believers will have all the good things of this world also. 2944. The expression, 'restraining their glances,' signifies that their whole attention would be devoted to God and they would not even cast a look at any other thing besides their Lord and Creator. 2945. Far from their bodies being touched by any man, even impure thoughts will not have found access to their hearts, the word jinn also signifying those invisible things that excite carnal passions in the mind. It is relevant to state here again that according to Islamic conception the blessings of Paradise would resemble the pleasures of the life on earth. There will be palaces, gardens, rivers, trees, fruits, wives, children, friends, etc., in Paradise, only the nature of these things will be different from that of the things of this world. In fact, they will be the spiritual representations of the good deeds the righteous will have done in this life. 2946. Whereas in v. 57 purity of mind and heart of the consorts of believers in Paradise has been mentioned. the verse under comment speaks of the beauty of their persons. 2947. Ihsan means to worship God as if the worshipper is seeing Him, or at least God is seeing the worshipper (Bukhari). This means that in all his deeds and actions God is constantly before the eyes of a believer and as a reward he receives God's pleasure-the sum total of all the blessings of Heaven. 2948. The "two gardens" mentioned in v. 47, may be the gardens of Paradise, and the "two gardens" referred to in this verse may be the gardens of this world. The Muslims were promised gardens in the next world and as a proof of the fulfillment of this Divine promise they were also promised the gardens of this world which indeed they came to possess when they conquered the fertile vallies of Egypt and Iraq. But the description of the "two gardens" mentioned in v. 47 is different from that in the present verse. This shows that two categories of believers have been mentioned in this Surah. The believers to whom "gardens" mentioned in v. 47 have been promised seem to be of a higher spiritual status than those to whom "gardens" mentioned in the verse under comment have been promised. A careful study of the relevant verses brings out this fact. These two classes of believers have been mentioned in the next Surah in vv. 11 and 28 respectively. 2949. Whereas in v. 49 above the "gardens" are described as having many varieties of trees which points to the vast variety of the good works of the believers to whom they are promised, the "gardens" mentioned in the verse under comment are described as "dark green with foliage" which indicates the intensity of the goodness of their works. 2950. In the present verse and in v. 51 above. two different descriptions of the fountains and springs promised to believers have been given. In v. 51 the fountains promised are described as flowing freely and ceaselessly (Tajriyani). This signifies that believers to whom springs mentioned in that verse have been promised are of a higher spiritual status than the believers to whom springs mentioned in the present verse have been promised, since the believers of former category are engaged in doing good to others ceaselessly and freely without any idea or expectation of reward while those of the latter class do good works out of natural impulse but their doing of good is mainly confined to themselves. The qualifying word used is Naddakhatan (gushing forth). 2951. AS compared with the words "good and beautiful" used with regard to the maidens in the present verse which possess only a general connotation, the words "rubies and small pearls" used in v. 59 have a particular significance and are expressive of beauty of special excellence. 2952. The words 'restraining their glances' in v. 57 evidently are expressive of chastity and modesty of a higher degree than the expression "guarded in pavilions" in the verse under comment. 2953. Again the words used in v. 55 about believers show that they possess greater dignity; respect and authority than those to whom the present verse refers. With this verse the comparison between these two categories of believers specifically mentioned in the next Surah; i.e., "the foremost" (56: 11) and "those on the right hand (56:28) comes to an end. 2954. It is not without significance that this verse has been used as many as 31 times in the present Surah. The Surah seems particularly to refer to the great favours and blessings which God has bestowed upon man. In view of these multifarious and multitudinous favours, the repeated use of the verse seems quite appropriate. But then the Surah also speaks of the unprecedentedly destructive Divine punishment in the form of atomic wars which will overtake man if he does not repent and mend his ways. This forewarning of an imminent danger also constitutes a blessing in disguise.
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