Appearance
Verses 37–45
The discussion now returns to the matter of the Qurʾan itself, namely that it is a book that has been sent down from God, in which there is no doubt. These verses furnish the Prophet with arguments in this regard, and they are connected to the earlier verse, Say, ‘Is there anyone among your partners who may guide to the truth?’ Say, ‘Allah guides to the truth …’ (). It has been mentioned earlier that one of the ways in which He guides people to the truth is by guiding them to His religion, of which He approves, through sending revelations to His prophets and through the scriptures He has sent down to them, such as the books of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muḥammad. These verses mention this and establish the argument that the Qurʾan is one of those that guide to the truth. That is why they are pointed out along with it in the verse, rather it is a confirmation of what was before it, and an elaboration of the Book, there is no doubt in it, from the Lord of all the worlds ().
At the end of this section of verses, the Qurʾan once again mentions the Resurrection, which is one of the key themes of the chapter we identified earlier.
وَمَا كَانَ هَٰذَا الْقُرْآنُ أَنْ يُفْتَرَىٰ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ وَلَٰكِنْ تَصْدِيقَ الَّذِي بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَتَفْصِيلَ الْكِتَابِ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ مِنْ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ٣٧
(10:37) This Qurʾan could not (mā kāna) have been fabricated by anyone besides Allah; rather it is a confirmation of what was before it, and an elaboration of the Book, there is no doubt in it, from the Lord of all the worlds.
As we have already discussed elsewhere, negating an attribute or a quality using the negation of the verb ‘to be’ (kāna)—as we see here with mā kāna—negates not only the attribute itself but the very potentiality of it. Therefore, this is more eloquent and rhetorically powerful than merely negating the attribute. Note the difference between the two statements: Mā kāna Zayd li-yaqūm (‘Zayd could not stand’) to mā qāma Zayd (‘Zayd did not stand’) or lam yaqum Zayd (‘Zayd has not stood’). The first means that not only did Zayd not stand but that he lacked the capacity to do so, while the second and third merely deny that he stood. There are many examples of this in the Qurʾan. See, for instance, the verses: … but they could not believe (mā kānū li-yuʾminū) something they had denied before (); … You could not know (mā kunta tadrī) what the Book is (); … God could not have wronged them (mā kāna Allāh li-yaẓlimahum) ().
Therefore, when God says, This Qurʾan could not have been fabricated by anyone besides Allah, some commentators have said this denies the very possibility of the Qurʾan being fabricated, which is more eloquent than merely denying the actuality of such fabrication. Therefore, this passage means: ‘The nature of this Qurʾan is such that it could not have been fabricated and falsely attributed to God by someone other than He.’
… rather it is a confirmation of what was before it (bayna yadayhi): This means confirming those scriptures that are present and already revealed, namely the Torah and the Evangel, as it is narrated from Jesus, his saying: O Children of Israel! Indeed I am the messenger of Allah to you, to confirm what is before me (bayna yadayya) of the Torah (). The terms bayna yadayhi and bayna yadayya literally mean ‘between its/my hands.’ They are used here to refer to the scriptures already present at the time, because there are other scriptures besides these that are not present, such as the scriptures of Noah and Abraham, and all of them came ‘before’ the Qurʾan. So, when all of them are considered as preceding the Qurʾan, the closest to it in time would be the Torah and the Evangel, described as being ‘between its hands.’
Some might say that the meaning of bayna yadayhi here is merely whatever teachings were previously revealed, such as the doctrines of the Resurrection, the Final Judgement, and the Recompense. However, this is not a sound reading.
… and an elaboration (tafṣīl) of the Book: This follows on from ‘a confirmation …’. What is meant by ‘the Book’ in this context is the divine scripture that is sent down by God to His Prophets. Tafṣīl (‘elaboration’) literally means to separate (faṣl) between its parts that are all merged together, with some aspects of each contained in the others, through clarification and explanation.
In this, there is an indication that all the divine religions revealed to the prophets are one and the same, and there is no difference between them except in terms of their level of detail, and the Qurʾan provides the detail for what others have summarized, as He, the Exalted, said: Indeed, with Allah religion is Islam ().
Indeed, the Qurʾan is a detailed elaboration of what previous divine scriptures summarized, and it is a guardian over them all, as we read in the verse, We have sent down to you the Book with the truth, confirming what was before it of the Book and as a guardian over it ().
… there is no doubt in it, from the Lord of all the worlds: In other words, there is no doubt in it; it is from the Lord of the Worlds, and the second statement serves as an explanation for the first one.
أَمْ يَقُولُونَ افْتَرَاهُ ۖ قُلْ فَأْتُوا بِسُورَةٍ مِثْلِهِ وَادْعُوا مَنِ اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ ٣٨
(10:38) Or do they say, ‘He has fabricated it?’ Say, ‘Then bring a chapter like it, and invoke whomever you can, besides Allah, should you be truthful.’
Here, the word ‘or’ is being used to introduce a new idea, meaning, ‘Rather, they say he has fabricated it.’ The pronoun ‘it’ here refers to the Qurʾan, and the fact that God describes a ‘chapter’ as being ‘like’ the Qurʾan shows that the term ‘Qurʾan’ can designate both much of the scripture and a little of it.
Therefore, the meaning of this verse is: ‘Tell those who claim he has fabricated it: “If you are truthful in your claim, then bring a chapter like this fabricated Qurʾan and call on whoever you can besides God for assistance and support, for if it is a fabricated discourse then it is a human discourse and you should be able to produce something like it!”’ This is a clear challenge to bring something like a single one of the Qurʾan’s chapter, whether long or short.
From this, the following points become apparent:
Firstly, the challenge is not limited to a specific chapter, as they did not accuse the Qurʾan of being fabricated in part, but rather in its entirety. They are tasked with producing a chapter like one of those they claim to be fabricated, a claim they make about the entirety of the Qurʾan, not just a part of it.
No credence should be given to the argument that the term ‘a chapter’ is left indefinite for emphasis or diversification, and what is meant is a chapter that contains stories of the prophets, prophecies, and promises for this world and the hereafter, as the accusation fabrication can only be made in relation to statements, not commandments. Also to be disregarded is the argument that what is meant is a long chapter like the present one, which contains fundamental teachings of the religion, accompanied by promises of divine reward and threats of divine punishment.
This is because the entire Qurʾan, with all of its verses, is attributed to God, and there is no distinction between those verses containing statements and those containing commandments, or between long and short chapters, or even a single verse. The claim that it is fabricated applies to the whole, because to call one part false is to call the whole book false.
Secondly, the challenge in the verse does not only concern the eloquence and rhetorical power of the Qurʾan alone. The context of this verse and other verses that discuss this challenge to the disbelievers show that it is based on the Qurʾan’s attributes of perfection and beauty, which comprehensively encompasses divine teachings; the fundamentals of religious laws, whether these pertain to the rules of worship, civil, political, economic and judicial laws, noble morals, or good manners; stories of prophets and past nations; knowledge of the Unseen and prophecies of the future; the descriptions of angels, jinn, heaven, earth, wisdom, exhortation; promises of divine reward and warnings of divine retribution; accounts of the Origin and the Return; the strength of its arguments; the eloquence of its speech; its enlightenment; and its guidance, without any part differing from another. Now, add to this the fact that the eloquence and rhetorical power of the Qurʾan are beyond the reach of human hands.
Early scholars and their followers limited the miraculous nature of the Qurʾan to its eloquence and rhetorical power, and wrote numerous books and treatises on this subject. This diverted them from contemplating the truths of the Qurʾan and delving into its knowledge. This led them to consider its meanings as matters thrown in the path, equally available to the Bedouin, the city dweller, the commoner, the specialist, the ignorant one, and the scholar. They believed that the Qurʾan’s brilliance lay in the arrangement of its words rather than the structure of its meanings, and that there was no value beyond that. But God Almighty has described the Qurʾan with every beautiful attribute that is relevant to this challenge, such as it being light, mercy, guidance, wisdom, admonition, clear proof, a clarification for all things, a detailed book, a source of healing for the believers, a decisive statement, and not a joke. He also describes it as setting-point of the stars, and says that there is no discrepancy within it, but at no point does He explicitly invoke its eloquence.
God has stated that the disbelievers will not produce anything like it, even if they were to call upon anyone they can apart from Him, and even if humans and jinn were to come together to do so, without restricting this statement merely to the domains of eloquence and rhetorical power.
We have already discussed the miraculous inimitability (iʿjāz) of the Qurʾan in detail in our commentary on the verse, And if you are in doubt concerning what We have sent down to Our servant, then bring a chapter like it ().
بَلْ كَذَّبُوا بِمَا لَمْ يُحِيطُوا بِعِلْمِهِ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِهِمْ تَأْوِيلُهُ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ۖ فَانْظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الظَّالِمِينَ ٣٩
(10:39) Rather, they deny that whose knowledge they do not comprehend, and whose fulfilment (taʾwīl) has not yet come to them. Those who were before them denied likewise. So observe how was the fate of the wrongdoers!
This verse explains that the real reason for their disbelief and their claims that the Qurʾan is a fabrication is that they reject those parts of it that they have not understood, or they have rejected the Qurʾan itself because they have not grasped the knowledge it contains. It contains genuine wisdom and actual sciences that were beyond their comprehension, and whose fulfilment (taʾwīl) had not yet reached them, meaning the fulfilment of that which they have denied, which would have left them no choice except to believe in it.
This is the meaning that the context of the verse implies, as the phrase, and whose explanation has not yet come to them, points to the Day of Resurrection, as supported by the verse in Sūrah al-Aʿrāf, Do they await anything but its fulfilment (taʾwīl)? The day when its fulfilment comes, those who had forgotten it before will say, ‘Our Lord’s apostles had certainly brought the truth. If only we had some intercessors to intercede for us, or we would be returned, so that we may do differently from what we did!’ ().
This confirms the explanation we have given for the earlier verse, As for those in whose hearts is deviance, they pursue what is metaphorical in it, courting temptation and courting its fulfilment (taʾwīl). But no one knows its fulfilment except Allah (), namely that the meaning of taʾwīl in the vocabulary of the Qurʾan is the reality upon which an idea depends, whether this is a commandment, a teaching, a story, or some other reality, without this being part of the idea itself, and that the entirety of the Qurʾan, and all of the teachings, ordinances, and reports it contains has a taʾwīl.
The above reading is also supported by the statement, those who were before them denied likewise. By comparing them to those who came before them, the verse suggests that the intended meaning is that those polytheists who came before them also denied what their prophets called them to because they did not comprehend its knowledge and because its fulfilment had not yet come to them. So, just as the other prophets brought parts of the divine call to faith containing teachings and rulings that have a fulfilment, so too do the Qur’an’s teachings and rulings have a fulfilment, and this is not limited to the explanation and meanings of its words, as some have presumed.
Therefore, the overall meaning of the verse is that these polytheists, who accuse the Qurʾan of being fabricated, are no different from the polytheists and disbelievers of previous nations. This is insofar as, when they were confronted by the divine call to faith, which contained teachings and rulings that they did not fully grasp, this prevented them from having certainty and believing in it. Their ignorance led them to deny it, and the day when the fulfilment of its teachings and the reality of its nature will be revealed to them has not yet come; for this will be a day that will leave them no choice but to have certainty and believe—this day, of course, is the Day of Resurrection. On that day, the veil will be lifted from the visage of the divine realities, revealing them for all to see. Then, these people who denied and did wrong, just like those before them denied and did wrong … see what became of those past wrongdoers, so you can anticipate what will happen to these wrongdoers today.
This is what careful examination of the verse’s meaning yields, and commentators have presented various differing opinions about it depending upon their understanding of the word taʾwīl. There is no need to address these opinions here, as we have already examined them previously.
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ لَا يُؤْمِنُ بِهِ ۚ وَرَبُّكَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُفْسِدِينَ٤٠
(10:40) Some of them believe in it, and some of them do not believe in it, and your Lord best knows the agents of corruption.
This verse divides people into two groups: Those who believe in the Qurʾan and those who do not. Then, it refers to those who do not believe as ‘agents of corruption’ (mufsidīn), implying that those who deny the teachings of the Qurʾan do so because they are agents of corruption.
Therefore, this verse serves to clarify the current state of some believing and some disbelieving, and that disbelief stems from the vice of moral corruption.
Some scholars have offered different explanations of the verse. For instance, there are those who say that the intended meaning is that your people will not be like those wrongdoers before them, who denied their messengers except for a few, and their fate was punishment and eradication. Instead, your people will be divided into two groups, one that believes in this Qurʾan and another that never believes in it. However, this explanation is entirely untethered from the actual wording of the verse.
وَإِنْ كَذَّبُوكَ فَقُلْ لِي عَمَلِي وَلَكُمْ عَمَلُكُمْ ۖ أَنْتُمْ بَرِيئُونَ مِمَّا أَعْمَلُ وَأَنَا بَرِيءٌ مِمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ٤١
(10:41) If they deny you, say, ‘My deeds belong to me and your deeds belong to you: you are absolved of what I do and I am absolved of what you do.’
This verse tells the Prophet to disassociate from them if they reject him. Disassociation (tabarrī) is one of the stages of supporting the truth (al-intiṣār li al-ḥaqq) for those who are striving to revive it. The way to do this is by guiding people to the truth if they are willing to be guided and, if not, to disassociate from them so that they do not press him to follow their falsehood instead.
The latter part of the verse, you are absolved of what I do and I am absolved of what you do, explains the meaning of the former part, my deeds belong to me and your deeds belong to you.
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَسْتَمِعُونَ إِلَيْكَ ۚ أَفَأَنْتَ تُسْمِعُ الصُّمَّ وَلَوْ كَانُوا لَا يَعْقِلُونَ ٤٢
(10:42) There are some of them who prick up their ears at you. But can you make the deaf hear even if they do not apply reason?
This is a rhetorical question with the force of a denial.
The phrase, even if they do not apply reason shows that when God says they are ‘deaf’ He is referring to deafness of the heart, because they do not comprehend the significance of what they hear, so it is as though they are actually deaf.
Therefore, the meaning of the verse is: ‘There are some of them who listen to you, but they are deaf because their heart cannot hear, and you do not have the power to make them hear when they have no hearing.’
وَمِنْهُمْ مَنْ يَنْظُرُ إِلَيْكَ ۚ أَفَأَنْتَ تَهْدِي الْعُمْيَ وَلَوْ كَانُوا لَا يُبْصِرُونَ ٤٣
(10:43) And there are some of them who observe you. But can you guide the blind even if they do not perceive?
This verse is similar in its meaning to the one before it.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ النَّاسَ شَيْئًا وَلَٰكِنَّ النَّاسَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ ٤٤
(10:44) Indeed Allah does not wrong people in the least; rather it is people who wrong themselves.
Based on the context of the present discussion, this verse makes clear that the deprivation of hearing and sight that these people suffer from, as a result of their deafness and blindness, is a consequence of their own wrongdoing, not because God has wronged them by taking away their hearing and sight. They have only been given what they have brought upon themselves.
وَيَوْمَ يَحْشُرُهُمْ كَأَنْ لَمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِنَ النَّهَارِ يَتَعَارَفُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ ۚ قَدْ خَسِرَ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِلِقَاءِ اللَّهِ وَمَا كَانُوا مُهْتَدِينَ ٤٥
(10:45) On the day He will gather them, as if they had not remained except for an hour of the day getting acquainted with one another, they are certainly losers who deny the encounter with Allah, and they are not guided.
Based on its apparent meaning, we can analyze the grammatical structure of the verse as follows: ‘the day’ is an adverbial clause that qualifies the phrase ‘they are certainly losers…’; ‘as if they had not remained except for an hour’ is an adverbial clause that qualifies the pronoun ‘them’, and ‘getting acquainted with one another’ is another adverbial clause that qualifies ‘as if they had not remained except for an hour.’
Therefore, the meaning of the verse is: ‘Those who denied the meeting with God have indeed lost on the day when He gathers them all together, and they will consider the life of this world trivial, considering it to have lasted no more than a single hour of the day, and they will recognize one another without rejecting or forgetting each other.’
Some commentators have said that the phrase, ‘as if they had not remained’, serves as an adjective for ‘the day’ or for an implicit infinitive, whose meaning is indicated by the verb, ‘gather.’ Others have said that ‘getting acquainted with one another’ is an adjective for ‘an hour.’ There are still other unlikely readings of the verse that are not supported by its wording.
In any case, this verse refers back to the discussing of the encounter with God mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, and it revolves around what has just been said about the fulfilment (taʾwīl) of religious prophecy.
It is as if to say, ‘Even though the fulfilment of the Qurʾan has not come to them yet, they should not let themselves be deceived by the fixed appearances of this worldly life, thinking that it is long-lasting and its end is far away. After all, they will be mustered with God and they will see clearly that the life of this world is nothing more than a brief enjoyment, and that they did not remain in it except briefly, as if only for an hour of the day, recognizing one another.
When this happens, their loss in denying the meeting with God will become apparent to them, as the fulfilment of the religion comes to them, revealing the truth of the matter, and the light of monotheism becomes manifest. On that day, it will be clear that the Day belongs to God, the One, the All-paramount.
See al-Mīzān Eng. v. 5 for the explanation of verse, . Note that the word taʾwīl in other volumes has been translated as “interpretation”. (Ed.) ↩︎