Appearance
Verses 5–6
This refers to some of the statements made by the idolaters in response to the Prophet’s call and his divine message. For example, they asked: ‘How can a human being be resurrected after dying and being reduced to dust?’ They also asked: ‘Why does God not send the punishment that he warns us about? When will this promise be fulfilled, if you are indeed truthful?’ The response to these is provided in a manner befitting the situation.
وَإِن تَعْجَبْ فَعَجَبٌ قَوْلُهُمْ أَئِذَا كُنَّا تُرَابًا أَئِنَّا لَفِي خَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ أُوْلَئِكَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ بِرَبِّهِمْ وَأُولَئِكَ الأَغْلالُ فِي أَعْنَاقِهِمْ وَأُولَئِكَ أَصْحَابُ النَّارِ هُمْ فِيهَا خَالِدُونَ ٥
(13:5) If you are to wonder (wa in taʿjab), then wonderful is their remark (fa ʿajabun qawla-hum), ‘When we have become dust, shall we be into a new creation?’ They are the ones who defy their Lord; they shall have iron collars (aghlāl) around their necks, they shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, and they shall remain in it.
In Majmaʿ al-bayān, al-Ṭabrisī writes: ‘ʿAjab and taʿajjub means for the self to be assailed by something whose cause is not known to it. Ghall is a collar that is fastened tightly around the neck.’
At the beginning of this chapter of the Qurʾan, God emphasized the truthfulness of what He revealed to His Prophet about the knowledge of religion in His Book, suggesting that all the signs of creation point toward it and confirm it. Its core doctrines are monotheism, prophethood, and resurrection. Then He went into detail about how the signs of creation point toward this by invoking three argument, from which He explicitly concluded the oneness of divine lordship and the reality of resurrection, and this entails the truth of prophethood and the revelation, which is its sign. Once this point had been made clear, the way was open to mention the doubts of the disbelievers concerning these three principles. In this verse, He referred to their doubt about the resurrection, and He will address their doubts and statements about prophethood and monotheism in the following verses.
Their doubt in this regard is reflected in their saying: ‘When we have become dust, shall we be into a new creation?’ In a rhetorical twist, God presented this statement as the true source of wonder that is more deserving of astonishment due to the obvious falseness and wrongness of it. There is no reason for a person of sound mind to doubt the resurrection. If a person were to utter it, this would be among the sources of astonishment. So, He said: If you are to wonder, then wonderful is their remark…
Therefore, meaning of the sentence, as guided by the omission of what the audience’s wonder is related to, is: ‘If you are to be truly astonished, and undoubtedly you are, because a human being cannot help but be astonished, then this saying of theirs is something to be astonished about.’ So, the composition of this sentence alludes to inevitability of being astonished by their saying, because it is such an evidently false statement that no sensible or rational person could accept it.
When they say, When we have become dust (turāb), shall we be into a new creation?,’ in this context, by turāb, they mean what the human body decomposes into after death in the form of dust. At that point, the human being, which, according to them, is the structure of flesh and bone, composed of specific organs and endowed with certain physical abilities, ceases to exist. So, how can creation include something that is non-existent in its origin and have it return as a new creation?
For this doubt of theirs, there are various aspects. God, in His revelation, has responded to each one of them in a manner that suits it and resolves its substance:
One of these aspects is: They deny the possibility that dust can transform into a complete human. The response to this is that it is possible for earthly materials to transform into semen, then the semen into a clot, then the clot into a lump of flesh, then the lump into a complete human body. The occurrence of this after its possibility leaves no doubt about the possibility of dust transforming again into a complete human. God said: O people! If you are in doubt about the resurrection, We indeed created you from dust, then from a drop of fluid, then from a clinging mass, then from a fleshy tissue, partly formed and partly unformed ().
Another aspect is: They deny the possibility of something coming into existence after its non-existence. The response to this is that it is like the first creation, so it is possible just as the first was possible. God said: He draws comparisons for Us, and forgets his own creation. He says, ‘Who shall revive the bones when they have decayed?’ Say, ‘He will revive them who produced them the first time ().
Another aspect is: They say that the human being ceases to exist upon death, so there is no entity to be clothed in the new creation, and there is no human being after death and passing except in a person’s imagination, without any external reality.
God responded to this in His speech by explaining that a human being is not merely a body composed of several physical organs, such that a person ceases to exist in their essence just because their physical composition has broken down. Rather, the real essence of the human being is a higher spirit (rūḥ)—or if you prefer, you can say a “soul” (nafs)—that is connected to this physical vehicle and uses it to bring about its purposes and goals. With it, the life of the body remains. With it, the human being remains preserved in personality, even as his body changes and alters with the passing of years and the passage of life. Then death is when God takes it from the body and the soul’s connection with it is severed. Then, resurrection is when God renews the creation of the body and the soul’s attachment to it, and it finds itself standing before God for the Final Judgment.
God says: They say, ‘When we have been lost in the dust, shall we be indeed created anew?’ Rather they disbelieve in the encounter with their Lord. Say, ‘You will be taken away by the angel of death, who has been charged with you. Then you will be brought back to your Lord’ (). He says: You do not disappear into the earth with death, nor do you cease to exist. Rather, the angel entrusted with death takes the matter that is referred to by the term ‘you’ and ‘I,’ which are the souls. They remain in his possession and are never lost. Then when you are resurrected, you will be returned to God by virtue of your bodies being reconnected to your souls, and you will still be you.
So, the human being has an eternal life that is not limited to what is in this transient world, and he has a life in another everlasting abode that endures through the everlastingness of God. He will only enjoy in his second life whatever he earns in his first life through faith in God and good deeds. He prepares today for his tomorrow by acquiring the raw materials of felicity. If he follows the truth and believes in the signs of God, he will be happy in his afterlife and enjoy the honor of nearness and intimacy in a kingdom that neither fades nor perishes. But if he clings to the earth, is engrossed in the material world, and turns away from the reminder that has been sent to him, he will dwell forever in the abode of misery and ruin, and will be shackled with the chains of disappointment and loss in the pit of misfortune and the depth of distance from the divine, and he will be among the companions of the Fire.
And when you know this which we have presented and contemplate it sufficiently, it becomes clear to you that when God says in the present verse, They are the ones who defy their Lord; they shall have iron collars around their necks, they shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, and they shall remain in it, this is not merely a threat of punishment for those who say: When we have become dust, shall we be into a new creation?,’ as it might seem at first glance. Rather, it is the necessary consequence of their belief.
To clarify, the necessary consequence of their belief that when a human being dies and becomes dust, their humanity ceases and their personality is extinguished, is as follows: They believe a human being is nothing more than a physical form that exists in this physical body structure, living a physical life, without having another eternal life after death in which he endures with the everlastingness of God, rejoices in His proximity, and succeeds through pleasing Him. In other words, according to them, the human being’s life is limited to this physical existence and does not extend to what is after death and does not last forever. This, in reality, is a denial of the divine world because there a Lord to whom there is no return is meaningless.
The logical corollary of holding such beliefs is that the human being will limit his aspirations to worldly objectives and material goals, without his understanding ascending to what God has set aside in terms of everlasting happiness and majestic dominion. Therefore, he does not strive to attain nearness to God or works in his present day for his tomorrow in the afterlife—like a chained person who is unable to move or strive for the fulfillment of his mission.
Another necessary implication of holding such a belief is that the human being remains in a state of constant misery and perpetual torment, for he has corrupted the raw materials for happiness and blocked his own path to human flourishing. These three implications are what God referred to in His saying: They are the ones who defy their Lord…
So when God says, They are the ones who defy their Lord, this is a reference to the first of the three implications, which is the turning away of those who deny the afterlife from the divine world and the everlasting life it contains, and their covering up of what God has set aside from human beings in terms of everlasting bliss and their denial of it.
When God says, they shall have iron collars around their necks, this is a reference to the second implication, which is that they cling to the earth, lean toward their base desires, and are bound by the chains of ignorance and the shackles of denial and disbelief. We have already discussed in our commentary on God’s saying, Indeed Allah is not ashamed to draw a parable (), about whether these Qur’anic expressions are realities or metaphors, so refer back to it for more detail on this question.
And when He says, they shall be the inhabitants of the Fire, and they shall remain in it, this is a reference to the third implication of this belief, which is that they shall remain forever in torment and misery.
وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالسَّيِّئَةِ قَبْلَ الْحَسَنَةِ وَقَدْ خَلَتْ مِن قَبْلِهِمُ الْمَثُلاتُ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَذُو مَغْفِرَةٍ لِّلنَّاسِ عَلَى ظُلْمِهِمْ وَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ لَشَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ ٦
(13:6) They would press you (yastaʿjilūna-ka) for evil (sayyiʾa) sooner than for good (ḥasana), though there have already gone by before them exemplary punishments (mathulāt). Indeed your Lord is forgiving to mankind despite their wrongdoing, and indeed your Lord is severe in retribution.
Al-Ṭabrisī writes in Majmaʿ al-bayān: ‘Istiʿjāl means to ask someone to hasten a matter (ṭalab al-taʿjīl), and to hasten something means to bring it forth before its proper time. Sayyiʾa denotes a quality that displeases the soul, and its opposite is ḥasana, which denotes a quality that pleases the soul. Mathulāt refers to punishments, the singular form of this is mathula. Others say that the singular is muthla and the plural is muthulāt, along the same pattern as ghurfa (‘room’) and ghurufāt. Other plural forms that have been suggested include muthlāt and muthalāt.’
In the Mufradāt, al-Rāghib says: ‘A mathula is a calamity that befalls a person which makes an example of him to deter others, such as a kind of punishment. Its plural is muthulāt or mathulāt.’
When God says, They would press you for evil sooner than for good …, this refers to the disbelievers mentioned in the previous verse. They are said to press for evil before good because they are demanding that God sends down the threatened punishment in order to mock the Prophet instead of asking for God’s mercy and compassion. The evidence for this reading is the adverbial phrase, though there have already gone by before them exemplary punishments, which refers to the punishments that befell earlier nations and destroyed them utterly.
Therefore, the meaning of the verse is: ‘Those who disbelieve ask you to bring down the divine punishment upon them instead of asking for God’s mercy and compassion, after they have heard you warn them of God’s punishment, in mockery, even though they are aware of the punishments that fell upon the nations before them who disbelieved in their messengers.’ The verse carries with it a tone of amazement.
The passage, Indeed your Lord is forgiving to mankind despite their wrongdoing, and indeed your Lord is severe in retribution, represents either a new statement, or an adverbial statement, which explains why their hastening of the punishment is a strange matter. In other words: ‘Your Lord is immensely merciful, encompassing people in all their states, even in their wrongdoing. He is also severely wrathful, but His mercy always precedes His wrath. So why do these people turn away from His vast mercy and forgiveness and hasten to ask for His severe punishment? This is indeed a strange thing that they do!’
From the above context, the following becomes clear:
Firstly: That when God refers to Himself as your Lord, this is only to indicate that they are polytheists and idolaters who do not take Him as a Lord. Rather, it is the Prophet who takes Him as a Lord out of all of his people.
Secondly: What is meant by forgiveness and punishment here is not solely the forgiveness and punishment that follows death. For the polytheists only hastened the punishment of this world, while the examples that God mentions as having passed before them are only the worldly punishments that fell upon them.
After all, God’s mercy and forgiveness are not limited to what comes after a person has died or to the Day of Resurrection, nor are their effects specific to that. This has been mentioned repeatedly. So, God has the right to extend His forgiveness to whomever He wills, even to the wrongdoer while he is a wrongdoer, and forgive him his wrongdoing if wisdom requires it. And He has the right to punish. God said: ‘If You punish them, they are indeed Your creatures; but if You forgive them, You are indeed the All-mighty, the All-wise’ ().
Note that God says He is forgiving to mankind rather than saying ‘to the believers’ or ‘to the penitent’ or the like thereof. This suggests that if any person turns to His mercy and asks for His forgiveness, He can forgive him. This applies to both the disbeliever and the believer, as well as major and minor sins. However, if a polytheist were to ask Him to forgive his polytheism, he would thereby become a believer and not a polytheist. God does not forgive a polytheist unless he reverts to monotheism. God has said: Indeed Allah does not forgive that any partner should be ascribed to Him, but He forgives anything besides that to whomever He wishes ().
Therefore, those who disbelieve should have asked Him—and hastened in doing so—to forgive their idolatry or the sins that stem from their idolatry, by making faith in Him and His Messenger a priority. Or they should have asked Him for health, comfort, wealth, and offspring, even if they were wrongdoers. For, with His vast mercy, He does that even for those who do not believe in Him and do not submit to Him. As for wrongdoing, while the wrongdoer is engaged in it, forgiveness cannot coexist with it. God said: and Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot ().
Thirdly, note that the literal Arabic phrasing of his saying, your Lord is forgiving …, is actually ‘possessed of forgiveness’ (la dhū maghfira). This construction appears to be used to avoid implying that forgiveness is active for all wrongdoers while they are in a state of wrongdoing, as if it is to say: ‘He has forgiveness for people despite their wrongdoing. Nothing prevents Him from applying this forgiveness when it is beneficial.’
Another meaning can be derived from the sentence, which is that God Almighty has forgiveness for people, with which He can forgive whomever He wills among them. The wrongdoing of people does not necessitate that God becomes angry and abandons the attribute of forgiveness altogether, not forgiving anyone. This would suggest a slightly different reading compared to some of what has been mentioned earlier about the subtleties of the verse, although this would not be apparent from the context.
Theologians from the Muʿtazilī and other Sunnī schools of thought have debated about the scope of the verse. However, we say that it is absolute in its meaning and not qualified or restricted in any way, save for by the verse.
The verse contains debates between the Mu’tazilites and others from the Sunnis. It is absolute and there is no evidence to restrict it except for what is in God’s saying: Indeed Allah does not forgive that any partner should be ascribed to Him … ().
Examining Narrations
- In Al-Durr al-manthūr, al-Suyūṭī cites Ibn Jarīr, who narrates from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding the verse, Indeed your Lord is forgiving to mankind despite their wrongdoing, and indeed your Lord is severe in retribution, the Prophet said: If it were not for God’s leniency and indulgence, no one would enjoy life, and if it were not for His warning and punishment, everyone would become wanton.’