Appearance
Verses 175–179
وَ اتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ الَّذِي آتَيْناهُ آياتِنا فَانْسَلَخَ مِنْها فَأَتْبَعَهُ الشَّيْطانُ فَكانَ مِنَ الْغاوِينَ ١٧٥ وَ لَوْ شِئْنا لَرَفَعْناهُ بِها وَ لكِنَّهُ أَخْلَدَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ وَ اتَّبَعَ هَواهُ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ إِنْ تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْهِ يَلْهَثْ أَوْ تَتْرُكْهُ يَلْهَثْ ذلِكَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآياتِنا فَاقْصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ١٧٦ ساءَ مَثَلاً الْقَوْمُ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآياتِنا وَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ كانُوا يَظْلِمُونَ ١٧٧ مَنْ يَهْدِ اللَّهُ فَهُوَ الْمُهْتَدِي وَ مَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَأُولئِكَ هُمُ الْخاسِرُونَ ١٧٨ وَ لَقَدْ ذَرَأْنا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيراً مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَ الْإِنْسِ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لا يَفْقَهُونَ بِها وَ لَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لا يُبْصِرُونَ بِها وَ لَهُمْ آذانٌ لا يَسْمَعُونَ بِها أُولئِكَ كَالْأَنْعامِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ أُولئِكَ هُمُ الْغافِلُونَ ١٧٩
- Relate to them an account of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off. Thereupon Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverse.
- Had We willed, We would have surely raised him by their means, but he clung to the earth and followed his [base] desires. So his parable is that of a dog: if you make for it, it lolls out its tongue, and if you let it alone, it lolls out its tongue. Such is the parable of the people who deny Our signs. So recount these narratives, so that they may reflect.
- Evil is the parable of the people who deny Our signs and wrong themselves.
- Whomever Allah guides is rightly guided, and whomever He leads astray—it is they who are the losers.
- Certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and humans: they have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, they have ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless.
Introduction
Here we read another story from the Children of Israel, and that is the story of Balaam son of Beor. God orders the Prophet to recount this story for the people in order to clarify that one cannot reach salvation unless God wills it for the person, even if the person has access to all apparent means. And God does not will salvation for one who is engrossed in the earthly life and follows one’s desires. The end of such a person will be hell. Then God describes the sign of such individuals among them: they do not utilize their hearts, eyes and ears in a way that benefits them. Put more generally: they are heedless.
Commentary
وَ اتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَأَ الَّذِي آتَيْناهُ آياتِنا فَانْسَلَخَ مِنْها فَأَتْبَعَهُ الشَّيْطانُ فَكانَ مِنَ الْغاوِينَ ١٧٥
(7:175) Relate to them an account (nabaʾ) of him to whom We gave (ātaynāhu, from ītāʾ) Our signs, but he cast them off (fa-insalakha, from insilākh). Thereupon Satan pursued him (atbaʿahu, from itbāʾ), and he became one of the perverse (al-ghāwīn, from ghayy).
Nabaʾ means “news about something significant.” The word ītāʾ (giving, bestowing), in the context of this verse, means being endowed with spiritual signs and special inner stations that would illumine the path to knowing God for the person, and would unveil the truth for them without leaving any doubt. Insilākh (sloughing off) means “something coming out of its skin.” In this verse it is a metaphor, stating that the signs of God were an outer cast for him, from which the evil in his inside came off. Itbāʾ is synonymous with tabaʿ and ittibāʿ. It means “to go after and follow the footsteps of someone.” Tabiʿa, atbaʿa and ittabaʿa all mean the same thing (he followed). Ghayy and ghawāyah imply forgetting the goal and destination (ghāyah). It is as though one goes out of the right way because they no longer remember the destination of the journey. This makes ghayy and ghawāyah similar to ḍalāl (erring, going astray). One who remembers the destination but misses the path is called ḍāll (misled, misguided, erring), while one who is on the path but forgets the destination is called ghawī. The specific meaning of ḍāll that we said is more applicable in the current verse, because once the person cast off God’s signs and was hunted down by Satan, he lost track of the right path, and was no longer able to save himself from perdition. Sometimes ghawāyah and ḍalālah are used equally and interchangeably, to indicate straying from the right path that leads to the desired destination.
Exegetes are of different opinions about who this person was. We will discuss most or all of their views in our examination of the narrations, by God’s will. The verse does not mention the person’s name, and provides only a concise account of his story. Yet, it is quite apparent from the verse that it refers to a real case that occurred, not a symbolic account. Hence, we should disregard the view that “it is only a symbolic story, not a true event.”
The verse’s meaning is: Relate to them: to the Children of Israel, or to all people. An account of him to whom We gave Our signs: We unveiled divine signs and spiritual indications to him, through which the truth was illumined to him. But he cast them off: he forsook them after being endowed with them. Thereupon Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverse: such that he was unable to save himself.
وَ لَوْ شِئْنا لَرَفَعْناهُ بِها وَ لكِنَّهُ أَخْلَدَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ وَ اتَّبَعَ هَواهُ فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ إِنْ تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْهِ يَلْهَثْ أَوْ تَتْرُكْهُ يَلْهَثْ ذلِكَ مَثَلُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآياتِنا فَاقْصُصِ الْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ ١٧٦
(7:176) Had We willed, We would have surely raised him by their means, but he clung (akhlada, from ikhlād) to the earth and followed his [base] desires. So his parable is that of a dog: if you make for it, it lolls out its tongue (yalhath, from lahth), and if you let it alone, it lolls out its tongue. Such is the parable of the people who deny Our signs. So recount these narratives, so that they may reflect.
Ikhlād means “being committed to something consistently.” Ikhlād to the earth means adhering to it. It is a metaphor for hankering after worldly pleasures and being engrossed in them. The word lahth is used when a dog hangs out its tongue indicating thirst.
Had We willed, We would have surely raised him by their means…: The pronoun “their” refers to the divine signs (āyāt) in the last verse. What is meant by “raising” here is nearness to God, which implies elevation from the base life of this world. The spiritual signs of God [mentioned in the last verse] are outward means and instruments by which one can be raised and guided. However, they does not guarantee one’s felicity, because the full impact and working of these signs depend on God’s will. God has not willed felicity for one who turns away from Him and chooses anthing other than Him. That is what is meant by earthly life, which diverts one from God and His abode of grace. In and of itself, the life of this world is the lowest of the low (asfala sāfilīn, ) in the sense that it keeps one busy from God and His signs through constant occupations with worldly affairs. Turning away from God and denying His signs are forms of ẓulm (injustice, wrong), but God has made a definite decree that He does not guide the wrongdoing lot (258, , , , , , , , , ). He has also decreed that those who are faithless and deny Our signs, they shall be the inmates of the Fire and they shall remain in it [forever] ().
… but he clung to the earth and followed his [base] desires…: This sentence justifies the previous part of the verse. The implied meaning is: “We did not will to raise him because he clung to the earth and followed his base desires. That is why he qualified for Our misguidance instead of Our guidance.” This is according to the verse: and Allah leads astray the wrongdoers, and Allah does whatever He wills ().
… So his parable is that of a dog: if you make for it (taḥmil), it lolls out its tongue, and if you let it alone, it lolls out its tongue…: This is his trait, and he does not refrain from it whether you forbid and dissuade him, or you leave him on his own. The verb taḥmil is derived from the verbal noun ḥamlah (attack, assault), not from the verbal noun ḥaml (load, burden, carriage).
… Such is the parable of the people who deny Our signs…: This means that denying the signs of God is an established vice for them. It is an evil quality that is deeply ingrained in their souls. That is why the more they face Our signs, the more they deny Our signs.
… So recount these narratives…: The word qaṣaṣ could be either a maṣdar (verbal noun, gerund) or an ism maṣdar (quasi‐infinitive noun). In the first case the meaning would be: “Narrate for them by way of narrating.” In the second case the meaning would be: “Narrate for them this narration.”
… so that they may reflect: So that they may submit to the truth and refrain from falsehood.
ساءَ مَثَلاً الْقَوْمُ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآياتِنا وَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ كانُوا يَظْلِمُونَ ١٧٧
(7:177) Evil is the parable of the people who deny Our signs and wrong themselves.
This verse conveys two points: (1) It rebukes the disbelievers for their denial God’s signs. (2) It informs them that they do not harm God by doing so. Instead, they wrong themselves because they are the only ones who suffer from their denial.
مَنْ يَهْدِ اللَّهُ فَهُوَ الْمُهْتَدِي وَ مَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَأُولئِكَ هُمُ الْخاسِرُونَ ١٧٨
(7:178) Whomever Allah guides is rightly guided (al-muhtadī), and whomever He leads astray—it is they who are the losers (al-khāsirūn).
What is meant here is that no case of guidance is fruitful unless it is accompanied by God’s guidance. Otherwise, the other elements of guidance do not constitute a complete cause to guarantee one’s felicity. Similarly, going astray does not result in a definite loss unless God leads one astray. That is when the cause is complete and one’s loss is finalized.
One is not saved by possessing the means of salvation such as apparent īmān (faith, belief) and taqwá (Godwariness, self-restraint). Similarly, one is not damned and lost by having the means of error. Both sides of the story are contingent on God’s will. He is the One Who guides anyone through His will, and misguides anyone through it. Therefore, the verse is effectively saying: Genuine guidance, which bears the fruits of guidance, is only when God wills so for the person. Otherwise, it is only an appearance of guidance, but without any truth to it. The same applies to error.
Based on our interpretation, the article al- at the beginning of al-muhtadī (the guided) and al-khāsirūn (the losers) indicates perfection of these two qualities, not exclusivity (ḥaṣr). Alternatively, one could say that the article al- implies exclusivity. In that case, the verse is restricting real guidance and real misguidance to God’s doing. But of course: He leads no one astray thereby except the transgressors ().
وَ لَقَدْ ذَرَأْنا لِجَهَنَّمَ كَثِيراً مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَ الْإِنْسِ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لا يَفْقَهُونَ بِها وَ لَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لا يُبْصِرُونَ بِها وَ لَهُمْ آذانٌ لا يَسْمَعُونَ بِها أُولئِكَ كَالْأَنْعامِ بَلْ هُمْ أَضَلُّ أُولئِكَ هُمُ الْغافِلُونَ ١٧٩
(7:179) Certainly We have created (dharaʾnā, from dharʾ) for hell many of the jinn and humans: they have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, they have ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless.
Dharʾ means khalq (to create, to make). Here God says that the purpose of creation is hell for a large number of people and the jinn. Elsewhere He defines the purpose of creation as mercy, which is paradise: except those on whom your Lord has mercy—and that is why He created them (). There is no contradiction between these verses, because there are two aspects to the purpose of an action: (1) the perfection of the action; (2) the end where the action leads to.
Further explanation: Imagine a carpenter who wants to build a door. He picks up some lumber, measures them, and then cuts, chisels and trims them until he makes the door. His purpose in what he does with the lumber is to make a door. That is the perfection of his action. But this is only from one angle. From another angle, he knows from the beginning that not all lumber can be turned into a door. A door has a certain shape that does not match the initial shape of some lumber. That is why there will inevitably be some waste in the process because some pieces do not match the design. The disposal of these pieces is also part of his objective from the beginning. This is called “purpose by necessity” (qaṣd ḍarūrī). Therefore, we can say that a carpenter has two purposes with respect to the lumber at his disposal: (1) A purpose which is a form of perfection, and that is to make a door; (2) a secondary and subordinate purpose, which is to convert some of the lumber into a door, and throw out the rest as waste. The part that is discarded is because of lacking the potential to be formed into a door.
The same can be said about a farmer. She plants seeds in the land in order to harvest wheat. However, not all of the seeds make it to become a full-grown plant. Some do, while some are wasted in the land, spoiled by insects, or eaten by livestock. All of these are in a way intended by the farmer, while the wheat is her intention in another way.
God’s will was to create human beings from the earth so that they may serve Him and thus enter His mercy. However, the life of this world is defined by opposing causes and forces. This does not permit all members of the species to pursue their real path of salvation, because they develop a range of different aptitudes and capacities in this life. The qualities that they acquire in this world must coincide with that primary goal of human perfection and felicity. Therefore, we can say that God has two purposes in the creation of humankind: (1) to embrace them with His mercy and admit them into His paradise; (2) to take the wretched individuals who have lost their potentials to hell, even though He created them for paradise. The first purpose is the primary purpose which is the perfection of the species, while the second one is a secondary purpose by necessity. The divine decree that certain individuals shall be felicitous and certain others shall be damned pertains to this second type of purpose. The second purpose is God’s knowledge of where each person will end, whether in felicity or in damnation. Both are dictated by His subordinate will, not by His primary will.
What is said in this verse—Certainly We have created for hell many of the jinn and humans—relates to this secondary and subordinate will of God. There are many other verses in the Qur’an which also convey the same notion.
… they have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, they have ears with which they do not hear…: Here the verse points to their inability to position themselves where God’s streams of mercy flow and His breezes of assistance blow. That is why they do not benefit from the divine signs that they see, the admonitions that they hear from the followers of the truth, and the proofs and evidence that they hold within their divine intuition (fiṭrah).
The intellects, the eyes and the ears do not fail to function in the way that they are created for, as God says: There is no altering Allah’s creation (). Only God can alter them, but that would again be part of Allah’s creation, not an exception to the verse. Yet, He has ordained that He shall not take away His blessings from any people unless they take the initiative to deviate: That is because Allah never changes a blessing that He has bestowed on a people unless they change what is in their own souls ().
It is God Who cancels their potential, and renders their hearts, eyes and ears non-functional. He does so only as a punishment in return for their own misdeeds. They alter the blessings of God by distorting the path of serving Him. As a result, He requites them by sealing their hearts, veiling their eyes, and deafening their ears. Thus they cannot understand with their hearts, cannot see with their eyes, and cannot hear with their ears. These are all signs that they are treading the path to hell.
… They are like cattle; rather, they are more astray…: This is a consequence of the previous part and a description of these people. They lack what distinguishes humans from other animals, which is the ability to discriminate—through the use of hearing, sight and reason—between good and evil, and between what is beneficial and harmful with respect to human perfection.
The most primitive qualities of animals are to eat and mate, which are best represented by cattle. That is why the verse likens this group of people to grazing livestock; otherwise, they also have the qualities of rapacious predators. Making a gain takes precedence over avoiding a loss. Even in humans, our faculties of anger, which deflect what is harmful, are in the service of our faculties of appetite, which attract what is beneficial. Any animal species is primarily concerned with its growth and procreation; and it employs its faculties of repulsion to secure those primary objectives. Hence, this verse is comparable to the verse: As for the faithless, they enjoy and eat just like the cattle eat, and the Fire will be their [final] abode ().
Saying that they are more astray implies a sense of straying for the cattle. This ḍalāl (straying, error, misguidance) is meant in a relative and relational sense, not literally. Animals are in fact guided, in the sense that they operate according to the faculties that they are equipped with, which direct them to being concerned only with eating and mating. They are not lost with respect to the goal that is set for them, and thus are not blameworthy for it. Their life is a form of straying in relation to human perfection—which is not applicable to them since they do not have the means for it. Contrast this with those humans whose hearts, eyes and ears are veiled: human perfection is applicable to them; they have the means to reach it; and they can know the directions through their hearing, sight and reason. Despite all this, they ignore their faculties and derange them. Instead, they utilize their ears, eyes and hearts as if they were meant for animal use: just like the cattle, they use these faculties to enjoy the pleasures of eating and mating. That is what makes their ḍalāl (straying, error, misguidance) greater and more intense. The blame, therefore, returns to them in reality.
… It is they who are the heedless: This is another consequence of the above, and a description of their condition. What is meant here is not exclusivity, but reality. That is, the utmost degree of heedlessness in its genuine sense is found in them. This too is by God’s will, Who has sealed their hearts, eyes and ears. Ghaflah (heedlessness, inadvertence, unmindfulness) is the root of all error and falsehood.
Examining Narrations
- Concerning verse (Relate to them an account of him to whom We gave Our signs…) Imam al-Riḍā said: Balʿam b. Bāʿūrāʾ (Balaam son of Beor) was given the Greatest Name of God (al-ism al-aʿẓam). Whenever he prayed to God by that name, his request was granted. Then he sided with Pharaoh. When Pharaoh went out chasing Moses and his followers, he told Balaam, “Pray to God against Moses and his followers, so that He withholds them for us.” Balaam mounted his donkey to go after Moses, but his donkey did not comply. He started hitting the donkey, whereby God made it speak: “Shame on you! Why do you whip me? Do you want me to come with you so that you may invoke God’s curse upon His prophet and the community of believers?” But Balaam kept striking the animal until he killed it. Thus the Greatest Name was “cast off” from his tongue. That is what God says: but he cast them off. Thereupon Satan pursued him, and he became one of the perverse. Had We willed, We would have surely raised him by their means, but he clung to the earth and followed his [base] desires. So his parable is that of a dog: if you make for it, it lolls out its tongue, and if you let it alone, it lolls out its tongue (). This is a parable that God has given.
Author’s comment: Apparently the word “parable” (matahl) in the last part of the hadith refers to the entire story of Balaam [not to the dog metaphor in particular]. By God’s will, we shall soon have a discussion on the meaning of God’s Greatest Name, when we discuss the excellent names of God (al-asmāʾ al-ḥusná).
- Concerning verse (Relate to them an account of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off) Ibn Masʿūd said: That was a man from the Children of Israel called Balʿam b. Abur.
- Ibn ʿAbbās said: He was Balʿam b. Bāʿūrāʾ (some narrations say Balʿām b. ʿĀmir). He was given the Greatest Name, and he was one of the Children of Israel.
Author’s comment: It is also narrated from others that his name was Balʿam and he was one of the Israelites. There are also some other accounts narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās.
- According to some accounts, this verse was revealed with respect to Umayyah b. Abī al-Ṣalt al-Thaqafī, who was a poet in the pre-Islamic era. He studied ancient scriptures and learnt that God would soon send a messenger to the people, so he was hoping to be that messenger. He had moved to Bahrain when the Messenger of God announced his mission. He stayed there for eight years, and then went to see the Messenger of God [in Mecca] with a retinue of his companions. The Prophet invited him to accept Islam, and recited Sūrah Yā-Sīn (Chapter 36) for him. When he finished, Umayyah sprang to his feet and lumbered out. The polytheists of the Quraysh tribe caught him and asked, “What is your view, Umayyah?”
“I need to think about it,” he replied. He went to the Levant and was there until the Battle of Badr. Then he came back [to Medina] in order to convert to Islam. However, once he learnt about the battle, he changed his mind and said, “Had he [Muḥammad] been a prophet, he would not have killed his own kin.” So he changed course to Ṭāʾif, where he died.
His sister, Fāriʿah, went to see the Messenger of God. He asked about how her brother died, and she said that he composed these lines before his death:
كُلُّ عَيْشٍ وَ إِنْ تَطَاوَلَ دَهْراً صَائِرٌ مَرَّةً إِلَى أَنْ يَزُولا
لَيْتَنِي كُنْتُ قَبْلَ مَا قَدْ بَدَا لِي فِي قِلَالِ الْجِبَالِ أَرْعَى الْوُعُولا
إِنَّ يَوْمَ الْحِسَابِ يَوْمٌ عَظِيمٌ شَابَ فِيهِ الصَّغِيرُ يَوْماً ثَقِيلا
Every life, no matter how long it gets,
Is bound to end in a moment or less.
I wish I were grazing goats in mountains;
With the dawning of death, this I confess.
The Day of Retribution is great and heavy;
Children will age out of the day’s distress.
The Messenger of God told her: “Recite some [more] of your brother’s poems.” So she recited a long epic which starts with:
لَكَ الْحَمْدُ وَ النَّعْمَاءُ وَ الْفَضْلُ رَبَّنَا وَ لَا شَيْءَ أَعْلَى مِنْكَ جَدّاً وَ أَمْجَدُ
مَلِيكٌ عَلَى عَرْشِ السَّمَاءِ مُهَيْمِنٌ لِعِزَّتِهِ تَعْنُو الْوُجُوهُ وَ تَسْجُدُ
All praise and grace are Thine, our Lord;
No being exceeds Thy glory and height.
A King that’s settled on the Throne of heaven,
All faces are humbled before Thy might.
She also recited another epic that starts with:
يُوقَفُ النَّاسُ لِلْحِسَابِ جَمِيعاً فَشَقِيٌّ مُعَذَّبٌ وَ سَعِيدٌ
All people shall be stopped
For reckoning, that day;
Some are tortured and doom
While others are gay.
And another one where he says:
عِنْدَ ذِي الْعَرْشِ يُعْرَضُونَ عَلَيْهِ يَعْلَمُ الْجَهْرَ وَ السِّرَارَ الْخَفِيّا
يَوْمَ يَأْتِي الرَّحْمَنُ وَ هْوَ رَحِيمٌ إِنَّهُ كَانَ وَعْدُهُ مَأْتِيّا
رَبِّ إِنْ تَعْفُ فَالْمُعَافَاةُ ظَنِّي أَوْ تُعَاقِبْ فَلَمْ تُعَاقِبْ بَرِيّا
All shall rise before the Lord of the Throne,
Who knows the apparent, and the secrets concealed.
The All-Merciful and the Ever-Merciful
Comes with His promise, and all shall yield.
My Lord, if You pardon, that is my hope;
And if You wish to punish, that’s a power You wield.
Since never You’ve punished someone who’s innocent,
Whatever You judge, cannot be appealed.
The Messenger of God said, “Your brother’s poem believed, but his heart disbelieved.” At that point God revealed this verse [].
Author’s comment: There are other similar accounts to this. Since the verses of this chapter were apparently revealed in Mecca, these accounts should be viewed as extensions and applications of the verse beyond its original context of revelation (called taṭbīq).
- It is narrated that the verses refer to Abū ʿĀmir b. al-Nuʿmān b. Ṣayfī, who was a Christian monk, and whom the Prophet called fāsiq (ungodly, sinner, evil-doer). During the Pre-Islamic era, he identified himself with monasticism and used to wear coarse clothes. Then he came to Medina and questioned the Prophet, “What is this [religion] that you have brought?”
The Prophet replied, “I have brought the upright religion (ḥanīfiyyah), that of Abraham.”
“That is what I follow [already],” Abū ʿĀmir said.
“That is not what you follow,” the Prophet explained, “because you have added things to it that do not belong to it.”
Abū ʿĀmir imprecated, “May God make the liar among us die estranged and lonely.”
He went to the Levant, and sent a message to the hypocrites [in Medina] to prepare weapons. Then he went to the Caesar [of the Roman Empire] and recruited an army [of Romans]. He wanted to drive out the Prophet from Medina, but he died in the Levant, estranged and lonely.
Author’s comment: Again, this account suffers from the fact that the sūrah was revealed in Mecca. There are some other implausible stories that are narrated here, which are not worthy of mention.
- Imam al-Bāqir said: While the original subject of the story is Balaam, God has generalized it as an analogy for any Muslim who chooses to follow their desire instead of God’s guidance.
- Concerning they have hearts with which they do not understand () Imam al-Bāqir said: “God has sealed their hearts; thus they do not understand.” Concerning they have eyes with which they do not see () he said: “A cover is cast on their eyes, such that they are veiled from [the path of] guidance.” Concerning they have ears with which they do not hear () he said: “A deafness is placed in their ears, such that they do not hear [the voice of] guidance.”
- The Messenger of God said: God created the people in darkness. Then He cast some of His light upon them. Whomever that light struck was guided. Whomever that light missed strayed.
- The Messenger of God said: God created the jinn into three categories: (1) One group are snakes, scorpions and the insects of the earth. (2) One group are like the wind in the air. (3) One group will be held accountable for retribution. And God created humankind into three categories: (1) One group are like livestock, as He says: they have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, they have ears with which they do not hear. They are like cattle; rather, they are more astray (). (2) One group have the bodies of humans but the souls of devils. (3) One group shall be safe under God’s shade, on a day when there shall be no shade except His.
Author’s comment: We shall have a discussion on the jinn and human devils in its appropriate place, by God’s will.
In other words, “the world” (dunyā) refers to anything other than God; anything that engages and blocks one from the divine. (Trans.) ↩︎
In other words, the verse does not mean “if you impose a load on him” but it means “if you attack him.” (Trans.) ↩︎
In the first case, the word qaṣaṣ (narration, narrating) is added for emphasis. In the second case, the word qaṣaṣ would be the object of the imperative uqṣuṣ (recount, narrate). (Trans.) ↩︎
The heart (qalb) is often interpreted as ʿaql (intellect, reason). It denotes our capacity for all forms of cognition. Thus the verse says: they have hearts with which they do not understand (). (Trans.) ↩︎
That is, these are effects and indications, not causes. (Trans.) ↩︎
Given the rest of the paragraph, what is meant by “making a gain” here is apparently the existence and subsistence of the species, which is the most primary need and objective of any living being. Likewise, “avoiding a loss” means dominating others and overcoming the obstacles. Otherwise, avoiding pain takes precedence over seeking pleasure; most people are risk-averse, not risk-inclined; and fear is a stronger incentive than greed. That is why the author says elsewhere: “avoiding a loss takes precedence over making a gain.” See volume 29, p. 268 of the English translation, under verse . (Trans.) ↩︎
The essence of hell is to be distanced from God. But what is God? God is timeless: He has an equal relation to all events and beings, whether temporal or atemporal. God is infinite: He is the ultimate bliss since He is free from all limitation and imperfection. Paradise is a reflection and representation of that bliss. As long as we are bound by the shackles of time—through transmitting and projecting the past into the present, and the present into the future—we are veiled from that timeless reality. Nevertheless, God is present all through. He is the all-pervading reality that is the substratum of all phenomena, which appear and disappear like waves on the surface of the ocean. All we have to do is to see the vast ocean that sustains all the waves, to hear its voice, and feel its presence. But through our expectations, desires and preferences—for anything other than that which is—we run away from it, and thus cause our own suffering by pushing on the fringe and refusing to sink into the rich infinite. That is how heedlessness is at the essence of our self-caused suffering. The solution is to transcend our separative mode of operation to a unitive and connective one. It is our transitive approach to events—where we are inadvertent of their impermanent nature—that confines us to the plane of temporality. If we can observe every moment and event independently, and not as a continuation of the last, we can have a glimpse of timelessness, and that is a state of bliss (Sanskrit ananda). (Trans.) ↩︎
This means that Our signs in the verse are God’s Greatest Name. Similarly, insalakha minhā (he cast them off) means: “He came out of God’s Greatest Name.” (Trans.) ↩︎
Tafsīr al-Qummī, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn b. Khālid. ↩︎
See the section titled “5. The Greatest Name of God (al-Ism al-Aʿẓam)” under the next set of verses. (Trans.) ↩︎
This name could also be read as Abar, Abarr and Abir. (Trans.) ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-Fāriyānī, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh, al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mardawayh. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd, Ibn Jarīr, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh, through various chains of narration. ↩︎
This is a paraphrase of verse . (Trans.) ↩︎
This is a paraphrase of verse . (Trans.) ↩︎
This is a paraphrase of verses . (Trans.) ↩︎
The Arabic text here is exactly the same as the last part of verse . These lines also bear some close affinity with verses: and . (Trans.) ↩︎
In other words, his poems demonstrate īmān (faith, belief) in God’s religion, but he failed to make the final leap outwardly and submit fully. (Trans.) ↩︎
Rūḥ al-maʿānī. An abridged version of this story is also found in Majmaʿ al-bayān, which narrates it from ʿAbd-Allāh b. ʿUmar, Saʿīd b. al-Musayyab, Zayd b. Aslam and Abū Rawq. ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān, on the authority of Saʿīd b. al-Musayyab. ↩︎
Majmaʿ al-bayān. ↩︎
Tafsīr al-Qummī, on the authority of Abū al-Jārūd. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-Bayhaqī’s al-Asmāʾ wa al-Ṣifāt, on the authority of ʿAbd-Allāh b. ʿAmr b. ʿĀṣ. ↩︎
Al-Durr al-manthūr, on the authority of al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā’s Makāʾid al-Shayṭān, Abū Yaʿlá, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, Abū al-Shaykh and Ibn Mardawayh, on the authority of Abū al-Dardāʾ. ↩︎