يُشْرِكُ

Commentary:

The words, they attribute to Him partners, mean that when the parents have begotten a good child, they begin to think that the child was the gift of someone other than Allah.

16:21; 25:4.

Commentary:

This and the next verse speak of such human beings as are looked upon and worshipped as God.

12:41; 17:24; 98:6.

Important Words:

For احبار (learned men) and رھبان (monks) see 5:45 and 5:83 respectively.

Commentary:

احبار (learned men) belonged to Jews and رھبان (monks) to Christians. Both these people virtually looked upon their religious leaders as so many gods besides the true God.

16:74; 22:72; 29:18.

49:17.

Commentary:

The real cause of shirk (idolatry) lies in failure on the part of men to understand the object and purpose of their creation. A mushrik (idolater) has a false conception of the person and attributes of God and of his own great inborn capacities and capabilities. He entertains the foolish belief that he cannot have access to God without the aid of an intermediary, and also that God cannot condescend to come to him except through the medium of those who have already attained His nearness. Islam is opposed to both these views. It does not allow us to entertain any such suspicion about God, nor does it permit us to underrate our own natural powers. God has created man that he may attain His nearness and He does not tolerate that anyone should intervene between Him and His creatures. Even the Prophets of God are not intermediaries. They are only Divine Messengers and Warners, and their intercession is also based on Divine sanction. See also 2:49.

The expression, Would you inform Allah of something He knows not, contains an excellent refutation of shirk (idolatry). It purports to say that if God had appointed anyone as intercessor either in the heavens or in the earth, a declaration would have been made by Him to that effect. But no such announcement has ever been made by God. It is the people themselves who declare that such and such a person has been appointed as an intercessor, and so they, as it were, inform God of something which He does not know.

The words, Holy is He, are meant to point out that it is incompatible with the perfection of God that He should first create man for a certain purpose and then should Himself place obstacles in his way, or should reveal no guidance to warn him of those obstacles.

5:53.

Commentary:

The word 'decree' may refer either (1) to the punishment with which disbelievers were threatened in the previous chapter in the words, the hour is sure to come (15:86), or (2) to the promise contained in the words, lower thy wing of mercy for the believers (15:89). The words, the decree of Allah is coming, mean to say (1) that the time of punishment for disbelievers or (2) the time of the ushering in of the new order, has arrived.

The words, so seek ye not to hasten it, refer to both the aforesaid claims: (1) Disbelievers are told not to be in a hurry to demand punishment, for the time of punishment had already drawn near. (2) Believers are told not to be impatient for the new order which is already at their very doors.

At the end of the previous Surah, the Holy Prophet and the believers were asked to shun disbelievers and give up further reasoning with them (15:86), and confine themselves to the glorification of God (15:99). Now by the words, Holy is He, it is announced that the time has come when the Sanctity and Holiness of God will be established. The Prophet possesses no material resources and has no means while disbelievers possess all sorts of means and resources. So the fact that the Prophet, notwithstanding his weakness and resourcelessness, will have power and dominion over his enemies will constitute clear evidence of the Holiness of God.

The words, The decree of Allah is coming, fulfil the prophecy of punishment implied in the words, the hour is sure to come (15:86), while the words, Holy is He, fulfil the prophecy embodied in the words, glorify thy Lord praising Him(15:99). This beautiful order and continuity of themes disposes of the ignorant criticism that there is no order or arrangement in the Quran.

The words, Exalted above all that which they associate with Him, signify that the associate-gods of disbelievers can never frustrate God’s plans or interfere with His decrees and decisions.

This loud proclamation of the Unity of God and His freedom from associates or partners constitutes a very cogent proof of the Divinesource of the Quran. False claimants always seek to form a powerful party of their supporters, and if they fail to do so, attribute the failure of their mission to this fact. But the True and All-Powerful God proclaims His Oneness as well as His independence of all partisans, associates or supporters.

3:192; 14:20; 15:86; 29:45; 39:6; 64:4.

Commentary:

The expression بالحق (with the requirements of wisdom) may mean that heavens and earth have their allotted tasks in the spiritual regeneration of man so that both jointly produce the desired result. Or it may mean that God has created the heavens and the earth so that they may serve to turn man’s attention to God, and he may see that nothing is perfect by itself except God. The heavens stand in need of the earth for the performance of their work, and likewise the earth is dependent on heavens and both are subject to the will of God. So the purpose of the creation of the heavens and the earth is to demonstrate to man the fact that nothing is perfect in itself except God.

The words, Exalted is He above all that they associate with Him, mean to say that he who does not believe that the heavens and the earth have been created with a definite purpose will necessarily fall a victim to the sin of setting up equals with God. No wise man can say that God has created this universe without purpose. If it has been created by God, it must have a purpose. If it be supposed to have no purpose, it would mean that it has not been created by God but is self-existent, which is tantamount to saying that every atom in this universe is equal to God for it is deemed to be self-existent or co-existent with God.

Another meaning of the expression بالحق is that the matter of which the heavens and the earth were made was created by God and therefore He has the right of control and interference. The reference here is to the view wrongly held in some quarters that God is not the Creator of matter or of soul though He is the author of their combination. Read in this sense the verse would signify that God’s creation of the heavens and the earth was not an arbitrary act of power but something He had every right to perform, being the Creator of the primordial matter of which they were made.

10:13, 24; 29:66; 30:34; 39:9.

Commentary:

By using the words "their Lord" the verse makes an appeal to the inherent noble sense of jealousy of man about a thing which he considers his own. The verse seems to say to disbelievers that when every man feels jealous of what belongs to him, why do they not feel ashamed of setting up equals with God Who is their own Lord and Creator?

11:124; 16:78; 35:39.

19:39.

Commentary:

The words, Say, Allah knows best how long they tarried, purport to say that histories written by Christian writers assign 337 years as the period of the persecution of early Christians and therefore seem to contradict the Quranic statement that this period was 309 years. But this calculation as shown in the previous verse is at fault because the Quran is the revealed word of God and God cannot err in His calculations. Later research into old historical records as explained elsewhere has also supported the Quran. The present verse does not contradict the words, And they stayed in their Cave three hundred years and added nine more (v. 26). These words do not refer to the popular view about the period for which early Christians took refuge in caves but are God’s own words. So the expression, Allah knows best how long they tarried, not only does not contradict but actually supports and corroborates these words.

The words, How Seeing is He! and how Hearing, lend further support to the view that Christian chronologists have erred in fixing the present date of Jesus’ birth and his Crucifixion and that the Quranic statement with regard to the period for which اصحاب الکھف (Dwellers of the Cave) remained hidden in caves is correct.

6:74; 32:7; 34:4; 59:23; 64:19.

Commentary:

The verse gives another argument against Jesus’ godhead, viz. that the Creator and Controller of the universe must possess complete knowledge of His creation but Jesus himself confesses to his knowledge being defective and incomplete (Mark 13:32).