ٱتَّخَذَ

4:172; 6:101, 102; 10:69; 17:112; 18:5; 19:36, 89, 90; 21:27; 25:3; 39:5; 43:82.

30:27.

Important Words:

قانتون (obedient) which is the plural of قانت is derived from قنت which means: (1) he obeyed; (2) he showed humility and submissiveness; (3) he remained silent, refraining from speech; and (4) he stood praying or he stood long in Prayer (Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse speaks of the Christians with whom the Muslims were to come in contact in their great march as the torchbearers of Islam. Failing to get converts from among the Jews, the early Christians turned their attention to the Romans and the Greeks but succumbed to their philosophies and freely borrowed ideas from them, incorporating them into their own beliefs and doctrines. As a result of this, Jesus began to be represented as the Son of God and the dogma of Trinity became the basic doctrine of the Christian Faith. The expression "son of God" metaphorically used in Jewish religious literature in the sense of "a beloved servant of God" or "a Prophet" came to bear a literal connotation (Luke 20: 36; Matt. 5:9, 45, 48; Deut. 14:1; Exod. 4:22; Gal. 3:26; Wisd. 2:18, etc.). The Quran has exploded this doctrine and has, in the verse under comment, given several arguments to expose its falsity: (1) If God has a son, He must be subject to sexual desires and need a wife and be divisible, because the son is a part of the father’s body. Again, He must be subject to death because the procreation of species, which the attribution of a son to God implies, is the characteristic of perishable things. But Islam repudiates all such ideas; for according to it, God is Holy and free from all defects and weaknesses. (2) One sometimes needs a son or a successor to extend one’s dominion and bring into subjugation such territories as do not acknowledge one’s rule. But God has no such need; for everything in the heavens and the earth belongs to Him. (3) A son or helper is sometimes required to keep under control the turbulent or far-flung parts of one’s kingdom; but God has no such requirement, for "all are obedient to Him." Thus, from whatever angle we may view the question, God is proved to need no son, no helper or assistant to help Him in the work of controlling and managing the universe. In fact, it is blasphemy to say so. The argument is further elaborated in the next verse.

2:117; 4:172; 9:31; 17:112; 18:5, 6.

Commentary:

In v. 67, it had been hinted that in the false doctrines of disbelievers lie hidden the seeds of their destruction. In the present verse, the Quran proceeds to refute the doctrine of the plurality of gods, the most heinous of all false beliefs, and of the various forms of this doctrine it selects the belief that God has a son. This doctrine differs from other known polytheistic dogmas in that, whereas in other forms of shirk, idolaters claim only that they can attain nearness to God through the instrumentality of their gods, by this doctrine a person is believed to be an actual partner in Godhead.

Four arguments have been given here in refutation of the doctrine that a person can be a Son of God. The first is contained in the words, Holy is He, which mean that God is free from all defects and imperfections. But the belief that God has a son presupposes the presence of carnal passions in Him as well as His being subject to the laws of decay and death, for only such beings or things are perpetuated in their progeny as are subject to decay and death. The earth, the sun and the moon, for instance, have no issue because they are above the familiar law of death and decay; but animals and plants wither and die. Therefore they produce their substitutes which take their place when they are gone. Thus the existence of the progeny of a thing presupposes its mortality.

The second argument is embodied in the words, He is Self-Sufficient, which mean that in His work of running the universe God does not need anybody’s help. Progeny, besides saving a person from extinction, helps him to carry on his work. But God being Self-Sufficient needs no helper in that respect either.

The third argument is contained in the sentence, To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. Sometimes one can make or originate a thing but lacks the power or ability to keep it in his possession or under his control and therefore needs assistance. But God does not need anybody’s help to keep the universe in His possession or under His control.

The fourth argument is implied in the expression, You have no authority for this, which signifies that the doctrine of the plurality of gods is based on no sound or solid ground. Its whole basis lies in the fancy and caprice of men. This fact alone constitutes an argument against this foolish doctrine. All efforts to find some real evidence in support of shirk, do not go beyond mere indulgence in idle philosophical discussion, and no real basis has so far been found for it.

The argument embodied in the words, Do you say against Allah what you know not?, is given in 13:34, in the words, Would you inform Him of what He does not know in the earth? The difference in the wording is due to the fact that in the verse under comment it is pointed out that shirk springs from the ignorance of man and is not based on any sound reasoning, while in 13:34 it is said that the doctrine of shirk involves the charge of ignorance on the part of God, for it means that He failed to know and make known the existence of gods and it was left to idolaters to disclose the godhead of their deities by the force of their own knowledge.

17:112; 19:36; 21:27; 25:3; 39:5; 72:4.

Commentary:

It is worthy of special note that the Quran is first spoken of as 'giving warning', next as 'giving glad tidings' (v. 3) and then again as 'giving warning' as in the present verse. Disbelievers have been warned twice and in between these two warnings the believers have been given glad tidings. This seems rather strange and the words appear to have been used haphazardly. But it is not so. They serve a very useful purpose. The two 'warnings' and the one 'glad tidings' point to three important periods of the history of Islam. The first 'warning' mentioned in v. 3 pertains to the disbelievers of Mecca and all those people in the time of the Holy Prophet who had rejected his Message and were punished for their rejection and opposition. The 'glad tidings' spoken of in the same verse applies to Muslims who after their enemies had been destroyed enjoyed Divine favours for a very long time and this fulfilled the Divine promise embodied in the words, "Wherein they shall abide forever." For long centuries Muslims ruled over a large part of the globe and enjoyed great power and prestige. The 'second warning' embodied in the present verse refers to Christian nations of "the latter days" and implies a prophecy that after Muslims had enjoyed power and dominion for a long time, their glory would depart and Christian nations would again come into their own and spread over the entire world and would prove as a bar sinister to the expansion of Islam. These present-day Christian nations of the west have been warned of a severe punishment that is in store for them in the words, that it may warn those Who say, Allah has taken unto Himself a son. Thus this giving of warnings twice and interspersing these two warnings with glad tidings for Muslims implied three great prophecies viz. (a) the discomfiture and destruction of the Holy Prophet’s opponents in his own time; (b) the phenomenal rise of Muslims to power and glory and, after the departure of Muslim glory, (c) the punishment that is in store for the nations who say that Allah has taken unto Himself a son. The signs of this Divine punishment are already becoming too manifest to be overlooked.

Commentary:

The words "the unseen" may signify the conjectures and guesses of political philosophers and soothsayers and the words, a promise from the Gracious God, may signify the promise given through a Divine Messenger about the eventual triumph of the cause of truth.

2:49; 20:110; 21:29; 34:24; 39:45; 43:87; 53:27; 74:49.

Important Words:

الشفاعة (intercession) is derived fromشفع which means, he provided a thing, which was alone with another, or he joined up a single thing with another, so as to make it one of a pair or couple. According to Imam Raghib الشفع signifies the adjoining of a thing to its like; thus the word has the significance of likeness or similarity also. Thus الشفاعة has come to mean interceding or praying for a person on the ground that he is connected with the intercessor or is like or similar to him (Aqrab, Lane & Mufradat).

Commentary:

الشفاعة (intercession) is governed by the following four conditions:

1. He who intercedes has a special connection with the person (or Being) with whom he wishes to intercede and enjoys his special favour, for without such connection he dare not intercede nor can intercession be fruitful.

2. The person for whom intercession is to be made must have a true and real connection with the intercessor, for none would think of interceding for a person unless the latter is specially connected with him.

3. The person in whose favour intercession is sought must generally deserve the description of a good person and must be one who has made an honest effort to win the pleasure of God (21:29). If he ever happens to fall into sin, it is in a moment of weakness. A wicked man cannot enjoy true and real connection with a holy person.

4. Intercession can only be made with God’s express permission (2:256; 10:4).

For a detailed note on الشفاعة see 2:49.

It may be noted that of all prophets and messengers of God the Holy Prophet alone will be granted permission to intercede on the Last Day.

2:117; 4:172; 6:101-102; 10:69; 17:112; 18:5; 19:36; 21:27; 25:3; 39:5; 43:82.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the so-called followers of Jesus think that he will intercede for them. How could this be possible when he was a strict believer in the Oneness of God and they ascribe partners to the Almighty which is a heinous sin. They possess no likeness with him while one of the most important conditions of intercession is that the person for whom intercession is sought must be like him who is to make the intercession.

2:117; 4:172; 10:69; 19:89-90.

Commentary:

The words "honoured servants" point to the fact that not only Jesus but many other righteous men have been spoken of as God’s sons in former Scriptures and like him they have been called God’s sons only in a metaphorical sense. But they were nothing more than His honoured servants. In this respect Jesus enjoys no special prerogative. He was only one of the numerous honoured servants of God.

18:5; 19:36; 21:27; 25:3; 39:5; 43:82; 72:4.

21:23.

Commentary:

In brief words the verse very effectively demonstrates the futility and falsity of the Christian dogma that Jesus is God’s son. It purports to say that a son is needed by one to help him to carry on his affairs, but as God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the Sole Master and Controller of the whole universe, He does not need the help or assistance of any helper or son. Moreover, the whole universe appears to be subject to one uniform law and the unity of the design and purpose and control points to the Unity of the Designer and the Controller. The duality of control and authority implies confusion and disorder. See also 17:43 & 21:23.

45:24.

Commentary:

It is not only the worship of idols of wood and stone and those in the form of human beings that is condemned here. In fact it is his own desires, fancies and pre-conceived ideas, more than anything else, that man adores and it is these things that stand in the way of his accepting the truth. Intellectually man may have advanced far enough so as not to bow before stones and stars but he has not outgrown the worship of his false ideals, prejudices and pre-conceived ideas. It is these idols that lie enthroned in man’s heart whose worship is condemned here.

6:101; 16:58; 37:153; 52:40; 53:22.

25:44.

2:8; 6:47; 16:109.

Commentary:

The verse develops the theme of the preceding verse and purports to say that as man has been created to serve a sublime object and has been endowed with great powers and faculties for the fulfilment of that object, and as the whole universe has been pressed into service for him in order to help him in its achievement, so, if, instead of making a proper use of his God-given powers he worships gods of his own fancy or imagination, he works out his spiritual ruin with his own hands.

17:112; 18:5; 25:3.

20:4; 74:55; 76:30; 80:12.

Commentary:

The verse contains an invincible argument in support of the Divine origin of the Quranic revelation. The Surah was one of the earliest two or three chapters revealed at Mecca at a time when the Holy Prophet himself perhaps had no very clear idea of the momentous significance of his mission and of the strong opposition and bitter persecution he was to meet with at the hands of those very people who formerly looked upon him as the most trusted and honest man in Mecca. Under the circumstances, it could hardly be imagined that one day Mecca would lay prostrate at his feet and the Quraish leaders would be begging for mercy and forgiveness. The wildest stretch of human imagination could hardly conceive of such stupendous happenings as have been foretold in the preceding verses; much less could a human being declare in such forceful terms that these prophecies would be fulfilled. The Quran is certainly a Reminder from God.

20:4; 73:20; 74:55; 80:12.