- Interpretation Of Quran / The long version
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- (006) Al Anaam
Praising is connected with graces:
The first Ayah in this Surat goes as follows:﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness and the light, yet those who disbelieve hold others as equal with their Lord.﴿
Dear brother, Allay says:
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah﴿
Praising Allah is always related to graces which are the subject of praising, and though there is no argument about the graces, the argument is always about whom to praise for these graces?
Man exists, and this is a grace, but who created him?
Man sees, and sight is a grace, so as ears, reasoning, body systems, air, water, having a wife, having children, the beauty on earth and all sorts of foods and drinks. No one has any doubt that all these are graces, better yet, the western world is the one who is enjoying all these graces to the highest degree, however the previous Ayah indicates the Provider of these graces, to whom should we ascribe these graces? Who created you?
﴾Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was nothing to be mentioned?﴿
Who gave you the grace of existence? You exist now, but why did Allah give you the grace of existence?
﴾Except him on whom your Lord has bestowed His Mercy (the follower of truth - Islamic Monotheism) and for that did He create them.﴿
Allah created mankind to bestow His Mercy upon them, thus you exist because of the Mercy of Allah, and you exist to be given His Mercy.
Allah’s miracles in His creations:
If you look around, you will find endless graces, yet Allah the Almighty says:﴾And if you count the Blessings of Allah, never will you be able to count them.﴿
Allah said “Ni’mah” (“grace” as singular not plural) but the singular is countable, is not it? Yet Allah mentioned it as singular as if he is saying by the following Ayah:
’and if you count the Blessings‘
If you spend the entire time trying to count the blessings of one grace only, you won’t be able to do so, thus if you are incapable of counting the blessings of one grace only, you are rather incapable of fulfilling praising it.
﴾and if you count the Blessings of Allah, never will you be able to count them.﴿
There is a big difference between counting the virtues of one grace and thanking Allah for it, and it is like the difference between counting the so many gifts you received on an occasion and sending gifts to those people in return.
Though counting is easy, we are unable to count the blessings of one grace, and this indicates that praising Allah for one grace will not, in any way, equal the grace.
Dear brother, any malfunction in man’s systems turns his life into a living hell, for example: Every square millimeter in the retina of the eye contains 100 million photo receptors, while the most advanced camera contains only 10000, what does that mean? It means that the human eye is able to differentiate between 3 million colors, and if each color has 800 thousand shades, the eye can differentiate between every two shades.
Moreover, the cornea in the eye is transparent, why is that? Because it gets its nutrition via diffusion from the tear fluid, not through blood capillaries, and had it been nourished by blood capillaries, one will see those capillaries while he is looking at things.
﴾Verily, We created man of the best stature (mould),﴿
Some of the graces of Almighty Allah:
If you spent years and years talking about the grace of sight, you will not finish.Allah says:
﴾Have We not made for him a pair of eyes?﴿
If you spend years and years making researches about hearing, they won’t be enough.
The ear is able to listen to the slightest sounds, as if you hear only what you are interested in.
For example, if you were into a conversation with a close friend, and you put a recorder by the window to record all the other sounds, you will realize later that you didn’t hear any of these sounds because you were so busy in your conversation with your friend, thus there is selectivity in the hearing for every sound that reach your ear.
The grace of eyes, the grace of ears and the grace of the brain. The brain is capable of remembering 70 billion images.
Each person has his own unique voice tone, skin smell, iris, finger print and other characteristics which make every person a unique individual.
The following Hadith talks about how Almighty Allah created man in His own image:
((When any one of you fights with his brother, he should avoid his face for Allah created Adam in His own image.))
Every person is given uniqueness and this is one of Allah’s Divine Attriibutes, for He is Al Wahid Al Ahad Al Fard As-Samad (The One, The Unique and The Eternal).
Man is given the graces of the five senses; the hearing, the sight and the reasoning.
There is a complicated system in your body, which works by itself with no help from you, who orders the heart to beat?
Had you been doing this function, you wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.
The same goes for lungs, for they work by themselves.
And though the digestion process is very complicated, it is done while you are comfortable.
If you track down all your body systems like the nerves, the brain, the heart and the lungs, you will find out that you are perfectly created.
All that started from one drop of fluid (the seminal fluid) in which there are sperms that can’t be seen unless one uses the microscope, while the woman’s egg is as small as one speck of salt, and from those two, a whole human being is created in nine months.
The grace of man’s creation, the fruits and the milk are graces from Allah.
The cow is a silent factory, which turns the grass it eats into milk. Who created the milk to be perfect for man’s needs?
It is a complete nutrition.
The udder of the cow has a dome shape, and on its surface there are a lot of blood capillaries, and the mammary gland takes only its needs from those capillaries in order to make one drop of milk from every 400 drops of blood, therefore, the milk and all dairy products are among the most distinguished graces from Allah upon us.
Difference between the believer and the disbeliever:
Dear brother, man can spend his life eating like animals do, but pondering over his food, drink, the fresh water, his son and all his needs that Allah bestowed for him on earth, is what he should do as a human being.This is the difference between the believer and the non-believer, for the believer goes beyond the graces to the Bestower (Allah) unlike the disbeliever, for the latter not only uses the graces without going beyond them to the Bestower but he also elevates these graces to the divine status and he worships them instead of Allah, whereas the believer worships Allah alone.
There is no argument about having uncountable graces, but people differ from one another in praising or not praising Allah for them.
Any malfunction in any of one’s body’s systems will turn his life into a living hell, thus, when you wake up in the morning healthy, strong and balanced, you should know that this is a very significant grace.
﴾"If you give thanks (by accepting Faith and worshipping none but Allah), I will give you more (of My Blessings)﴿
When the prophet PBUH woke up from his sleep he used to say:
((All praise is for Allah who restored to me my health and returned my soul and has allowed me to remember Him.))
((Myself, Mankind and Jinn are in a great serious state. I create them, then they worship other gods that they make for themselves, I bless them with my bounties, then they thank someone else for what I sent them))
Praising should be to the One Who deserves praising and only the Creator deserves that, for He is the One Who bestows the graces, the existence, the provision and the guidance.
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah,﴿
In Al Fatihah, Allah says:
﴾All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists). ﴿
Praising has three levels:
Praising has three levels, one of them is to know that these graces are from Allah, the higher level is to fill your heart with love to Allah and the highest level is to praise him by offering good deeds.Allah says:
﴾"Work you, O family of Dawud (David), with thanks!"﴿
This is the most exalted level, and your praising is manifested in serving His creations.
Some scholars used to say: “O Lord, night is never sweet without talking to you and day is never sweet without serving your creations”
He, who wants to draw closer to the Almighty Allah, should serve His creations, because the prophet PBUH said:
((The entire creations are the dependants of Allah, and the most endeared to Allah among them is the most beneficial to his dependants))
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth,﴿
This Quranic term indicates the earth and the whole universe. The universe as speculated by some scientists contains one trillion galaxies, each of them has tillion plants and stars, whereas our galaxy ( the Milky Way) is very humble compared with other galaxies.
It has a spindle shape and our solar system makes only a dot in it, whereas the earth is another dot in the solar system itself.
The distance between our earth and the closest blazing star is 4 light years which needs 50 million years to travel to it using an earthy vehicle, given that the light travels 300 thousand kilometers in one second.
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth﴿
The only One Who deserves praising is Allah because He created the heavens and earth.
Darkness comes in plural whereas the “Nur” (light) is mentioned as singular:
One more thing, Allah says:﴾ Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness﴿
The sun gives light, and when it sets, darkness spreads; therefore, the light is a great grace.
The eye is useless without a light which is the reason of seeing things, so as the importance of the revelation to the mind, for without this divine light which lights the path for man, the latter will be in total darkness.
When man put his trust in his reasoning only, disasters prevailed all over the earth, what is going on around our globe?
The earth now is full of tyranny, for only 10 percent of the earth’s populations own 90 % of earth’s treasures and lead an extravagant life beyond imagination, whereas the rest of the earth’s populations are living in poverty and wretchedness which is also beyond imagination.
The wars and sectarian conflicts are but results of this severe paradox, and if only people follow the divine revelation and apply the Method of Allah, mankind won’t be in that misery. Hence, Almighty Allah created heavens and earth, Allah says:
﴾Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness﴿
Darkness here was plural, whereas the right path is mentioned as singular because the truth is one only, whereas falsehood has uncountable kinds and shapes.
﴾"And verily, this (i.e. Allah's Commandments mentioned in the above two Verses 151 and 152) is my Straight Path, so follow it, and follow not (other) paths, for they will separate you away from His Path.﴿
There is only one straight line between two dots, and if you want to draw thousand straight lines, they will pile on one another, and the truth is the same, for there is only one truth.
It is said: war between two rights will never occur because the truth is only one, whereas the war between right and wrong will not last for a long time because Allah is with the right side, but a war between two falsehoods can be endless.
The sun is one of Allah’s signs:
The believer has two options, either he comprehends the truth, or heads towards comprehending falsehood.If man lived one billion years, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend falsehood because it comes in countless types and shapes.If any deviated party studied their history, they will come up with piles of books, for comprehending falsehood will take years and years and won’t be accomplished, whereas comprehending the truth will make it your frame reference for everything in your life, due to a simple fact which is; anything out of the circle of the truth is falsehood.
Thus, success lies in spending your precious time in comprehending the truth not the falsehood.
An average lifetime is enough to comprehend the truth, but this mission is impossible if you were trying to comprehend falsehood because the truth is one whereas falsehood is uncountable.
When Allah created the heavens and earth, He made the stars sources of light. Take for example our sun; it is one of the greatest signs which indicate Allah’s Greatness.
The sun is bigger than the earth by one million and 300 thousand times, which means that the sun is able to swallow one million and 300 thousand planets the same size as our earth.
The distance between the earth and the sun is 156 million kilometers, and the sun flames might extend to more than one million kilometers.
Had the earth been tossed in the sun, it will evaporate in one second.
Thus if the sun is bigger than earth by one million and 300 thousand times, and if the distance between the sun and the earth is 156 million kilometers, what would you say about the size of Scorpion star, which looks to us as a small sparkling red star? Its size can consume the sun,earth and the distance between the two!
Who deserves to be praised alone?
It is the Creator of heavens and earth, for He not only created them but He gives them light from the stars in them, and above all, Allah lights the minds with His revelation.
Therefore there is a universe, stars, which give tangible light, and there is the revelation which enlightens the minds with the scientific light and the souls with spiritual kind of light.
The other party is those who reject the truth and disbelieve in the hereafter:
Allah says:
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness and the light, yet those who disbelieve﴿
Those are the other party.
Man might believe and might not believe, might follow the right path or be deviated, might tell the truth or lie, might be truthful or betray, might be merciful or harsh and might be just or oppress. The people of the other party (the disbelievers) refuse the truth and don’t believe in the Hereafter and they believe in the worldly life alone,they don’t believe in Allah and they believe in Taghut (falsehood), those disbelievers, who overlook all the signs which indicate Allah’s Greatness and despite all the proofs which testify that Allah is Perfect and One:
﴾Yet those who disbelieve hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
As for the word:
﴾yet﴿
It means that after all these proofs, evidences and graces (among which is the eye with which we see and if you close your eyes you will realize the grace of sight, for your eyes show you the value of colors, trees, flowers and every beautiful thing in life), they disbelieved.
﴾Have We not made for him a pair of eyes?﴿
What is the use of tastes if you don’t have taste buds in your mouth? What is the use of smells if you can’t smell them using your nose? What is the use of fresh sounds without the hearing sense? Unfortunately some people praise and worship someone else other than Allah for all these graces and all these blessings.
The placenta whih surrounds the fetus includes incredible miracles:
Allah says:﴾Yet those who disbelieve hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
Allah didn’t say: “then those”, but He said: “Yet those” who disbelieve hold that as equal:
﴾with their Lord.﴿
Who makes the fetus grow in the womb of his mother?
Who brought forth man’s hearing and sight? Who gave man life?
The placenta which accompanies the fetus in all stages, has incredible Ayahs, and though it is not more than a disc of flesh, yet both the mother’s and the fetus’ blood circulations are combined in it without being mixed with one another, so if the mother and the fetus have different blood types, there won’t be any mixing between the two bloods which if occurs might cause the death of both of them in a phenomenon called “hemolysis”, but both circulations are separated by a wise membrane which can make functions that are impossible to be done by all doctors on earth.
What does this membrane do exactly?
It takes the oxygen from the mother’s blood and gives it to the fetus blood so that the latter will burn sugar to get energy; therefore this membrane is a respiratory system for the fetus.
This membrane also takes insulin from the mother’s blood and gives it to the fetus blood in order to burn the sugar in a temperature of 37 degrees; therefore this membrane functions as a pancreas for the fetus.
Moreover, it takes all the immunity which the mother acquired in her blood during her lifetime, and gives it to the fetus so that it won’t get sick, therefore this membrane is an acquired immune system for the fetus.
Furthermore, it prevents the toxic materials from reaching to the fetus’ blood; therefore it is a safeguard shield which protects the life of the fetus.
This membrane also takes the hourly needed nutrition from the mother’s blood and gives it to the fetus.
How can this membrane know exactly what the fetus needs of sugar, fat, lipids, proteins, vitamins and minerals?
How is it able to do this function?
How does it know the needs of the fetus of nutritional materials in the first place? How does it take the required materials from the mother’s blood to put them in the fetus’ blood? Thus it is adigestive system. Second, how does it take the carbon dioxide from the fetus blood (which is the outcome of burning sugar) and gives it to the mother’s blood in order to exhale it through her respiratory system.
In other words, part of the mother’s exhaling comes from her fetus.
This membrane functions also as kidneys for the fetus, for it takes the uric acid from the fetus’ blood and gives it to the mother’s blood to bedischarged through the mother’s urinary system.
What kind of a wise membrane is this?
﴾The Work of Allah, Who perfected all things,﴿
Proofs from Quran and Sunnah that man is arrogant and worships other than Allah:
Allah says:
﴾Verily, We created man of the best stature (mould),﴿
The woman’s egg is as small as the salt speck, whereas the sperm is so small that it can’t be seen without a microscope, both combine in the womb and make a fetus which will become a baby after nine months with eyes, ears, nose, tongue and a mouth with which it cries, yawns, eats food and breathes.
All of us went through this course.
﴾Be cursed (the disbelieving) man! How ungrateful he is! From what thing did He create him? From Nutfah (male and female semen drops) He created him, and then set him in due proportion; Then He makes the Path easy for him; Then He causes him to die, and puts him in his grave;﴿
Why is man arrogant? Given he got out of private parts and entered another private parts then is delivered from private parts.
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness and the light, yet those who disbelieve hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
This means that they worship a party other than Allah and elevates it to the divine status.
﴾Have you (O Muhammad) seen him who has taken as his ilah (god) his own desire?﴿
Desires are Gods for some people, so as lusts and money, hence:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet (PBUH) said, "Let the slave of Dinar, Dirhamand Khamisa perish as he is pleased if these things are given to him, and if not, he is displeased. Let such a person perish and relapse, and if he is pierced with a thorn, let him not find anyone to take it out for him.
The meaning of the word “Ya’diloon”:
When man disobeys Allah for the sake of his own desires, this means that he worships his desires instead of Allah:﴾yet those who disbelieve hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
It is not necessarily that they call them gods, no, one might have a friend but he obeys him even in sinning and disobeying Allah and this is nothing but worshiping him instead of Allah:
﴾yet those who disbelieve hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
They incline to worship partners instead of Allah, believing that they equal Allah the Almighty and this is the first interpretation of:
﴾ hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
Or they incline to worship a creation instead of the Creator, and take him as a god instead of Allah:
﴾All praises and thanks be to Allah, Who (Alone) created the heavens and the earth, and originated the darkness and the light, yet those who disbelieve hold that as equal with their Lord.﴿
The apparent and the hidden graces:
Dear brother, we talked about the apparent graces, and that the hidden graces are the calamities. Allah says:﴾And has completed and perfected His Graces upon you, (both) apparent (i.e Islamic Monotheism, and the lawful pleasures of this world, including health, good looks, etc.) and hidden [i.e. One's Faith in Allah (of Islamic Monotheism) knowledge, wisdom, guidance for doing righteous deeds, and also the pleasures and delights of the Hereafter in Paradise, etc.]?﴿
Each one of us has been once divinely treated which made him repent and reconcile with Allah and ask for His forgiveness and exalted through the ranks of perfection.
Without these calamities and hardship which were the reason behind one’s repentance, one couldn’t have been living in this grace (repenting and reconciling with Allah), Allah says:
﴾And has completed and perfected His Graces upon you, (both) apparent (i.e Islamic Monotheism, and the lawful pleasures of this world, including health, good looks, etc.) and hidden [i.e. One's Faith in Allah (of Islamic Monotheism) knowledge, wisdom, guidance for doing righteous deeds, and also the pleasures and delights of the Hereafter in Paradise, etc.]?﴿
﴾(both) apparent﴿
This means that they can be seen
﴾and hidden﴿
This refers to the calamities, Allah also says:
﴾And verily, We will make them taste of the near torment (i.e. the torment in the life of this world, i.e. disasters, calamities, etc.) prior to the supreme torment (in the Hereafter), in order that they may (repent and) return (i.e. accept Islam).﴿
Allah also says:
﴾And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits, but give glad tidings to As-Sabirin (the patient ones, etc.). Who, when afflicted with calamity, say: "Truly! To Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return." They are those on whom are the Salawat (i.e. blessings, etc.) (i.e. who are blessed and will be forgiven) from their Lord, and (they are those who) receive His Mercy, and it is they who are the guided-ones.﴿
Be certain tat any calamity which befalls you conceals divine mercy within:
We should believe beyond doubt that whatever bothers us is a hidden grace, for Allah might bestow on you in order to veil you, or might withhold graces from you in order to bring you closer to Him, and had Allah showed you the wisdom of bestowing and withholding, you would have known that the divine withholding is nothing but bestowing.Believe me when you enter a Masjid and see the thousands of people who are offering Salah, you should know that the majority of them were divinely treated and afflicted with calamities which made them repent and turn back to Allah.
Therefore, hardship is a great grace and is our path to the hereafter, and he, who complains about being in hardship, should know that being in hardship is but Allah’s mercy upon him, the proof is in the following Ayah:
﴾If they (Jews) belie you (Muhammad) say you: "Your Lord is the Owner of Vast Mercy, and never will His Wrath be turned back from the people who are Mujrimun (criminals, polytheists, sinners, etc.)."﴿
One of the manifestations of Allah’s Mercy is the following:
﴾and never will His Wrath be turned back from the people who are Mujrimun (criminals, polytheists, sinners, etc.)."﴿
Those who are heedless in life like camels.
When you are afflicted with hardship, you should know that it is hidden mercy though it might not seem so, but since it is the reason which brings you back to Allah’s path, to repentance and to be straight on Allah’s orders, then it is a hidden grace.
The rigid father who puts all the efforts to make future reliable men out of his children, is praised by them when they get older, whereas the father who is lenient on his children and as a result they grow up to be without knowledge, career, or money, is disliked by them because he was lenient with them.
There for adversities include mercy within.
Our prophet PBUH taught us that the believer should praise Allah in all his conditions:
((…If something good happens to him and he is grateful, then this is good for him, and if a calamity befalls him and he is patient, then this is also good for him…))
The believer realizes that Allah’s Hand alone arranges affairs, and that His Hand is over the hands of those whom you see on earth. There is oppression, corruption and tyranny on earth, this is apparent:
﴾They have no Wali (Helper, Disposer of affairs, Protector, etc.) other than Him, and He makes none to share in His Decision and His Rule."﴿
The good results will be seen after a while.
We ask Allah to make this hardship, which befell Muslims, a sort of hidden graces which will strengthen our weakness and bring us, as Muslims, together inshaalah.
Reviewed.
