Zia Sheikh – Tafseer of Surah Nahal ayah 51 onwards
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I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed
Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
Allah said, Take not for yourselves two gods.
He is but One God, so fear only
Me.
To Him belongs all that is in the
heavens and the earth, and to Him is
all that is in the world.
Will you then fear anyone other than Allah?
And whatever blessing you have, it is from
Allah.
Then, when adversity touches you, to Him you
cry out.
Then, when adversity takes away from you, when
some of you associate partners with their Lord,
that they may disbelieve in that which We
have given them.
So enjoy yourselves, and you will come to
know.
And in the last few ayaat, we heard
how Allah's creation is all obedient to Him.
The animals are obedient to Him.
The sky is obedient to Him.
The sun is obedient to Him.
The moon, the stars, the plants, everything is
obedient to Allah.
Nothing disobeys Him.
So everything is going according to that order
that Allah has set for it.
The only thing is, humans and jinns are
two creations that have been given the option
of disobeying Allah.
And we know that we do disobey Allah
and go against the things that He orders
us to do.
You probably heard an ayah of the Quran
in which Allah SWT declares, Allah
says that we presented the amanah to the
heavens and the earth and the mountains and
everything, but all of these creations, they refused
to take up this amanah.
What was that amanah?
The choice of being given a choice to
obey or disobey Allah SWT.
And obviously, if you disobey, the consequence will
be punishment in the hereafter.
So all of these creations, they refused to
take up this responsibility.
They said that we'd rather just obey Allah
SWT and finish off, finish ourselves off when
the world is finished, rather than face the
wrath of Allah SWT in the hereafter, they
would not take up this amanah.
But who took up this amanah?
The human being took up this responsibility and
basically committed to obeying Allah.
And then obviously, we know that humans, they
sometimes obey, sometimes they disobey.
And one of the biggest things or biggest
disobedience is to associate partners with Allah SWT.
And that is the disobedience that Allah SWT
is mentioning in the very next ayah.
So in the previous verses, the obedience of
all of the creation, the obedience of the
angels, and then in this ayah, Allah SWT
then talks about the disobedience of the human
beings.
And he says, وَقَالَ اللَّهُ لَا تَتَّخِذُوا إِلَٰهَيْنِ
إِثْنَيْنَ Allah SWT says that do not take,
do not take two gods.
Do not take two gods, meaning, do not
assume anyone is worthy of worship, and make
him double, dual, other than Allah SWT.
So, there's a couple of points here to
note.
Allah SWT has used the word two.
So when Allah has told us that not
to take two, anything above that, it becomes
obviously more prohibited.
Okay, so two are prohibited by Allah SWT.
So anything more than that, there is even
a higher prohibition.
So polytheism in the form of worshipping statues,
associating all these different partners with Allah SWT,
this is completely wrong.
Like the Hindus say that we believe in
one Bhagwan.
Okay, he is the one that is controlling
everything, but all of these different idols, they
are different flavors of that same Bhagwan.
Okay, the trees are part of that Bhagwan,
and the godliness is transferred into all of
his creation.
So the greeting, the Hindu greeting is what?
Namaste.
What does Namaste mean?
Namaste actually means that I worship the divine
in you, that even you have God in
you.
So I worship that divine.
So even that godliness, they say, is transferred
into human beings.
We say no, this is form of shirk,
and nothing can be associated with Allah SWT,
and nothing is equal to Allah SWT.
So Allah says, Don't take two gods other
than Allah SWT as worthy of worship.
Now, there is one point here, that in
Arabic grammar, if Allah SWT said, Do not
take two gods.
Ilahain, this would have been sufficient.
Because Ilahain, the word itself, it means two
gods.
But he added Ithnain on top of that.
On top of the word Ilahain, Allah SWT
emphasized the point by using the word Ithnain
after that.
So this is for emphasis, that do not
take any other god, do not make one
out of two, it's not permissible, you cannot
do it.
Allah SWT says in another verse of the
Quran, There is no Ilah with him.
If there was more than one god, then
what is going to happen?
Then each one will take his own creation.
And one will try to supersede the other,
and try to overcome the other.
And this is the situation, that in a
company, if you have too many managers, what
happens?
Each one wants to do his own thing.
There is only one CEO of the company.
There is only one person who is in
complete charge of the company, who has the
final say so.
If you have two CEOs, you will never
find two CEOs in a company.
It's never going to happen.
So the same thing applies to the creation
of Allah SWT, that if something as small
as, in the bigger scheme of things, something
as small as a corporation, cannot have two
bosses, then how can the whole heavens and
the earth, can it have two creators?
That's why Allah says in another verse of
the Quran, If there were gods other than
Allah SWT, then the heavens and the earth
would have corruption inside them.
Everything would be in turmoil.
So, you know, why would they be in
turmoil?
Because one god will say, well, let it
be raining today.
The other will say, no, let it be
sunny today.
Let it be warm today.
Let it be cold today.
Let this creation be destroyed.
Preserve this one.
Disagreements between the two.
Now someone might say, that how about if
those gods, they agree on everything.
If they agree, you know, if they have
a difference of opinion, but then they agree,
then there would not be corruption, right?
So then how about that?
There is a possibility of that happening.
So the answer to that question is, that
if a person has an opinion, and then
his opinion is overridden by another opinion, even
though he agrees and he accepts it, but
this shows a weakness on his part.
A god cannot be weak.
Allah cannot be weak.
The one that we worship cannot have any
semblance of weakness associated with him.
It is not befitting of a god to
be, to have any type of weakness.
So when, even if they are ultimately both
agreeing to do something, the fact that one's
opinion is overridden by the other, it shows
weakness, and that is something against the nature
of Allah to be weak.
So that is also impossible.
And there are many other proofs that talk
about the same thing.
Innama huwa ilahum wahid.
Indeed he is the only ilah.
The same thing here.
Innama huwa ilah would be sufficient.
One.
Ilah because the word ilah, it indicates oneness.
Because the plural of ilah is aliha, the
dual of it is alihatayn or ilahayn.
So the word ilah signifies one.
But Allah swt uses the word wahid after
it again.
Again, to emphasize and to stress the oneness
of Allah swt.
Innama huwa ilahum wahid.
He is only the one who is worthy
of worship.
Fa iyaya farhaboon.
So only me you should have awe of.
Rahab.
Rahab means awe.
The fear.
Somebody who is mightier than you.
That's rahab.
So the question is, all through the ayah,
Allah swt addresses himself as the third person.
Okay.
Innama waqalallah.
Allah says, third person.
Third person is he.
Allah says, do not take two gods.
Indeed he is one god.
Again, third person.
But then at the end, Wa iyaya farhaboon.
So, have the rahab of me.
Of Allah swt.
Why switching from third person to first person?
So the answer to that, the mufasirin say,
is that when a person, he addresses directly
to another person, and he talks about himself
directly, it is more powerful than somebody else
mentioning something about him.
So, say for example, somebody says about me,
Imam, he can get very angry at times.
And he can become very upset with you
if you don't listen to him.
I'm not like that.
I'm very easy going actually.
But if somebody says that about me, it
can be 50-50, maybe it's true, maybe
it's not.
But then I come into the picture and
say, yes, it's true.
So be careful.
So that emphasizes, because I'm saying it personally
about myself.
Yes, I can get upset.
And I can get angry.
So please be careful.
So, from third person, maybe, maybe not, 50
-50, possible, possible, possibly not.
But then if I say it myself, then
that means yes, true.
For sure, you have to have fear of
me.
So Allah SWT is using that methodology from
third person to first person.
First person shows more emphasis.
And only for him is whatever is in
the heavens and whatever is in the earth.
And for him is the deen completely.
So here, Allah is using this and this
is mentioned throughout the Quran.
That Allah SWT is, he has control over
the heavens and the earth.
As opposed to the human being.
As the human who has possessions, who is
rich, who has everything that he can ever
imagine and people can be jealous of him
and envious of him and think that I
wish that I could be like this person.
He can have so much control under him
and he can have so many possessions.
But he's never going to get the possession
of everything in the heavens and the earth.
That's never going to happen.
And secondly, what's going to happen is that
whatever possessions he has, is he truly in
control of them?
Does he really own them?
The answer to that is no.
How long can he own those things for?
As long as he's living.
As long as he's not sick.
As long as he's not bedridden.
After that, people will take those possessions and
distribute them amongst themselves.
We've seen that with kings and emperors and
pharaohs and rich people, you know, dictators that
were on the pedestal of the best of
living in every single way possible.
But then they are brought down to earth.
They either die or they are removed.
They are killed, assassinated.
Whatever they had, it becomes distributed amongst the
people that come after them.
We see that all the time.
That happens.
So Allah SWT says that only for him
is whatever is in the heavens and whatever
is in the earth.
And for him is the complete deen.
Meaning, the deen and the religion is the
thing that Allah SWT is controlling and whatever
he tells us, we have to obey.
The word deen also can mean from the
word dayn.
It means recompense.
So, to reward a person.
We say that he is the king of
the day of recompense.
A deen, a dayn, meaning that on that
day people will be repaid.
Good or bad.
Whatever they did, they will be recompensed accordingly.
So, means that for him, only for him,
is the complete recompense.
He has control of recompensing us on the
day of judgment.
أَفَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ تَتَّقُونَ So, when we understand all
of this, that he has the control of
the heavens and the earth.
He is the controller of the recompense on
the day of judgment.
So, how could we have taqwa of other
than Allah SWT?
Heavens and the earth are included.
The hereafter is included.
So, how can we have taqwa of other
than Allah SWT?
It defies all forms of logic.
So, that's why at the end Allah says,
أَفَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ تَتَّقُونَ So, other than Allah SWT,
do you have taqwa of them?
After that Allah then starts talking about his
blessings.
وَمَا بِكُم مِّن نِعْمَةٍ فَمِنَ اللَّهِ Whatever blessings
you have, they are indeed from Allah SWT.
So, this issue of blessing, it's a very
tricky subject.
And the issue is that as long as
we are blessed with something, we tend to
take that thing for granted.
If we have water at home, we tend
to take it for granted.
If we have electricity at home, we tend
to take it for granted.
But if we have a power outage for
about 3-4 days, then we start appreciating
the fact that there was electricity.
Our water gets turned off for a few
days, then we start appreciating the fact that
we have running water.
When the toilets are not flushing, we cannot
take a shower, we have to get water
from somewhere, from the supermarket and fill a
bucket up and take a shower with that.
Then we start appreciating.
So, the blessing, we tend to, this is
the human nature, that as long as we
have that blessing, we tend to not be
grateful for it.
And we don't even realize sometimes that a
blessing is a blessing until we completely lose
it.
Say for example, the saliva that we have
in our mouth, the spit, none of us
probably think of that as being a blessing.
But the reality is that if we didn't
have this spit in our mouth, then we
would not be able to chew the food.
We would have to live on a liquid
diet.
The food that we put in our mouth,
the bread, it becomes soft and it becomes,
what do you call, malleable or pliable for
us to swallow because of the spit, the
saliva that we have in our mouth.
If we didn't have that saliva, then what
would happen?
That bread would actually make it very uncomfortable
for us to swallow.
It would scratch our throats and it would
scratch our food pipe.
Something which is as simple as saliva, yet,
you know, it's always being constantly produced in
our mouth and all through our lives, pretty
much it doesn't finish.
There is an illness, in fact, which prevents
the salivary glands from producing saliva.
There is an illness that actually does that.
So, the point is that something as simple
as that, we have no clue that it
is actually a blessing from Allah SWT, but
it is a blessing.
And we only realize it when we lose
it.
And that's what Allah says in the remainder
of the verse, ثُمَّ إِذَا مَسَكْ مُضْدُرُوا فَإِلَيْهِ
تَجْعَرُونَ When harm befalls you, when harm touches
you, the word mas means touching, something that
you just touch.
And generally speaking, this is the human nature
that the smallest discomfort that a person has,
a headache or the flu virus or bacterial
infection, this is just a touch from Allah
SWT testing us.
But then that testing, it becomes a means
of us turning to Him and realizing that
yes, the blessing of not having a headache
was truly a blessing.
Now when I have a headache, I have
to turn to Allah SWT and ask Him
to make this easy for me.
The blessing of not having a fever was
something that I didn't appreciate.
Now I have a fever, now I turn
to Allah SWT and ask Him to cure
me of this fever.
So truly, when a person doesn't have any
problems, he doesn't have any issues, he doesn't
turn to Allah, but then when he is
touched by any of these issues, then only
to him you turn your attention and only
to him, to Allah SWT, you focus.
And then again, the human nature is So
when he removes that harm from you, the
short memory of a human is that he
becomes sick, he goes through certain difficulties and
during the course of those difficulties he tells
Allah SWT, Oh Allah, just take me out
of this problem and I will promise, I
promise, I promise I'm going to be your
best obedient slave and I'm not going to
do anything wrong, I'm going to be faithful,
I'm going to serve you as much as
I can, I'm going to pray my five
times Salat in the Masjid, but then what
happens?
When Allah SWT removes that harm from a
person, then he forgets all of these promises
that he made to Allah SWT.
And in this case, Allah SWT talks about
the Mushrikeen.
What the Mushrikeen used to do that when
they were in any major difficulty, instead of
asking their idols, they used to turn to
Allah SWT only.
But then, after that, when that difficulty was
removed, then they started worshipping their idols again.
So this was the strange habit that they
had.
So Allah says here, when he removes that
harm from you, suddenly a group from amongst
you, they start committing shirk with their Lord.
They start associating partners with Allah SWT.
Whereas they made a promise to Allah during
their difficulty that they would only worship him,
but instead they went back to committing shirk
and disobeying him.
Why did they do this?
Because this is a form of disobedience.
It is a form of ungratefulness for what
we have given them.
So, this word Kafir, disbeliever, is from the
word Kufran-ul-Ni'm.
It means...
And the word Kafir is also used for
a farmer.
Why is a farmer called a Kafir?
Because he takes the seed and he hides
it under the ground.
He puts it under the ground.
So, a disbeliever is called a Kafir because
he hides the blessing of Allah SWT that
Allah SWT gave him.
The blessing of Iman, the blessing of guidance.
He hides it and instead he chooses Kufr
and disbelief and shirk over Tawheed.
They are ungrateful for what we have given
them.
So that can mean disbelief.
Kufr can mean disbelief or it can mean
ungratefulness for what we have given them.
Allah says...
Continue enjoying.
Enjoy.
Enjoy this world.
It is very close that you will find
out.
You will know the reality of your life
and what you should have been doing when
your eyes of this world close and the
eyes of the Hereafter open.
That's when you will realize what you should
have been doing and what you were doing.
Continue to enjoy.
Enjoy this world.
It is very close that you will find
out.
Find out what?
And this methodology is very...
You know, it's found throughout the Quran.
You will find out.
You will know.
What will you know?
It's up in the air.
Suspense.
Allah SWT keeps it hidden.
You will find out.
You will know.
And this again we have...
We can get human examples.
You know, we were all kids at one
point in our lives, right?
And our parents used to say, OK, just
wait till we get home.
Just wait till we get home.
OK, what does that mean?
You don't know what is going to happen
when you get home and that suspense is
just making you really upset, worried.
So this is what it means.
You will find out.
What will you find out?
You will find out when you actually see
it.
I pray that Allah SWT protects us from
His punishment and gives us to understand and
practice what has been said and heard.
We finish with this inshallah.
We will continue next week.