An-Nahl 16:33–60

Initially, arguments are used to explain the discourse about God. If man does not accept the Truth despite these arguments, a time will come when it is brought home to him—individually at the time of death and collectively on Doomsday. If the facts about God are explained to a man rationally and he still ignores them, it is as if he is waiting for God and his angels to manifest themselves at some later stage. Then, of course, he would be compelled to accept the Truth. But accepting it at that time will gain him no credit, whereas if he had accepted it when he had the opportunity, prior to God’s appearance, that would have been to his own great credit.

An unheeding person justifies his departure from the truth in various ways and one such way is to maintain that everything in this world happens according to the will and pleasure of God. In view of this, his present behaviour can be treated as a result of the will of God. He maintains that he would not have been able to do wrong if his misdeeds had not been backed by the will of God. He says that if his actions were not to God’s liking, He would not have allowed him to continue those actions. In other words, it should have been the rule that whenever he did something against the will of God, He should have prevented him from doing it. Man talks in this way because he is not serious about truth and untruth. Had he been serious, he would have immediately understood that the liberty of action pertains to the creation plan of God according to which man is being tested in this world. It has nothing to do with God’s approval.

At some points God sent his prophets directly to mankind and at other points He arranged to convey His message indirectly through the deputies of prophets and their representatives. All of them advised man that God alone is entitled to be worshipped and prayed to. Satan tries to dissuade or divert man from such worship and prayer. Therefore, man should save himself from satanic inducements; otherwise he will be pushed into worshipping false gods. Though divine guidance is clear, its acceptance or rejection depends upon the extent of man’s seriousness about it. One who gives serious consideration to guidance will not take long to find the truth. But one who is not serious about it will remain enmeshed in trivial issues. Such a person can never find the Truth.

The present world is so constituted that Truth and untruth are not always clearly distinguishable from each other due to the trial of man. As such there is always scope for denial of the truth. Ways of contradicting valid arguments can always be found and some device or the other can be resorted to to cast doubt on established facts. This is entirely against the scheme of the universe. In physical sciences it is possible to reach some definite results. Similarly, in respect of human beings, the truth should be brought out into the open. This proves the need for the Judgement Day to take place. Shah Abdul Qadir Dehlavi writes, ‘In this world many things remained doubtful; some accepted God and some denied Him, so there must be another world where disputes are resolved; truth and falsehood are distinguished; and the accepter and the rejecter are rewarded according to their deeds.’

Most of the commentators of the Quran have held that this verse relates to the eighty companions of the Prophet who had become victims of persecution by opponents of Islam and finally migrated to Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia) leaving their native place. This event occurred in the Makkan period before the Hijrah (migration) to Madinah. With regard to the Truth, there are always two groups—one group consists of those who undervalue Truth to such an extent that they are unwilling to sacrifice anything for its sake or re-plan their lives. The other group consists of those who adhere to the Truth in such a way that it becomes the most important thing for them, and they are willing to suffer all sorts of trouble for its sake; they make Truth their most important issue; they can sacrifice all else, but they cannot sacrifice the Truth. Naturally, these two kinds of group cannot share the same fate. Those who gave Truth the most important place in their lives, will be treated as entitled to God’s eternal bounties, but those who ignored the Truth will be ignored by God likewise; they will not be able to secure any place of honour in the eyes of God; neither can they have any share in God’s bounties.

‘The People of the Book’ (ahl az-zikr), i.e. those who have a knowledge of historical facts relating to past peoples and past prophets. What had to be ascertained from them was not about truth or untruth: they were to be asked about whether the prophets appearing in past ages were human beings or not. The fact that the Prophet Muhammad was a human being was treated by the people of Makkah as evidence of his not being the prophet of God. They were told to ascertain from the communities among whom prophets had been appearing (just as in the case of the Jews) whether the prophets who appeared among them were human beings or angels. A prophet appears for the purpose of ‘reminding’. This reminding is, in fact, done with the help of arguments. However, it is also necessary for the preacher to prove himself to be absolutely serious in this regard. If a man makes people aware of heaven and hell, but at the same time engages in such activities as prove him to be flippant about heaven and hell, his dawah efforts will become ridiculous in the eyes of the people. However, even if the call of the preacher is of a high standard and is presented in a perfect manner, it will benefit only those who pay attention to it. Those who do not pay attention can never be benefited by the call of truth

This verse pertains to the last stage of the Makkan period when the opponents of the Prophet Muhammad were conspiring to kill him. The Prophet is God’s representative on God’s earth. Therefore, hatching such a conspiracy against a prophet must necessarily be the handiwork of such persons as are absolutely fearless of God’s retribution. The fact is that God is the Possessor of such control over man that He can cause him to be buried deep in the earth if He so desires, or He may wreak vengeance on him at the very place which he considers safe; or God may seize him in the course of his activities and he will not be able to save himself. God may even seize upon him when he is conscious of the risk and fully aware of the situation. In short, God may seize upon man at any time and in any situation. If He sees people doing mischief, yet lets them go unpunished, they should not become fearless, because His restraint is due to His consideration of ‘test’ conditions and not to His being powerless.

Man indulges in arrogance in a world where all the things surrounding him are teaching him lessons in obedience. For example, the shadows of material things. The shadow of a thing standing erect falls on the ground. In this way, it symbolizes kneeling down (sajdah). It shows symbolically how a man should bow down before his Creator. Though angels are not visible to man, the running of this immense universe in the most regulated manner proves that the agents appointed by God to run it are extremely powerful. These angels, in spite of being extraordinarily powerful, are totally obedient to God. If they were not so, the system of the universe would not function continuously with so much precision and uniformity. In view of this, to be entirely correct in his behaviour, man can do no other than surrender himself to God, do obeisance to Him and become His most obedient subject.

God has warned man through His prophets that he should not hold to any god except the one and only God. The God of this universe is only one. Man should fear only Him; he should be obedient to Him alone. If a man fully realizes that it is God who is the sole Creator and Lord of all, and that his life completely depends upon Him, the feeling that develops in him as a result of this realization is fear of God (taqwa). Eternal obedience is the due of God alone in this heaven and earth. Everything here is completely bound by divine law. In such a world, to pray to or to worship or to repose hope in anybody else is absolutely irrational. The present universe is such that it completely rejects polytheism or ascribing partners to God (shirk).

From time immemorial, whenever a man finds himself in such trouble that he is absolutely helpless, he starts remembering God. Even polytheists and others who deny the truth behave in this way. This shows that the concept of God is embedded in human nature. When man has no further recourse, he turns at last to God. But strangely, man is so neglectful that when he is relieved of his trouble, he once again becomes preoccupied with the remembrance of his imaginary gods and attributes the benefit received by him to somebody other than God. Satan has introduced different types of false rites among the general people in order to perpetuate and strengthen their belief that imaginary gods are worthy of worship. One of them is to set apart a share of their income for them. Such ceremonies are a sort of falsity in the world of God, because this amounts to giving thanks to entities other than God for the benefits received from Him.

Why does a man want children? It is for the purpose of compensating for his shortcomings. But God is above such things. The Majesty and Power of God, which is evident in the existence of the universe, shows that God is far above any shortcomings to compensate which He would feel the necessity of creating a son or a daughter. The fact is that if God were deficient in any way, He would not have been God at all. God is God because He is entirely flawless.