Tafsir of Surah An-Nahl - Verse 22

None is to be worshipped except Allah

Allah tells us that there is none to be worshipped besides Him, the One, the Unique, the Lone, the Self-Sufficient. He tells us that the hearts of the disbelievers deny that and are astonished by that:

أَجَعَلَ الاٌّلِهَةَ إِلَـهاً وَحِداً إِنَّ هَـذَا لَشَىْءٌ عُجَابٌ

("Has he made the gods (all) into One God! Verily, this is a curious thing!") (38:5).

وَإِذَا ذُكِرَ اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ اشْمَأَزَّتْ قُلُوبُ الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالاٌّخِرَةِ وَإِذَا ذُكِرَ الَّذِينَ مِن دُونِهِ إِذَا هُمْ يَسْتَبْشِرُونَ

(And when Allah alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter are filled with disgust, and when those besides Him are mentioned, behold, they rejoice!) (39:45).

وَهُم مُّسْتَكْبِرُونَ

(and they are proud) meaning they are too proud to worship Allah, and their hearts reject the idea of singling Him out, as Allah says:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِى سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَخِرِينَ

(Verily! Those who scorn My worship they will surely enter Hell in humiliation!) 40:60 So here, Allah says;

لاَ جَرَمَ

(Certainly), meaning truly,

أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ

(Allah knows what they conceal and what they reveal.) meaning He will requite them for that in full.

إِنَّهُ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْمُسْتَكْبِرِينَ

(Truly, He does not like the proud.)

Commentary

Verses appearing immediately earlier described the many blessings of Allah Ta` ala in details, proved that He alone is their Creator and established that He is unique in this matter. Now, in the present verses, there comes an admonition against the failure of people to recognize that there is a fact behind the statement describing all these blessings - and that is Tauhid, the Oneness of Allah Ta’ ala, except whom there is none worthy of worship. Therefore, it was said: When it stands proved that Allah alone made the heavens and the earth, made the mountains and rivers, vegetation and animals, trees and plants with their fruits and flowers, how can that most sacred Being that is the Creator of all these things become, for no reason, like idols and icons which cannot create anything? Why would you not understand something so elementary?

As a matter of course, polytheists start worshipping their self-devised saints of previous generations, treating them as holy and close to God, though such worship is absolutely foolish. These great men lying dead in their graves, to whom people pray for the fulfilment of their needs, are themselves in the interim stage after death before Judgement Day. In fact, they do not even know when they will be raised from the dead, not to speak of their being able to help others. ‘They are arrogant’ does not mean that they are arrogant towards God. Who would have the courage to set himself up against the Creator of heaven and earth? In fact, this means that they are haughty towards God’s messenger and not towards God Himself. The subject of God who sets out to be a preacher of the unity of God (tawhid) is lesser in status from the worldly point of view in comparison with his addressees. The addressee being a proponent of the traditional religion, would enjoy a high position in the scheme of things at the time, while the bringer of Truth, being the representative of the ‘new religion’, would be devoid of such status and position. From the material point of view he, therefore, appears to the addressees to be inferior to themselves. So they develop a superiority complex and ignore what he has to say, thinking that his word carries no weight. This is a case of pride on the part of such people, but they present their case as if it were one of principles and ideology. But God very well knows the inner workings of people’s minds and will treat them in accordance not with their mouthings but with what they really are as human beings.