Tafsir of Surah An-Nahl - Verse 74

Denouncing the Worship of anything besides Allah

Allah tells us about the Mushrikin who worship others besides Him, even though He alone is the bountiful Provider, the Creator and Sustainer, without partners or associates, but they still worship idols and make rivals for Him. He says:

مَا لاَ يَمْلِكُ لَهُمْ رِزْقًا مِّنَ السَّمَـوَتِ وَالاٌّرْضِ شَيْئًا

(such as do not have power to grant them any provision from the heavens or the earth) meaning, nobody can cause rain to fall, or make plants and trees grow. They cannot do these things for them- selves, even if they wanted to. Thus Allah says:

فَلاَ تَضْرِبُواْ لِلَّهِ الاٌّمْثَالَ

(So do not give examples on behalf of Allah.) meaning, do not set up rivals to Him or describe anything as being like Him.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

(Truly, Allah knows and you know not.) meaning, He knows and bears witness that there is no god but Him, but you are ignorant and associate others in worship with Him.

The statement: فَلَا تَضْرِ‌بُوا لِلَّـهِ الْأَمْثَالَ (So, do not coin similarities for Allah -74) clarifies an important aspect of the reality of things as they relate to Allah. If ignored, it becomes the breeding ground of all sorts of rejectionist doubts and scruples. The problem is that people would generally take Allah Ta’ ala the analogy of their own humankind and go on to declare the highest placed among them, a king and ruler, as similar to Allah Ta’ ala. Then, relying on this wrong assumption, they start seeing the Di-vine system on the analogy of the system of human monarchs. This leads them to take a cue from the fact that since no king can, all by himself, run the administration of the whole kingdom, the system is run by dele-gating powers to subordinate ministers and officials who do that on his behalf. Similarly, they believe and propose that there have to be some other objects of worship under the authority of Allah Ta’ ala who would help Him out in carrying out His tasks. This is the general theory of all idol-worshipers and polytheists. This sentence of the Qur’ an has cut off the very root of these doubts by stating that suggesting examples of what has been created and applying them on Allah Ta’ ala, the Creator, is something unreasonable by itself. He is far above similarities and analogies and conjectures and guesses.

The human being is a creature who has countless needs and the perfect arrangement to fulfill all these needs exists in this world. All this is provided by God, but in every age human beings have made the mistake of attributing all these blessings of God to some entities other than God. Polytheists attribute these blessings to gods or goddesses or to some living or dead beings other than God. Those who are atheists attribute them to the result of the blind activity of natural laws. This system of Divine blessing was brought into existence by God in order to ensure that a feeling of gratitude emerged in human beings. But due to man’s self-devised imaginings, this system nourished in him the feeling of disbelief in God. Generally, misguidance in belief has occurred due to false parallels being drawn. Since man has sons and daughters, it has been assumed on the same basis that God also has sons and daughters. In this world, people of high position have some individuals who are close to them and who enjoy the position of intermediaries. On the basis of this example it has been assumed that, even in the court of God, there are beings who are close to Him and that their recommendations are effective in His eyes. Many types of polytheism (shirk) and misguidance have come into existence through reference to such analogies. But this amounts to placing the Creator on a par with that of His creatures, which shows absolute ignorance. The Creator is different from His creatures in every way. Explaining something with the help of an example is not wrong in itself. But the example will be useful only when there is an awareness of the original as well as its analogy. When man does not know the reality of God, how can he formulate an analogy with any true relevance to it?