Tafsir of Surah Aal Imran - Verse 26

Encouraging Gratitude

Allah said,

قُلْ

(Say) O Muhammad , while praising your Lord, thanking Him, relying in all matters upon Him and trusting in Him.

اللَّهُمَّ مَـلِكَ الْمُلْكِ

(O Allah! Possessor of the power) meaning, all sovereignty is Yours,

تُؤْتِى الْمُلْكَ مَن تَشَآءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَآءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَن تَشَآءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَآءُ

(You give power to whom You will, and You take power from whom You will, and You endue with honor whom You will, and You humiliate whom You will.) meaning, You are the Giver, You are the Taker, it is Your will that occurs and whatever You do not will, does not occur. This Ayah encourages thanking Allah for the favors He granted His Messenger and his Ummah. Allah transferred the prophethood from the Children of Israel to the Arab, Qurashi, Makkan, unlettered Prophet, the Final and Last of all Prophets and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to all mankind and Jinn. Allah endowed the Prophet with the best of qualities from the prophets before him. Allah also granted him extra qualities that no other Prophet or Messenger before him was endowed with, such as granting him (more) knowledge of Allah and His Law, knowledge of more of the matters of the past and the future, such as what will occur in the Hereafter. Allah allowed Muhammad's ﷺ Ummah to reach the eastern and western parts of the world and gave dominance to his religion and Law over all other religions and laws. May Allah's peace and blessings be on the Prophet until the Day of Judgment, and as long as the day and night succeed each other. This is why Allah said,

قُلِ اللَّهُمَّ مَـلِكَ الْمُلْكِ

(Say: "O Allah! Possessor of the power,") meaning, You decide what You will concerning Your creation and You do what you will. Allah refutes those who thought that they could decide for Allah,

وَقَالُواْ لَوْلاَ نُزِّلَ هَـذَا الْقُرْءَانُ عَلَى رَجُلٍ مِّنَ الْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ

(And they say: "Why is not this Qur'an sent down to some great man of the two towns (Makkah and Ta'if)") 43:31.

Allah refuted them by saying,

أَهُمْ يَقْسِمُونَ رَحْمَةَ رَبِّكَ

(Is it they who would portion out the Mercy of your Lord) 43:32, meaning, "We decide for Our creation what We will, without resistance or hindrance by anyone. We have the perfect wisdom and the unequivocal proof in all of this, and We give the prophethood to whom We will." Similarly, Allah said,

اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ حَيْثُ يَجْعَلُ رِسَالَتَهُ

(Allah knows best with whom to place His Message) and,

انظُرْ كَيْفَ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَهُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ

(See how We prefer one above another (in this world)) 17: 21

Allah said,

تُولِجُ الَّيْلَ فِى الْنَّهَارِ وَتُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِى الَّيْلِ

(You make the night enter into the day, and You make the day enter into the night) meaning, You take from the length of one of them and add it to the shortness of the other, so that they become equal, and take from the length of one of them and add it to the other so that they are not equal. This occurs throughout the seasons of the year: spring, summer, fall and winter. Allah's statement,

وَتُخْرِجُ الْحَىَّ مِنَ الْمَيِّتِ وَتُخْرِجُ الَمَيِّتَ مِنَ الْحَىِّ

(You bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living.) means, You bring out the seed from the plant and the plant from the seed; the date from its seed and the date's seed from the date; the faithful from the disbeliever and the disbeliever from the faithful; the chicken from the egg and the egg from the chicken, etc.

وَتَرْزُقُ مَن تَشَآءُ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ

(And You give wealth and sustenance to whom You will, without limit.) meaning, You give whomever You will innumerable amounts of wealth while depriving others from it, out of wisdom, and justice.

In these verses, Muslims have been taught and prompted to make a particular prayer which, in a subtle way, gives an indication that they are going to overpower disbelievers. This has its proof in the background in which these verses were revealed. When the Holy Prophet ﷺ promised that Byzantine and Persia will be taken, the hypocrites and the Jews laughed at the idea. Thereupon, this verse was revealedI.

1\. Ruh al-Ma' ani from al-Wahidi, from Ibn ` Abbas and Anas ؓ

Commentary

The background of Revelation:

An episode from the Battle of Khandaq

The recurring defeat of the disbelievers of Makkah at Badr and Uhud and their general failure to register any gains in their hostility against Muslims coupled with the growing strength of Muslims and the rise of Islam had made them very nervous, almost reckless. The whole thing ended up in a conspiracy. The disbelievers of Arabia, the Jews and the Christians all joined in a united front against Muslims and resolved to attack Madinah and fight a conclusive battle. This they did, determined to eradicate Islam and Muslims from the face of the earth. The battle is called 'al-Ahzab' in the Qur'an, and 'Khandaq خندق in history, because the Holy Prophet ﷺ had decided in consultation with his Companions ؓ that a khandaq خندق or trench be dug around parts of Madinah to block the unhindered attack of the enemy during this battle.

According to narrations in al-Baihaqi, Abu Nu'aim and Ibn Khuzaimah, when the task of digging the trench was entrusted to the Islamic army, the plan was to allot the digging of a forty hand-span long trench to a group of ten men each. This trench was several miles long and fairly deep and wide, so that the enemy would find it impossible to cross over. Then, the digging had to be completed in the shortest possible time which made the noble Companions ؓ put in whatever time and energy they had in this effort, so much so that they found it difficult to leave the job and take time for even the most pressing of their needs. They were working non-stop on hungry stomachs. Surely, a modern army engineering service with its latest equipment would have not found this kind of job any easier to handle. Here, it was the power of faith which made the completion of this difficult assignment possible.

The Holy Prophet ﷺ was taking part in this digging operation as an individual like everybody else. By chance, the diggers came upon a huge rock in a certain part of the trench. Those who were assigned to dig that part of the trench tried their best to break it apart but they became helpless and gave up. They asked Sayyidna Salman al-Farisi to go to the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، tell him about the problem and seek his instructions in this connection. The Holy Prophet ﷺ immediately came at the spot, took the pick-axe in his blessed hands and struck at the rock. The rock was shat-tered into pieces and from it rose a streak of light which illuminated the area far and wide. The Holy Prophet ﷺ said: In this light, I see the palaces and buildings of Hirah in the country of Persia. He struck again and a second beam of light rose. He said: 'In this light, I was shown the red palaces and buildings of the Byzantinians.' When he struck the third time and the flame beamed its light around, he said: 'In this I was shown the great palaces of San'a in Yemen.' Then, he said: 'I share the good news given by Jibra'il. (علیہ السلام) with you that my community of Muslims will prevail over all these countries.'

When the hypocrites of Madinah heard about it, they found an occasion to ridicule Muslims - 'just look at these people, here they are all scared of the enemy, digging trenches without eating and resting, not knowing for sure if their own lives will be safe, yet they are dreaming of running over Persia, Byzantine and Yemen!' It was in answer to a people so unfair and unjust that Allah Almighty revealed the verse:

قُلِ اللَّـهُمَّ مَالِكَ الْمُلْكِ تُؤْتِي الْمُلْكَ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتَنزِعُ الْمُلْكَ مِمَّن تَشَاءُ وَتُعِزُّ مَن تَشَاءُ وَتُذِلُّ مَن تَشَاءُ ۖ بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ‌ ۖ إِنَّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ‌ ﴿26﴾

Say: "0 Allah, 0 Lord of the Kingdom, You give kingdom to whom You will, and take kingdom away from whom You will; and You bestow honour on whom You will, and bring disgrace to whom You will. In Your hand lies the good. You are surely powerful over everything." (3 : 26)

Appearing in the form of a prayer, this verse so eloquently brings into focus the most perfect power of Allah as it manifests itself in the rise and fall of nations and in the revolutions that rock countries. At the same time it gives a hint that the prophecy made by the Holy Prophet ﷺ will come to pass and Persia and Byzantine will .fall to Muslims. Here, enemies of Islam have been warned that they have not learnt their lesson from the rise and fall of past wielders of power for they judge events and personalities from the material angle while the truth is that all powers and governments of the world are in the hands of the most pristine power of Allah, the One in whose hands lies all honour and disgrace. There is no doubt that He is capable of making the poor and the meek sit on thrones and wrest power from kings and monarchs. Why then, should it be difficult for him to choose these ragged believers digging trenches to rule over Persia, Syria, Iraq and Yemen?

Things usually considered bad, may ultimately prove not to be that bad:

Towards the end of the verse, the expression بِيَدِكَ الْخَيْرُ‌ translated as ` in Your hand lies the good' needs some explanation. It will be noticed that in the earlier part of the verse both giving and taking of power and bestowing of honour and bringing of disgrace were mentioned side by side. It would have seemed in keeping with the occasion if the word, شر ‘sharr’ (evil) would have been coupled with 'khair' (good). But, the text elects to use the word, 'khair' (good) alone and thereby points out to something real and significant in human affairs. The point worth noting is that a person or a people may regard something as unwelcome, and it may even be so for that particular person or people, but looked at from the wider angle of the whole community of nations, it may not be really evil. The Arab poet, Mutanabbi has put it very succinctly when he said:

مصایب قوم عند قوم فواید

The calamities of one group are the gains of another.

In short, the evil of things we regard as evil is partial. Looked at from its relationship to the Creator of the Universe and the Lord of all there is, and viewed in the perspective of the totality of the world of our experience, nothing is really evil or bad as such. So given the wis-dom, the power and the consideration of the created universe as a whole, everything is good, 'khair' as the verse sees sufficient to say.

All kinds of honour and power lie in the hand of God. Those who are considered insignificant by the leaders of the time can be entitled to the highest honour and eminence by the grace of God. In the eyes of God, it is those who regard such attainments as being purely and simply the gifts of God who are deserving of honour and power. The most undeserving of honour and power are those who consider them to be their own acquisitions. In the vaster universe, God daily performs the miracle, on a colossal scale, of bringing darkness after light and light after darkness (i.e. the alternation of day and night). He brings into existence life from dead elements and causes living things to die. There is nothing surprising about it if this same power of God manifests itself among human beings. But those who exchange falsehoods in the name of truth always turn against the call of truth. The preacher of truth may ultimately be rendered homeless and his economic resources may be cut off. But such an individual is always under the direct guardianship of God, who provides for him His special succour. While others are provided for according to their efforts, a messenger of truth is provided for by God ‘without measure’.