Tafsir of Surah Al-An'am - Verse 130

Chastising the Jinns and Humans after their Admission that Allah Sent Messengers to Them

Allah will chastise the disbelieving Jinns and humans on the Day of Resurrection, when He asks them, while having better knowledge, if the Messengers delivered His Messages to them,

يَـمَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ وَالإِنْسِ أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِّنْكُمْ

("O you assembly of Jinn and humans! Did not there come to you Messengers from among you") We should note here that the Messengers are from among mankind only, not vice versa, as Mujahid, Ibn Jurayj and others from the Imams of Salaf and later generations have stated. The proof for this is that Allah said,

إِنَّآ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَيْكَ كَمَآ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَى نُوحٍ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ مِن بَعْدِهِ

(Verily, We have sent the revelation to you as We sent the revelation to Nuh and the Prophets after him.) 4:163, until,

رُّسُلاً مُّبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ لِئَلاَّ يَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ حُجَّةٌ بَعْدَ الرُّسُلِ

(Messengers as bearers of good news as well as of warning in order that mankind should have no plea against Allah after the (coming of) Messengers.) 4:165 Allah said, concerning the Prophet Ibrahim,

وَجَعَلْنَا فِى ذُرِّيَّتِهِ النُّبُوَّةَ وَالْكِتَـبَ

(And We ordained among his offspring prophethood and the Book) 29: 27, thus sending the prophethood and the Book exclusively through the offspring of the Prophet Ibrahim. No one has claimed that there were Prophets from among the Jinns before the time of Ibrahim, but not after that. Allah said,

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلاَّ إِنَّهُمْ لَيَأْكُلُونَ الطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشُونَ فِى الاٌّسْوَاقِ

(And We never sent before you any of the Messengers but verily, they ate food and walked in the markets.) 25:20, and,

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ إِلاَّ رِجَالاً نُّوحِى إِلَيْهِمْ مِّنْ أَهْلِ الْقُرَى

(And We sent not before you any but men unto whom We revealed, from among the people of townships.) 12:109 Therefore, concerning prophethood, the Jinns follow mankind in this regard and this is why Allah said about them,

وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَآ إِلَيْكَ نَفَراً مِّنَ الْجِنِّ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقُرْءَانَ فَلَمَّا حَضَرُوهُ قَالُواْ أَنصِتُواْ فَلَمَّا قُضِىَ وَلَّوْاْ إِلَى قَوْمِهِم مُّنذِرِينَ - قَالُواْ يقَوْمَنَآ إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا كِتَـباً أُنزِلَ مِن بَعْدِ مُوسَى مُصَدِّقاً لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ يَهْدِى إِلَى الْحَقِّ وَإِلَى طَرِيقٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ - يقَوْمَنَآ أَجِيبُواْ دَاعِىَ اللَّهِ وَءَامِنُواْ بِهِ يَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ مِّن ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَيُجِرْكُمْ مِّنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ - وَمَن لاَّ يُجِبْ دَاعِىَ اللَّهِ فَلَيْسَ بِمُعْجِزٍ فِى الاٌّرْضَ وَلَيْسَ لَهُ مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَآءُ أُوْلَـئِكَ فِى ضَلَـلٍ مُّبِينٍ

(And (remember) when We sent towards you a group of the Jinn, listening to the Qur'an. When they stood in the presence thereof, they said: "Listen in silence!" And when it was finished, they returned to their people, as warners. They said: "O our people! Verily, we have heard a Book sent down after Musa, confirming what came before it, it guides to the truth and to the straight way. O our people! Respond to Allah's caller, and believe in him. He (Allah) will forgive you your sins, and will save you from a painful torment (i.e. Hell-fire). And whosoever does not respond to Allah's caller, he cannot escape on earth, and there will be no helpers for him besides Allah. Those are in manifest error.) 46:29-32 A Hadith collected by At-Tirmidhi stated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited Surat Ar-Rahman, to these Jinns, in which Allah said,

سَنَفْرُغُ لَكُمْ أَيُّهَا الثَّقَلاَنِ فَبِأَىِّ ءَالاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

(We shall attend to you, O you two classes (Jinn and men)! Then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both (Jinn and men) deny) 55:31-32 Allah said in this honorable Ayah,

يَـمَعْشَرَ الْجِنِّ وَالإِنْسِ أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِّنْكُمْ يَقُصُّونَ عَلَيْكُمْ آيَـتِي وَيُنذِرُونَكُمْ لِقَآءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَـذَا قَالُواْ شَهِدْنَا عَلَى أَنْفُسِنَا

(O you assembly of Jinn and humans! "Did not there come to you Messengers from amongst you, reciting unto you My verses and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours" They will say: "We bear witness against ourselves.") meaning, we affirm that the Messengers ﷺ have conveyed Your Messages to us and warned us about the meeting with You, and that this Day will certainly occur. Allah said next,

وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَوةُ الدُّنْيَا

(It was the life of this world that deceived them.) and they wasted their lives and brought destruction to themselves by rejecting the Messengers ﷺ and denying their miracles. This is because they were deceived by the beauty, adornment and lusts of this life.

وَشَهِدُواْ عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ

(And they will bear witness against themselves) on the Day of Resurrection,

أَنَّهُمْ كَانُواْ كَـفِرِينَ

(that they were disbelievers...) in this worldly life, rejecting what the Messengers, may Allah's peace and blessings be on them, brought them.

Mentioned in the second verse (130), is a question which will be asked of the Jinn and human beings on the plains of Resurrection.

They will be asked to show the reason why they chose to disbelieve and disobey Allah Ta` ala. They were told that they could not deny that Divinely ordained messengers from among them did reach them, messengers who recited to them the verses of Allah and warned them of that day of reckoning. In the reply to this question, mentioned there is their confession that the messengers did come, they did tell them the truth, and that they were involved with disbelief and disobedience. But, no reason for this wrongdoing was given from their side. Instead, Allah Ta` ala has Himself given its reason by saying: وَگَرَّتھُمُ الحَیاۃُ الدُنیُا (And the worldly life had deceived them). It means that the charms of their transitory life had put them on the wrong track. They thought that it was everything, which was really nothing, and that made them heedless to their end.

There is something noteworthy here. There are other verses in the Qur'an which say that the disbelievers will deny their Kufr and Shirk when asked to explain it on the day of Resurrection and before their Lord, they would lie by saying: وَاللَّـهِ رَ‌بِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِ‌كِي that is, ` we swear by Allah, our Lord, we were no mushriks (of those who ascribe partners to Him).' Now, this verse tells us that they would be ashamed of their Kufr and Shirk and will confess their error. On the outside, this seems to be contradictory. But, there are further explanations in other verses of the Qur'an that they would initially deny when asked, but, when Allah Ta` ala - in His perfect power - would make them speechless, witnesses will come from different parts of their own body. Then, Allah will give them their speech back and they will tell everything about their misdeed openly and clearly. Then, the Jinn and human beings will find out that all parts of their body were really the private eyes of the created system which finally produced the true evidence on every-thing about them. Then, left with no choice to deny, they will confess.

Are there messengers of Allah among the Jinn too?

Something else to be considered here is that, in this verse, Allah Ta` ala has addressed both Jinnkind and mankind and asked them about messengers (rusul) coming to them, messengers of Allah who were from among them. This shows that messengers have been sent to the Jinnkind from among their own kind - as is the case with human-kind among whom the messengers were sent from among them, that is, they were human beings.

On this question, the ` Ulama' of Tafsir and Hadith differ. Some say that Rasul (messenger) and Nabiyy (prophet) have always been human. There has been no Ras O appointed directly from among the Jinnkind. Instead, what has happened is that there have been Jinns charged with the mission of getting reports of the message of truth conveyed by human prophets and messengers and take it to their kind. They were really, in that way, couriers and message-bearers of a Rasul. Therefore, they too are called rasul or carrier of a message, within the literal sense of the word in Arabic. The proof of the position taken by these respected scholars comes from the verses of the Qur'an where sayings of the Jinn that they conveyed the Qur'an or the saying of the prophet to their kind have been mentioned, for example: وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِم مُّنذِرِ‌ينَ and they returned to their people to warn them - 46:29), and in the verse of Surah Al-Jinn: فَقَالُوا إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا قُرْ‌آنًا عَجَبًا ﴿1﴾ يَهْدِي إِلَى الرُّ‌شْدِ فَآمَنَّا بِهِ they said: Indeed, we have heard a wonderful Qur'an that leads to rectitude, so in it we believe - 72:1).

But, there is a group of ` Ulama' who, given the outward meaning of this verse, also believe that, before the appearance of the Last among Prophets (علیہم السلام) ، each of the two species had their messengers from among them. To human beings came messengers who were human beings, and to the different classes of the Jinn, messengers were sent from among their kind only. It is the distinction of the Last among Prophets ﷺ that he was sent as the only Rasul for all human beings and the Jinn of the whole world - and that too was not limited for one given time - in fact, all human beings and the Jinn born right up to the Last Day of Qiyamah shall be his community and he alone shall be the Rasul and Nabiyy for them.

Related Notes on Hindu Autars

Leading scholars of Tafsir, Kalabi and Mujahid hold that the Au-tars of Hindus are generally from the Jinns. Qadi Thana'ullah of Panipat, in his Tafsir Mazhari, has followed this view. According to him, it proves that, before Sayyidna Adam (علیہ السلام) the messengers of the Jinn used to be from their kind only. Then, it is proved that the Jinn inhabited the earth thousands of years before human beings - and since they too are obligated to observe the percepts of the injunctions of the Shari'ah like human beings, it is necessary on the basis of reason and revelation that they too should have prophets and messengers among them in order to convey the commandments of Allah Ta` ala.

Qadi Thana'ullah Panipati has said that the Hindus of India claim the history of their Vedas as thousands of years old. According to them their religious deities they called Autar date back to the same early time. It is not far out to say that they may be these very prophets and messengers of the Jinnkind, and may be the instructions brought by them were put together in the form of some book. The images and idols of اوتار Autars of Hindus placed in temples have particular patterns. Some are represented with several faces, others with many hands and feet, while still others would have other features such as a trunk like that of an elephant. They are very different from common human shapes. That the Jinn could transform themselves into such shapes is not beyond the range of probability. Therefore, saying that their Autar might be the prophets, messengers or their deputies who came to serve the Jinnkind - and their book itself be the collection of their instructions - is not so far out either. Then, gradually, as there were alterations in other books, alterations were made here too and what was left of it was idolatry and Shirk.

However, even if that original book and the authentic instructions left by those messengers were present, they would have stood abrogated after the appearance of the Holy Prophet LI and the universal application of his prophethood. And that it would have become impossible to act in accordance with it after its having been deformed and altered is something evident by itself.

On Doomsday, when the veil is torn from reality, it will be clear that those who had gone astray, or had misguided others, did not do so because of any misunderstanding. The reason for this was not their being unaware of the truth but their deliberately ignoring it. They could not rise above worldly pomp and show; they could not forego timely benefits. The guidance provided by God through His special subjects was so clear that nobody could have remained unaware of realities, but their worship of the world drew a veil over their eyes; in spite of knowing, they became unaware; in spite of listening, they did not hear. In the Hereafter, they will be shorn of the artificial supports on the strength of which they had remained careless of the Truth. Then it will be pointed out how the Truth had appeared before them and how they had rejected it with the help of false words; how, though their mistake had been explained to them, they still thought that they had been successful in justifying their stand by clever misrepresentations.