Tafsir of Surah Al-An'am - Verse 164

The Command to Sincerely Trust in Allah

Allah said,

قُلْ

(Say), O Muhammad , to those idolators, about worshipping Allah alone and trusting in Him,

أَغَيْرَ اللَّهِ أَبْغِى رَبًّا

(Shall I seek a lord other than Allah...) 6:164,

وَهُوَ رَبُّ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ

(while He is the Lord of all things ) and Who protects and saves me and governs all my affairs But, I only trust in Him and go back to Him, because He is the Lord of everything, Owner of all things and His is the creation and the decision. This Ayah commands sincerely trusting Allah, while the Ayah before it commands sincerely worshipping Allah alone without partners. These two meanings are often mentioned together in the Qur'an. Allah directs His servants to proclaim,

إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ

(You (alone) we worship, and You (alone) we ask for help (for each and every thing).) 1:5 Allah said,

فَاعْبُدْهُ وَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَيْهِ

(So worship Him and put your trust in Him.) 11:123, and

قُلْ هُوَ الرَّحْمَـنُ ءَامَنَّا بِهِ وَعَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْنَا

(Say: "He is the Most Gracious (Allah), in Him we believe, and in Him we put our trust".) 67:29, and,

رَّبُّ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ لاَ إِلَـهَ إِلاَّ هُوَ فَاتَّخِذْهُ وَكِيلاً

(Lord of the east and the west; none has the right to be worshipped but He. So take Him a guardian.) 73:9 There are similar Ayat on this subject.

Every Person Carries His Own Burden

Allah said,

وَلاَ تَكْسِبُ كُلُّ نَفْسٍ إِلاَّ عَلَيْهَا وَلاَ تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى

(No person earns any (sin) except against himself (only), and no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another.) thus emphasizing Allah's reckoning, decision and justice that will occur on the Day of Resurrection. The souls will only be recompensed for their deeds, good for good and evil for evil. No person shall carry the burden of another person, a fact that indicates Allah's perfect justice. Allah said in other Ayat,

وَإِن تَدْعُ مُثْقَلَةٌ إِلَى حِمْلِهَا لاَ يُحْمَلْ مِنْهُ شَىْءٌ وَلَوْ كَانَ ذَا قُرْبَى

(And if one heavily laden calls another to (bear) his load, nothing of it will be lifted even though he be near of kin.) 35:18, and,

فَلاَ يَخَافُ ظُلْماً وَلاَ هَضْماً

(Then he will have no fear of injustice, nor of any curtailment (of his reward).) 20:112 Scholars of Tafsir commented, "No person will be wronged by carrying the evil deeds of another person, nor will his own good deeds be curtailed or decreased." Allah also said;

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ رَهِينَةٌ - إِلاَّ أَصْحَـبَ الْيَمِينِ

(Every person is a pledge for what he has earned. Except those on the Right.) 74:38-39, meaning, every person will be tied to his evil deeds. But, for those on the right -- the believers -- the blessing of their good works will benefit their offspring and relatives, as well. Allah said in Surat At-Tur,

وَالَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَاتَّبَعَتْهُمْ ذُرِّيَّتُهُم بِإِيمَـنٍ أَلْحَقْنَا بِهِمْ ذُرِّيَّتَهُمْ وَمَآ أَلَتْنَـهُمْ مِّنْ عَمَلِهِم مِّن شَىْءٍ

(And those who believe and whose offspring follow them in faith, to them shall We join their offspring, and We shall not decrease the reward of their deeds in anything.) 52:21, meaning, We shall elevate their offspring to their high grades in Paradise, even though the deeds of the offspring were less righteous, since they shared faith with them in its general form. Allah says, We did not decrease the grades of these righteous believers so that those (their offspring and relatives) who have lesser grades, can share the same grades as them. Rather Allah elevated the lesser believers to the grades of their parents by the blessing of their parents' good works, by His favor and bounty. Allah said next (in Surat At-Tur),

كُلُّ امْرِىءٍ بِمَا كَسَبَ رَهَينٌ

(Every person is a pledge for that which he has earned.) 52:21, meaning, of evil. Allah's statement here,

ثُمَّ إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ مَّرْجِعُكُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ فِيهِ تَخْتَلِفُونَ

(Then unto your Lord is your return, so He will tell you that wherein you have been differing.) means, work you (disbelievers), and we will also work. Surely, both you and us will be gathered to Allah and He will inform us of our deeds and your deeds and the decision on what we used to dispute about in the life of this world. Allah said in other Ayat,

قُل لاَّ تُسْـَلُونَ عَمَّآ أَجْرَمْنَا وَلاَ نُسْـَلُ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ - قُلْ يَجْمَعُ بَيْنَنَا رَبُّنَا ثُمَّ يَفْتَحُ بَيْنَنَا بِالْحَقِّ وَهُوَ الْفَتَّاحُ الْعَلِيمُ

(Say: "You will not be asked about our sins, nor shall we be asked of what you do." Say: "Our Lord will assemble us all together, then He will judge between us with truth. And He is the Just Judge, the All-Knower of the true state of affairs.") 34:25-26.

One's Burden of Sin Cannot Be Borne By Another

The disbelievers of Makkah al-Mukarramah, with Walid ibn Mughirah among them, used to say to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and to the Muslims in general that they should return to their faith and they will bear the burden of all their sins. This has been answered in the fourth verse (164). It was said: قُلْ أَغَيْرَ‌ اللَّـهِ أَبْغِي رَ‌بًّا وَهُوَ رَ‌بُّ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ Here, the address is to the Holy Prophet ﷺ . He is being asked to tell them: ` Do you want me that I too, like yourself, seek and find some other Rabb, other than Allah, when He is the Lord of everything?. This is error and straying which you should not expect me to accept. As for your saying that you will bear the burden of our sins, this is absurd in itself. A sin committed by a person will be written in that person's record of deeds, and it will be he or she who will deserve its punishment. How can that sin be transferred to your account just by your saying so? And if the idea is that the sins will go in our account and in our Book of Deeds, but the punishment to be given against these will be borne by you, then, that idea is not valid either.' The next sentence in the verse rejects it. It was said: وَلَا تَزِرُ‌ وَازِرَ‌ةٌ وِزْرَ‌ أُخْرَ‌ىٰ that is, (on the day of Qiyamah) no bearer of burden (of sin) shall bear the burden of another).

As for the disbelievers, this verse does answer their absurd saying in its own way. But, it also tells Muslims at large about the rule that they too should not take the matters of Qiyamah on the analogy of their ways in the mortal world where one person commits a crime and succeeds in putting it on someone else - especially when the other per-son is willing to accept it. But, in the great Court of Allah, there is no room for it. There, the other person can never be caught for the sin committed by someone else. It is based on the authority of this verse that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said that the child born out of wedlock will not be affected by the sin of his or her parents. (This Hadith has been reported by Hakim from Sayyidah ` A'ishah ؓ عنہا based on sound authority).

When Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Umar ؓ ، saw someone crying at the Janazah of a deceased person, he said that the crying of the living causes punishment to the deceased. Ibn Abi Mulaykah says that, when he reported this saying to Sayyidah ` A'ishah ؓ she said: You are reporting the saying of a person who never lies, nor can there be any doubt in his integrity. But, there are occasions when one does not hear right. In this matter, the decisive verdict of the Qur'an is sufficient for you: وَلَا تَزِرُ‌ وَازِرَ‌ةٌ وِزْرَ‌ أُخْرَ‌ىٰ , that is, the sin of one person cannot be applied to another. So, how can the crying of a living person cause punishment to descend on a dead person just for no reason? (Ad-burr A1 Manthur)

At the conclusion of the verse, it was said that, finally they have to go to their Lord after all where they will find out the ultimate verdict on all their differences - which means that they would be better off keeping their verbal confrontation in check and devoting more to the end of things.

The system of this world is that one person goes away and another takes his place. One community is thrust aside and another community takes its place and captures the resources of the land. These incidents remind us again and again that here nobody’s dominance is permanent. But man’s behaviour is strange. When he sees some opportunity to advance himself, he forgets the fate of his forebears. He fabricates different types of arguments to justify oppression and arrogance. But when God lays bare the realities, man will see that his actions—which he had considered strong enough to justify his position—were meaningless. The reason for man’s arrogance in this world is that he thinks of the good things of this life as God’s reward. The fact is that whatever a man receives in this life is meant to be a test and not a reward. If a man considers the good things available to him in this life as his due, this will cause him to be proud, but if he considers them as a means of testing him, this will develop a sense of humility in him. While a proud mentality is marked by haughtiness, a humble attitude is marked by the willingness to obey God.