Tafsir of Surah Al-An'am - Verse 2

Which was revealed in Makkah

The Virtue of Surat Al-An`am and When it Was Revealed

Al-`Awfi, `Ikrimah and `Ata' said that Ibn `Abbas said, "Surat Al-An`am was revealed in Makkah" At-Tabarani recorded that Ibn `Abbas said, "All of Surat Al-An`am was revealed in Makkah at night, accompanied by seventy thousand angels, raising their voices in glorification of Allah" As-Suddi said that Murrah said that `Abdullah said, "Surat Al-An`am was revealed in the company of seventy thousand angels."

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

All Praise is Due to Allah for His Glorious Ability and Great Power

Allah praises and glorifies His Most Honorable Self for creating the heavens and earth, as a dwelling for His servants, and for making the darkness and the light to benefit them in the night and the day. In this Ayah, Allah describes darkness in the plural, Zulumat where Zulmah is singular for darkness, while describing the light in the singular, An-Nur, because An-Nur is more honored. In other Ayat, Allah said,

ظِلَـلُهُ عَنِ الْيَمِينِ

(To the right and to the lefts.) 16:48 Near the end of this Surah (chapter 6), Allah also said;

وَأَنَّ هَـذَا صِرَطِي مُسْتَقِيمًا فَاتَّبِعُوهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ السُّبُلَ فَتَفَرَّقَ بِكُمْ عَن سَبِيلِهِ

(And verily, this is my straight path, so follow it, and follow no (other) ways, for they will separate you away from His way.) 6:153 Allah said next,

ثْمَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ بِرَبِّهِمْ يَعْدِلُونَ

(Yet those who disbelieve hold others as equal with their Lord.) meaning, in spite of all this, some of Allah's servants disbelieve in Him and hold others as partners and rivals with Him. Some of Allah's servants claimed a wife and a son for Allah, hallowed be He far above what they attribute to Him. Allah's statement,

هُوَ الَّذِى خَلَقَكُمْ مِّن طِينٍ

(He it is Who has created you from clay,) refers to the father of mankind, Adam, from whom mankind originated, multiplied in numbers and spread about, east and west. Allah said,

ثُمَّ قَضَى أَجَلاً وَأَجَلٌ مُّسمًّى عِندَهُ

(Then has decreed a stated term. And there is with Him another determined term...) His saying;

ثُمَّ قَضَى أَجَلاً

(Then has decreed a stated term,) refers to death, while,

وَأَجَلٌ مُّسمًّى عِندَهُ

(And there is with Him another determined term...) refers to the Hereafter, according to Sa`id bin Jubayr who reported this from Ibn `Abbas. Similar statements were narrated from Mujahid, `Ikrimah, Sa`id bin Jubayr, Al-Hasan, Qatadah, Ad-Dahhak, Zayd bin Aslam, `Atiyyah, As-Suddi, Muqatil bin Hayyan and others. Ibn `Abbas and Mujahid said that,

ثُمَّ قَضَى أَجَلاً

(And then has decreed a stated term,) is the term of this earthly life, while,

وَأَجَلٌ مُّسمًّى عِندَهُ

(And there is with Him another determined term) refers to man's extent of life until he dies as mentioned in Allah's statement;

وَهُوَ الَّذِى يَتَوَفَّـكُم بِالَّيْلِ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا جَرَحْتُم بِالنَّهَارِ

(It is He, Who takes your souls by night (when you are asleep), and has knowledge of all that you have done by day, then He raises (wakes) you up again that a term appointed (life) be fulfilled.) 6:60 The meaning of Allah's statement,

عِندَهُ

(With Him) is that none but Him knows when it will occur. Allah said in other Ayat,

إِنَّمَا عِلْمُهَا عِنْدَ رَبِّي لاَ يُجَلِّيهَا لِوَقْتِهَآ إِلاَّ هُوَ

(The knowledge thereof is with my Lord. None can reveal its time but He.) 7:187, and,

يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ السَّاعَةِ أَيَّانَ مُرْسَـهَا - فِيمَ أَنتَ مِن ذِكْرَاهَا - إِلَى رَبِّكَ مُنتَهَـهَآ

(They ask you about the Hour -- when will be its appointed time You have no knowledge to say anything about it. To your Lord belongs (the knowledge of) the term thereof.) 79:42-44 Allah said,

ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ تَمْتَرُونَ

(Yet you doubt.) the coming of the (last) Hour, according to As-Suddi. Allah said next,

وَهُوَ اللَّهُ فِى السَّمَـوَتِ وَفِى الاٌّرْضِ يَعْلَمُ سِرَّكُمْ وَجَهْرَكُمْ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَكْسِبُونَ

(And He is Allah in the heavens and the earth, He knows what you conceal and what you reveal, and He knows what you earn.) Meaning, it is He Who is called Allah, throughout the heavens and the earth, that is, it is He who is worshipped, singled out, whose divinity is believed in by the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth. They call Him Allah, and they supplicate to Him in fear and hope, except those who disbelieve among the Jinns and mankind. In another Ayah, Allah said;

وَهُوَ الَّذِى فِى السَّمآءِ إِلَـهٌ وَفِى الاٌّرْضِ إِلَـهٌ

(It is He Who is God in the heavens and the earth.)43:84 meaning, He is the God of those in heaven and those on earth, and He knows all affairs, public and secret.

وَيَعْلَمُ مَا تَكْسِبُونَ

(And He knows what you earn) all the good and bad deeds that you perform.

In the first verse, by saying that all those great bodies of things in this big universe created by Allah Ta` ala on Whom they depend, an open and correct lesson has been given to all human beings. After that, in other verses which follow, human beings have been told that their very own being is a small universe. If one were to make a start from this point, right from the beginning to the end - birth, living, death among a great mesh of internal dimensions and distances - it would show that the belief in the Oneness of Allah is a reality all too clear. It is about this that the verse said: هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن طِينٍ ثُمَّ قَضَىٰ أَجَلًا ; (He is the One who created you from clay, then destined a term). The verse is saying that Allah is the One who created Sayyidna Adam (علیہ السلام) with clay, and then, gave him life - and common human food comes from the moist substance of clay, and from food the sperm, and from the sperm comes the creation of the human being.

Sayyidna Abu Musa al-Ash'ari ؓ عنہ says that he has heard from the Holy Prophet ﷺ that Allah Ta` ala created Sayyidna Adam (علیہ السلام) from a particular blend of clay included wherein are essential ingredients of the whole earth. This is the reason why the children of Adam are different in colour, shape, morals and habits with some black or white or red, and some hard or soft or good-natured or evil-tempered. (Mazhari, from a narration of Ibn ` Adiyy, with good authority)

This was about the human origin. After that, mentioned here are the two stages at the end. One of these is the personal end of a human being which is called death. The other stage is the combined end of the entire humankind along with that of all cosmic servants waiting on them, which is known as the Qiyamah (the day of Doom). The expression - ` the personal end of a human being' - is used here because Allah Ta` ala destined a term for his or her life (on the earth). Reaching the completion of this term is death - though human beings do not know it - but, the angels do. In fact, a human being too, in a way, knows death as incidents of the children of Adam dying all around, everywhere, all the time, are common experience.

After that, comes the mention of the end of the whole world, that is, the Qiyamah, in the following words: وَأَجَلٌ مُّسَمًّى عِندَهُ , that is, there is yet another term which stands fixed and which is known to Allah alone. The full knowledge of this ` term' has not been given to any angel, or human being.

Summing up in a sequence, we can say that, in the first verse, we have been told about the ` big universe', that is, the whole wide world, which has been created and made by Allah Ta` ala. Then, in the second verse, very similarly, we have been told that the ` small universe', that is, the human beings, have also been created by Allah. Then, it is to shake human beings out of their negligence that they have been told that every human being has a particular age, after which death is certain. This is a constant fact of life observed by human beings all the time. The words: وَأَجَلٌ مُّسَمًّى عِندَهُ ۖ ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ تَمْتَرُ‌ونَ (And the fixed term lies with Him, yet you are in doubt) carry the instruction that using the personal death of a human being as the proof of the general and collective death of the whole world system, that is, the Qiyamah, is something very natural and logical. Therefore, there is absolutely no doubt about the coming of the Qiyamah (the much publicized but least believed ` Apocalypse' of the West). Therefore, towards the end of the verse (2), the text wonders as to why would people keep doubting the coming of Qiyamah which stands proved so clearly.

The age of the present world is limited. Here life cannot be devoid of grief. Here unpleasantness goes along with pleasantness. Evil cannot be separated from goodness nor goodness from evil. In such circumstances, man is unable to understand how the eternal world of the Hereafter, which will be free from grief ( 35:34 ) can come into existence. If the world of the Hereafter is to be created with some matter other than that of this world, that is something beyond man’s ken; but if the other world of the Hereafter is to be created from the matter of this world, it has to be conceded that this world in itself lacks the capacity to bring into existence a world of total perfection. The very existence of the raiser of this issue is in itself an answer to this question. The body of a human being is wholly made of earth elements but it has unique properties, none of which is found in the earth. Man hears; he speaks; and he thinks; he performs wonderful acts, though the earth with which he is made is not capable of performing these acts. From earthen elements a non-earthly creature has wondrously emerged. This is a matter confirmed by everyday experience. In view of this, how strange it is that man should harbour doubts about the advent of the Hereafter. If a living and active man comes into existence from earth; if fragrant flowers and luscious fruits emerge from earth, then why cannot a more perfect world emerge from our present world? The message of God and the Hereafter, issued directly by God Himself, is accompanied by clear signs which establish it as a true call from the Almighty. Its being on the lines of nature on which the system of God’s eternal world is established; its being supported by arguments that cannot be countered by anybody; its being backed by a preacher of God’s word whose seriousness and sincerity are above doubt; its repeated survival of the destructive plans of its opponents, despite their superior power—all these are clear indications of its being based on truth. Inspite of all this, man does not believe in it and is not willing to support it. The reason for this is that all these proofs, in spite of all their clarity, always appear through a veil of cause and effect. When these signs come to a man’s attention, he attributes them to certain causes and pays no heed to them. He does not become inclined to accept their validity. Instead of accepting the call he would say that had this call been on behalf of God, then God and His angels would have been visible to the naked eye. But this idea is absolutely meaningless, because when God and His angels appear in all their glory, it will be the time for the final rendering of accounts and not for giving a call of Truth or for preaching about the greatness of God.