Surah An'am: An Argument for True Divinity

Context:
Surah An’am is a Meccan Surah which was revealed as a whole--165 verses long. It is recorded by At-Tabarani that Ibn Abbas said, “All of Surah Al An’am was revealed at night, accompanied by seventy thousand angels, raising their voices in glorification of Allah.”

The Surahs before had already covered the discussion of previous revelations and how the people of the previous revelations should have adhered to what was sent down and a sign for us to be mindful of adhering to the Quran. This Surah follows those discussions by turning its focus to the situation in which the Arabs found themselves, surrounded by idolaters.

 

Surah's Map:

Bounties as Signs of Divinity:
The people of Arabia had forgotten the bounties that Allah had bestowed upon them and after sometime, the worship of idols had become the norm.  Allah swt reminds mankind of the bounties that He has bestowed upon His creations. In verse 95-99 Allah swt explains how He brings forth sustenance for the earth, and in turn for all of His creation.

We should consider how Allah swt does not allow the reader of the verse to attribute His description to anything other than Him. Allah swt does not say that He brought forth the vegetation, as one would then attribute it to the seed. Rather, He says He brought the seed and caused it to open into vegetation.  He said He sends the sun and the moon as a passing of time which one might then relate back the rotation of the earth but Allah states in the verse, that it is He who causes the rotation of the earth, “He it is that cleveth the daybreak (from the dark)”. 

This is something for us to contemplate in each blessing in our lives; what is the very source of that blessing? We are the ones who pick the vegetables and cook the meals and eat our food, but where would we be if Allah swt had not caused that seed to split deep within the earth and then sent down the rain from heavens causing it to grow.

Faith in the One God:
In verse 122 Allah swt clarifies why He asks us to ponder on the splitting of the seed and the breaking of the dawn. “Is a dead person brought back to life by Us, and given light with which to walk among people, comparable to someone trapped in deep darkness who cannot escape? In this way the evil deeds of the disbelievers are made to seem alluring to them.”  Here we see the metaphor of a believing man and another who has no faith. Before faith and purpose, the former, was like a man walking in confusion and darkness, but by Allah’s Grace he was given the light that enabled him to see his path. The man who does not have faith walks in spiritual darkness and cannot walk a path without deviating from it. Allah has blessed us with the light of Islam and we must embrace the blessing and strive to share the light with those around us.

Fundamental Commandments:
Allah swt has used the previous versus to reaffirm the oneness of Allah, the Creator and the Sustainer of the Universe and all that is in it. He follows these versus by the peak of the Surah, verses 151 and 152, in which He sets forth the laws for mankind. Allah swt commands us to obey Him and we do so out of both fear and love for Him. He first prohibits partnering anything with Him and immediately follows this firm and undebatable statement with kindness to parents.

Why then do so many of us treat our parents with so little kindness and respect? What makes it okay for a child to disrespect his or her parents? Allah has honored them by placing the command of kind treatment towards parents directly after the command to put no partner with Him; a command that if one were to reject it they would be rejecting the faith.  He continues the ayah by reminding us to distance ourselves from shameful deeds, to protect and preserve life, and to protect the rights and property of the orphans.

Faith Followed by Action:
In verse 160 Allah swt encourages the believers to strive for good work and to follow His commands and obey His law, “Whoever brings a good deed shall have ten times the like thereof to his credit and whoever brings an evil deed shall have only recompense of the like thereof, and they will not be wronged” Allah knows the weakness of human beings and that we all commit sins but a believer should never lose hope.  Out of His generosity, Allah counts each sin as only one sin and Allah has made the weight of each of our good deeds multiplied. As we enjoy this blessed month of Ramadan we should recognize that none of us are perfect and we all have behaviors or habits that need to be perfected. Allah promised in the verse above, that each of our good deeds will be multiplied and in this blessed month they will be multiplied an even greater amount. Let us each chose a deed that we can add into our Ramadan routine that will bring us closer to Allah swt and try our best to carry that routine from this Ramadan until the next.

May Allah forgive us for our sins and help us to always walk in His path.

Imam Mohamed Magid

 

Edits and Labels by Osamah Saleh