21 O ye people! adore your Guardian-Lord who created you
and those who came before you that ye may have the chance to learn righteousness. 40
22 Who has made the earth your couch and the heaven your canopy; and sent down rain from
the heavens; and brought forth therewith fruits for your sustenance; then set not up
rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth). 41
23 And if ye are in doubt as to what We have revealed from time to time to Our servant
then produce a Surah like thereunto; and call your witnesses or helpers (if there are any)
besides Allah if your (doubts) are true. 42
24 But if ye cannot and of a surety ye cannot then fear the fire whose fuel is Men and
Stones which is prepared for those who reject Faith. 43
25 But give glad tidings to those who believe and work righteousness that their portion is
Gardens beneath which rivers flow. Every time they are fed with fruits therefrom they say:
"Why this is what we were fed with before" for they are given things in
similitude; and they have therein companions (pure and holy); and they abide therein (for
ever). 44
26 Allah disdains not to use the similitude of things lowest as well as highest. Those who
believe know that it is truth from their Lord; but those who reject Faith say: "What
means Allah by this similitude?" By it He causes many to stray and many He leads into
the right path but He causes not to stray except those who forsake (the path). 45
27 Those who break Allah's Covenant after it is ratified and who sunder what Allah has
ordered to be joined and do mischief on earth: These cause loss (only) to themselves.
28 How can ye reject the faith in Allah? Seeing that ye were without life and He gave you
life; then will He cause you to die and will again bring you to life; and again to Him
will ye return. 46
29 It is He who hath created for you all things that are on earth; moreover His design
comprehended the heavens for He gave order and perfection to the seven firmaments; and of
all things he hath perfect knowledge.
30 Behold thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said "Wilt thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? Whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not." 47
Commentry:
40 For Taqwa see ii. 2 n. 26. I connect this dependent clause
with "adore, etc." above, though it could be connected with "created".
According to my construction the argument will be as follows. Adoration is the act of the
highest and humblest reverence and worship. When you get into that relationship with God,
Who is your Creator and Guardian, your faith produces works of righteousness. It is a
chance given you: will you exercise your free will and take it? If you do, your whole
nature will be transformed. (2.21)
41 Further proofs of God's goodness to you are given in this verse. Your
whole life, physical and spiritual, depends upon Him. The spiritual is figured by the
Canopy of Heaven. The truth has been brought plainly before you. Will you still resist it
and go after false gods, the creation of your own fancy? The false gods may be idols,
supersititions, Self, or even great or glorious things like Poetry, Art, or Science, when
set up as rivals to God. They may be pride of race, pride of birth, pride of wealth or
position, pride of power, pride of learning, or even spiritual pride. (2.22)
42 How do we know that there is revelation, and that is from God? Here is
a concrete test. The Teacher of God's Truth has placed before you many Suras. Can you
produce one like it? If there is any one besides God, who can inspire spiritual truth in
such noble language, produce your evidence. Or is it that your doubts are merely
argumentative, refractory, against your own inner light, or conscience? All true
revelation is itself a miracle, and stands on its own merits. (2.23)
43 If by your own efforts you cannot match the spiritual light, and yet
contumaciously reject spiritual Faith, then there will be a fire in your souls, the
Punishment that burns up all your cherished idols. Perhaps you will at least fear this
penalty, which your self-loving souls can understand. This fire consumes both the
worshippers of the False and the Idols which they falsely worship. Can this bring them to
their senses? Its power is not only over the feeling, palpitating heart of man (heart in a
spiritual sense, as it persists long after the physical heart), but he cannot escape from
it even if he imagines himself reduced to inertness like sticks or stones; for it is
all-devouring. (2.24)
44 This is the antithesis to the last verse. If fire is the symbol of
Punishment, the Garden is the symbol of felicity. And what can be more delightful than a
Garden where you observe from a picturesque height a beautiful landscape round you, -
rivers flowing with cyrstal water, and fruit trees of which the choicest fruit is before
you. The fruit of goodness is goodness, similar, but choicer in every degree of ascent.
You think it is the same, but it is because of your past experiences and associations of
memory. Then there is companionship. If sex is suggested, its physical associations are at
once negatived by the addition of the word Mutahharatun "pure and holy." The
Arabic epithet is in the intensive form, and must be translated by two adjectives denoting
purity in the highest degree. The Companionship is that of souls and applies to both sexes
in the physical world of men and women. And this felicity is not a mere passing phase but
will abide beyond the realms of Time. (2.25)
45 The word for "the lowest" in the original Arabic means a
gnat, a byword in the Arabic language for the weakest of creatures. In xxix 41, which was
revealed before this Sura, the similtutde of the Spider was used, and similarly in xxii
73, there is the similitude of the Fly. For similitudes taken from magnificent forces of
nature, expressed in exalted language, see ii. 19 above. To God all His creation has some
special meaning appropriate to itself, and some of what we consider the lowest creatures
have wonderful aptitudes, e.g., the spider of the fly. Parables like these may be an
occasion of stumbling to those "who forsake the path"; in other words those who
deliberately shut their eyes to God's Signs, and their Penalty is attributed to God, the
Cause of all causes. But lest there should be misunderstanding, it is immediately added
that the stumbling and offence only occur as the result of the sinner's own choice of the
wrong course. Verses 26 and 27 form one sentence and should be read together.
"Forsaking the path" is defined in ii. 27, viz., breaking solemn covenants which
the sinner's own soul had ratified, causing division among mankind, who were meant to be
one brotherhood, and doing as much mischief as possible in the life on this earth, for the
life beyond will be on another plane, where no rope will be given to evil. (2.26)
46 In the preceeding verses God has used various arguments. He has
recalled His goodness (ii. 21-22); resolved doubts (ii. 23); plainly set forth the penalty
of wrong-doing (ii. 24); given glad tidings (ii. 25), shown how misunderstandings arise
from a deliberate rejection of the light and breach of the Covenant (ii. 26-27). Now (ii.
28-29) He pleads with His creatures and appeals to their own subjective feelings. He
brought you into being. The mysteries of life and death are in His hands. When you die on
this earth, that is not the end. You were of Him, and you must return to Him. Look around
you and realize your own dignity; it is from Him. The immeasurable depths of space above
and around you may stagger you. They are part of His plan. What you have imagined as the
seven firmaments (and any other scheme you may construct) bears witness to His design of
order and perfection, for His knowledge (unlike yours) is all-comprehending. And yet will
you deliberately reject or obscure or deaden the faculty of Faith which has been put into
you? (2.28)
47 It would seem that the angels, though holy and pure, and endued with
power from God, yet represented only one side of Creation. We may imagine them without
passion or emotion, of which the highest flower is love. If man was to be endued with
emotions, those emotions would lead him to the highest and drag him to the lowest. The
power of will or choosing would have to go with them, in order that man might steer his
own bark. This power of will (when used aright) gave him to some extent a mastery over his
own fortunes and over nature, thus bringing him nearer to the God-like nature which has
supreme mastery and will. We may suppose the angels had no independent wills of their own;
their perfection in other ways reflected God's perfection but could not raise them to the
dignity of vicegerency. The perfect vicegerent is he who has the power of initiative
himself, but whose independent action always reflects perfectly the will of his Principal.
The distinction is expressed by Shakespeare (Sonnet 94) in those fine lines: "They
are the lords and owners of their faces. Others but stewards of their excellence."
The angels in their one-sidedness saw only the mischief consequent on the misuse of the
emotional nature by man; perhaps they also, being without emotions, did not understand the
whole of God's nature, which gives and asks for love. In humility and true devotion to
God, they remonstrate; we must not imagine the least tinge of jealousy, as they are
without emotion. This mystery of love being above them, they are told that they do not
know and they acknowledge (in ii. 32 below) not their fault (for there is no question of
fault) but their imperfection of knowledge. At the same time, the matter is brought home
to them when the actual capacities of man are shown to them (ii. 31, 33). (2.30)