Tafsir of Yunus 10:19

"And mankind was not but one nation, [united] upon guidance." This was from the era of Adam, peace be upon him, until Cain killed Abel. It is also said: until the time of Idris, peace be upon him. Another view is: until the time of Noah, peace be upon him, and they remained so for ten centuries. It is further said: they remained as such in his time, peace be upon him, after no disbeliever remained on the earth, until disbelief appeared among them. It is also said: from the time of Abraham, peace be upon him, until Amr ibn Luhayy introduced idol worship, which is what is narrated from Ata. According to this, the intended meaning of "mankind" is the Arabs specifically, which is the most appropriate interpretation given the context of mentioning the disgraceful acts attributed to them, thereby purifying the threshold of Divine Majesty from such things.

"Then they differed," by some of them disbelieving while others remained upon what they were, so each group opposed the other. The particle fa (then) denotes sequence, and it does not contradict the long duration of the agreement, for the intent is to state the occurrence of the disagreement following the end of the period of agreement, not immediately after its inception.

"And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord"—regarding the postponement of judgment between them or the decisive punishment until the Day of Resurrection, for it is the day of decision and recompense—"it would have been judged between them"—immediately—"concerning that over which they differ" [19], by sending down signs that compel them to follow the truth and resolve the disagreement, or by destroying the invalid while the righteous remain. The use of the future tense form is to narrate a past state and to signify continuity. The aspect of the verse’s connection to what preceded it is that it acts as a confirmation for what was indicated regarding monotheism being the true religion, as it shows that it is an ancient creed upon which all nations were gathered, and that polytheism and its branches are ignorances invented by the misguided, in opposition to the majority and causing schism in the community. It is also said: the aspect is that the Almighty, having previously explained the corruption of the people through idol worship, clarifies here that this path was not the path of the Arabs from the beginning; rather, they were upon the true religion free from idol worship, and its worship only occurred among them due to the whisperings of devils.

It is said: The purpose of this is that if the Arabs knew that what they are upon today did not exist among them before and only occurred after it was not, they would not be fanatical in supporting it and would not be offended by its falsification and invalidation. From al-Kalbi, it is narrated that the meaning of their being one nation is their agreement upon disbelief, and this was during the time of Abraham, peace be upon him. Something similar is narrated from al-Hasan, except that he said: They were like that from the time of Adam’s death until the time of Noah, peace be upon them; then those who believed, believed, and those who remained, remained in disbelief. The benefit of mentioning this speech in this context is to console the Prophet, peace be upon him, as if it were said: Do not covet that everyone you invite to faith and monotheism will respond to you and accept your religion, for all of mankind were upon disbelief, and faith only occurred in some of them thereafter; so how can you covet the agreement of all upon it? This has been objected to, as it would necessitate the earth being devoid of a believer in God Almighty or one who knows Him in some eras, whereas they have stated that the earth is never devoid of such a person at any time. It was answered that the [premise of] "not being devoid" is open to challenge, for it has been narrated in some traditions that before the Day of Resurrection, there will be no one among people saying "Allah, Allah." Even if that is conceded, the intended meaning of "agreement upon disbelief" is the agreement of the majority.

The truth is that this saying, in itself, is weak, so one should not bother defending the objections raised against it. Weaker still—and indeed it is barely sound—is that the intended meaning is that they were one nation and then differed by each inventing a separate sect of disbelief, because the speech is not about that kind of disagreement, for both parties would be invalid in that case, and it is inconceivable that He would judge between them by keeping the righteous and destroying the invalid, or by compelling one of them to follow the truth so that the disagreement ceases, as is clear.

Alif-Lam-Ra: Alif is an indication of the Essence which is the First of Existence. Lam is an indication of the Intellect called Gabriel, peace be upon him, which is the middle of existence that receives from the Source and overflows to the end. Ra is an indication of the Mercy which is the Muhammadan Essence; it is, in reality, the first, the middle, and the last, but the considerations are different. It is as if this is an oath from Him, the Almighty, by the Muhammadan Reality that what the Surah or the Quran contains of verses are the verses of the perfected Book. It is also said: the meaning is, what is indicated by these letters is the Book of the All-Wise, or the decisive one, and the majority of its details.

"Is it a wonder to the people that We revealed to a man from among them?" This is a rejection of their astonishment at the ongoing practice of God, which is the revelation to a man. This was because of their distance from his rank, the lack of correspondence between their state and his, and the contradiction of what he brought with what they believed. "That warn the people"—i.e., frighten them—"and give good tidings to those who believe that they will have a standing of truth with their Lord"—a great precedence and a proximity like no other has. It is also said: a precedence of mercy He deposited in Muhammad, peace be upon him. "The disbelievers said"—i.e., those veiled from God Almighty—"Indeed, this"—i.e., the Book that Muhammad, peace be upon him, brought—"is an obvious sorcery." Because they saw it as beyond their power and were veiled by demonization from arriving at the truth of the state, they said that.

"Indeed, your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days"—i.e., times, the measure of each day of which is one revolution of the Greatest Sphere, as the Greatest Shaykh has stated. Six is a perfect number, and God Almighty chose it because of the secrets it contains. "Then He established Himself above the Throne"—i.e., the Kingship—"arranging the matter" therein according to His wisdom, by the hand of His power. The Throne is sometimes interpreted as the heart of the Perfect Man, so the speech is an indication of the creation of man, in whom the entire world is folded.

"There is no intercessor" who intercedes for anyone to avert what harms them or bring what benefits them "except by His permission"—through the gift of preparedness by the reconciliation of causes. "That is Allah, your Lord"—who sustains you and arranges your affairs, so worship Him and single Him out for worship, and know Him by these attributes, and do not worship the devil, and do not be veiled from Him, the Almighty, and thus attribute His speech and actions to the devil. "Then will you not remember"—His signs which He inscribed by the hand of His power on the scrolls of the horizons and the souls, so that you may reflect upon them and refrain from associating others with Him, the Exalted.

"To Him is your return all together"—by returning to the source of absolute gathering in the minor resurrection, or to the source of the gathering of the Essence by annihilation in Him, the Almighty, at the major resurrection. Thus it is said. Some Gnostics said: The return of the lovers is to His Beauty, the return of the Gnostics is to His Majesty, the return of the monotheists is to His Greatness, the return of the fearful is to His Might, the return of the yearning is to His Union, the return of the beloveds is to His Nearness, and the return of the people of Divine Care is to His Essence. Junayd, may his secret be sanctified, said regarding the verse: It is from Him that the beginning starts and to Him is the end, and whatever is between them are the pastures of His grace and the recurrence of His favors.

"The promise of Allah is truth. Indeed, He begins creation then He repeats it"—i.e., He begins it in the first creation, then repeats it in the second, or He begins creation by His concealment and their manifestation, then repeats it by their annihilation and His manifestation—"so that He may reward those who believe and do righteous deeds with justice. And those who disbelieve will have a drink of scalding water and a painful punishment because they used to disbelieve." That is, He does that to reward the believer and the disbeliever according to what the work of each necessitates.

"It is He who made the sun a shining light"—i.e., He made the sun of the spirit a brightness of existence—"and the moon"—i.e., the moon of the heart—"a light and determined for it phases"—i.e., stations—"for you to know the number of years"—i.e., the years of your ranks and your stages in the journey to Him and in Him, the Almighty—"and the account"—i.e., the account of your degrees and the positions of your feet in every station and rank. It is said: He made the sun of the Essence a brightness for the Gnostic spirits, and made the moon of the Attributes a light for the hearts of the lovers. So the spirits were annihilated by the assault of the Essence in the Essence itself, and the hearts remained by witnessing the Attributes in the Attributes themselves. This sun referred to never sets at all from the inner vision of the spirits, and hence one of them said: It is the sun, except that the sun has a setting, and this which we mean does not set.

"Indeed, in the alternation of the night"—i.e., the overpowering of the darkness of the self over the heart—"and the day"—i.e., the day of the radiance of the light of the spirit upon it—"and what Allah has created in the heavens"—i.e., the heavens of the spirits—"and the earth"—i.e., the earth of the bodies—"are signs for a people who fear"—the veils of the attributes of the commanding self.

"Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds, their Lord will guide them because of their faith"—i.e., He will bring them to the three Paradises according to the light of their faith. So His saying, the Exalted: "Rivers will flow beneath them in the Gardens of Pleasure," is like an explanation for that. "Their call"—the preparatory call—"therein"—i.e., in those Paradises—"is, 'Exalted are You, O Allah'"—an indication of the transcendence of the Almighty. The transcendence in the first is from polytheism in actions by being clear of their own power and strength, in the second from polytheism in attributes by shedding their own attributes, and in the third from polytheism in existence by their annihilation. "And their greeting"—i.e., the greeting of some of them to others or the greeting to God Almighty—"therein is, 'Peace'"—i.e., the outpouring of the lights of purification and the supply of refinement, or the radiance of the lights of manifestations and the supply of abstraction and the removal of ailments. "And the last of their call is, 'Praise to Allah, Lord of the worlds'"—i.e., the last of what their preparedness necessitates is their standing by God Almighty in the manifestation of His perfections and attributes of majesty and beauty upon them, and this is the true praise from Him and for Him, the Almighty.

"And when affliction touches man, he calls upon Us, whether lying on his side or sitting or standing"—i.e., he exhausts his time in supplication. "But when We remove his affliction from him, he passes on as if he had not called upon Us to an affliction that touched him." This is a description of those who did not grasp the truths of servitude in the witnessing of Lordship; for when the night of calamity darkens upon them, they arise to kindle the lamp of supplication, but when the darkness clears from them by the shining of the lights of the dawn of relief, they forget what they were in and pass on as if they had not called upon their Master to remove what distressed them.

As if the youth were never stripped once he was clothed, and was never a pauper once he became wealthy.

If they were Gnostics, they would not have departed from the house of supplication and the manifestation of servitude before Him, the Almighty, at any time. "And mankind was not but one nation"—upon the natural disposition (fitra) which God created in mankind, turning toward monotheism, illuminated by the light of original guidance. "Then they differed"—by the requirements of the creation and the difference of temperaments, passions, customs, and associations. "And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord"—which is His eternal decree of determining the appointed times and provisions—"it would have been judged between them concerning that over which they differ"—by destroying the invalid and keeping the righteous. The intent is that the wisdom of God Almighty necessitated that each of them reach their destination toward which they turn their faces through the deeds they themselves perform and the manifestation of what was hidden in their souls. And glory be to God, the Wise, the Knowing.