Tafsir of Al-Furqan 25:77

(Say): A command to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s blessings be upon him) to clarify to the people that those who have attained those magnificent favors, for which those who compete compete, have only attained them through the virtues enumerated; and were it not for those virtues, they would not be worthy of any consideration at all. That is, say to the people, addressing them regarding what has emanated from their species of good and evil: (What would my Lord care for you), meaning: What weight do you carry with Him, and what consideration is granted to you, (if not for your supplication), meaning: your worship of Him, the Almighty and Majestic, according to what has been detailed previously? For that which man was created for is the knowledge of Allah Almighty and obedience to Him, the Majestic and Exalted; otherwise, he and the beasts are the same. The "Ma" (what) contains the meaning of interrogation and is in the accusative case, acting as a verbal noun (masdar). The root of al-i'ba' (caring/weight) is heaviness, and the reality of their saying, "I do not care for him" (ma 'aba'tu bihi), is: I do not weigh him in the heavy matters of my concern, nor is he a burden upon me, just as you say, "I did not concern myself with it" (ma aktarathu lahu), meaning: I did not prepare for it any of my calamities or things that concern me.

Al-Zajjaj said: Its meaning is, what weight do you have with Him, the Exalted, if not for your worship? It is permissible for "Ma" to be negative, meaning: He does not care for you. In any case, the answer to the conditional "If not" (lawla) is omitted, as the preceding text indicates it, meaning: If not for your supplication, He would not consider you. This is a statement of the condition of the believers among those addressed, and His saying, the Almighty, (But you have denied), is a statement of the condition of the disbelievers among them. The meaning is: Since I have informed you that my decree is that I do not consider My servants except for their worship, you have opposed My decree and have not performed the deeds of those mentioned. The fa is like the one in His saying, "For we have come to Khorasan" (faqad ji'na khurasana), and the denial is metaphorically used for opposition. It is said: The meaning is that you have fallen short in worship, based on their saying, "The fighting was denied" (kudhhiba al-qital), meaning it was not performed with diligence. The first interpretation is better, even if it is said that the intent of falling short in worship is neglecting it. Abdullah, Ibn Abbas, and Ibn al-Zubayr read, (But the disbelievers have denied), and this is in the sense of: The disbelievers among you have denied, due to the generality of the address to both groups, as we have indicated, and this is what al-Zamakhshari chose and the author of al-Kashf deemed sound. Many others chose that it is an address to the disbelievers of Quraysh, and according to some, the meaning is: What would He care for you if not for His worship? That is, if it were not for His, the Exalted's, legislative will for your worship of Him, He would not care for you nor create you, and this contains the meaning of His saying: (I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me).

It is said: The meaning is, what would He care for you if not for His, the Almighty's, calling you to monotheism through the tongue of His Messenger (may Allah’s blessings be upon him), meaning: if not for the will for that. It is said: The meaning is, He, the Exalted, would not care about your forgiveness if not for your calling upon other gods alongside Him, or what would He do with your punishment if not for your polytheism, as He, the Exalted, said: (What would Allah do with your punishment if you are grateful and believe?). It is said: The meaning is, He would not care about your punishment if not for your calling upon Him, the Exalted, and your pleading with Him in times of distress, as He, the Exalted, said: (And when they board the ship, they call upon Allah), and He, the Exalted, said: (And We seized them with poverty and hardship so that they might plead). It is said: The meaning is, He did not create you, and He has no need of you, except that you ask Him so that He may give you, and ask for His forgiveness so that He may forgive you; and this was narrated from al-Walid ibn al-Walid (may Allah be pleased with him).

You know that what al-Zamakhshari preferred does not contradict the fact that the address is to Quraysh in terms of meaning; for they were singled out in His saying: (But you have denied).

(It will be inevitable): That is, the recompense of the denial, or its consequence, will be inevitable, encompassing you until it throws you into the Fire, as the fa indicates, which shows that what follows is a necessary consequence of what precedes it. The pronoun in yakun refers to the verbal noun of the aforementioned verb by estimating a genitive construction, or by metaphorical usage. It was not made explicit for the sake of indicating its extreme clarity and the horror of its matter, and to alert that it is something that expression cannot encompass.

It is said: The pronoun refers to the punishment, and those who read yakun al-'adhabu lizaman (the punishment will be inevitable) have made it explicit. It is authentically narrated from Ibn Mas'ud that al-lizam (the inevitable) is the slaughter on the day of Badr, and it is narrated from Ubayy, Mujahid, Qatadah, and Abu Malik. Perhaps it is called that because it is a binding reality among the slain. Ibn Jurayj read takunu with the feminine ta, in the sense that the final outcome will be. Al-Minhal, Aban ibn Tha'lab, and Abu al-Samal read lizaman with a fatha on the lam, a verbal noun of lazima, just as thabata is thubutan and thabatan. Ibn Khalawayh narrated from Abu al-Samal that he read lizam on the pattern of hudham, making it a verbal noun transposed from lizma, like fujar transposed from fujra. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

It is said regarding His saying: (And they said, "What is with this Messenger that he eats food and walks in the marketplaces?"): This is an indication of the limited state of the deniers regarding the saints of Allah, in that they shared with them the necessities of humanity such as eating, drinking, and the like. Regarding His saying: (And We have made some of you a trial for others), they said that the trial of one who finds it is looking at himself and being heedless of his Lord, the Exalted, therein. This implies that everything other than Allah, the Exalted, is a trial in this respect.

Ibn 'Ata said regarding His saying: (And We turned to what they had done of deeds and made them as scattered dust): We revealed their deeds to them, and they viewed them with the eye of self-satisfaction, so they fell from Our eyes thereby, and We made their deeds scattered dust. Although this verse describes the disbelievers, the Hadith indicates that among the believers are those whose deeds are made as dust, as contained in the report that Abu Na'im extracted in al-Hilyah and al-Khatib in al-Muttafaq wal-Muftaraq from Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hudhayfah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s blessings be upon him) said: "There shall surely come on the Day of Resurrection a people with good deeds like the mountains of Tihamah, until, when they are brought, Allah the Exalted will make their deeds as dust, then cast them into the Fire." Salim said: "My father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah, clarify to us who these people are." He said: "They were fasting, praying, and taking a portion of the night, but when something of what is forbidden was presented to them, they leapt upon it, so Allah the Exalted invalidated their deeds."

In His saying, "The day the wrongdoer shall bite his hands..." the verse indicates that its ruling is general for everyone who loves another for the sake of disobedience to Allah the Exalted. Malik ibn Dinar said: "Carrying stones with the righteous is better than eating khabis (a sweet) with the wicked." Regarding His saying: (And likewise, We have made for every prophet an enemy from the criminals): It follows from this, along with their saying that every saint follows in the footsteps of a prophet, that every saint has an enemy who manifests his enmity; and this indicates the evil state of those who do so with the saints of Allah the Exalted. Hence it is said: "Their enmity is a sign of an evil ending," and we seek refuge in Allah the Exalted.

In His saying: (Those who are gathered upon their faces to Hell): It is an indication that they were turned toward the direction of their base nature, and therefore they were gathered inverted. In His saying: (Have you seen he who takes his own desire as his god? Then would you be responsible for him?): It is general for everyone who leaned toward the desire of his own self and followed it in what he was directed toward. From here, the gnostics scrutinized the intentions of their selves; to the extent that when their selves commanded them to a virtuous act, they did not hasten to it, but contemplated what it intended by that. It is narrated about some of them that their self kept urging them to struggle (jihad) in the path of Allah the Exalted, so he found that strange, knowing that the self is an enjoiner of evil. He reflected deeply, and it turned out that it was distressed by worship and wanted to struggle in hopes of being killed so it could find rest from the toil it was in; it did not intend obedience, but rather intended to flee from it.

It is said regarding His saying: (Have you not seen your Lord, how He extended the shadow?): i.e., have you not seen how He extended the shadow of the world of physical bodies? Had He willed, He would have made it stationary in the concealment of non-existence. Then We made the sun of the world of spirits a proof for the existence of that shadow, by being the motivator for it toward its ultimate purpose, for which it was created. From this, it is known that were it not for the spirits, the bodies would not have been created. In His saying: (Then We seized it to Us with a light seizing): It is an indication that every compound will dissolve into its components when it attains its final perfection. From another perspective, the shadow is everything other than the Light of Lights, used as proof for its Maker, who is the sun of the world of existence; and this is the status of those who depart from everything other than Him to Him, the Exalted. In His saying: (Then We made...): It is an indication of a higher station, which is using Him, the Exalted, as proof for everything else, as in His saying: (Is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?). This is the station of the truthful (Siddiqin).

His saying, the Almighty: (Then We seized it), is like His saying: (Everything will perish except His Face), and (To Allah the final destination of all matters). From another perspective, the shadow is the veil of negligence and heedlessness, and the sun is the sun of the manifestation of Gnosis from the horizon of divine favor at the morning of guidance. Had He, the Exalted, willed, He would have made it perpetual, never to cease; one finds proof for negligence through Gnosis. In His saying: (Then We seized it), it is an indication that complete unveiling occurs gradually upon the expiration of the period of obligation. It is He Who made for you the night as a garment, so you may be veiled from the sight of strangers to you and their knowledge of your state of spiritual states and flowing tears; and sleep as a rest for your bodies from the toil of struggles; and made the day as a resurrection, where you spread out to seek your necessities. And He is the One who sends the winds, i.e., the winds of longing upon the hearts of the lovers, as glad tidings before His mercy of manifestations and unveilings. And We sent down from the sky of generosity the water of the life of Gnosis to revive thereby a dead land, i.e., dead hearts. And We give it to drink from what We created: livestock—they are those whose animalistic qualities have prevailed; He, the Exalted, gives them to drink to return them to the performance of acts of worship. And many humans—they are those who have settled in the gardens of intimacy; He, the Exalted, gives them to drink from that to wean them from the breasts of humanity to the spiritual sources. We have dispersed it, i.e., the Quran, which is the water of the life of hearts, among them, so that they may remember their original home; but most people refused, except in their denial of the blessing of the Quran, and they did not know its value.

And He is the One who released the two seas: the sea of the spirit and the sea of the self. This, the sea of the spirit, is fresh and sweet from the praiseworthy divine qualities. And this, the sea of the self, is salty and bitter from the blameworthy animalistic qualities. And He placed between them a barrier and an insurmountable partition. It is forbidden for the spirit to be the source of blameworthy qualities, and for the self to be the mine of praiseworthy qualities. It is mentioned that the barrier is the heart. Ibn 'Ata said: Two qualities clashed and met in the hearts of the creation; the hearts of the people of Gnosis are illuminated with the lights of guidance, shining with the brightness of devotion, and the hearts of the people of ignorance are darkened with the darkness of opposition, turning away from the paths of success. Between them are the hearts of the masses, which have no knowledge of what comes to them, and what emanates from them; there is no address for them, nor do they have a response.

It is said: The fresh sea is an indication of the sea of the Sharia; its sweetness is because the Sharia is easy, having no hardship and no subtlety in its meanings, and for that reason, it has become the source for the elite and the masses. The salty sea is an indication of the sea of the Haqiqa (Truth); its saltiness is because the Haqiqa is difficult in its paths, and the intellect of the traveler can hardly grasp what is within it. The barrier is an indication of the Tariqa (Path), for it is not as easy as the Sharia, nor as difficult as the Haqiqa, but rather in between.

Blessed is He who has placed in the sky stars: It is said: This is an indication that He, the Exalted, placed in the sky of the hearts the stars of the stations and states; they are twelve: Repentance, Asceticism, Fear, Hope, Trust, Patience, Gratitude, Certainty, Sincerity, Submission, Surrender, and Contentment. They are the houses of the traveling states: the sun of manifestation, the moon of witnessing, Venus of longing, Jupiter of love, Mercury of unveilings, Mars of annihilation, and Saturn of subsistence.

And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily without pride or arrogance, because of what they have witnessed of the pride of Allah the Exalted and His majesty. Some of them mentioned that these servants treat the earth like an animal, not a rock, and therefore they walk upon it easily. And when the ignorant ones, who are the children of the world, address them: (They say, "Peace"), meaning: safety from Allah from your evil; or when everything other than Allah of this world and the hereafter, and the pleasure and favor therein, addresses them and presents itself to occupy them from what they are in, they say, "Peace," a peace of abandonment and farewell.

(And those who spend the night for their Lord, prostrating and standing): Because they knew that prayer is the ascension of the believer, and the night is the time for the lover to meet the Beloved: "My day is the day of the people, until when the night appears to me, my beds move me toward You; I spend my day in talk and desires, but at night, the Beloved gathers me and my sorrow."

(And those who say, "Our Lord, avert from us the punishment of Hell; indeed, its punishment is ever adhering"): An indication of their increased fear of severance and distance from their Beloved; that is what they meant by the punishment of Hell, not the known punishment, for the sincere lover finds the known punishment sweet if it comes with meeting [the Beloved]. Do you not hear what was said: "I wish Sulayma was my bedfellow in a dream, in the gardens of Paradise or in Hell."

(And those who, when they spend, do not squander, nor do they act stingily): An indication that their effusions are according to the capacity of the one receiving the overflow; they do not squander by overflowing beyond the need, nor do they act stingily by overflowing less than the need. Or [it indicates] that when they spend their existence in the Essence of Allah and His qualities, the Majestic and Exalted, they do not exaggerate in ascetic discipline to the point of destroying the body, nor do they withhold in the offering of their existence by leaning toward desires.

(And those who do not invoke with Allah another deity) by raising their needs to others, (nor do they kill the soul which Allah has forbidden) to kill, (except by right), i.e., except by the power of His, the Exalted's, manifestations, (nor do they commit unlawful sexual intercourse) by dealing with the old woman of this world, and they do not attain anything from it except by His permission, the Exalted. (And those who do not bear witness to falsehood), they do not attend the gatherings of vanity of words and deeds. (And when they pass by the vain), which is that which does not bring them closer to their Beloved, (they pass with dignity), turning away from it.

(And those who, when reminded of the verses of their Lord, do not fall upon them deaf and blind), but approach them with hearing and obedience, witnessing with the eyes of their hearts the lights of what they were reminded of from the speech of their Lord. (And those who say, "Our Lord, grant us from our spouses"), from those who have partnered with us and accompanied us, (and our descendants) who have taken from us, (as coolness of eyes) by granting them success for righteous deeds, (and make us a leader for the righteous), and they are those who have attained annihilation and subsistence, the most perfect.

(Those will be rewarded with the chamber), and it is the station of 'indiyya (nearness to Him), (for what they patiently endured), at the beginning upon the obligations of the Sharia, in the middle upon being disciplined by the manners of the Tariqa, and at the end upon what the Haqiqa demands. (And they will be met therein with greetings), which is the intimacy of the mysteries with the Ever-Living, the Sustainer, (and peace), which is the safety of the hearts from the passing of severance, (everlasting therein; good is the settlement and residence), because it is the place of witnessing the Truth and the abode of the satisfaction of the absolute Beloved. We ask Allah the Exalted to favor us with His satisfaction and grant us with the abundance of His favors and bounties, by the sanctity of the master of His prophets and the most beloved of His beloveds, may the blessings of Allah be upon him, and may his rank be exalted and his honor be magnified.