ﲗ ﲘ ﲙ ﲚ ﲛ ﲜ ﲝ ﲞ ﲟ ﲠ ﲡ ﲢ ﲣ ﲤ ﲥ ﲦ ﲧ ﲨ ﲩ
And if Allah had extended [excessively] provision for His servants, they would have committed tyranny throughout the earth. But He sends [it] down in an amount which He wills. Indeed He is, of His servants, Acquainted and Seeing.
Tafsir
Verse range: 42:27
(That is, they would have become arrogant therein out of insolence, exceeding the limit befitting slaves, or they would have oppressed one another. For indeed, wealth is a source of insolence and vanity, and the state of Qarun is a sufficient lesson. In the Hadith: "The thing I fear most for my Ummah is the splendor of the world and its abundance." A poet of the Arabs said: "The early rain has caused to sprout between us and the tribe of Ruman, nab’a and shawhat.")
The origin of "tyranny" (baghy) is to seek more than what is necessary, by exceeding in quantity and amount, or in description and quality.
{But He sends down}—with the tashdid (emphasizing the action), though Ibn Kathir and Abu ‘Amr read it with takhfif (lightening) from the noun al-inzal (sending down)—{in a measure} (i.e., according to a specific estimation) {what He wills} (that which His wisdom, Glorified be His Majesty, necessitates).
{Indeed, He is, of His servants, Acquainted and Seeing.}
(He is All-Encompassing of the hidden and manifest aspects of their affairs; thus, He estimates for each one of them, at every moment of their times, that which befits his state. So He impoverishes and enriches, denies and grants, withholds and extends, according to what Divine Wisdom necessitates. Had He enriched them all, they would have rebelled; and had He impoverished them all, they would have perished.)
The verse has been problematized by the observation that since wealth is a cause of tyranny, poverty can also be, so the conditionality is not apparent. Jarallah (Al-Zamakhshari) answered that there is no doubt that tyranny with poverty is rarer, while with expansion (of wealth) it is more frequent. Both are manifest causes for moving toward or refraining from tyranny. If expansion were universal, tyranny would prevail until the state of affairs turned into the opposite of what it is now. He intended—and Allah, Exalted be He, knows best—that the order of the world continues as it is. Even if tyranny sometimes arises from the rich, or from the poor, there exists within one state that which repels the other. As for impoverishing them all, weakness and destruction would be inevitable. And if He had extended it to them all—despite the fact that need is innate—there would be tyranny that cannot be estimated, because the order of the world relies on wealth more than it relies on poverty. This is a manifest, clear matter.
Furthermore, total poverty does not allow for tyranny due to general weakness and the fact that one cannot find his needs from another in order to oppress him. As for total wealth, in it exists complete tyranny. The state of affairs upon which is the law of Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, is that which combined both matters: it includes fear for the rich from the poor, which restrains them from oppression; and fear for the poor from the rich—which is greater—urging them toward cooperation to achieve their goals and restraining them from tyranny. Then, tyranny occurs from this one or that one.
This is how the author of Al-Kashf formulated it, then he said: "This is a good answer that is not forced." This is an allusion to refuting the scholar Al-Tayyibi, for he claimed that it is a forced answer and that the question is strong. He (Al-Tayyibi) went to the position that the intended meaning of {His servants} are those whom Allah, Exalted be He, has distinguished with honor and made among His Awliya (allies). He then said: "This is supported by the trailing clause, His saying: {Indeed, He is, of His servants, Acquainted and Seeing}." He placed the manifest noun in the place of the pronoun—meaning, He, Exalted be He, is acquainted with the states of His honored servants, seeing what benefits them and what ruins them.
To this points that which was narrated from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: "If Allah loves a servant, He protects him from the world, just as one of you protects his sick one from water." Strengthening his position is the saying of Khabbab ibn al-Aratt: "We looked at the wealth of Banu Qurayzah, Banu Nadir, and Banu Qaynuqa, and we wished for it, so it was revealed: {And if Allah had extended...}." And the saying of ‘Amr ibn Hurayth: "A group of the Ahl al-Suffah asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, that Allah might enrich them and extend wealth and provisions for them, so this was revealed." It is upon this that the commentary of Muhyi al-Sunnah is based.
It is not hidden that the most appropriate state for those honored and chosen from among His servants, Exalted be He, is that wealth does not cause them insolence, due to the purity of their inner selves, the strength of their orientation toward the sacred precincts, the increased attachment of their hearts to their Beloved, their realization of the truths of things, and the perfection of their knowledge regarding the end of the trinkets of worldly life. If the sons of the world reflected upon that with the true reflection, its affair would become insignificant to them and their passion for it would decrease, as it is said: "If the lover reflected upon the ultimate end of the beauty that fascinates him, it would not fascinate him." Therefore, perhaps the first (interpretation) is more primary, or it may be said that this refers to some believing servants. So contemplate.
