Tafsir of Ar-Rahman 55:29

Surah Ar-Rahman (55): Verse 29

... He asks of Him whatever is in the heavens and on earth. Every day He is in (some) affair.

There are two interpretations regarding the structure of this statement:

First View: It is a circumstantial clause (hal), meaning: "Your Lord's Face remains, being asked."

1. The Issue: This interpretation presents a problem (an ishkal). Since verse 27 states, "And the Face of your Lord will remain" (referring to His subsistence after the annihilation of those on earth), how can He be asked by those on earth at that time?
2. Resolution (If the pronoun refers to "matters"): If the pronoun refers back to the "matters" (al-umūr) ongoing in our present time, there is no issue.
3. Resolution (If the pronoun refers to God, which is the correct view): We offer several answers:
   • Answer 1: Since we established that everything perishes from the perspective of creation, and only remains through God's sustaining, it is valid to say that God is asked (by virtue of His sustaining power).
   • Answer 2: The asking is conceptual (ma‘nan) rather than literal (ḥaqīqatan). When all perish and existence belongs only to God, it is as if the beings are presumed to be asking through the language of their state (lisān al-ḥāl).
   • Answer 3: The word "remains" (wa-yabqā) implies continuity. Thus, He remains, and He recalls those who were on earth, and they are asked.

Second View: It is the beginning of a new statement, which is more apparent. This view involves several sub-issues:

Issue 1: What are the questioners asking for?

It is subject to several possibilities:

1. *Request for Granting (Istī‘ṭā’):* Everyone asks Him for mercy and whatever they need in their religion and worldly life.
2. Request for Knowledge (Istī‘lām): Since He possesses the knowledge of the Unseen, which no one else knows, everyone asks Him about the outcome of their affairs and what leads to their well-being or corruption.
   • Objection: Not everyone admits their ignorance or God's knowledge.
   • Response: This statement addresses the reality of the matter, even from the ignorant. If the questioner is a stubborn denier, this objection applies to the first view as well, as some deniers do not verbally ask anything, though they ask through their state (lisān al-ḥāl). The first view points to the perfection of Power (everyone is incapable of obtaining what they need), and the second points to the perfection of Knowledge (everyone is ignorant of what God knows).
3. Request for Command/Direction (Istikhrāj Amr): The phrase "those in the heavens and on earth" includes the angels, who ask Him every day, saying: "Our God, what shall we do, and what do You command us?"
   • This also serves as another answer to the problem raised in the first view (where the asking occurs after annihilation). If we accept the view that "those on it" (man ‘alayhā) refers to those whose dwelling place is the earth, and they perish, while the angels (who are in the earth but not on it) remain and are unaffected by the earthquake, then they will ask Him what to do after the annihilation, and He will command them. Then, He will command them to die when He wills. This works under the first view, but the second view has no such issue.

Issue 2: To whom does the pronoun "He" refer?

The famous and apparent view is that it refers to Allah, which is the consensus of the commentators (mufassirūn). This is supported by the Prophet's saying when asked about this matter: "He forgives a sin, relieves distress, raises whom He wills, and lowers whom He wills."

Alternatively, it could refer to "a Day" (yawm). "Every day" (kull yawm) is the adverbial phrase specifying when their asking occurs. This day is described as being "in an affair" (fī sha’n). This is like saying, "So-and-so asks me every day; it is a day of my rest," meaning days characterized by rest.

The phrase "He is in an affair" (huwa fī sha’n) distinguishes these days (which have an affair concerning creation) from the Day mentioned in: "To whom belongs the Sovereignty this Day? To Allah, the One, the Prevailing" (40:16). On that Day, God is the asker and the respondent, and no one asks Him, because it is not a day where He is engaged in an affair concerning the supplicants (humans, angels, etc.). Rather, they ask Him on days where He is engaged in an affair concerning them, where they seek what they need or seek direction for their actions.

• Objection: Does this contradict the Hadith?
• Response: There is no contradiction. The Prophet's statement ("He forgives a sin and relieves distress") means that God has designated some days marked by affairs related to creation—forgiveness of sins and relief of distress. Thus, "He asks of Him whatever is in the heavens and on earth" occurs on those days characterized by such affairs. He designated other days as having no caller or asker. If we left every day general, every day would involve action, command, and affair, leading to the assertion of eternity and perpetuity (of creation's involvement), unless we say the general is specified by the particular, like "I have been given of everything" (27:23).

Issue 3: If the famous view is adopted, God is in an affair every day and moment, yet the Pen has already decreed what will happen.

We present excellent transmitted answers (manqūlah) and then rational answers (ma‘qūlah).

Transmitted Answers:

1. Some said the meaning is the bringing forth of decrees to their appointed times. The Pen has dried concerning what will happen on every day and moment. When that time arrives, His Will becomes attached to the action, and it comes into existence. This is sound in wording and meaning.
2. Some said: He manifests affairs (yubdī shū’ūn), not initiates them (yabtadī shū’ūn). This is similar to the first, meaning His judgment that something will happen does not change, but the time God decreed for its action arrives, and what God decreed becomes manifest. (These two views are attributed to Al-Hasan ibn Al-Faḍl, cited by ‘Abdullāh ibn Ṭāhir).
3. Some said: He causes the night to enter the day and the day to enter the night; He brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living; He heals the sick and sickens the healthy; He honors the lowly and humiliates the honored, and so on. This is derived from the Prophet's saying ("He forgives a sin and relieves distress"). This is the best and most eloquent, as it mentions two matters: one concerning the Hereafter and one concerning this world, prioritizing the Hereafter.

Rational Answers:

1. This is relative to creation and those who ask (people of the heavens and earth). God has decreed and finalized His judgment, but what He decreed manifests daily. For example, God decreed sustenance for so-and-so today, but not yesterday. Creation cannot encompass what His knowledge encompasses. Thus, the angels ask Him daily: "O our God, in this day, in our view and knowledge, what affair are You engaged in?"
2. Action requires two things: a specific command from the agent, and a specific condition in the object, which cannot be otherwise, according to the choice of the agent from multiple possibilities.
   • Example 1 (Moving the stationary): Requires removing stillness and immediately introducing motion without separation.
   • Example 2 (Keeping the stationary still): Can occur while stillness remains, or after removing stillness immediately without separation, or with separation (by removing stillness but keeping the body present).
   • If you understand this, God created many bodies at one time and created different attributes in them at another time. Bringing them into existence at that specific time, and not another, is necessary. If He created someone poor at a certain time, it was not possible for Him to create them rich at the exact same moment while creating them poor. This is clear. The assumption that this implies inability is false; inability lies in the opposite—if He intended someone to be rich at a time He created them poor, the richness would not occur, implying inability. Therefore, every time is distinct from every other time. This is the meaning of "Every day He is in an affair," which is what commentators mean by: enriching the poor, impoverishing the rich, honoring the lowly, humiliating the honored, etc., concerning opposites.

Furthermore, opposites are not limited to differing things; similar things in their ruling also cannot coexist. If motion towards a place exists in a body at a time, another motion towards that same place cannot exist in that body at that same time. God's affair is not limited to impoverishing the rich or enriching the poor today while not doing so yesterday. Nor can Zayd possess the richness of yesterday and the richness of today simultaneously. The continuous richness of the rich person, in our view, is a changing state, and thus it is also an affair of God.

Regarding God being Unoccupied by One Affair for Another:

God is described as: "No preoccupation of one affair distracts Him from another." This means one affair does not prevent Him from another, unlike us. Example: If one of us wants to blacken a body with dye using heat, or whiten it with cold water, fire and water are opposites. If one is engaged in one, it prevents the other. However, one action (like blackening a body) does not prevent another action (like whitening another body). For us, the action prevents the agent from another action, but not from an action.

In God's case, what does not prevent the action does not prevent the agent. Thus, He brings forth countless and innumerable different actions simultaneously. As for actions that do prevent each other (like blackening a body at a specific instant prevents whitening it at that same instant), they prevent the agent from the other action. Blackening prevents whitening. But God is never distracted by one affair from another. However, the causes (or the nature of the actions themselves) prevent other causes from operating, though they do not prevent the Agent. Understanding this discussion benefits you.

We shall soon give attention to you, O two weighty ones (Jinn and Mankind)!

Then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?