ﱔ ﱕ ﱖ ﱗ ﱘ ﱙ ﱚ ﱛ ﱜ ﱝ ﱞ ﱟ ﱠ ﱡ ﱢ ﱣ ﱤ ﱥ ﱦ ﱧ ﱨ ﱩ ﱪ ﱫ ﱬ ﱭ ﱮ ﱯ ﱰ ﱱ ﱲ ﱳ
And it is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days - and His Throne had been upon water - that He might test you as to which of you is best in deed. But if you say, "Indeed, you are resurrected after death," those who disbelieve will surely say, "This is not but obvious magic."
Tafsir
Verse range: 11:7
{And His Throne was upon the water} Meaning: There was no creation beneath Him before the creation of the heavens and the earth, and nothing was elevated above them except the water. This is evidence that the Throne and the water were created before the heavens and the earth. It is also said: The water was upon the back of the wind—and Allah knows best regarding that. Regardless of how it was, Allah holds all of that by His power. The greater the bodies, the more they are in need of Him and His holding them.
{That He might test you} This is connected to "He created." It means: He created them for a profound wisdom, which is to make them dwellings for His servants, to bestow upon them various blessings therein, and to charge them with acts of obedience and the avoidance of sins. Whoever is grateful and obeys, He rewards; and whoever disbelieves and disobeys, He punishes. Because this resembles the testing of a tester, He said: "That He might test you." He means: To do with you what one who tests does regarding your states, to see how you act.
If you ask: How is it permissible to connect the verb of "testing" (to the creation)? I say: Because testing contains the meaning of knowledge, as it is a path toward it and is associated with it. Just as you say: "Look at which of them is better in face," and "Listen to which of them is better in voice," because looking and listening are paths to knowledge.
If you ask: How is it said {which of you is best in deed}, when the deeds of the believers are what vary between "good" and "better," whereas the deeds of believers and disbelievers vary between "good" and "evil"? I say: Those who are "best in deed" are the God-fearing. They are the ones who raced to achieve what is the purpose of Allah for His servants. He singled them out for mention and omitted the mention of those behind them to honor them, to alert others to their status with Him, and so that this might be a grace to the listeners and an encouragement to attain their excellence.
From the Prophet (ﷺ): "That He might test you as to which of you is best in intellect, most abstinent from the forbidden things of Allah, and swiftest in the obedience of Allah."
{And if you say, "Indeed, you will be resurrected"} It is read with an alif (hamza) with a fatha (that is, la-in qulta). The interpretation is that it is from the expression: "Come to the market, that you may buy us meat," where "that" (annaka) carries the meaning of "perhaps" (la'allaka). Meaning: If you were to say to them, "Perhaps you will be resurrected"—in the sense of expecting and thinking it likely, rather than stating it definitively—they would say: {This is nothing but clear magic}, stating definitively its falsehood.
It is also possible that "said" (qulta) is imbued with the meaning of "mentioned." The meaning of their saying {This is nothing but clear magic} is that magic is a false matter, and its falsehood is like the falsehood of magic, comparing it to it. Or, they pointed with this to the Qur'an, because the Qur'an is what speaks of the resurrection; so when they labeled it magic, the denial of what it contains regarding the resurrection and other things was included under it.
It is also read: {This is nothing but a magician}, meaning the Messenger. A "magician" is a liar and a falsifier.
{And if We delay the punishment for them until a limited time, they will surely say, "What detains it?" Unquestionably, on the day it comes to them, it will not be averted from them, and they will be enveloped by what they used to ridicule.}
