Tazkirul Quran, Qur’an 6:94–97

Translation

(94) And now you have returned to Us, alone as We created you at first, leaving behind all that We gave you. Nor do We see with you your intercessors, those you claimed were your partners with God. The link between you is cut and that which you presumed has failed you. (95) It is God who splits the seed and the fruit-stone. He brings forth the living from the dead, and the dead from the living. That is God. How then can you, deluded, turn away from the truth? (96) He causes the break of day, and has made the night for rest and He made the sun and the moon to a precise measure. That is the measure determined by the Almighty and the All Knowing. (97) It is He who has set up for you the stars so that you might be guided by them in the midst of the darkness of land and sea. We have made the signs clear for people who want to understand.a

Commentary

(a) When God chooses one of His subjects for the purpose of conveying His will to mankind, He blesses him with capability to do dawah work. A glimpse of the fear of the Hereafter is seen in his character. The power of divine reasoning emerging in his talk, he is successful in discharging his task of conveying God’s message in the best manner possible, even in the face of tremendous opposition. His whole existence is a sign of God in this world of God. But those who are lost in worldly glories are unable to understand the greatness of one who urges them to accept the realities of the Hereafter. By their own worldly material standards, their own personality appears to them to be greater than that of God’s messenger. This inclines them towards haughtiness or conceit, and from those of such a mentality, irrational behaviour is to be expected. (a) This haughtiness which develops in a man is due to his worldly position and the material goods that are available to him in the world. He forgets that whatever blessings come his way, are only for the purpose of testing him and that too during a finite period. As soon as the time of death arrives, all these things will suddenly be snatched from him. Thereafter, his will be a lone existence, just as it was at the time of his birth. Immediately after death man will reach that stage where he will have neither wealth nor position; where he will have neither his companions nor his intermediaries; there will be only God and himself. None of the things he was proud of in the world will be there to save him from God’s scourge.

Many people try to charm their way through life with the magic of words. Every man seeks and finds words to show his existence to be justified and righteous. He portrays the path he treads as straightaway leading towards correct goals. But when the revolution of the Hereafter unveils the realities, how utterly meaningless will his words appear.

(a) When anyone has to manufacture a motor car or any other such complex mechanism, he manufactures every part of it separately. Then he assembles these parts and gives them the requisite finish. But when God causes a tree to grow or creates a human being, the methodology is different. He produces the entity in its totality all at one time. In God’s workshop the whole tree or the whole man issues forth from the one seed or the one drop and then proceeds to grow. This is a unique process which no human being can set in motion. This proves that there exists a Being superior to the human being, a Being whose plan is superior to all other plans. (a) The volume of the sun is 1.2 million times that of the earth, and the earth itself is four times larger than the moon. The moon is about two hundred and fifty thousand miles away from the earth and revolves around it. The earth is at a distance of about 95 million miles from the sun and is moving round the latter in two ways—one in rotation on its axis and the other in orbit around the sun. Similarly, there is the revolution of other stars which are at vast distances from us and each other but all moving with extreme regularity. Due to this system of the universe, day and night come into existence; systems based on the measurement of time take shape; in turn, it becomes possible for man to regulate his life on land and sea. This gigantic system runs with such exactitude that no discrepancy has crept into it even after millions of years. This proves the immanence of a Being whose powers are of unlimited greatness.

These large-scale signs of God show that the Maker of this workshop is extremely knowledgeable. No ignorant being could erect such a complex structure. He is all-powerful; otherwise the running of this enormous workshop in this manner would not have been possible. Its planning is absolutely perfect; without such planning, it would not have been possible to have such meaningfulness and harmony in such a colossal universe.

God’s world is full of His signs and arguments. But reasoning or argument is the name of theoretical reasoning and not that of a hammer. So, acceptance of an argument by a man is possible only when he is really serious, i.e. when he is consciously ready to accept the argument, irrespective of whether it goes in his favour or against him.

(a) The volume of the sun is 1.2 million times that of the earth, and the earth itself is four times larger than the moon. The moon is about two hundred and fifty thousand miles away from the earth and revolves around it. The earth is at a distance of about 95 million miles from the sun and is moving round the latter in two ways—one in rotation on its axis and the other in orbit around the sun. Similarly, there is the revolution of other stars which are at vast distances from us and each other but all moving with extreme regularity. Due to this system of the universe, day and night come into existence; systems based on the measurement of time take shape; in turn, it becomes possible for man to regulate his life on land and sea. This gigantic system runs with such exactitude that no discrepancy has crept into it even after millions of years. This proves the immanence of a Being whose powers are of unlimited greatness.

These large-scale signs of God show that the Maker of this workshop is extremely knowledgeable. No ignorant being could erect such a complex structure. He is all-powerful; otherwise the running of this enormous workshop in this manner would not have been possible. Its planning is absolutely perfect; without such planning, it would not have been possible to have such meaningfulness and harmony in such a colossal universe.

God’s world is full of His signs and arguments. But reasoning or argument is the name of theoretical reasoning and not that of a hammer. So, acceptance of an argument by a man is possible only when he is really serious, i.e. when he is consciously ready to accept the argument, irrespective of whether it goes in his favour or against him.