6. Al-An'aam

Praise, which means to describe in beautiful terms, be, [ever] established, to God: is this meant to be informative, so that one believes in it? Or, is it meant as a eulogy, or both? These are three possibilities, the most likely of which is the last, as the Shaykh [Jalāl al-Dīn al-Mahallī] states in [his commentary on] sūrat al-Kahf [Q. 18:1]; Who created the heavens and the earth — He singles out these two for mention because for the observer they constitute the most awesome [visible] creation; and He appointed, He created, darknesses and light, that is, every darkness (zulma) and every light: the use of the plural only in the case of the former is because it [darkness] has many causes; and this is one of the proofs of His Oneness; then those who disbelieve, despite the existence of this proof, ascribe equals to their Lord, they worship others equally.

It is He Who created you from clay, by creating your father Adam from it; then He decreed a term, for [each of] you, at the conclusion of which you die. A term is stated, fixed, with Him, for your resurrection; yet thereafter you, O disbelievers, doubt, you are uncertain about the Resurrection, when you know that it was He Who initiated your creation, and One Who has the power to initiate [creation], is even more capable of bringing you back [to life after death].

He is God, the One worthy of being worshipped, in the heavens and in the earth. He knows your secrets and your utterance, what you keep secret and what you utter openly among yourselves, and He knows what you earn, what you do of good and evil.

They denied the truth, the Qur’ān, when it came to them, but there shall come to them the news, the consequences, of what they were mocking.

Have they not seen, in their travels to Syria and to other places, how many, (kam is predicative [and not interrogative], meaning ‘many’) a generation, [how many] a community of past communities, We destroyed before them; We established them, We assigned them an [established] place, in the earth, through strength and abundance, as We have not established, [as] We have [not] assigned, you (there is a shift in the address here from third person [to second]); and how We unleashed the heaven, the rain, upon them in torrents, one torrent after another, and made the rivers to flow beneath them?, beneath their dwellings. Then We destroyed them because of their sins, because of their denial of the prophets; and We raised up after them another generation.

And had We revealed to you a Scripture, inscribed, on parchment, as they requested, and had they then touched it with their hands — this is more powerful than saying, ‘had they seen it with their eyes’, since it [touch] is more effective in eliminating doubt; the disbelievers would have said, in disobedience and obduracy: ‘This is nothing but manifest sorcery’.

And they say, ‘Why has an angel not been sent down to him?’, to Muhammad (s), to confirm his truthfulness; yet had We sent down an angel, as they have requested and if they then did not believe, the matter, that they be destroyed, would have been decreed, and then they would not be given any respite, they would [not] be given any extra time for repentance or an excuse, as is God’s custom [in dealing] with those before them, destroying them when they disbelieve after their request is granted.

And had We appointed him, the one who is sent down to them, an angel, We would assuredly have made him, the angel, a man, that is, [We would have sent him] in the form of a man, so that they would be able to see him, since no human being is capable of seeing an angel; and, had We sent him down and made him a man, We would have assuredly confused, obscured, for them what they are confusing, for themselves, when they say, ‘This is but a mere mortal like the rest of you’.

And messengers were indeed mocked before you — this is meant as a consolation for the Prophet, (s) — but those who scoffed at them were encompassed by that which they mocked, namely, [by the] punishment [sent down on them]: those who mock you will be encompassed likewise.