Al-Ankaboot (The Spider)

21. “He punishes whom He pleases and has mercy on whom He pleases, and unto Him you will be turned back.”

22. “You are not able to frustrate Him either in the earth or in heavens; and you have not, apart from Allah, either a protector or a helper.”

The training style of the Qur’an is in a manner that when it states the love and wrath of Allah it often begins with love and mercy and then refers to wrath and chastisement, but since this verse is the continuation of the rejection of disbelievers it has begun the words about punishment, and next to it, it has spoken about the Divine mercy.

Then, this holy verse refers to the completion of one of the issues concerning the Resurrection, i.e. the issue of mercy and punishment.

It says:

“He punishes whom He pleases and has mercy on whom He pleases, and unto Him you will be turned back.”

In other words, though His mercy precedes His punishment, here punishment has been mentioned before mercy, because the verse intends to threat and the word suitable for threat is said in this manner.

By the way, this point is also clear that the purpose of the Qur’anic phrase: /man yaša’/ (whom He pleases) is the Divine Will accompanied with wisdom. That is, whom He knows deserving and eligible for it, because the Divine Will is not undue and it is consistent with eligibilities and merits.

The Arabic phrase /taqlibun/ is derived from /qalb/ which originally means: ‘To change a thing from one form into another form’, and since on the Hereafter Day man changes from soil into a complete living being, this meaning has been used for his second creation.

This meaning may also refer to this point that in Hereafter man will be changed in a way that his inward aspect will appear and his interior secrets will be made manifest and, thus, it reminds the meaning of verse 9 from Surah At-Tariq, No. 86, which says:

“On the Day when hidden things shall be made manifest.”

Then, in the next verse, on the completion of this discussion which is about the punishment and mercy of Allah, and that the return of all is unto Him, it adds implicitly that if you think that you can exit from the domain of Allah, the Almighty, and that the grips of punishment may not seize you, you are in a great err, because:

“You are not able to frustrate Him either in the earth or in heavens…”

And if you think that a guardian or helper will defend you, you are wrong, too, because:

“…and you have not, apart from Allah, either a protector or a helper.”

In fact, deliverance from the Divine punishment is either in the case that you go out of the realm of the government of Allah, or that you remain and, relying on the power of others, defend yourself; while neither going out of it is possible when everywhere is His realm, and all the world of existence belongs to Him, nor does anyone exist who can stand before His Power and defend you.

The Late Tabarsy in Majma‘-ul-Bayan says:

“A guard in /waliyy/ is he who helps without asking”.

Regarding those two words, it can be said that /waliyy/ refers to the guardian who helps without asking him to help, and /nasir/ is the helper who comes to help after asking him to help.

Thus, the Qur’an shuts all the doors of escaping from the grips of Divine punishment to the wrong-doers.