Az-Zumar (The Groups)

66. Nay! But worship Allah alone and be among the grateful.

67. They did not appreciate Allah as such as is due to Him, though on the Day of Resurrection the whole of the earth shall be subject to His Omnipotence and the heavens will be rolled up in His Hand. Glorified is He and Exalted is He above all that they associate as partners with Him.

Monotheism is the best manner of deliverance from loss and harm; likewise one may show his gratitude toward God Almighty is to worship Him.

Thus the blessed Verse lays further emphasis:

“Nay! But worship Allah alone and be among the grateful.”

Precedence of Allah is for specification (hasr), i.e., you are solely supposed to worship the Pure Essence of Allah. What follows is the Divine Injunction to gratitude since showing gratitude for Divine Bounties bestowed upon man may serve as a means of knowing God and rejection of any kind of polytheism and disbelief.

Gratitude for Divine Bounties is in human primordial natural disposition, but it is supposed to follow the provider of bounties. Consequently, it leads to the acknowledgement of Divine Unity and thus idols which provide man with no bounty are abandoned.

Verse 67 treats of another exposition for rejection of polytheism and disbelief regarding it mainly to stem from not knowing God deservingly as a consequence of which his Sacred Name was relegated to those of idols:

(“They did not appreciate Allah as such as is due to Him”).

Polytheism and disbelief mainly spring from lack of appreciating God Almighty as such.

One who knows that His Existence is Boundless, He is the Creator of all creatures and they are at all times in need of His Source of Emanation and Divine Bounty, He is the Dispenser of the world of existence and He is the One Who solves all problems, He is the Provider of all existent beings and intercession depends on His Permission and Command, may not turn to another being.

It is worthy of note that duality is not applicable to God Almighty since two boundless beings are not reasonably possible.

To express Divine Omnipotence and Glory, the Verse in question employs a figurative expression saying:

“on the Day of Resurrection the whole of the earth shall be subject to His Omnipotence.”

The word qabda is applied to what is grasped by hand and it is usually used figuratively in the sense of absolute power and sway in the same manner that it is said in daily speech that such and such city or such and such property are in hand of so and so.

The word matwwiyat is taken from tayy which literally denotes “to be enclosed” and at times it connotes “transience of life” or “passing by something.”

The aforesaid expression is more clearly attested elsewhere in the Holy Qur’an¹ :

“The Day when We shall roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books.”

It is to be noted that one who has rolled up a scroll holding it in his hand wields perfect sway over it.

The choice of the word:

yamin (“right hand”)

is due to the fact that right hand is usually used by most of the people for carrying out tasks of significance since they feel that it is stronger than the left one.

In short, all these similes and expressions connote absolute sway of the Creator over the world of existence in this world and the Hereafter so that all men comprehend that in the Hereafter, the key to deliverance and the solution of problems is in the Hand of God Almighty lest they turn to idols and other objects of worship for intercession and any other support.

Are not the earth and the heavens under His Sway? Why do they make mention of the Hereafter? The reply to these questions is that on that Day, Divine Omnipotence shall be more manifest than any other time as It shall be evident to such extent that all men shall clearly perceive that all things belong to Him and they are under His Sway.

Furthermore, on the Day of Resurrection, some men may turn to others besides God Almighty for deliverance, in the same manner that Christians raise the question of deliverance for worshipping Jesus Christ (as). It is in this vein that the Verse treats of Divine Omnipotence on the Day of Resurrection.

The above clearly bears testimony to the fact that all these expressions are figurative and it is because of the brevity of words in our daily life that we have to express such exalted meanings with such small words.

Only very simple and narrow minded people may entertain Divine anthropomorphism in their minds. Since words fail to convey Divine Glory, one has to make use of such words in their figurative meanings with their broader semantic range.

It is noteworthy that a clear but terse conclusion closes the Verse:

“Glorified is He and Exalted is He above all that they associate as partners with Him.”

Had man not pass judgments with his limited thought concerning His Glorified and Pure Essence, he would have never turned toward polytheism and idolatry.