Az-Zumar (The Groups)

8. And when some hurt touches man, he cries to his Lord, turning to Him in repentance. But when He bestows a favor upon him from Himself, he forgets that for which he cried for before [for its removal], and he sets up equals to Allah, in order to mislead [himself and others] from His Path. Say: “Take pleasure in your disbelief for a while: surely you are of the dwellers of the Fire!”

Man is of a small capacity for tolerating hardships and when hardships touch him, he cries out but the Holy Qur’an criticizes him for his transient attention toward God in vicissitudes of life and says that he forgets God when he enjoys comfort:

(“And when some hurt touches man, he cries to his Lord”).

The preceding Verses produce arguments for Divine Unity and man’s making attempts at acquiring knowledge about Him through reflecting upon the signs of His Glory in horizons and souls (afaq wa anfus); however, the blessed Verse in question opens with Divine Unity as perceived through man’s primordial disposition thus clarifying that man’s perception through his intellection and studying the order of creation is something innate in his natural disposition manifesting themselves in vicissitudes and hardships; nonetheless, when the storm of disasters is abated, such forgetful man is once more preoccupied with neglect and vanity.

The blessed Verse says:

“When some hurt touches man [the Light of Divine Unity illuminates his heart], he cries to his Lord, turning to Him in repentance. But when He bestows a favor upon him from Himself, he forgets that for which he cried for before [for its removal], and he sets up equals to Allah, in order to mislead [himself and others] from His Path.” “Man”

ad hoc makes a reference to those people who are uncultured and unrefined since they turn away from prophetic teachings, otherwise those refined by men of God, like their educators, remember Him at all times in ups and downs and seek Divine Favor.

“Hurt” (darr) ad hoc indicates any kind of physical or mental harm or discomfort. The verbal form “khawwalahu,” deriving from khawl is employed in the sense of constant taking care of something or someone and since such care necessitates bestowal of favor, the word designates “bestow.” Some exegets also maintain that khawl indicates rendering service; therefore, khawwalahu indicates “granted him servants,” and it is also applied to bestowing favor to someone. Some have also taken the word in the sense of taking pride; as a consequence of which they take the meaning as honor someone through bestowal of a favor.1

The above explanations reflect the question of Divine bestowal of Favors and Bounties and His special care for His servants.

Muniban, as an adverb of manner, indicates that at the time of hardship when the veils of vanity and neglect are removed, man abandons everything and everyone besides God Almighty and turns to Him.

The word:

“repentance” (inaba)

demonstrates that God Almighty is man’s origin and place of return.

Andad (“equals”)

is the plural form of nidd which is close in meaning to mithl; however the latter possesses a wider range of meaning, since the former is only used in the sense of likeness in essence.

The verbal form:

“sets up” (ja’ala, literally “set up” [past tense])

demonstrates that man falsely imagines equals and peers for God, whereas it is inconsistent with reality.

The clause:

“in order to mislead [himself and others] from His Path”

reflects the vanity of those in error who make attempts at misleading others to error. Man a time the Holy Qur’an refers to the link between reflection upon Divine Unity through innate primordial disposition and vicissitudes of life as the scenes of its manifestation.

The low capacity of forbearance makes this vain man to turn to Divine Unity in vicissitudes, but when the storms of disasters are abated, he obdurately treads the path of polytheism.

Many are such inconstant and capricious people and few are those who may not be perturbed by triumphs, Bounties, and storms of vicissitudes.

A small vessel or a pond is easily perturbed by a breeze, but the Pacific Ocean, because of its vastness, may not be agitated by harsh storms, hence the title “Pacific.”

The blessed Verse closes with a decisive warning to these people:

“Say: ‘Take pleasure in your disbelief for a while [and spend a few days in neglect and vanity, but know that]: surely you are of the dwellers of the Fire!’”

How may such narrow minded and misleading person have any other thing in store for him?