Surah Az-Zumar (39): Read Online and Download - English Translation

Commentary

In verse 2, it was said: فَاعْبُدِ اللَّـهَ مُخْلِصًا لَّهُ الدِّينَ أَلَا لِلَّـهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ - (so worship Allah in submission to Him exclusively. Remember, Allah alone deserves the exclusive submission.). The word: دِین (deen) at this place means worship, submission, devotion or obedience which is inclusive of adhering to all religious injunctions. In the first statement earlier to this, the address was to the Holy Prophet ﷺ where he was commanded to make the worship of and obedience to Allah sincere and exclusive for Him, so as there remains no trace of shirk or of any hypocrisy or false pretension. The second statement is to emphasize the first statement in that sincerity in worship is the exclusive right of Allah and no one else, other than Him deserves it.

It has been reported from Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ that someone submitted before the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، 'Ya rasulallah, there are occasions when I give in charity or do a favor to somebody, but my intention gets mixed up - I do look forward to seek the pleasure of Allah thereby, but I also hope that people will praise me for it.' The noble prophet of Allah ﷺ said, "By the One in whose hands lies the life of Muhammad, Allah Ta’ ala does not like anything in which someone or something else has been associated as a partner or sharer with Him. Then he recited the verse quoted here as the proof: أَلَا لِلَّـهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ (Remember, Allah alone deserves the exclusive submission.) ". (Qurtubi)

Acceptance of deeds with Allah depends on unalloyed measure of sincerity

Several verses of the Qur'an bear out that the deeds are not measured with Allah by numbers, instead, they are measured by weight, for example: وَنَضَعُ الْمَوَازِينَ الْقِسْطَ لِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ (and We shall place scales to do justice on the Day of Judgment - Al-Anbiya', 21:47). This verse read in juxtaposition with the verses cited above tell us that the value and weight of deeds is judged by the amount of sincerity with which they are performed, and it goes without saying that perfect sincerity cannot be achieved without perfect faith, because perfect sincerity means that one should not take someone as having intrinsic power to benefit or harm someone other than Allah, nor take someone other than Allah as disposer of one's acts, nor allow the thought of someone other than Allah enter into any act of worship or obedience of his volition. As for non-voluntary scruples, Allah Ta’ ala forgives them.

The noble Sahabah are the front line of Muslims. Their practice of prayers and good deeds may not appear to be very prominent numerically. But, despite all this, the reason why the single insignificant most of their deeds was superior to the highest of the high deeds of the rest of the Ummah was no other but their very perfection of 'iman (faith) and perfection of ikhlas (sincerity).

The next sentence in verse 3 says: وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّ‌بُونَا (As for those who have taken to guardians other than Him [ saying ], "We worship them for no other reason than that they would bring us near to Allah closely." - 39:3). This is a description of the creed of the Mushriks of Arabia. Even the common people among them during that period of time more or less had the same belief that Allah Ta’ ala is the creator, owner and master in all matters. But when the Shaitan (Shaitan) instigated them, they started making idols in the image of angels, as they imagined they would be. They knew it well that these idols made by them had no consciousness, reason or power, yet they believed that by showing their reverence for these idols, those angels (in whose images these idols are designed) will be pleased with them, and the angels have nearness to Allah. They compared Allah's nearness with that of the worldly kings where a courtier who is pleased with someone could put in a good word for him with the king and have him included among his inner circle. So, they surmised that the angels too could recommend anyone they chose very much like the royal courtiers of their world. But, all these ideas they nursed were totally false, in fact, they were nothing but satanic deception. First of all, who can say whether or not these idols happen to be on the real form of the angels and, even if they were, one cannot expect angels close to Allah showing their pleasure over being worshipped by somebody on the earth. In fact, they temperamentally hate everything that Allah Ta’ ala does not like. In addition to that, angels cannot intercede on behalf of anyone before Allah on their own, unless they are allowed to make their intercession about a particular person. The verse of the Qur'an: وَكَم مِّن مَّلَكٍ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ لَا تُغْنِي شَفَاعَتُهُمْ شَيْئًا إِلَّا مِن بَعْدِ أَن يَأْذَنَ اللَّـهُ لِمَن يَشَاءُ وَيَرْ‌ضَىٰ (And how many angels there are in the heavens whose intercession cannot benefit (anyone) at all, but after Allah allows (it) for whomsoever He wills and pleases - An-Najm, 53:26) means exactly this.

Even the polytheists of that period were better than the disbelievers of today

Modern day materialistic disbelievers already deny the very existence of Allah Ta’ ala and would not demur when making audacious remarks against Him. Kufr or disbelief is now an imported stuff. Take the kufr that is imported from Europe. It may come in different colors and shades, like capitalism and communism. Yet, there is a common denominator. God forbid, they hold, nothing like God exists. We are masters of our destiny. There is no one to question us as to what we are doing. Terrible ingratitude indeed! As a consequence, peace has disappeared from the whole world. Ever-new gadgets of comfort proliferate, but real comfort remains missing. Advancements in health care have never been at a level they are today, but there is a matching abundance of diseases hitherto unheard of. Security arrangements, police, guards, surveillance abound, but the graph of crime keeps rising. This craze for new instrumentation and gadgetry and this relentless pursuit of pleasure and comfort through state-of-the-art objects one is being pushed to live with are things, if someone cares to think about it, that have assumed the proportions of a curse for innocent human beings so fondly created by their Maker. As for the punishment of kufr in the Hereafter, it is, as due for all disbelievers, an everlasting stay in the Jahannam. But, one should not forget that this blind ingratitude could not go unaccounted for. The ungrateful person has to undergo some punishment for it within this world for the reason that the ungrateful person used the blessings of Allah even to ride the skies, yet failed to thank Him for it. How apt is the Persian quip: 'In the middle of the house, I forgot the master of the house!'

The first sentence of verse 4: لَّوْ أَرَ‌ادَ اللَّـهُ أَن يَتَّخِذَ وَلَدًا (Had Allah opted to have a son of His own) is a refutation of the allegation of those who said that angels were the progeny of Allah. The idea was false and absurd. Taking it on as a supposition of the impossible, it was said: If Allah Ta’ ala were to have, God forbid, any children, it goes without saying that it could not have happened without His intention and will, for it would have been impossible as children are not imposed on anyone - definitely not so in the case of Allah. Then, suppose He had the intention, in which case, everyone other than Him happens to have been created him, so He would have picked up one of them to be His progeny. Now, children have to be of the same genus as the father, and the created cannot be of the same genus as the creator, therefore, the intention to have progeny from the created becomes impossible.

In verse 5, it was said: يُكَوِّرُ‌ اللَّيْلَ عَلَى النَّهَارِ‌ (He wraps the night over the day and He wraps the day over the night,). The word: تَکوِیر (takwir) means to throw something on top of the other and thereby hide it. The Qur'an has elected to express the phenomenon of the alternation of the night and day in terms of common perception - when night comes, it is as if a curtain has been thrown against the light of the day, and when the day comes, the darkness of the night goes behind the curtain.

Both the Moon and the Sun move

Later in verse 5, it was said: كُلٌّ يَجْرِ‌ي لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى (each one of them moving for an appointed term.) This tells us that both the Sun and the Moon move. Scientific researches in astronomy and geology are not the subject of the noble Qur'an, or of any other scripture. But, it is obligatory to believe in whatever appears there as a corollary in this matter. Scientific findings, old or new, keep changing all the time. Qur'anic facts are changeless. Whatever the cited verse tells us - that the Sun and the Moon are both moving - believing in it is obligatory. Now, there remains the other matter - does the rising and setting of the Sun relate to the movement of the earth, or to the movement of these very planets? The Qur'an neither confirms nor rejects it. Hence, there is no hitch in accepting what experience or experiment bears out.