وَمِنْ ءَايَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَكُم مِن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ إِذَآ أَنتُم بَشَرٌ تَنتَشِرُونَ
20. “And one of His signs is that He created you from dust, and then, behold, you are human beings scattered (in the world).”
The best way of theology is contemplation in creation.
The signs of Allah are not countable; what is mentioned contains a few ones from a great deal of them.
This verse, as well as a part of the later verses, reiterates some interesting points from among the proofs of Monotheism and signs of Allah in the system of the world of existence, and it completes the former discussions. It can be said that these very noble verses, on the whole, form an important part of the monotheistic verses of the Qur’an.
These verses, all of which begin with “one of His signs” and have a special harmony, an interesting tone, and deep and effective meaning with each other, have totally been formed by seven verses, six of which are consecutive and one of them is separate from others.1
These seven verses have an interesting division from the point of extroversive verses and introversive verses. Three verses are about the introversive verses (the signs of Allah in the man’s self, and three verses are about extroversive verses, (the signs of the greatness of Allah outside of man’s self), and one verse talks about both of them.
It is interesting that the verses which begin with this sentence are not more than eleven that seven of them have occurred in this very Surah, Ar-Room, and two verses are mentioned in Surah Fussilat, No. 412, and two verses are in Surah Shawra, No. 423. All of these eleven noble verses are truly as a complete collection about Monotheism.
Before beginning the commentary of these verses, it is necessary to mention that though what is stated in these verses, at first, is understandable for almost all people, but by the development of man’s knowledge in every field some new points are gradually revealed to the scientists, a part of which will be pointed out through the commentary of these verses.
At first, here the Qur’an refers to the creation of man for whom is the first and the most important merit of Allah.
In this verse two signs of the greatness of Allah (s.w.t.) are pointed out: one is the creation of man from dust, which may be a hint to the creation of the first man, i.e. Adam, or the creation of all humankind from dust, because foodstuff, which constructs the man’s being, directly or indirectly, is wholly taken from dust.
The second matter is the increase of man and that Adam’s children are scattered throughout the earth. If the speciality of scattering human beings were not created in Adam’s offspring, man would be destroyed soon and his posterity could be vanished.
Verily, how far is the distance between the dust and the man with these delicacies!
If we compare the delicate curtains inside the eye, which are more delicate, sensitive and tender than a petal, or the extraordinary delicate and sensitive cells of mind, with dust we will then understand how Excellent is the Lord Who has applied an amazing power to produce such sensitive, exact, and worthy systems from dust, a dark and worthless matter?
Dust itself has neither light, nor warmth, nor beauty, nor freshness, nor movement, but it is the origin of man with these wonderful qualities.
The One Who, from such a dead being that is counted as the lowest beings, produces a wonderful living creature such as man, is worthy of any kind of praise for this His endless power and knowledge:
By the way, this statement points to this fact that there is no difference between human beings and the origin of all of them is one thing. All human beings have an unbreakable relation with dust and, naturally, they all will finally return to the dust, too.
It is noteworthy that in the Arabic language the word /’iŏa/ is usually used for the things which often suddenly occur. The application of it here may point to the fact that Allah gave such an ability of proliferation to man that in a short time suddenly his progeny scattered throughout the world and brought the organized human society into being.
وَمِنْ ءَايَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجاً لّـِتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لاَيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
21. “And of His signs is that He crated spouses for you from yourselves, that you may repose in them, and He has set between you love and mercy; verily there are signs in this, for a people who reflect.”
A spouse must be the cause of peace, not the cause of agitation and anxiety.
The aim of marriage is not often only satisfying the sexual instinct, but the aim is mostly reaching to a spiritual and bodily tranquillity.
This holy verse refers to another part of the extroversive verses which are in a stage after the creation of man.
And since the continuation of this relation between spouses, in particular, and between all human beings, in general, needs a heartily and spiritual attraction, next to the above statement, the Qur’an adds:
For more emphasis, at the end of the holy verse, the Qur’an continues saying:
It is interesting that the Holy Qur’an introduces the aim of marriage as peace and tranquillity, and here by applying the Arabic expressive phrase: /litaskunu/ (that you may repose) it has implicitly stated many subjects. Similar to this meaning is also mentioned in Surah Al-’A‘raf, No. 7, verse 189.
Verily the existence of spouses with this special quality, which is the cause of tranquillity of their lives, is counted one of the great bounties of Allah, because these two genders are complementary of each other and each generally causes the mirth, fruitfulness, and development of the other, so that every one of them is imperfect without the other.
And it is natural that there should be such an honourable attraction between a being and its complement.
From this statement we can conclude that those who turn away from this Allah’s way of treatment have an incomplete life, because one of their developing stages has stopped, (except that some particular conditions and a necessity truly requires that one remains single).
However, this tranquillity is from the point of both body and spirit, and from the point of both individual and social.
The sicknesses, which happen to the man’s body because of the abandonment of marriage, are not deniable.
Also, the lack of spiritual equilibrium and the psychological uneasiness, which the single persons are faced with, are, more or less, clear to everybody.
From the social viewpoint, the unmarried persons feel responsibility less than others and, for this reason, suicide is more common among them than among others, and they commit horrible crimes more than others, too.
When a person turns from the stage of celibacy into the stage of family and married life, he finds a new personality in him and feels a further responsibility; and this is the meaning of feeling tranquillity under the light of marriage.
The issues of ‘love’ and ‘mercy’, in fact, are the ‘clay’ and the ‘adhesive substance’, of constructional materials of the human society, because a society is formed by each one of the individuals of human beings, like a huge and glorious building which is made of brakes and pieces of stone.
If these separate individuals, and those different parts do not relate to each other and combine with each other, there will not appear a ‘society’ or ‘a building’. He, Who has created man for social life, has provided this necessary relation in his soul, too.
There may be some differences between the meaning of the Arabic words /mawaddat/ (love) and /rahmat/ (mercy, as follows:
1- ‘Love’ is the motive of relation and communication at the beginning, but at the end, when one of the two spouses may become so weak that can not give any service, ‘mercy’ substitutes it.
2- ‘Love’ is used concerning the adults who are able to serve each other, but little children and babies are fostered under the shadow of ‘Mercy’.
3- ‘Love’ is often mutual, but ‘mercy’ is unilateral and is done as an act of donation and altruism, because for the existence of a society the mutual services, the source of which is love, are sometimes necessary, and sometimes free services are needed, which require ‘donation’ and ‘mercy’.
This verse, of course, states ‘love’ and ‘mercy’ between two spouses, but this probability also exists that the application of the Qur’anic word /baynakum/ (between you) refers to all human beings, and ‘two spouses’ is counted of its clear extensions, since not only the family life but also the life in the whole human society is not possible without these two principles: ‘love’ and ‘mercy’.
So, the destruction of these two relations, and even with their weakness and scantiness, brings thousands of calamities, unhappiness, and social uneasiness.
وَمِنْ ءَايَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لاَيَاتٍ لِلْعَالِمِينَ
22. “And of his signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of your languages and your colours; verily there are signs in this for the learned.”
The difference of races and languages is a way toward theology.
This holy verse is a combination of the extroversive and introversive signs. At first, it refers to the divine creation of the heavens and the earth and says:
The heavens, with those plenty of spheres, those many systems and galaxies; are some things that the man’s thought can not perceive their greatness, and his mind gets tired by studying them. The more man’s knowledge develops the more new points are revealed from their greatness.
Once man considered the heavenly stars the same number of them that he could see by his eyes. (The scientists had counted the stars which can be been with natural eyes about five to six thousand stars.)
But when some stronger and greater telescopes were made, the greatness and multiplicity of stars of heaven increased more, so much that today the scientists believe that our galaxy, which is one of the abundant galaxies of the heaven, contains, more than one hundred million stars; and our sun, with its glary glory, is counted as one of its mean stars.
And only Allah knows how many stars exist in all galaxies, the number of which is not known to anyone yet.
Also, the more the natural sciences, geology, botany, zoology, anatomy, physiology, psychology and its branches develop, the more new wonders are discovered about the creation of the earth, each of which is a sign out of the signs of the greatness of Allah.
Then the words of the verse tend to speak about one of the great introversive signs, when it says:
No doubt, without knowing individuals, the recognition of social life of human beings is impossible. If it happens that one day all the members of humankind have the same form, the same feature, and the same size, on the same day the regularity of their life will be disturbed.
Neither father, child and spouse is recognized from strangers, nor criminal from innocent, nor debtor from loaner, nor commander from the submissive, nor the boss from employee, nor host from guest, nor friend from enemy. Then, what a wonderful tumult appears!
Sometimes this case happens concerning the twins who are completely similar to each other, and there appear so many difficulties in their relations and communications with other people.
We have heard that one of the similar twins once was sick and the Mother gave the medicine to the other. Therefore, in order to organize the human societies, Allah has made the sounds and colours different.
As Fakhr-i-Razi in the explanation of the verse under discussion says: the cognition of a person by another person should be performed either by the eyes, or by the ears.
For recognition Allah has created eyes, colours, faces, and different shapes, and for the recognition by the ears He created difference in songs, tones and sounds so that no one can find two persons in the world whose features and tones of sound are the same from all points of view, i.e., the man’s face which is a small limb, and the tone of his sound, which is a simple matter, by Allah’s power, are produced in many billions of different shapes, and this is among the signs of His greatness.
Of course, there is also another probability, to which some great commentators have pointed out, that the difference of languages means the difference in languages such as Arabic, Persian, and the like; and the difference of colours refers to the difference of races that every one of them has a colour.
However, the Arabic word /’ixtilaf/ (variety) can have a vast meaning which envelops both this commentary and the previous commentary, and whichever meaning it may have, this variety in creation testifies to His greatness and Power.
In his encyclopaedia, Farid Wajdi narrates from Newton, the famous western scientist, who said:
“Do never doubt about the Creator of the world, Allah, because it is not rational that necessity and cause and effect without sense alone be the leader of existence, since necessity in any place and any time can not be considered that these various heavens and colourful creatures are issued from Him.
And it is not possible that the existence, with its system, order of its parts, and the needed proportions consistent with the changes of time and place, appear, but all these affairs must certainly originate from a source which has Knowledge, Wisdom, and Will.”5
At the end of the above verse, the Holy Qur’an says:
The reason of it is that the learned ones are aware of these secrets more than other people.
وَمِنْ ءَايَاتِهِ مَنَامُكُم بِالَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَابْتِغَآؤُكُم مِن فَضْلِهِ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لاَيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَسْمَعُونَ
23. “And of His signs is your sleeping by night and day and your seeking after His grace; verily there are signs in this for a people who hear.”
This holy verse refers to another part of these great signs.
At first, the verse attracts the attentions to the phenomenon of ‘sleep’ as an important phenomenon of creation and a design from the wise system of its creator, and says:
Then, at the end of the verse, the Qur’an adds:
This fact is not concealed for any one that all ‘living creatures’ are in need of rest in order to renew their strength and obtain necessary preparation for continuation of work and activity. It is a kind of rest that necessarily comes to them, and it forces the studious and greedy ones to have it.
For gaining this aim what can be considered better than sleep which compulsorily comes to man and forces him to sleep when he stops many bodily activities and an important part of his mental reactions? In sleep only some organs of body such as heart, the two lungs, and a part of mind, which are necessary for the continuation of life, go on their job very quietly and calmly.
This great merit of Allah causes man’s body and spirit to be cleaned, and by the occurrence of the state of sleep, which is a kind of pause in the work of the body, a rest will be obtained, and man finds a sort of liveliness, mirth, and new strength in him.
Admittedly, if sleep did not exist, the man’s spirit would become faded and worn out very soon and before long senility and infirmity would meet him. That is why a suitable and calm sleep is usually the cause of health, prolongation of lifetime and duration of the youth cheerfulness.
It is noteworthy that, firstly, the word ‘sleeping’ has been stated before the Qur’anic phrase ‘seeking after His grace’ which in the verses of the Qur’an means: struggle for sustenance. This indicates that sleeping is considered as a foundation for it, since without having enough sleeping ‘seeking after His grace’ is difficult.
Secondly: it is true that sleeping usually happens at night, and struggle for ways of making a living is done during the day, but it is not so that man can not change this program when it is necessary.
Allah has created man in a way that he can change his sleeping program and adapts it with his own necessities and needs. The application of ‘your sleeping by night and day’ seems to be a hint to this very point.
No doubt the main program of sleeping relates to night, and for the sake of the rest emerged from darkness, night consists of a special precedence in this respect.
But sometimes there may appear some circumstances in man’s life that, for example, he has to travel by night and sleeps and rests during the day. What kind of difficulties would there happen if the program of arranging the time of sleeping were not at the disposal of man?
In our age, in particular, when many of the manufacturing, healing and medical institutes have to ceaselessly work during day and night and their cessation is impossible and, therefore, the employees and workers are busy working in three shifts, the importance of the above subject is more manifest than any other time.
The need of both body and spirit of man to sleeping is so much so that man can rarely bear not to sleep for a long time, and this length of time is not more than a few nights and days.
That is why hindrance from sleeping has always been known as the most painful tortures by the tyrant and the arrogant. And also it is for this very reason that one of the effective ways of treating many human diseases is that the patience is made sleep deeply, and by this way they increase the might and ability of the patience.
Of course, no one can define a proper amount of sleeping as ‘the necessary amount of sleeping’ for all people. This matter depends on the age, and conditions of persons and also on their spiritual and bodily state. What is important is that ‘enough sleeping’ is that amount after which man feels that he is satiated from this point of view, just like when he feels he has been satiated by water and food.
This is also notable that besides the ‘length’ of the time of sleeping, its depth has also a special importance. It happens that one hour of a deep sleeping has the effect of several hours of superficial sleeping in reconstruction of man’s spirit and body.
Of course, where a deep sleeping is not possible for a person, a ‘slumber’ is also among the bounties of Allah, as Surah Al-’Anfal, No. 8, verse 11, concerning the strivers of the Battle of Badr, mentions it, because in battlefield sleeping is often neither possible nor useful.
However, the bounty of sleeping and rest and tranquillity resulted from it, and also the strength and the mirth which appear after sleeping, are among the divine bounties that are describable by no statement.
وَمِنْ ءَايَاتِهِ يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفاً وَطَمَعاً وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنَ السَّمَآءِ مَآءً فَيُحْيِي بِهِ الاَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لاَيَاتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
24. “And of His signs is that He shows you the lightning for fear and for hope and that He sends down water from the heaven and gives life therewith to the earth after its death; verily there are signs in this for a people who understand.”
Fear and hope together can be constructive.
Neither heavenly lightning nor falling rain and growing plants on the earth are casual, but they are performed upon a just and accurate program. This holy verse, which states the fifth part of the signs of the greatness of Allah, again refers to the extroversive signs and pays attention to the subject of rain, lightning, and the life of the earth after its death.
The danger emerged from lightning, which sometimes in the form of thunderbolt, burns everything in its realm and turns them into ashes, causes fear; and hope, here, appears because of rainfall which often falls after thunder-storm in the form of a shower.
Thus, lightning is a harbinger for the descent of rainfall. (This is besides the various important benefits of lightning which the modern science has revealed, and a few of which were pointed out at the beginning of Surah Ar-Ra‘d.)
Then the Qur’an adds:
The dry and hot land, every spot of which seems dead, after receiving some refreshing drops of rain will become so alive and green that the effects of life are seen in it in the form of plants and flowers, and sometimes it is not really believable that this is the same former dead land.
At the end of the verse, as an emphasis, the Qur’an says:
These are those who understand that there is a proper power in this accurate program, which leads it, and such a power can never be the effect of casual events, and blind and deaf necessities.
وَمِنْ ءَايَاتِهِ أَن تَقُومَ السَّمَآءُ وَالأَرْضُ بِأَمْرِهِ ثُمَّ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ دَعْوَةً مِنَ الأَرْضِ إِذَآ أَنتُمْ تَخْرُجُونَ
25. “And of His signs is that the heaven and the earth subsist by His command, then (after your death) when He summons you once (and) suddenly out of the earth, behold, you come forth.”
In these verses not only the creation of man from dust has been counted as a sign of Divine Power, but also both death and man’s coming out from his grave are the signs of His Power.
Of course, the belief in the Origin is preliminary for the belief in Resurrection. The One Who can set up the system of existence will also restore you to life after death.
In this holy verse and in the previous five verses, Allah has addressed people for fifteen times and has mentioned His bounties. This is one of the methods of propagation.
However, in this verse the Qur’an continues the discussion upon the extroversive signs in the field of the contrivance of the regulation of the heaven and the earth as well as its perseverance and permanence, where it says:
That is, not only the creation of the heavens, which was mentioned in the previous holy verses, is a sign, but also their erecting and the permanence of their regulation is another sign, because, in their regular rotations, these tremendous bodies are in need of many things that the most important one among them is the complicated computation of equilibrium of the power of polarization.
Allah, the Mighty, the Great, has arranged this equilibrium so minute that they rotate millions of years in their own orbits without any deviation.
In other words, the previous holy verse referred to Unity of creation while this verse refers to the Unity of Lordship and contrivance.
The application of the Arabic word /taqum/ (subsist) is a tender application which has been taken out of the states of man, because the best state of man’s states for continuing the activities is the state of subsisting in which he is able to fulfil all his needs and he dominates over all his surroundings.
The application of /’amr/ (command) here refers to Allah’s utmost power that for the continuation of life and order of this vast world only His command is enough.
By using the existence of the preparation of Unity for Resurrection, at the end of the verse the Qur’an has turned the discussion to this subject, Resurrection, and says:
We have repeatedly seen in the verses of the Qur’an that Allah proves the subject of Resurrection by emphasizing on His signs in the heaven and the earth, and also the verse under discussion is one of them.
The Qur’anic phrase /da‘akum/ (He summons you) points to this fact that as for the contrivance and the order of the world His one command is enough, for quickening of the dead, uprising, and Resurrection His one command is enough, too; specially with regard to the Qur’anic sentence /’iŏa ’antum taxrujun/ (behold, you come forth) wherein the Arabic word /’iŏa/ makes it clear that by one invitation everybody suddenly comes out.
By the way, the application of /da‘watan minal ’ard/ (He summons you once (and) suddenly out of the earth) is a clear indication to ‘the resurrection of the body’, meaning that on the Day of Resurrection man will be summoned from this earth. (Be careful)
1- Through former six holy verses, there were mentioned different discussions about theology which, on the whole, form an interesting course, including: the creation of the heaven, and the creation of man from dust; the love of family, and the restful sleep at night and during the day; the contrivance of the order and the above world, and the lightning of the sky, the rainfall, and the difference in languages and colours.
All of these subjects are a suitable collection of the extroversive and introversive verses.
It is interesting that in every one of these six verses two sections of the proofs of Unity have been mentioned in order that one prepares the preparation and the other strengthens and approves it. It is just like bringing two witnesses for proving a claim; thus, these six verses form twelve truthful witnesses for the unlimited Power of Allah.
2- At the end of four verses out of these six verses, there has been emphasized that there are clear signs in these affairs for a people who reflect, for the learned, for a people who hear, for a people who understand, but this meaning is not seen in the first nor in the last verse.
In this regard, Fakhr-i-Razi explains as follows: the lack of its mentioning in the first verse may be for the sake that the first and the second verses, which have come one after another and both of them are among the introversive verses, are the same.
And in the last verse, the matter is so evident that it needs not further explanation and emphasizing on understanding and contemplation.6
It is interesting that at first the Holy Qur’an speaks of ‘reflection’ and then of ‘knowledge’, because contemplation is the foundation and preparation of knowledge.
Next to it the words are about ‘the hearing ear’, since under the light of knowledge and awareness man is ready to hear and accept the Truth, as the Holy Qur’an says:
And at the last stage, the words are about ‘wisdom’, because those who have a hearing ear will finally reach the stage of good understanding.
This point is also noteworthy that at the end of the first verse the Qur’an refers to the creation of man and that his progeny have been scattered in the earth:
and in the last verse the words are also about the man’s resurrection in the Hereafter,
3- The concerning scientists have abundantly discussed about sleeping and its specialties, but it seems that its all parts and secrets have not been made manifest yet, and its whole complicated facts have not been revealed.
There is still a discussion among the scientists that what action and reaction happen in the body of man that in a moment suddenly a part of the activities of his mind and body stop and there appears a change throughout his spirit and body?
Some believe that the main factor of sleeping is a ‘physical factor’. They believe that the circulation of blood from brain to other parts of the body causes this phenomenon to happen. In order to prove their own belief, they have used a special bed called ‘scale bed’ which distinguishes the circulation of the blood from brain to other limbs.
Some other scientists believe that the factor of sleeping is a ‘chemical factor’. They believe that at the time of effort and struggle there appear some poisons in the body, which cause a part of brain to stop working, and, as a result, man falls asleep. Then, when these poisons are absorbed by the body and are frustrated, the person awakes and gets up.
Some others believe in a nervous factor for sleeping. They say there is a special active nervous system in brain which works automatically and, as the result of tiredness, it temporarily stops working.
But concerning all of these various attitudes, there are many questions and ambiguous points the answers of which have not been clearly given yet, and sleeping has ever kept its mysterious feature.
One of the wonders of the world of sleeping, which some scientists have recently revealed, is that at the time of sleeping and temporarily stopping of a great part of mind, some of its cells, which must be called ‘the guardian cells’, will remain vigilant, and they never forget the recommendations that man gives them before the time of sleeping about the moment of vigilance so that, at the necessary time, they awaken the brain wholly and cause it to work.
For example, when the tired mother goes to bed at night while her suckling child is inside the cradle beside her, she involuntarily recommends this matter to her ‘guardian cells’, which are the communicator between soul and body, that whenever her child makes the least sound they would awaken her, but other sounds and noises are not so important for them.
Therefore, a thunderbolt may not cause her to wake up. Those guardian cells have undertaken this important duty!
We ourselves have also experimented this matter that whenever we have decided to get up soon in the morning, or even in midnight, when we want to travel or pursue an important program and recommend this matter to us, often we wake up on time, while in other times we may remain in sleeping for hours.
In short, since sleeping is one of the spiritual phenomena, and spirit is a world full of secrets, it is not surprising that its all dimensions have not been made clear yet, but the more we contemplate upon it we will be more acquainted with the greatness of the Creator of this phenomenon.
All these statements were about sleeping, but there are a great deal of discussions concerning dream and to dream a dream a part of which was referred to in the commentary of Surah Yusuf, No. 12.
4- The love of two spouses: Though the relation of a person with his parents and his brother is a genealogical relation, and it concerns to the relative deep roots while the relation of two spouses is because of a legal agreement, but many times it happens that the love and affection emerged from it precedes even the relative love of parents, and this, in fact, is the same thing that has been referred to in verses under discussion with the expressive sentence:
An Islamic tradition indicates that, after the Battle of ’Uhud, the Prophet of Islam (S) told Jahish’s daughter:
“Your uncle, Hamzah, became martyr.”
I want the recompense of this calamity from Allah.”
But when she was informed of the martyrdom of her husband, she put her hand on her head and cried loudly:
The Prophet (S) said:
“Nothing is equal to husband with a woman!”9
وَلَهُ مَن فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ كُلٌّ لَّهُ قَانِتُونَ
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ وَهُوَ أَهْوَنُ عَلَيْهِ وَلَهُ الْمَثَلُ الأَعْلَي فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ
26. “To Him belongs every being that is the heavens and the earth; all are subservient unto Him.”
27. “And He it is Who originates the creation, then He brings it back again, and it is easier for Him (than the first creation), and His is the Sublime Similitude in the heavens and the earth, and He is the Might, the Wise.”
The objective meaning of the Qur’anic phrase /man fis-samawat/ (every being that is in the heavens) is either the angels, who are obedient to the command of Allah, or some other intelligent beings over there whom are not recognized to humankind.
This holy verse says:
And since all of them belong to Him, they are humble and subservient before Him.
The verse says:
Thus, it is clear here that the purpose of ownership and also obedience is a genetic ownership and obedience; that is, from the point of the laws of creation everything in His authority and, desirably or undesirably, all are subservient to His laws in the world of creation.
Even the disobedient haughty persons and the sinful law-breakers also have to obey Allah’s genetic laws.
The reason of this ownership is His divinity and Lordship. The One Who has created the beings from the beginning and has undertaken their management, surely He must be the essential owner, too, not other than Him.
And in view of the fact that all the beings of the world of existence are equal from this point of view, it makes clear that there is no partner for Him in ownership; even the polytheists’ imaginary objects of worship are totally owned by the Lord of sovereignty and they obey His command.
By the way, it should be noted that the Qur’anic word /qanit/ is derived from /qunut/ which originally means: ‘obedience accompanied with humility’.10
The holy Prophet (S) in a tradition said:
“Every time (the word) /qunut/ (is mentioned) in the Qur’an it means obedience.”
But sometimes it is either genetic obedience and sometimes it is religious obedience.
Some commentators have rendered the word /qanitun/ here into ‘being witnessed unto ‘Unity of Allah’ which, in fact, is the statement of one of the extensions of obedience, because giving witness to the Unity of Allah is a kind of obedience to Him.
In this verse the themes of Origin and Resurrection have been woven into each other. In the next verse, the Holy Qur’an returns again to the subject of Resurrection and says:
The noble Qur’an has proved the subject of possibility of Resurrection with the shortest reasoning in this holy verse. It announces that you believe that the origin of creation belongs to Him, why does its return again, which is easier than that, not belong to Him?
The reason of its being easier than its originating at first is that: at the beginning there was nothing existed and Allah absolutely created it, while in returning something, at least, the main materials are present: a part of it is inside the dust of the earth, another part is scattered in the sky, and the only problem is to organize and to shape it.
Here, there is a point which must be noted, and it is from the window of our thought that something is easy and another one is difficult.
For the Essence Who is infinite, being easy or difficult is the same. In principle, being difficult or easy is meaningful where a limited power is spoken of, that the possessor of that power can fulfil something well and easily, or rather with difficulty. But when the words are about an infinite power, being difficult or easy becomes meaningless.
In other words, taking the greatest mountains from the earth for Allah is as easy as taking a piece of straw.
And perhaps it is why that at the end of the holy verse the Qur’an says:
Its reason is that any complete description we consider for anything in the heavens and in the earth from the point of knowledge, power, ownership, greatness, graciousness, its most complete and perfect extension is with Allah, because all of beings have a limited scale of it, but His is unlimited.
The attributes of all things are casual, but those of His are essential and He is the main source of all virtues. Even our words which are often used for stating our daily aims cannot describe His qualifications, as we already saw its example in the Qur’anic word /’ahwan/ (easier).
The abovementioned sentence is similar to what is said in Surah Al-’A‘raf, No. 7, verse 180:
and in Surah Ash-Shaura, No. 42, verse 11 Qur’an says:
Finally, at the end of this holy verse, as an emphasis or as reasoning, it says:
He is Mighty and invincible but, in the meantime that He Has an infinite Power, He does not do anything undue and all His deeds are based on Wisdom.