067
The Message of the Quran
Muhammad Asad
AL-MULK (DOMINION)
THE SIXTY-SEVENTH
SURAH
Total Verses: 30
Introduction
THE FUNDAMENTAL idea running through the whole of this surah
is man's inability ever to encompass the mysteries of the universe with his
earthbound knowledge, and, hence, his utter dependence on guidance through
divine revelation. Best known by the key-word al-mulk ("dominion")
taken from its first verse, the surah has sometimes been designated by
the Companions as "The Preserving One" (Al- Waqiyah) or
"The Saving One" (Al-Munjiyah) inasmuch as it is apt to save
and preserve him who takes its lesson to heart from suffering in the life to
come (Zamakhshari).
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) HALLOWED be He in whose
hand all dominion rests, since He has the power to will anything:
(2) He who has created
death as well as life, 1 so that He might put you to a test [and thus
show] which of you is best in conduct, and [make you realize that] He alone is
almighty, truly forgiving.
(3) [Hallowed be] He who
has created seven heavens in full harmony with one another: 2 no fault will thou see in the creation of the
Most Gracious. And turn thy vision [upon it] once more: canst thou see any
flaw?
(4) Yea, turn thy vision
[upon it] again and yet again: [and every time] thy vision will fall back upon
thee, dazzled and truly defeated…. 3
(5) And, indeed, We have
adorned the skies nearest to the earth with lights, 4 and have made them the object of futile
guesses for the evil ones [from among men]: 5 and for them have We readied suffering through
a blazing flame –
(6) for, suffering in hell
awaits all who are [thus] bent on blaspheming against their Sustainer: 6 and how vile a journey's end!
(7) When they are cast into
that [hell], they will hear its breath indrawing as it boils up,
(8) well-nigh bursting with
fury; [and] every time a host [of such sinners] is flung into it, its keepers
will ask them, "Has no warner ever come to you?"
(9) They will reply:
"Yea, a warner did indeed come unto us, but we gave him the lie and said,
'Never has God sent down anything [by way of revelation]! You [self-styled
warners] are but lost in a great delusion!"' 7
(10) And they will add:
"Had we but listened [to those warnings], or [at least] used our own
reason, we would not [now] be among those who are destined for the blazing
flame!" 8
(11) Thus will they come to
realize their sins: but [by that time,] remote will have become all good from
those who are destined for the blazing flame.
(12) [As against this,]
behold, for those who stand in awe of God although He is beyond the reach of
their perception, 9 there is forgiveness in store and a great
reward.
(13) AND [know, O men,
that] whether you keep your beliefs 10 secret or state them openly, He has full
knowledge indeed of all that is in [your] hearts. 11
(14) How could it be that
He who has created [all] should not know [all]? 12 Yea, He alone is unfathomable [in His wisdom],
aware! 13
(15) He it is who has made
the earth easy to live upon: 14 go about, then, in all its regions, and
partake the sustenance which He provides: but [always bear in mind that] unto
Him you shall be resurrected.
(16) Can you ever feel
secure that He who is in heaven 15 will not cause the earth to swallow you up
when, lo and behold, it begins to quake?
(17) Or can you ever feel
secure that He who is in heaven will not let loose against you a deadly
stormwind, 16 whereupon you would come to know how [true] My
warning was?
(18) And, indeed, [many of]
those who lived aforetime 17 did give the lie [to My warnings]: and how
awesome was My rejection [of them]!
(19) Have they, then, never
beheld the birds above them, spreading their wings and drawing them in? None
but the Most Gracious upholds them: for, verily, He keeps all things in His
sight.
(20) [And] is there any,
besides the Most Gracious, that could be a shield 18 for you, and could succour you [against
danger]? They who deny this truth are but lost in self- delusion!
(21) Or is there any that
could provide you with sustenance if He should withhold His provision [from
you]? Nay, but they [who are bent on denying the truth] stubbornly persist in
their disdain [of God's messages] and in their headlong flight [from Him]!
(22) But then, is he that
goes along with his face close to the ground 19 better guided than he that walks upright on a
straight way?
(23) SAY: "[God is] He
who has brought you [all] into being, and has endowed you with hearing, and
sight, and hearts: 20 [yet] how seldom are you grateful!"
(24) Say: "It is He
who has multiplied you on earth; and it is unto Him that you shall be gathered
[on resurrection]."
(25) But they [only] ask,
"When is this promise to be fulfilled? [Answer this, O you who believe in
it,] if you are men of truth!"
(26) Say thou, [O Prophet:]
"Knowledge thereof rests with God alone; and I am only a plain
warner."
(27) Yet in the end, when
they shall see that [fulfilment] close at hand, the faces of those who were
bent on denying the truth will be stricken with grief; and they will be told,
"This it is that you were [so derisively] calling for!"
(28) SAY [O Prophet]:
"What do you think? Whether God destroys me and those who follow me, or
graces us with His mercy 21 - is there anyone that could protect [you]
deniers of the truth from grievous suffering [in the life to come]?"
(29) Say: "He is the
Most Gracious: we have attained to faith in Him, and in Him have we placed our
trust; and in time you will come to know which of us was lost in manifest
error."
(30) Say [unto those who
deny the truth]: "What do you think? If of a sudden all your water were to
vanish underground, who [but God] could provide you with water from [new]
unsullied springs?" 22
1 Since what is termed
"death" is stated here to have been created, it cannot be
identical with "non-existence", but obviously must have a positive
reality of its own. To my mind, it connotes, firstly, the inanimate state of
existence preceding the emergence of life in plants or animated beings; and,
secondly, the state of transition from life as we know it in this world to the
- as yet to us unimaginable - condition off existence referred to in the Qur'an
as "the hereafter" or "the life to come" (al-akhirah).
2 Or: "conforming [with
one another]", this being the primary significance of tibaq (sing. tabaq).
For the meaning of the "seven heavens", see surah 2, note
20.
3 Sc., in its endeavour to
encompass the mysteries of the universe.
4 Lit., "lamps" -
i.e., stars: cf. 37:6, "We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth
with the beauty of stars".
5 For the wider meaning of shayatin
- a term which in this context points specifically to "the satans from
among mankind, that is, the astrologers" (Baydawi) - see surah 15,
note 16. As regards the term rajm (pl. rujum), which literally
denotes the "throwing [of something] like a stone" - i.e., at random
- it is often used metaphorically in the ssense of "speaking
conjecturally" or "making [something] the object of guesswork"
(Jawhari, Raghib - the latter connecting this metaphor explicitly with the
above verse -, Lisan al-‘Arab, Qamus, Taj al-‘Arus, etc.). Cf. also
37:6-10.
6 I.e., by presuming to know
what will happen in the future - a knowledge which rests with God alone. This
connects with the statement in verse 4 that man can never truly unravel the
mysteries of cosmic space ("the heavens"), which in its turn implies
that he should not presume to foretell terrestrial events from the position and
the aspects of the stars. Since only God knows "that which is beyond the
reach of a created being's perception" (al-ghayb), any such attempt
is a blasphemy (kufr).
7 Lit., "You are
in nothing but a great error (dalal )" - thus denying the reality
of divine revelation as such.
8 Reason, properly used, must
lead man to a cognition of God's existence and, thus, of the fact that a
definite plan underlies all His creation. A logical concomitant of that
cognition is the realization that certain aspects of the divine plan touching
upon human life - in particular, the distinction between right and wrong - are
being continuously disclosed to man through the medium of the revelation which
God bestows on His chosen message-bearers, the prophets. This innate "bond
with God" (referred to in
9 For this rendering of the
expression bi'l-ghayb, see surah 2, note 3.
10 While the primary
significance of the noun qawl is "a saying" or "an
utterance", it is often used tropically in the sense of "a
statement"'. i.e., of a belief, an opinion, a teaching, a doctrine, etc.
In the present context it evidently relates to man's beliefs in general, be
they affirmative or negative: hence the plural form in my rendering of this
term.
11 I.e., He knows why one
person believes in Him and another rejects this belief; hence, He takes man's
innermost motivations, abilities and inabilities fully into account.
12 Lit., "Does He not
know, [He] who has created?"
13 See surah 6, note 89.
14 Lit., "who has made the
earth submissive (dhalulan) to you": i.e., yielding to the
intelligence with which He has endowed man.
15 This expression is, of course,
purely metaphorical since God is limitless in space as well as in time. Its use
here is apparently meant to stress the unfathomable quality of His
existence and power, which penetrates, and reveals itself in, every aspect of
His cosmic creativeness, symbolized in the term "heaven".
16 Lit., "a stormwind that
raises stones".
17 Lit., "before
them" (min qablihim). This personal pronoun relates - as
does the whole of the passage beginning with verse 13 - to people of
all times, who are herewith reminded of what happened to deniers of
the truth in earlier times; hence my rendering of min qablihim as
"aforetime".
18 Lit., "an army".
19 Lit., "prone upon his
face" - i.e., seeing only what is immediately beneath his feet, and
utterly unaware of the direction into which his path is taking him: a metaphor
of the spiritual obtuseness which prevents a person from caring for anything
beyond his immediate, worldly concerns, and thus makes him resemble an
earthworm that "goes along prone upon its face".
20 I.e., with the faculty of
feeling as well as of rational thinking.
21 I.e., "Whether we
succeed in spreading God's message or not, what have you unbelievers to
gain?"
22 Apart from a further
reminder of God's providential power (thus continuing the argument touched upon
in verses 19-21), the above verse has a parabolic significance as well. Just as
water is an indispensable element of all organic life, so is a constant flow of
moral consciousness an indispensable prerequisite of all spiritual life and
stability: and who but God could enable man to regain that consciousness after
all the older ethical stimuli have dried up and "vanished
underground"?