Tafsir Sura Asy-Syams - Verse 1-8

 

وَالشَّمْسِ وَضُحَاهَا
(91:1) By the sun and its heat and brightness, *1

*1) The word duha as used in the original applies both to the light of the sun and to its heat. Although in Arabic its well known meaning is the time between sunrise and meridian when the sun has risen high, at that height it does not only give light but heat too. Therefore, when the word duha is attributed to the sun, its full meaning can be expressed more appropriately by its radiant brightness than by its light, or by the time of the day that it indicates.

وَالْقَمَرِ إِذَا تَلَاهَا
(91:2) and by the moon as it follows it;

وَالنَّهَارِ إِذَا جَلَّاهَا
(91:3) and by the day as it displays the sun's glory,

وَاللَّيْلِ إِذَا يَغْشَاهَا(91:4) and by the night as it envelopes the sun; *2

*2) That is, when the night comes, the sun hides and its light remains hidden throughout the night. This state has been described, saying that the night covers up the sun, for the night actually signifies the sun's hiding behind the horizon because of which its light cannot reach that part of the earth where the night has fallen.

وَالسَّمَاءِ وَمَا بَنَاهَا
(91:5) and by the sky and by Him Who made it; *3

*3) "Who established it": Who established it like a vault over the earth. In this verse and in the two succeeding verses, the word ma has been used. A section of the commentators has taken this ma as an infinitive, and interpreted these verses to mean "By the heaven and its being established, by the earth and its being spread out, and by the human self and its being balanced. " But this meaning is not correct for the reason that the following sentence: "then inspired it with its wickedness and its piety", does not fit in with the context. Other commentators have taken ma here in the meaning of mun or alladhi and they interpret the sentence to mean: "Who established the heaven, who spread out the earth, and who balanced the human self. " This second meaning is correct in our view, and no one can object that ma in Arabic is used of lifeless things and irrational creatures, For in the Qur'an itself there are numerous instances that ma has been used in the meaning of mun, e.g. we la antum `abiduna ma a `bud ("nor are you the worshippers of Him Whom I worship"), fankihu ma taba lakun~-mia-an-nisa ` ("so, marry from among the women those whom you like") .wa la tanlkihu ma nakaha abaa ukum min-nisa' ("do not marry those women whom your fathers had married").

وَالْأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَاهَا
(91:6) and by the earth and by Him Who stretched it out;

وَنَفْسٍ وَمَا سَوَّاهَا(91:7) and by the soul and by Him Who perfectly proportioned it, *4

*4) "Balanced it" : gave man such a body which by virtue of its erect stature, its hands and feet, and its brain was most appropriate for him to live as man in the world. He blessed him with the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell which on account of their combination and their characteristics could become the best means of obtaining knowledge for him. He endowed him with the faculties of thinking and reasoning, imagination, memory, discrimination, judgement, will-power and such other mental powers by virtue of which he is able to perform the functions fit for man in the world. In addition, balancing also means that man was not created a sinner by birth and a criminal by instinct but on right and sound nature, anti was not characterised with any inborn crookedness because of which he may be unable to adopt the right path even if he wanted to do so. This same thing has been expressed in Surah Ar-Rum, saying: "Be steadfast on the nature whereupon Allah has created mankind." (v. 30), and the same has been explained by the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace ) in a Hadith, saying: "Every new-born child is born on true human nature; it is his parents who make him a"Jew or a Christian or a Magian afterwards. Its example is of an animal giving birth to complete and sound young one. Do you find any one with a torn or slit ear ?" (Bukhari, Muslim). That is, it is the polytheistic people who on account of their superstitions of ignorance tear and slit the ears of animals after wards; otherwise God does not cause an animal to be born with torn ears from its mother's belly. In another Hadith the Holy Prophet said: "My Lord says: I had created all My servants on true Faith (i.e. on sound nature); then the satans came and led them astray from their Faith (i.e.. the true natural Faith) and made unlawful what I had made lawful for them, and commanded them to associate with Me those for whom I had sent down no authority." (Musnad Ahmad; Muslim also has related a saying from the Holy Prophet in similar words).

فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
(91:8) and imbued it with (the consciousness of) its evil and its piety: *5

*5) The word ilham is derived from Jahm which means to swallow. According to this very basic meaning, the word ilham is used terminologically for Allah's inspiring a man with a concept or idea unconsciously. Inspiring the human self with its wickedness and its piety and virtue has two meanings: (1) That the Creator has placed in it tendencies to both good and evil, and this is the thing that every man feels in himself. (2)That Allah has endowed every man's unconscious mind with the concept that there is a moral good and there is a moral evil, that good morals and acts and evil morals and acts are not equal and alike; fujur(immorality) is an evil thing and taqva (abstention from evils) a good thing. These concepts are pot new to man; he is conscious of these by nature, and the Creator has endowed him with the ability to distinguish between good and evil naturally. This same thing has been said in Surah AI-Balad: "And We showed him both the highways of good and evil." v. 10); and in Surah Ad Dahr, thus: "We showed him the way, whether to be grateful or disbelieving" (v. 3); and the same has been expressed in Surah AI-Qiyamah, saying: "In man there is the reproaching self (conscience) which reproaches him when he commits evil (v. 2)," and "Man knows his own self best, even though he may offer many excuses." (w. 1415). 

Here, one should also understand well that Allah has blessed every creature with natural inspiration according to its position and nature, as has been pointed out in Surah Ta Ha: "Who has given a distinctive form to everything and then guided it aright." (v. 50). For example, every species of animals has been given inspirational knowledge according to its needs by virtue of which the fish learns to swim, the bird to fly, the bee to make the beehive and the weaver-bird to build the nest instinctively. Man also in view of his different capacities has been granted separate kinds of inspirational knowledge. His one capacity is that he is an animal being; as such the most significant instance of the inspirational knowledge that he has been given is that the human child starts sucking the mother's milk soon on birth. which no one could teach it, had it, not been taught it instinctively by God. Another position of man is that 6e is a rational being.

As such God has boon blessing him with . inspirational guidance continuously since the time of his creation, by virtue of which he has been discovering things and making inventions to develop his civilization. Anyone who studies the history of these discoveries and inventions will realize that there was hardly any which might be the result of man's own effort or thought, but mostly it so happened that suddenly an idea struck a person and he discovered or invented something. Besides these two, another position of man is that he is a moral being. In this position too Allah has blessed him by inspiration with discrimination between good and evil and of the realization of the good to be good and of the evil to be evil. This sense of discrimination and realization is a universal truth on account of which no human society in the world has even been without the concepts of good and evil; there has never been in history, nor is there now, a society which may not be having some kind of a system of rewarding the good and punishing the evil. this fact being prevalent in every age, at every place, and at every stage of civilization is a clear proof of its being natural and innate. Furthermore, this is also proof that a Wise Creator possessed of knowledge has endued man's nature with it, for in the elements of which man is made up and the laws which govern the material system of the world, no human origin of morals can be traced out.