In the Shade of the Qur'an by Sayyid Qutb

The sūrah begins with a clear, emphatic statement: “This book is bestowed from on high by God, the Almighty, the Wise.” (Verse 1) As He is Almighty, He is able to bestow it from on high, and as He is wise, He knows the purpose of bestowing it, ensuring that it is all done in accordance with wise and elaborate planning.

The sūrah, however, does not dwell on this fact. It is only a prelude to its main theme, which this book has been revealed to establish, namely, God’s oneness, addressing all worship to Him alone, ensuring sincerity in faith, eliminating all traces of any alleged partnership with God and establishing direct contact with Him without any intermediary or need for intercession.

“It is We who have bestowed on you this revelation from on high, stating the truth.” (Verse 2) The essence of the truth with which the book has been revealed is the absolute oneness of God, which forms the foundation of all existence. In verse 5 the sūrah states: “He has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with the truth.” It is all the same truth that makes up the foundation of the universe and provides the purpose for revealing the Qur’ān. It is a single, consistent truth confirmed by the unity of the system that controls the heavens and the earth, and expressed in human language through this hook. It is the truth that puts the seal on everything made by the only Creator.

“Therefore, worship God alone, sincere in your faith in Him.” (Verse 2) The address here is to the Prophet, the recipient of the book as it is bestowed from on high. It embodies the constitution which he advocates, calling on all mankind to adopt it: to worship God alone, sincere in our devotion, and to conduct human life, in all spheres, on this basis. These are not mere statements. It is a complete system, starting with a firm belief that is translated into an all-embracing way of life for both the individual and the community.

A believer in God’s oneness submits only to God, bowing his head to none other, and asking nothing from others. For him only God is powerful and holds sway.

Indeed, all other creatures are weak, unable to do him, or themselves, either harm or good. It is God alone who gives, bestows favours or withholds them. What is the use, then, of turning to anyone other than God for help when all are weak and God alone holds all power?

A true believer recognizes the unity of the system that conducts all affairs in the universe, realizes that the code of living God has chosen for mankind is part of that system, specially moulded to achieve harmony between human life and the universe.

Hence, a believer does not choose any system or legal code other than that which God has laid down. A believer in God’s oneness also feels that there is a bond between him and all that God has created in this universe, and that all creatures are friendly towards him. He feels that all around him have been put in place by God’s hand. Hence, he warms to everything that comes his way of God’s creation. He does not hurt, destroy or waste anyone or anything, or use it in any way other than what God has sanctioned.

Similarly, the effects of believing in God’s oneness are apparent in believers’ concepts and feelings just as they are reflected in their actions and behaviour. Thus, belief in God’s oneness is not merely a verbal utterance. Hence why it is given such emphasis in God’s book, and hence why it is repeated and explained in a great variety of ways. Each and everyone of us needs to study and reflect upon God’s oneness so that this truth is perfectly ingrained in our own essence.

“True devotion is due to God alone.” (Verse 3) In Arabic this statement has added emphasis provided by certain characteristics of the sentence structure, which is peculiar to Arabic and difficult to capture in translation. It gives the statement the sense of a declaration producing a loud but clear echo. Thus sound, structure and meaning combine to strongly emphasize this basic truth upon which all life, throughout the universe, is based.

Then a refutation of the complex superstition the idolaters presented in opposition to belief in God’s oneness follows: “Those who take others besides Him as their protectors say: We worship them for no reason other than that they would bring us nearer to God.’ God will judge between them concerning all matters on which they differ. God will not grace with guidance anyone who is an ungrateful liar.” (Verse 3)

Although they declared that God created them and the heavens and earth, they would not carry this belief to its natural and logical consequence which required that they devote all their worship and submission to Him alone. Instead they invented the superstition that the angels were God’s daughters and even carved statues representing angels so that they could worship these. They then claimed that their worship of these statues, such as al-Lāt, al-`Uzzā and Manāt, was not in essence devotion to them. It was merely a gesture to bring them closer to God, in the hope that these statues or what they represented would eventually intercede with God on their behalf.

Thus, deviation from simple, natural logic landed them in such a medley of falsehood: for the angels are not God’s daughters, nor do the idols represent angels.

God does not accept such deviation. He neither accepts intercession on people’s behalf nor allows them to draw closer to Him in this way. Humanity deviates from the logic of its own nature whenever it moves away from the simple faith of God’s oneness, which is the essence of Islam, as it was the essence of divine religion, preached by every messenger of God. Nowadays, we see in different parts of the world worship of saints, which is similar in essence to the practice of the Arabs of old who worshipped angels, or statues representing angels, to draw closer to God. God, in His limitless glory, defines the way that brings people close to Him: this is belief in God’s oneness without intermediaries or intercessors of any sort.

“God will not grace with guidance anyone who is an ungrateful liar.” (Verse 3) They lie to God when they allege that the angels are His daughters. They also lie to Him when they claim that such worship of the angels will plead with Him on their behalf.

In fact this worship makes them unbelievers, disobedient of God’s express orders.

Needless to say, God does not give His guidance to one who lies to Him, let alone disbelieves in Him. Guidance is granted as a reward for turning to Him, sincerity in worship, and diligently seeking the right way.

The sūrah then shows their belief to be erroneous, indeed otiose: “Had God wished to take to Himself a son, He could have chosen anyone He wanted from whatever He creates.

Limitless is He in His glory: the One God who conquers all.” (Verse 4) This is a supposition made for the sake of argument and to correct concepts. Had God wished for a son, He could have chosen any of His creatures. His will is free, unrestricted.

However, He, in His limitless glory, has made Himself free of any such need. Hence, no one can attribute to Him a son. Such is His will and determination: “Limitless is He in His glory: the One God who conquers all.” (Verse 4)

Why would He need a son when He is the Creator and Originator of all who controls everything. Indeed everything in the universe belongs it to Him and He can do with it all whatever He wants: “He has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with the truth. He causes the night ht to flow into the day, and the day to flow into the night; and He has made the sun and the moon subservient [to His laws] each running its course for a set term. He is indeed the Almighty; the All-Forgiving.” (Verse 5) This reference to the great universe and the phenomena of night and day, and the subjecting of the sun and moon to God’s law, puts the truth of the One God clearer before human nature.

The One who creates all this from nothing does not need a son or a partner.

Clear evidence of God’s oneness is seen in the way the heavens and the earth are created, and in the law controlling the universe. Indeed, to merely look at the skies and the earth gives us a clear sense of the oneness of the will that has created all and controls all. It has now become clear that the entire world known to man is composed of atoms made of the same matter, consisting of rays that have the same nature. It is also known that all atoms and the bodies composed of such atoms, including the earth in which we live and all planets and stars, are in perpetual motion dictated by a consistent law that operates without fail in the tiny atom as well as in the huge star.

Furthermore, it has now been clearly established that this perpetual motion is in accordance with another constant law that further stresses the unity of creation and the unity of control. Every day, man discovers something new testifying to the unity of design throughout the universe.

“He has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with the truth.” (Verse 5)

Likewise, He bestowed His book from on high to state the truth. It is the same truth in the universe and in this book, the Qur’ān. Both originate from the same source, and both are evidence of the oneness of their Maker, the Almighty, the Wise.

“He causes the night to flow into the day, and the day to flow into the night.” (Verse 5)

This is indeed an amazing statement that forces anyone who carefully looks at it to consider what has now been established of the earth’s nature and its circular shape.

Throughout this commentary on the Qur’ān, I have been keen not to look at its verses and statements from the angle of any theory science advances, because such theories may be right or they may be wrong. They may be proven today to be true but something may be discovered tomorrow to render them false. By contrast, the Qur’ān is the word of truth, and it carries its own proof. It needs no supporting evidence from what human beings may or may not discover. Yet the statement included in this verse forces me to relate it to the fact that the earth is circular, because it describes a fact we all notice. As the earth rotates, the part of it facing the sun receives its light and this is daytime. However, this part is not stationary because the earth continues to rotate. As it does, the night begins to spread over the part that had had the day. This part is in a rounded shape, and the day spreads over it in a flowing movement, followed by the night also in a flowing movement.

After a while the day begins to flow again over the night from the other side, in never-ceasing motion: “He causes the night to flow into the day, and the day to flow into the night.” (Verse 5) The statement draws the design, defines the position and specifies the nature of the earth and its movement. Its circular shape and rotation give this statement its most accurate interpretation.

“He has made the sun and the moon subservient [to His laws]: each running its course for a set term.” (Verse 5) The sun and the moon run in their respective orbits. They are under God’s control. No one claims to set them in motion. By natural logic, they cannot run without someone setting them to do so, controlling them by a system that does not deviate by a hair’s breadth across countless centuries. Yet both the sun and the moon continue to run their courses ‘for a set term,’ which is known only to God.

“He is indeed the Almighty, the All-Forgiving.” (Verse 5) His might and power are coupled with His forgiveness of anyone who turns to Him. Thus, those who lie to Him, disbelieve in His oneness, attribute partners to Him or allege that He has a son are made aware that the way is open to them to return to the right way and to believe in the One who is Almighty, Much-Forgiving.

The sūrah then seeks to touch people’s hearts. It refers them to the evidence of life close by them, and in fact derived from their own creation and from the animals made subservient to them:

He has created you all from a single soul, and from it He fashioned its mate; and He has bestowed on you four kinds of cattle in pairs; and He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, one act of creation after another, in threefold depths of darkness. Such is God, your Lord: to Him belongs all dominion. There is no deity other than Him. How, then, can you lose sight of the truth? (Verse 6)

Let man look at his own self. He has not created himself, nor does he know who created the human entity except for what God has told him. Yet we all originate from one soul, with one nature and the same characteristics that distinguish us from the rest of creation. Moreover, every human individual shares in these characteristics, because the human soul is one in the countless millions of humans across all generations and all communities. Moreover, its mate or spouse is also made from the same essence. Thus, despite all differences of detail between men and women, they share all these characteristics. This again confirms the unity of the original design for mankind, male and female, and the unity of the Will that created this single soul with its two manifestations.

The reference to the fact of human spouses is coupled by a reference to the same phenomenon in cattle, which in turn suggests that it applies to all living creatures:

“He has bestowed on you four kinds of cattle in pairs.” The Arabic phrase states ‘eight ‘zawj,’ but this word means both ‘couple’ and ‘spouse’. Hence, the way it is rendered in translation. The eight are made up of a male and a female of sheep, goats, bovine and camels. The verse mentions that they have been bestowed by God, which means that it is God who has made them subservient to man. It is their subservience that is bestowed from on high and effected in man’s world. Thus, man is given God’s permission to use cattle for the benefit of human life.

The verse continues its discussion of man’s creation, referring to various growth stages of the embryo: “He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, one act of creation after another.” These stages of creation begin with the gamete, then a clinging cell mass, then an embryo, then the bones, and then to a creation that indicates its human status. “in threefold depths of darkness.” (Verse 6) There is the darkness of the placenta in which the embryo grows, the darkness of the uterus, and the darkness inside the mother’s body. It is God’s hand that takes the single cell through these stages of creation, one after another, looking after it and giving it the ability to grow and develop until it is formed in a complete human being as God has determined.

Anyone who looks carefully at this journey, which covers a huge gulf traversed in a short period of time, and who reflects on these stages of development, and on how this simple cell is guided along its remarkable journey in these depths of darkness, beyond man’s knowledge, will inevitably recognize the Creator and His handiwork.

How, then, is man turned away from the true faith: “Such is God, your Lord: to Him belongs all dominion. There is no deity other than Him. How, then, can you lose sight of the truth?” (Verse 6)

Having outlined this clear vision of the signs testifying to God’s absolute oneness and all encompassing power, the sūrah shows people’s positions at the parting of the ways between belief and disbelief. It makes it clear that responsibility rests with each individual. It tells them about the end of their lives’ journey and the reckoning that awaits them. It will be administered by the One who created them under three depths of darkness and who knows their innermost thoughts and feelings:

If you disbelieve, God has no need of you; nor is He pleased with disbelief by His servants. If you give thanks, He is pleased with you. No soul will bear the burden of another. In time, to your Lord you all must return, and then He will tell you the truth of all you did. He has full knowledge of what is in people’s hearts. (Verse 7)

The journey inside the mother’s belly is merely one stage of a long journey. The second stage is life in this world and the final stage is that of reckoning and reward.

All this takes place according to God’s design who knows all. He does not need any of His servants. They are essentially weak and powerless, but He bestows on them an abundance of His grace.

“If you disbelieve, God has no need of you.” (Verse 7) If you believe, you will not increase His kingdom in any way. If you disbelieve, this too will not affect His kingdom in any adverse way. He, however, does not like people to disbelieve: “nor is He pleased with disbelief by His servants.” (Verse 7) By contrast, “lf you give thanks, He is pleased with you.” He will accept this from you and reward you generously for it.

Everyone is accountable for their own deeds, and none will be held responsible for another, nor will he be allowed to take upon himself part of another’s burden: “No soul will bear the burden of another.” (Verse 7) The ultimate end of the journey is to God. There can be neither escape from Him nor refuge with anyone else: “In time, to your Lord you all must return, and then He will tell you the truth of all you did.” (Verse 7)

You can hide nothing from Him: “He has full knowledge of what is in people’s hearts.” (Verse 7)