Mutual Disillusion
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[64:1]
ALL THAT IS in the heavens and all that is on earth extols God’s limitless glory: His is all dominion, and to Him all praise is due; and He has the power to will anything.
[64:2]
He it is who has created you: and among you are such as deny this truth, and among you are such as believe [in it]. And God sees all that you do.
[64:3]
He has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with [an inner] truth, and has formed you – and formed you so well; and with Him is your journey’s end.
[64:4]
He knows all that is in the heavens and on earth; and He knows all that you keep secret as well as all that you bring into the open: for God has full knowledge of what is in the hearts [of men].
[64:5]
HAVE THE STORIES of those who, in earlier times, refused to acknowledge the truth never yet come within your ken? [They denied it –] and so they had to taste the evil outcome of their own doings, with [more] grievous suffering awaiting them [in the life to come]:
[64:6]
this, because time and again there came unto them their apostles with all evidence of the truth, but they [always] replied, "Shall mere mortal men be our guides?" And so they denied the truth and turned away.
But God was not in need [of them]: for God is self-sufficient, ever to be praised.
[64:7]
They who are bent on denying the truth claim that they will never be raised from the dead!
Say: "Yea, by my Sustainer! Most surely will you be raised from the dead, and then, most surely, will you be made to understand what you did [in life]! For easy is this for God!"
[64:8]
Believe, then, [O men,] in God and His Apostle, and in the light [of revelation] which We have bestowed [on you] from on high! And God is fully aware of all that you do.
[64:9]
[Think of] the time when He shall gather you all together unto the Day of the [Last] Gathering – that Day of Loss and Gain!
For as for him who shall have believed in God and done what is just and right, He will [on that Day] efface his bad deeds, and will admit him into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide beyond the count of time: that will be a triumph supreme!
[64:10]
But as for those who are bent on denying the truth and on giving the lie to Our messages – they are destined for the fire, therein to abide: and how vile a journey’s end!
[64:11]
NO CALAMITY can ever befall [man] unless it be by God’s leave: hence, whoever believes in God guides his [own] heart [towards this truth]; and God has full knowledge of everything.
[64:12]
Pay heed, then, unto God, and pay heed unto the Apostle; and if you turn away, [know that] Our Apostle’s only duty is a clear delivery of this message:
[64:13]
God – there is no deity save Him!
In God, then, let the believers place their trust.
[64:14]
O YOU who have attained to faith! Behold, some of your spouses and your children are enemies unto you: so beware of them! But if you pardon [their faults], and forbear, and forgive – then, behold, God will be much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.
[64:15]
Your worldly goods and your children are but a trial and a temptation, whereas with God there is a tremendous reward.
[64:16]
Remain, then, conscious of God as best you can, and listen [to Him], and pay heed. And spend in charity for the good of your own selves: for such as from their own covetousness are saved – it is they, they that shall attain to a happy state!
[64:17]
If you offer up to God a goodly loan, He will amply repay you for it, and will forgive you your sins: for God is ever responsive to gratitude, forbearing,
[64:18]
knowing all that is beyond the reach of a created being’s perception as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature’s senses or mind – the Almighty, the Wise!
* v.2 : The above construction, pointing to man’s acceptance or denial of the truth of God’s creative activity, is in accord with Tabarī’s interpretation of this passage, as well as with that of Az-Zajjāj (quoted by Rāzī). According to Zamakhsharī, those who deny this truth are mentioned first because they are more numerous and possess greater influence that those who consciously believe in God. A further implication appears to be this: Since all human beings are endowed with the instinctive ability to perceive the existence of the Creator (cf. 7:172 and the corresponding note 139), one man’s denial of this truth and another’s belief in it is, in the last resort, an outcome of free choice.
* v.3 : See sūrah 10, note 11.
* I.e., in accordance with the exigencies of human life. See also note 9 on 7:11.
* v.5 : This is an allusion to the disasters and the suffering which, as history shows, inevitably befall every community or nation bent on rejecting the basic ethical truths and, thus, all standards of morality.
* v.6 : I.e., apostles from their own midst, entrusted with divine messages specifically meant for them. The expression “time and again” is conditioned by the phrase kānat ta’atīhim, which implies repetition and duration.
* Lit., “guide us.” This negative response is characteristic of people who, in result of their own estrangement from all moral standards, are instinctively, and deeply, distrustful of all things human and cannot, therefore, accept the idea that a divine message could manifest itself through mere human beings that have nothing “supernatural” about them.
* v.7 : Their refusal to believe in resurrection and a life to come implies a conviction that no one will be called upon, after death, to answer for what he did in life.
* v.9 : This or a similar interpolation is necessary in view of the mansūb form of the subsequent noun, yawma (lit., “day”), which I am rendering in this context as “the time.”
* v.11 : I.e., in the words of Rāzī, “towards self-surrender to God’s will...[and so] towards gratitude in times of ease, and patience in times of misfortune.” It is also possible – as some of the commentators do – to understand the phrase in another sense, namely, “if anyone believes in God, He [i.e., God] guides his heart.” However, the rendering adopted by me seems to be preferable inasmuch as it stresses the idea that conscious belief in God impels man’s reason to control and direct his emotions and inclinations in accordance with all that this belief implies.
* v.13 : The above construction of this passage makes it clear, firstly, that a realization of God’s existence, oneness, and almightiness is the innermost purport – and, thus, the beginning and the end – of God’s message to man; and, secondly, that His prophets can do no more than deliver and expound this message, leaving it to man’s reason and free choice to accept or reject it.
* v.14 : I.e., “sometimes, your spouses...,” etc. Since, in the teachings of the Qur’ān, all moral duties are binding on women as well as on men, it is obvious that the term azwājikum must not be rendered as “your wives,” but is to be understood – according to classical Arabic usage – as applying equally to both the male and the female partners in a marriage.
* Love of his or her family may sometimes tempt a believer to act contrary to the demands of conscience and faith; and, occasionally, one or another of the loved ones – whether wife or husband or child – may consciously try to induce the person concerned to abandon some of his or her moral commitments in order to satisfy some real or imaginary “family interest,” and thus becomes the other’s spiritual “enemy.” It is to this latter eventuality that the next sentence alludes.
* v.15 : For an explanation, see note 28 on 8:28, which is almost identical with the present passage.
* v.16 : Cf. the last sentence of 59:9 and the corresponding note 14.
* v.18 : See sūrah 6, note 65.