Read the Quran Chapter 6 English

LanguageChapter/Surah

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Praise be to God, who has created the heavens and the earth and brought into being darkness and light. Yet those who deny the truth set up equals to their Lord!
It is He who has created you out of clay, and then has decreed a term [for you]—a term known [only] to Him. Yet you are still in doubt—
He is God both in the heavens and on earth. He has knowledge of all that you hide and all that you reveal. He knows what you do;
yet every time a sign comes to them from their Lord, they turn away from it.
They have rejected truth whenever it came to them, yet [more] news will reach them concerning what they have been making a mockery of.
Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them? We established them on the earth more firmly than you, and We sent the clouds over them, pouring down abundant rain; and made the rivers flow at their feet. Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and raised up other generations after them.

But even if We had sent down to you a Book written on parchment, and they had touched it with their own hands—those who deny the truth would still have said, ‘This is mere magic.’
They ask, ‘Why has an angel not been sent down to him?’ If We did send down an angel, the matter would be settled and they would not have been granted any respite.
Indeed, if We had sent an angel as messenger, We would have made him in the form of a man as well, and would have thus added to their confusion.
Messengers have been mocked before you, but those who scoffed were overtaken by the very thing they scoffed at.
Say, ‘Travel about the land and see what was the end of the deniers.’

Say, ‘To whom belongs all that is in the heavens and earth?’ Say, ‘To God. He has taken it upon Himself to be merciful. That He will gather you on the Day of Resurrection is beyond all doubt. Those who have forfeited their souls will never have faith.’
To Him belongs all that dwells in the night and the day. He is the All Hearing and the All Knowing.
Say, ‘Shall I take as my protector someone other than God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, who feeds all and is fed by none?’ Say, ‘I have been commanded to be the first of those who submit. Do not be one of the polytheists.’
Say, ‘I will never disobey my Lord, for I fear the punishment of a dreadful Day.’
Anyone from whom punishment is averted on that Day has been shown great mercy by God. That is a supreme achievement.

If God should let any harm touch you, no one could remove it except He; while if He should let some good touch you, know that He has the power to do all that He wills.
He reigns Supreme over His servants; and He is the All Wise, the All Aware.
Ask them, ‘What carries the most weight as a witness?’ Tell them it is God. He is a witness between you and me. Say, ‘This Quran has been revealed to me so that through it I may warn you and whoever it reaches. Do you really bear witness that there are other deities beside God?’ Say, ‘I do not bear witness to this.’ Say, ‘He is only one God, and I disown whatever you associate with Him.’

Those to whom We have given the Scriptures know this as they know their own sons. But those who have ruined their souls will not believe.
Who does greater wrong than he who invents a lie against God and denies His signs? Assuredly, the wrongdoers will not succeed.
On the Day when We gather them all together, We will say to those who associated [others with Us], ‘Where are those partners that you claimed?’
Then they will have no excuse but to say, ‘By God our Lord, we have never been polytheists.’
See how they lie to themselves, and how those [the deities] they invented have deserted them.

Among them are some who listen to you, but We have placed veils over their hearts and deafness in their ears which prevent them from understanding what you say. Even if they saw all the signs, they would still not believe in them. When those who deny the truth come to dispute with you, they will say, ‘This is nothing but ancient fables,’
and they bar others from believing and themselves keep away. But they ruin no one but themselves, though they fail to realize this.
If you could only see when they are set before the Fire. They will say, ‘If only we could be sent back. Then we would not deny the signs of our Lord and we would be of the believers.’
The truth they used to hide will become all too clear to them. But if they were sent back, they would return to what they had been forbidden. For they are indeed liars.

They say, ‘There is nothing beyond our life in this world: we shall not be raised up again from the dead.’
If you could only see when they are made to stand before their Lord! He will ask them, ‘Is this [second life] not the truth?’ They will say, ‘Yes, by our Lord!’ He will say, ‘Then, taste the punishment that comes from your having refused to acknowledge the truth!’

Those indeed are the losers who deny the meeting with God. When the Hour comes on them suddenly, they cry, ‘Alas for us, that we neglected it!’ They shall bear their burdens on their backs. Evil are the burdens they shall bear.
The life of this world is but a sport and a pastime. Surely the Home of the Hereafter is best for those who fear God. Will you not understand?

We know that what they say grieves you. It is not you that the wrongdoers are rejecting, rather it is the signs of God that they reject.
Other messengers have been denied before you, and they bore their rejection and persecution steadfastly, until Our help came to them. There is no one who can change the words of God. You have already received some account of those messengers.
If you find their rejection hard to bear, then seek a tunnel into the ground or a ladder into the sky, if you can, and bring them a sign. Had God so willed, He would indeed have given them all [His] guidance. So do not be among the ignorant.
Only they who listen can respond to a call; and as for the dead, God will raise them up, and then they will all return to Him.

They ask, ‘Why has no sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say, ‘God alone has the power to send down a sign.’ But most of them do not understand:
there is not an animal that moves about on the earth, nor a bird that flies on its two wings, but are creatures like you. We have left out nothing in the Book—they shall all be gathered before their Lord.
Those who reject Our signs are deaf and dumb, [groping along] in darkness. God lets anyone He wishes go astray and sets whoever He will on a straight path.

Say, ‘Tell me if the punishment of God came upon you or the Hour overtook you, would you call upon any other than God, if you are truthful?’
Indeed, it is on Him that you would call, and He could remove that [affliction] which made you call on Him, if He will, and then you would forget [the false deities] which you associate with Him!’

We sent messengers before you [Prophet] to many communities and afflicted their people with suffering and hardship, so that they might humble themselves.
When the affliction decreed by Us befell them, they did not humble themselves, but rather their hearts hardened, for Satan had made all their doings seem fair to them.
When they had forgotten Our admonition, We granted them all that they desired; but just as they were rejoicing in what they were given, We seized them suddenly and they were plunged into despair.
The wrongdoers were thus annihilated. All praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.

Say, ‘If God should take away your hearing and your sight and seal your hearts, who is the deity who could restore it to you save God?’ See how We explain the signs to them in diverse ways, yet they turn away.
Ask them, ‘Tell me, if the punishment of God came upon you suddenly or predictably, would any but the wrongdoers be destroyed?’
We send the messengers only to give good news and to warn, so those who believe and reform themselves need have no fear, nor will they grieve.
Chastisement will befall those who reject Our signs because of their disobedience.
Say, ‘I do not say to you that I possess the treasures of God, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I say to you that I am an angel. I follow only that which is revealed to me.’ Say, ‘Are the blind and the seeing alike? Can you not then think?’

Warn by it those who fear to be gathered before their Lord, when they have no guardian or intercessor besides God, so that they may become God-fearing.
Do not send away those who call upon their Lord in the morning and in the evening, seeking only His grace. You are not by any means accountable for them, nor are they accountable for you. If you turn them away, you yourself will become one of the unjust.
In this way We try some of them by means of others, so that they may ask, ‘Are these [lowly ones] whom God has singled out for His favours from among us? Does God not know best who are the grateful ones?’

When those who believe in Our revelations come to you, say, ‘Peace be upon you. Your Lord has taken it upon Himself to be merciful. So that if any one among you does evil in ignorance and repents thereafter and makes amends, then He is most forgiving and ever merciful.’
Thus We make plain Our signs, so that the path of the evil-doers might be laid bare.

Say, ‘I am forbidden to worship those you call upon besides God.’ Say, ‘I do not follow your whims and desires. If I did, I would go astray and cease to be rightly guided.’
Say, ‘I stand by the clear evidence from my Lord, yet you deny it. What you seek to hasten is not within my power. Judgement is for God alone. He declares the truth. He is the best of judges.’
Say, ‘If what you seek to hasten were within my power, the matter would be settled between you and me. God best knows the evil-doers.’
He holds the keys to the unseen; none knows them but He. He has knowledge of all that land and sea contain. No leaf falls without His knowledge, nor is there a single grain in the darkness of the earth, or anything, wet or dry, but is recorded in a clear Record.

It is He who gathers you in at night and knows all that you do by day; then He raises you up during the day so that an appointed term may be completed. Then to Him you shall return and He will declare to you all that you used to do.
He is the Absolute Master over His servants. He sends forth guardians [angels] who watch over you until, when death approaches one of you, Our angels take his soul, and they never fail in their duty.
Then they will all be returned to God, their true Lord. The Judgement is His alone. He is the swiftest reckoner.

Say, ‘Who is it who delivers you from the dark depths of land and sea when you call out to Him humbly and in secret, saying, “If He rescues us from this, we shall most certainly be among the grateful.”?’
Say, ‘It is God who delivers you from it and from every other distress, yet you associate partners with Him.’
Say, ‘He has the power to send punishment on you from above your heads or from beneath your feet, or to divide you in sects and make you taste one another’s violence.’ See how We explain Our revelations in various ways, so that they may understand.
Your people have rejected the message We have sent through you, though it is the truth. Say ‘I am not your keeper.
Every prophecy has its fixed time to be fulfilled: and soon you will come to know.’

When you see people engaged in finding fault with Our revelations, withdraw from them until they turn to some other topic. Should Satan cause you to forget this, take leave of the wrongdoers as soon as you remember.
The God-fearing are not in any way held accountable for the wrongdoers; their only duty is to remind them, so that they may fear God.
Leave alone those for whom religion is only a sport and pastime and are deceived by the life of this world, but continue to remind them with the Quran, lest a soul be held in pledge because of what it has wrought, having no helper or intercessor besides God. Whatever ransom they may offer, it will not be accepted. Such are those that are damned by their own actions: they will have boiling water to drink and a painful punishment for their denial of truth.

Say, ‘Instead of God, shall we call upon that which can neither benefit us nor harm us? Are we to turn upon our heels after God has guided us, like one who, beguiled by devils in the land, wanders bewildered, his companions calling him to the right path, saying, “Come to us”?’ Say, ‘God’s guidance is the only guidance. We are commanded to surrender ourselves to the Lord of the Universe,
say our prayers regularly and to fear God.’ He it is to whom you will be gathered.’
It was He who created the heavens and the earth for a true purpose. On the Day when He says, ‘Be,’ it shall be: His word is the truth. All sovereignty shall be His on the Day when the trumpet is sounded. The Knower of the unseen and the visible, He is the Wise, the Aware One.
Remember when Abraham said to his father, Azar, ‘Do you take idols as your gods? I see that you and your people have clearly gone astray.’

In this way We showed Abraham Our kingdom of the heavens and the earth, so that he might have certainty of faith.
When night descended on him, he saw a star. He said, ‘This is my Lord!’ Then when it set he said, ‘I do not love things that set.’
When he saw the moon rise and spread its light, he said, ‘This is my Lord.’ But when it set, he said, ‘If my Lord does not guide me, I will be one of the misguided people.’
Then, when he saw the sun shining, he said, ‘This is my Lord! This is the greatest of all!’ Then when it set, he said, ‘My people, I disown all that you worship besides God.
I have set my face with single-minded devotion, towards Him who has created the heavens and the earth, and I am not one of the polytheists.’
His people argued with him. He said, ‘Are you arguing with me about God, while He has guided me? I have no fear of any partner you ascribe to Him, unless my Lord should wish otherwise. My Lord encompasses all things in His knowledge, so will you not pay heed?
Why should I fear what you associate with Him, while you do not fear to associate with God that for which He has sent down to you no authority? Tell me, if you know the truth, which side has more right to feel secure.
It is those who have faith, and do not mix their faith with wrongdoing, who will be secure, and it is they who are rightly guided.’
This is the reasoning We gave to Abraham against his people—We raise in rank anyone We please—your Lord is wise and aware.
We gave him Isaac and Jacob, each of whom We guided as We had guided Noah before. Among his descendants were David and Solomon, and Job, Joseph, Moses and Aaron. Thus do We reward the righteous.

Zachariah, John, Jesus, and Elijah—every one of them was righteous—
Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah, and Lot—We favoured each one of them above other people,
and also some of their forefathers, their offspring, and their brothers: We chose them and guided them to a straight path.
This is the guidance of God: He gives that guidance to whichever of His servants He pleases. If they had associated other deities with Him, surely all they did would have been of no avail.
Those are the ones to whom We gave the Scripture, wisdom, and prophethood. If these people [the Makkans] reject it, We shall entrust it to a people who will never refuse to acknowledge it.
Those [the previous prophets] were the people whom God guided. Follow their guidance then and say, ‘I ask no reward for this from you: it is only a reminder for all mankind.’
They do not make a just estimate of God, when they say, ‘God has not revealed anything to any human being.’ Say, ‘Who revealed the Book which Moses brought, a light and guidance for the people, which you made into separate sheets, showing some but hiding many? You have been taught things that neither you nor your forefathers had known before.’ Say, ‘God has sent it;’ then leave them toying away with their speculation.

This is a blessed Book which We have revealed, confirming what came before it, so that you may warn the Mother of Cities [Makkah] and the people around it. Those who believe in the Hereafter do believe in it, and they are ever-mindful of their prayers.
Who could do greater wrong than someone who invents a lie against God or who says, ‘It has been revealed to me,’ while nothing has been revealed to him, or someone who says, ‘I will send down the like of what God has sent down’? If you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death when the angels are stretching out their hands, saying, ‘Give up your souls. Today you will be repaid with a humiliating punishment for saying false things about God and being arrogant about His signs.’

And now you have returned to Us, alone as We created you at first, leaving behind all that We gave you. Nor do We see with you your intercessors, those you claimed were your partners with God. The link between you is cut and that which you presumed has failed you.
It is God who splits the seed and the fruit-stone. He brings forth the living from the dead, and the dead from the living. That is God. How then can you, deluded, turn away from the truth?

He causes the break of day, and has made the night for rest and He made the sun and the moon to a precise measure. That is the measure determined by the Almighty and the All Knowing.
It is He who has set up for you the stars so that you might be guided by them in the midst of the darkness of land and sea. We have made the signs clear for people who want to understand.
It is He who first produced you from a single soul, then gave you a place to stay [in life] and a resting place [after death]. We have made Our revelations clear to those who are men of understanding.

It is He who sends down water from the sky. With it We produce vegetation of all kinds; out of green foliage, We produce clustered grain; and from the date-palm, out of its sheath, We produce bunches of dates hanging low. We produce vineyards and olive groves and pomegranates, alike yet different. Look at their fruit as He causes it to grow and ripen. In this are signs for people who believe.
They have set up jinns as associates with God, even though He created them! They have even dared, in their ignorance, to attribute sons and daughters to Him. Hallowed be He and exalted far above what they ascribe to Him,
the Originator of the heavens and the earth. How could He have a son when He has no consort? He created everything and is aware of everything!
This is God, your Lord, there is no God but Him, the Creator of all things, so worship Him; He is the guardian of all things.
No vision can grasp Him, but He takes in over all vision; He is the Subtle and Aware One.
Clear insights have come to you from your Lord. Whoever, therefore, chooses to see, does so for his own good; and whoever chooses to remain blind, does so to his own loss. Say, ‘I am not here as your keeper.’
This is how We explain Our revelations in various ways—so that they might come to the point of saying, ‘You have read this out to us,’ and that We might make it clear [that this is the truth] to those who are eager to know.

Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord: there is no deity but Him; and ignore the polytheists.
If God had willed, they would not have associated anything with Him. We did not appoint you over them as their keeper, nor are you their guardian.
Do not revile those [beings] whom they invoke instead of God, lest they, in their hostility, revile God out of ignorance. Thus to every people We have caused their actions to seem fair. To their Lord they shall all return, and He will declare to them all that they have done.
They swear a solemn oath by God that if there should come to them a sign, they will believe in it. Say, ‘Signs are granted only by God.’ How can you tell that if a sign be given to them, they will indeed believe in it?

We will turn away their hearts and eyes from the Truth, since they refused to believe in it in the first instance. We will let them wander blindly in their insolence.
Even if We sent down angels to them, and caused the dead to speak to them, and We gathered together everything in front of them, they would still not believe, unless God had so willed. But most of them behave ignorantly.
In like manner We have assigned for every prophet an opponent, Satans from among men and jinn, who make evil suggestions to each other by means of specious words in order to deceive—had it been your Lord’s will, they would not have done so; so leave them alone to their fabrication,
in order that the hearts of those who do not believe in the life to come might incline towards those suggestions and, being pleased, persist in their sinful ways.
Should I seek a judge other than God, when it is He who has revealed the Book, clearly explained. Those to whom We gave the Book earlier know that it is the truth revealed by your Lord. Therefore, have no doubts.

The Word of your Lord is perfected in truth and justice. None can change His words. He is the All Hearing, the All Knowing.
If you obey the majority of those on earth, they will lead you astray from God’s way. They follow nothing but conjecture. They are only guessing.
Your Lord knows best who has strayed from His Way and He knows best those who are guided.
Eat then, only that over which God’s name has been pronounced, if you truly believe in His revelations.

Why should you not eat what has been consecrated in God’s name, when He has already explained to you what He has forbidden you, unless you are compelled by necessity? Surely, many mislead others by their desires through lack of knowledge. But your Lord best knows the transgressors.
Eschew all sin, open or secret: Those who commit sin will receive due punishment for their sins,
and do not eat anything over which God’s name has not been pronounced, for that surely is disobedience. The devils inspire their followers to argue with you. If you obey them, you will become of those who associate partners with God.
Can he who was dead, to whom We gave life, and a light whereby he could walk among people be like him who is in utter darkness from which he can never emerge? Thus the deeds of those who deny the truth have been made fair-seeming to them.

Thus We have placed leaders of the wicked in every town to plot therein. Yet it is only against themselves that they scheme, though they may not perceive it.
When a sign comes to them, they say, ‘We will not believe in it until we are given what God’s messengers have been given. But God knows best whom to appoint as His Messenger. Humiliation before God and severe torment will befall the evil-doers for their scheming.
When God desires to guide someone, He opens his breast to Islam; and whoever He wills to let go astray, He causes his breast to be constricted as if he had to climb up to the skies. That is how God heaps ignominy upon those who refuse to believe.

This is the straight path leading to your Lord. We have made the signs clear for thinking men.
They shall dwell in the Home of Peace with their Lord; He will be their Protector as a recompense for what they have been doing.
On the day when He gathers them all together, He will say, ‘Company of jinn, you took away many followers among mankind.’ And their adherents among mankind will say, ‘Our Lord, we benefited from one another, but now we have reached the end of the term which You determined for us.’ He will say, ‘The Fire shall be your home, and there you shall remain forever, except as God wills. Surely your Lord is wise and all knowing.

And in like manner We shall keep the wrongdoers close to others as a punishment for their misdeeds.
Company of jinn and mankind! Did messengers not come from among you to recite My revelations to you, and warn you of the meeting of this Day?’ They will say, ‘We bear witness against ourselves.’ It was the life of this world that deceived them and so they will bear witness against themselves, that they rejected the truth.
Your Lord would not destroy a community for its wrongdoing, so long as its people were still unaware.
For all are degrees of rank according to their deeds; your Lord is not unaware of anything they do.

Your Lord is the self-sufficient One, the merciful. If He wills, He can take you away and replace you by anyone He pleases, just as He raised you from the offspring of other people.
That which you are promised shall surely come to pass and you cannot prevent it.
Say, ‘O my people! Go on acting in your way; indeed I am going to act in my way; soon you will know whose end will be best in the Hereafter.’ Surely, the wrongdoers shall not prosper.
They set aside for God a share in what He has produced, such as crops and livestock, and they say, ‘This is for God’—so they claim!—and ‘this is for our associate-gods? Their associate-gods’ share does not reach God, whereas God’s share reaches their associate-gods. How ill they judge!

And in like manner, their associate gods have made killing their children seem fair to many pagans, so that they may ruin them and cause confusion in their religion. Had God pleased, they would not have done so; so leave them to their false inventions.
They also say, ‘These animals and these crops are forbidden. None may eat them except those we permit.’ So they claim! There are some animals they exempt from labour and some over which they do not pronounce God’s name, thus committing a sin against Him. He will requite them for the falsehoods they invent.

They say, ‘What is in the wombs of such and such cattle is exclusively for our males and is forbidden to our females. But if it is stillborn, they may have a share of it.’ God will soon punish them for their [false] attribution. He is wise, and all-knowing.
Losers indeed are they who kill their children foolishly and without knowledge and declare as forbidden what God has provided for them as sustenance—a fabrication against God: they have gone astray and have not chosen to be rightly guided.
It is He who has produced gardens, both trellised and untrellised, and date palms and field crops, all varying in taste, and the olive and the pomegranate, both similar and dissimilar. Eat their fruits when they bear fruit and give away what is due of them on the day of their harvest. Do not waste anything. He does not love the wasteful!

Of the cattle there are some for carrying burdens and some for food. Eat what God has provided for you and do not follow in Satan’s footsteps, for he is a declared enemy of yours.
God has created four kinds of livestock of either sex: two of sheep and two of goats. Ask them, ‘Is it the two males He has forbidden or the two females or what the wombs of the two females contain? Tell me on the basis of knowledge, if you are truthful.’

Again, of the camels there are two, and of the oxen two. Ask them, ‘Is it the two males He has forbidden, or the two females or what the wombs of the two females contain? Were you present when God enjoined this on you?’ Who is more unjust than one who, without knowledge, fabricates a lie against God, so that he may lead people astray without knowledge? Surely, God does not guide the wrongdoers.
Say [O Prophet], ‘In all that has been revealed to me, I do not find a ban on anything to eat, except for carrion, flowing blood and pork, all these being unclean or profane, on which the name of someone other than God has been invoked.’ But if anyone is forced by necessity, being neither disobedient nor exceeding the limit, then surely your Lord is most forgiving and merciful.
We forbade the Jews all animals with claws and the fat of sheep [and goats] and oxen, except what is on their backs and in their intestines and what adheres to their bones. That is the penalty We imposed on them for their disobedience. And We assuredly are true to Our word.

So, if they accuse you of lying, say, ‘The mercy of your Lord is all-encompassing. His punishment cannot be averted from sinful men.’
Those who associate partners with God will surely say, ‘Had God pleased, neither we nor our fathers would have served other gods besides Him; nor would we have made anything unlawful.’ Likewise those who lived before them argued falsely until they came to taste Our punishment! Say, ‘Have you any knowledge? If so, produce it before us. You follow nothing but conjecture. You are merely guessing.’

Say, ‘God alone has the conclusive proof. If He had willed, He could have guided every one of you.’
Say, ‘Come, bring your witnesses, who can testify that God forbade [all] this.’ If they bear witness [falsely], do not bear witness with them; nor yield to the wishes of those who deny Our signs, nor of those who do not believe in the life to come and set up others as equals with their Lord.
Say, ‘Come! I will tell you what your Lord has really forbidden you! Do not associate anything with Him; be good to your parents; and do not kill your children for fear of poverty—We shall provide sustenance for you as well as for them—refrain from committing indecent deeds, whether openly or in secret; and do not kill the life which God has made sacred, save by right. That is what He has enjoined upon you, so that you may understand.

Stay well away from an orphan’s property, except with the best intentions, before he comes of age. Give full measure and weight, according to justice—We never charge a soul with more than it can bear—when you speak, observe justice, even though it concerns a close relative; and fulfil the covenants of God. That is what He has enjoined upon you so that you may take heed.

[He has enjoined], ‘This is My straight path; so follow it, and do not follow other ways: that will lead you away from His path.’ That is what He enjoins upon you, so that you may guard yourselves.
Then We gave Moses the Book, completing [Our favour] to the righteous, explaining everything clearly, as guidance and mercy, so that they might believe in meeting their Lord.

This is a Book which We have revealed as a blessing—follow it and fear your Lord, so that you may receive mercy—
and not say, ‘The Book was only sent down to the two groups before us and we were indeed unaware of their teachings,’
or you may say, ‘If the Book had been sent down to us, we would surely have followed its guidance better than they did.’ There has now come to you clear evidence from your Lord, and guidance and mercy. Who, then, is more unjust than one who rejects the signs of God and turns away from them? We shall requite those who turn away from Our signs with a painful punishment, for their turning away.
Are they waiting for the angels or your Lord to come down to them, or for some of your Lord’s signs to come? The day when some of the signs of your Lord shall come, it shall not profit any human being who did not believe before, or who did not do any good by his faith. Say to them, ‘Wait then, we too are waiting.’
Have nothing to do with those who have split up their religion into sects. Their case rests with God; He will tell them about what they used to do.

Whoever does a good deed will be repaid tenfold, but those who do a bad deed will only be repaid with its equivalent and they shall not be wronged.
Say, ‘My Lord has guided me to a straight path, and to an upright religion, the religion of Abraham the upright, who was not of those who associate partners with God.’

Say, ‘My prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for God, the Lord of the worlds;
He has no partner. So am I commanded, and I am the first of those who submit.’
Say, ‘Shall I seek a lord other than God, while He is the Lord of all things?’ Everyone must bear the consequence of what he does, and no bearer of a burden can bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord you will return, and He will inform you of what you used to dispute about.
It is He who has made you successors [of others] on the earth and has exalted some of you over the others in degrees of rank, so that He may test you by that which He has given you. Your Lord is swift in punishment; yet surely He is forgiving, and merciful.

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Commentary

6:1
The system inherent in the governance of heaven and earth is so perfect in its coordination and its unitary nature—despite the magnitude of the task—that it proclaims aloud the fact that its Creator and Organiser can be none other than the one and only God. Witness how unimaginably great is this universe in its vastness, wisdom and meaningfulness. The flawlessly regulated revolution of the earth in space around the bright sphere of the Sun and, hence the coming into existence of light and darkness and day and night are events beyond human comprehension. Now, why should there be any question of God—who has organised the universe to perfection—having any shortcoming which would necessitate His having a partner to give Him assistance? The fact is that the wonderful system by which everything in the world is regulated is in itself proof that its Lord (God) is one and one alone, and this same system also demonstrates that God is so great that He does not need any assistant either in His creation or in His control of what He has created.

6:2-4
The age of the present world is limited. Here life cannot be devoid of grief. Here unpleasantness goes along with pleasantness. Evil cannot be separated from goodness nor goodness from evil. In such circumstances, man is unable to understand how the eternal world of the Hereafter, which will be free from grief (35:34) can come into existence. If the world of the Hereafter is to be created with some matter other than that of this world, that is something beyond man’s ken; but if the other world of the Hereafter is to be created from the matter of this world, it has to be conceded that this world in itself lacks the capacity to bring into existence a world of total perfection. The very existence of the raiser of this issue is in itself an answer to this question. The body of a human being is wholly made of earth elements but it has unique properties, none of which is found in the earth. Man hears; he speaks; and he thinks; he performs wonderful acts, though the earth with which he is made is not capable of performing these acts. From earthen elements a non-earthly creature has wondrously emerged. This is a matter confirmed by everyday experience. In view of this, how strange it is that man should harbour doubts about the advent of the Hereafter. If a living and active man comes into existence from earth; if fragrant flowers and luscious fruits emerge from earth, then why cannot a more perfect world emerge from our present world? The message of God and the Hereafter, issued directly by God Himself, is accompanied by clear signs which establish it as a true call from the Almighty. Its being on the lines of nature on which the system of God’s eternal world is established; its being supported by arguments that cannot be countered by anybody; its being backed by a preacher of God’s word whose seriousness and sincerity are above doubt; its repeated survival of the destructive plans of its opponents, despite their superior power—all these are clear indications of its being based on truth. Inspite of all this, man does not believe in it and is not willing to support it. The reason for this is that all these proofs, in spite of all their clarity, always appear through a veil of cause and effect. When these signs come to a man’s attention, he attributes them to certain causes and pays no heed to them. He does not become inclined to accept their validity. Instead of accepting the call he would say that had this call been on behalf of God, then God and His angels would have been visible to the naked eye. But this idea is absolutely meaningless, because when God and His angels appear in all their glory, it will be the time for the final rendering of accounts and not for giving a call of Truth or for preaching about the greatness of God.

6:5-6
Those who have firmly established themselves in this world, having accumulated many material goods for themselves, and who see the manifestations of their own greatness and popularity around them, are always liable to be a prey to misunderstanding. They look down upon the things God has gathered around the caller of Truth as compared to the things around them. This overweening confidence on their part increases to such an extent that they even become unafraid of God. They make fun of the warning given by the missionary of Truth that, if their arrogance continued, their material achievements would not be able to save them from God’s scourge. Their treatment of the dayee as a non-entity makes his warnings also insignificant. Even historic instances of God’s having destroyed materially well set up people, as if their lives were of no value whatsoever, fail to teach them a lesson. The recurrence of events in which one set of people face decline while another set rises shows that the rule of ‘crime and punishment’ is prevalent here, but man does not learn a lesson from this. The succeeding generations repeat those very same actions as were indulged in by their predecessors, due to which they were destroyed.

6:7-9
The reason for a man going astray in this world is that here he has complete freedom to reject the Truth. He even has the opportunity to give fine justifications for erroneous thoughts, words and deeds. Man enjoys full freedom in this world of trial to accept or reject the Truth as he pleases. If the preacher of God’s word appears in the shape of an ordinary man, the ‘reason’ given for ignoring him could be that his effectiveness hinges on a talent for leadership and has nothing to do with Truth or righteousness. Similarly, if a book complete in every detail, comes down from the sky, he will say, ‘This is mere magic,’ to justify his rejection of it. The people of Makkah used to ask, if the Prophet was appointed to convey God’s message, why God’s angels were not with him to testify. A man talks like this because he is not serious about the call of God’s message. If he is serious, he will immediately come to know that this world is a place of trial. The test can be carried out only when realities are hidden behind a curtain. If the hidden realities were revealed and God and His angels made their appearance, there would be no question of prophethood or of giving the call of Truth, because thereafter nobody would dare to deny the realities. In the present world, because of their devotion to externals, people are unable to recognise the Messenger of God from the importance of his message. God’s Messenger appears to them like an ordinary man suddenly emerging and claiming very high status. They assess him on the basis of his outward appearance and, finding him insignificant in that respect, they deny him.

6:10-13
In this world communicating the Word of God is a task of some complexity. This is because God has ordained that the Truth be veiled in doubt, so that man may find reasons for rejecting it alongside arguments in support of its acceptance. The real test of man is that he should be able to tear down the veil of doubt and raise himself to the position of certainty. He should eschew doubt in all its guises and take a firm hold of the divine Truth. Believing without seeing is the real test of man. When reality is made visible, its acceptance has no value. Man denies the obvious truth. On obtaining power, he degrades others. One man makes another the victim of his tyranny. Why is this so? Does man wield absolute power in this world? Is there nobody here to stay his hand? Is there a combination of opposites in God’s regime, given that He seems to have filled man’s world with oppression and injustice and the rest of the world with mercy and meaningfulness? No, it is not so. God, who is the Lord of Heaven and earth, is also the Lord of that creature who toils during the day and rests at night. Just as God’s grace is given unstintingly to the universe, so also is it given to human beings. The difference is that for the rest of the world, His grace is fully in evidence right from the first day, whereas for the world of human beings, His grace will be fully shown on the Day of Judgement.

6:14-16
Man is a creature with a will of his own and that is why voluntary worship is required of him. Those who do not choose to exercise their will rightly, do not deserve a share in God’s bounties, not having fulfilled the purpose of their creation. After the period of trial is over, all human beings will be gathered in a new world. On that Day God will take into His hands the direct control of the rest of the world. On that Day God’s scale of justice will be operative. On that Day those who admitted the reality and surrendered themselves to God will come to the fore and those who did not, having led a life of arrogance and obstinacy in the world, will be the losers. Whenever a man adopts an arrogant stance, it is on the basis of some backing. But the things on which his arrogance depends for support have no value in this universe. Nothing has any power here, for the sole possessor of power is God. All are dependent on Him and He is not dependent on anyone. So, on the Day of Judgement, only those who had sought out the real support, who had made the true faith the religion of their lives, will be successful.

6:17-18
The different parts of the vast universe spread out before us are so interconnected that for an event to occur, the coordination of the whole universe is necessary. This being so, no human being is capable of causing any event to occur, because no human being is in control of the universe. Here, even a small event takes place only when countless universal factors combine to set it in motion, and God alone is the controller of these factors. Amidst these universal factors, man is only the possessor of a will. The fact is that in this world whether one receives blessings or afflictions, both conditions come about by the direct orders of God. In view of this, it is utter foolishness for a man to think that he can save one or destroy another. It is also quite meaningless for a man to fear or build his hopes on anybody except God.
6:19
In the on-going struggle between the proponents, on the one hand of Truth and on the other of falsehood, the only decisive factor is the Book of God. There is nobody who knows the full facts or has any real authority except God. So God, the only Being who is capable of settling this dispute, has given an arbiter to the people in the form of the Quran. Now, man has only one course open to him. If he is not aware of the veracity of the Quran, he should investigate and satisfy himself that it is the Book of God. When he comes to know that it is really the Book of God, he should necessarily be satisfied with whatever is advocated therein. One who is not in agreement with the decision of the Quran runs the risk of being forced to accept its verdict in the Hereafter after much degradation and punishment. The Quran has been revealed so that, before the arrival of the time of Judgement, people may be made aware of what awaits them. The Prophet Muhammad performed this task during his prophethood and the same work has to be continued by his followers (ummah) till Doomsday. The Quran tells us in advance how God is going to treat people in the eternal world of the Hereafter. Those who are assigned the task of delivering this message to the people will be free of the responsibility once they have fully conveyed the message; but those to whom it is delivered will be free in the eyes of God only when they have accepted it and reformed themselves accordingly. The missionary’s responsibility ends with his ‘preaching’, while that of the addressee ends only on his ‘fulfilling his religious obligations’.

6:20-24
Reality is a familiar thing for man, because it is part of man’s own nature and it speaks the same silent language throughout the universe. This was truer of the Jews and the Christians, because their Prophets and their scriptures had clearly heralded the advent of the last of the Prophets and the Quran. So, for them to know about this was as good as knowing their own sons. In spite of things being so clear, why do people not accept the Truth? It is because of the fear of some immediate loss. The cost of acceptance of the Truth is that man has to pull himself down from a high status; he has to come out of the sphere of conformism and give up ready-made advantages. When a man is not ready to make these sacrifices, he does not accept the Truth, and for the sake of instant gain, he pushes himself into a position of eternal loss. If he has a false sense of satisfaction with the stand he has taken, it is because in this world of trial he is always successful in finding explanations and justifications in his support; he readily finds the words to reject arguments in favour of the Truth—so much so that he feels free to wilfully misinterpret truth and claim that the ‘real Truth’ is that which he has adopted. Whenever a man makes entities other than God the centre of his attention, a magical halo gradually forms around them. He indulges in such wishful thinking as gives him the illusion that he has a firm hold of a very strong support. But, on the Day of Judgement, when all the veils are torn asunder, and when he sees that all the supports except that of God were absolutely false, he will have no alternative but to contradict his own statements. In other words, such people at that time will become witnesses against their own falsity. In the Hereafter they will become the rejecters of those very things of which they had been proud of being attached to. The edifice of false beliefs and explanations they had constructed will be so totally destroyed that it will seem never to have existed.

6:25-26
In the present world of trial, man has every opportunity to find pretexts or justifications for anything that suits his interests. There are some who appear to listen to God’s message, but if from the outset they are prejudiced, the truth falls on deaf ears and so fails to touch their hearts. They set up mental barriers and, because of this, have no idea of their religious duties, even after they have been carefully explained to them. Arguments, no matter how clearly stated, fail to convince them because, whenever they allow anything of religious significance to cross these barriers, it is with the intention of disputing it, rather than receiving guidance from it. They have no intention of hearing or understanding anything of moral import. As a result, the relevant aspects of any such issue do not come within their mental grasp. Moreover, they are ever ready to present religious matters in a contorted manner. Correct arguments have no influence upon them. Due to their perverseness, they seek out in all ethical questions certain facts which they can misrepresent in order to delude themselves and others that they are on the right path.

6:27-28
For people who have this temperament, all moralizing is in vain, because in this world of trial there is no such rule as prevents them from fabricating counter arguments. Even if they do not manage to concoct such arguments, they will contemptuously ignore the truth, saying, ‘What is new in this? This is the same old story which we have been hearing for such a long time.’ In this way, even after being convinced of the veracity of moral precepts, they will find some excuse to reject them. Before God such people are doubly guilty, because not only do they themselves refrain from admitting the Truth, but they also make the Divine argument seem dubious to people in general by distorting its true meaning; they have so little understanding themselves that they are unable to make any profound analysis of the subject. In the life of this world, such people make very tall claims, and because they lose nothing by denying the Truth, they mislead themselves and others. But on the Day of Judgement, when they are called to account and threatened with Hellfire, the Truth will overwhelm them. Suddenly they will start accepting those very principles which they had denied in this life.

6:29-30
Whenever a man denies the Truth or follows the desires of his self, it is because he does not live his life in this world on the understanding that he will be resurrected after death and made to stand before the Lord of the universe to give an account of himself in everyday life. Man has been given a certain power which he uses unhesitatingly. He has the material prop of wealth, and friends and companions on whom he relies. He has been given a brain, which he uses to think out arrogant strategies and find clever pretexts for his transgressions. The success of his initiatives deceives him; he starts placing false reliance on things other than God, and imagines that the position he enjoys today is of a perennial nature. He forgets that whatever he has been given in this world is only by way of trial and is not a matter of entitlement. This type of life is thoroughly sinful, whether led in open denial of the Hereafter or without actually uttering the words of denial. On what basis does man rush towards worldly things—thinking them his own? Man has not paid any fee for the sunlight in which he walks or for the air he breathes. No part or ingredient of the earth from which he derives the wherewithal to live has been made by him. None of the favourite things towards which he rushes can he call his own. When these things have not been created by man, should not the Lord of all these things have any right over man? The fact is that man’s very utilisation of the present world makes it only logical that he should be made to stand before his Lord on the day of reckoning.

6:31-32
A life lived on the assumption that the world belongs to God is a truly God-fearing life, i.e. a life of taqwa, whereas a life in which no such assumption is made is one of sinfulness, being entirely given over to worldly pleasures and trivialities. The latter pleasure-seeking life will last—in terms of eternity—for only a matter of days and, with death, will come to an end, whereas the God-fearing life, regulated by God’s eternal principles, will continue to stand man in good stead both in this world and the next. In the present world man denies these realities but, as soon as the freedom given to him under test conditions ends, he will be compelled to accept them, though acceptance at that time will be of no avail.

6:33-36
Abu Jahl said to the Prophet, ‘O, Muhammad! By God, we do not reject you. Only we deny that which you have brought.’ That is, the people of Makkah who had not embraced the faith nevertheless admitted that he was a righteous person. But, to say of a person that his utterances were marked by Truth and reality amounted to glorifying him, and they were not prepared to give him such high honour. When they called him, ‘truthful and honest’ they had the mental satisfaction that he was a man of their own level, but admitting that God’s own discourse emanated from his lips amounted to according him a status higher than their own, and such an admission is the most difficult one for any man to make. In the present world, God does not appear directly in His original shape. He appears before man in the shape of arguments, signs and symbols. Therefore, not accepting arguments in support of the Truth, or turning a blind eye to the signs in its favour amounts to a refusal to accept God, or to turning one’s eyes away from the face of God. However, it is not part of God’s plan to appear along with compelling miracles, for if His call were to be presented in this context, freedom of action would come to an end; for the purpose of maintaining test conditions, an atmosphere of freedom of action must be perpetuated. The da‘i should not be put out by the fact that he has only the weight of arguments to offer or that he possesses no extraordinary powers of control. Instead of being worried on this account, he should exercise patience. The making of efforts in connection with the mission of truth, is on the one hand, a test of the da‘i ’s patience and, on the other, a test of the addressees as to whether they are able to see a glimpse of God’s representative in a man like themselves. Are they able to recognise the majesty of God’s message in the words coming out of a man’s mouth; do they bow down before arguments that are devoid of material strength, as they will bow down before a strong and powerful God? For those who have life in them, the whole universe is full of God‘s signs, but those who have extinguished the fire of their sensitivities will not be able to learn a lesson from anything except the terrors of Doomsday.

6:37-39
If the brief import of these verses is expanded, it will be as follows: They ask us why extraordinary signs do not accompany the Prophet in order to establish that his message is truthful. God has the full power to present all types of signs. But the real question is not that of signs but of people’s ignorance. God’s countless signs are spread out here everywhere. When people are not able to learn anything from these existing signs, what advantage can they derive from the presentation of a new sign? The various types of animals moving about on the earth and the birds flying in the air are signs for you. What God requires of these living creatures is the same as He requires of you, and God has written down His requirements for all living creatures—for human beings in terms of Islamic law and for other creatures by way of their instincts. Creatures like birds and animals carry out God’s writ to the letter, but man is not prepared to accept God’s writ. Therefore, the question is not of signs but of blindness. What is the justification for man to adopt any religion other than the one adopted by all of God’s creatures? The fact is that those who are inclined to act properly do so without demanding any new signs and those who are not so inclined demand signs in spite of already being surrounded by innumerable signs. Such people are inevitably destined to be assembled on Doomsday and shown how all types of animals, having adopted the realistic approach, trod the path of God; it was human beings who deviated from it. The animal kingdom is synonymous with the world of nature. Animals are on the constant look-out for food but, in obtaining it, there is no persecution by one animal on another. Needs are satisfied but without selfishness. Even if one animal is troubled by another, there is no hostility or enmity. Among them tasks are performed, but there is no ambition to get the credit for them. Unlike animals, man is arrogant. He is not prepared to be regulated by God’s plan. God’s requirement of man is the same as that which is fulfilled by the animals. Then why is it necessary for man to demand a miracle? Are not there living signs in the shape of animals which provide an example of God’s methods and also corroborate for mankind the truth of the Prophet’s teachings?

6:40-41
History bears witness to the fact that a man starts invoking the name of God in crucial moments; even one who relied on beings other than God or did not believe in God’s existence at all. This is nature’s testament to God’s existence and His being the absolute authority. Under extraordinary circumstances, when the outward veils are removed and when man dismisses all superficial thoughts, he does not remember anything except God. In other words, on reaching the point of helplessness, every man admits the existence of God. But the Quran demands that man should follow a course of acceptance and obedience at a time when there is no apparent compulsion to do so. All animals other than man instinctively lead realistic lives. But what pushes man towards realism and the admission of the truth is the psychology of fear. In the world of animals all things are accomplished by instinct. The same role is played by fear of God (taqwa) in the world of human beings.

6:42-45
When a man is faced with the truth and he does not accept it, God does not seize him immediately, but gives him some jolts by way of monetary loss or physical trouble, so that he should review his way of life, and his thinking should be revolutionised. Life’s events are not mere happenings but vibrant messages from God sent to wake a man up from his sleep of forgetfulness. But man learns nothing from these things. He consoles himself by saying that these are normal ups and downs and that such ups and downs do occur in life. In this way, Satan all too often diverts the mind of the individual from possible divine disfavour and pushes him into negligence of his religious duties by providing him with plausible justifications. When a man indulges in this type of behaviour again and again, his heart loses all sensitivity to what is true or false, right or wrong. His conscience eventually becomes totally blunted. When a man ignores the warnings received from God, His approach towards him changes. Now, God’s decision for him is that the doors to comfort and success should be opened for him; he should be granted prosperity in full measure; his honour and popularity should increase. This is in reality, a punishment, so that the evil hidden in him should come out clearly. The purpose of this is that man should feel satisfied with himself and become more and more insensitive and much bolder in ignoring the Truth. And, as a result, his meriting punishment is fully established. When this purpose is achieved, God’s retribution suddenly overwhelms him. He is deprived of worldly life and presented before the court of the Hereafter, so that he may be awarded the punishment of Hell. This world is God’s world. Here the right to have one’s greatness extolled belongs to only one Being. So, if a man ignores the divine truth, he is in fact disrespecting God. In a world overarched by the majesty of the Almighty, he wants to establish his own greatness. In this way he is indulging in unparalleled transgression. He is being insolent to God before whom no behaviour other than that of the utmost humility is proper.

6:46-47
The granting of ears, eyes and heart to man indicates what his Creator wants from him. The Creator wants man to hear and see His signs and accept them using rational arguments. If a man does not utilise these God-given capabilities for the purpose they are meant, then he is running the risk that he may be declared incapable and his capabilities may be snatched from him. How helpless is one who is rendered blind, deaf and mentally disabled because such a person will remain of no social value. But there is a kind of helplessness greater than this: it is to have ears but be deaf to the Truth; it is to have eyes but be blind to the Truth; it is to have a heart in one’s breast but be incapable of understanding the Truth. This deprivation is much more serious than the first kind, because it makes a man debased and worthless in respect of the Hereafter; there is no shortcoming more heinous than this. If a man is warned of the result of the denial of truth, and has the bravado to respond insolently, it is because, being well placed in the world, he thinks that he need not fear the scourge of God. Indeed, he imagines he is exempt from divine retribution. And the more daring ones, such as he, challenge God’s messenger and say, ‘If you are truthful, bring down upon us God’s wrath, and let us see.’ They do not understand that if God vents His anger, it will be on them and not on anyone else.

6:48-50
The preacher of God’s word appears in the world not only as one who gives good news, but also as a warner. In other words, the basis on which a man is tested before God is that he should recognise the Truth conveyed in the language of admonition and reform himself accordingly. If he fails to recognise the Truth and demands magic feats and charms as a condition for acceptance, he merely proves his moral blindness; and for such blind people, there is no fate but havoc and destruction in this world of God.

6:51-52
Admonition is effective only for those who live in fear of God. Only one who is concerned about possible danger can be warned about imminent calamity. On the contrary, those who live reckless lives are never serious about admonition, and that is why they are never prepared to heed advice. Recklessness or fearlessness arises from two factors—one is worship of the world and the other is worship of ancestors. Those who are lost in worldly things or are satisfied with worldly success do not even remember that one day, when they die, they shall have to appear before their Creator and Lord, and so do not consider the Hereafter as anything significant. Remembrance of the Hereafter does not, therefore, find a place in their thinking. Their temperament is such that they ignore such things, considering them unimportant. Another category of individuals includes those who consider recommendation the key to Paradise. They presume that the ‘great ones’ for whom they have developed an attachment will be their supporters and commenders in the Hereafter and that no matter how unfavourable the conditions, that will be sufficient for their salvation. Such people live in the fond hope that since they have grasped the hands of some ‘holy’ personalities and since they are with the group which is ostensibly loved and favoured by God, no affair of theirs can go awry. It is this mentality which makes them unafraid of the Hereafter. They are not ready to give serious consideration to anything which may throw doubt on their position in the life to come.
6:53
Those who have achieved wealth and popularity prefer to give weightage to the considerations of their worldly interests, rather than support the pure and unadulterated call of Truth, because, according to them, supporting the Truth would amount to demolition of the entire structure of their vested interests. Moreover, when they see that Truth is upheld by people of ordinary status, their way of thinking is further strengthened. They feel that by associating with the Truth they will be lowering their own status. Instead of testing the Truth on the touchstone of Truth, they judge it by their own criteria, i.e. by their own private and personal touchstone, and when the Truth does not measure up to this, they ignore it.

6:54-55
During the period of the Prophet Muhammad, there were those who demanded miracles before accepting his bona fides. Unlike them, there were others who embraced the faith on hearing him recite the verses of the Quran. This sort of test of man goes on in every era. In the present world God does not appear in physical form. He advances His arguments through the medium of the bearer of truth, casting them in verbal form, so that they may be presented to mankind. Now, one in whom nature is alive is able to see the glow of God in these arguments and he accepts it and bows down before it. But, those who have shrouded their nature in artificial veils fail to find God through His ‘words’. They are unable to see God through reasoning and therefore they want God to appear before them physically, in an observable shape. But this is not possible in the present world of trial. Here, only that person will find God who is able to recognise Him while He is still invisible. One who insists on witnessing God in physical form in this world faces spiritual destitution of the most extreme kind. Those who sedulously avoid the truth by adopting a wrong approach, accuse those who accept the Truth of various kinds of wrongdoing, so that they may prove themselves to be much better than them. They are unable to see their own transgressions but, if a truthful person happens to commit any slight mistake, they try to exaggerate it with a view to establishing that those who have rallied to the quest for truth are unreliable. The truth is quite the reverse. Believers who have abjured untruth and accepted truth tread the path of faith and righteousness. In this way, in accordance with the will of God, they become entitled to receive inspiration for the betterment of their present position and share the bounties of God. Unlike them, those who steer clear of the truth only prove by their actions that they are not interested in adopting the way of faith and righteousness. Even when such people are deprived of God’s guidance, their bravado does not come to an end, and it is their effrontery which constitutes the greatest crime in this world of God. God expresses Himself in the language of ‘symbols’. Symbols are useful only to one who has the desire to read or interpret them. Similarly, guidance will be available only to one who is eager to have it. One who shows no interest in guidance has no other option but to go astray.

6:56-57
Man’s own wishful thinking—which he presumes to be a reality, is all too often raised to the status of something worth worshipping. Sometimes, just to save himself from the consequences of his negligence of religious duties, he accepts someone as God’s favourite and treats him as one who is supposed to support him before God and recommend his case to Him. Sometimes he imagines such a person to have charismatic, supernatural greatness in him, and that he could make up for his own shortcomings by attaching himself to him. Sometimes, due to his easy-going nature, he invents a god who is easy of access and who can easily be pleased with small things. But all such things are mere suppositions and suppositions can never lead anyone to reality. However, there are some who become so blinkered by cheap demands that they even challenge those who have rallied to the side of the real Lord of the Universe. They challenge them thus: ‘If all greatness and majesty belong to the one and only God whom you represent, then arrange to let His retribution come down upon us. Let us see.’ They dare to behave in this way, because they observe that they are much more surrounded by worldly glories than the da‘is who work for the acceptance of God’s unity. They forget that the material amenities available to them are due to their devotion to worldly considerations and worldly interests, whereas the missionaries of God, who are bereft of all these things, are in such a condition because their yearning for the Hereafter has prevented them from stooping to the level of devotion to worldly goals.

6:58-59
The present world is one of test and trial. Therefore, what is truly significant here is not the material conditions in which a man lives, but whether he is taking a stand on the rationale of truth or on suppositions and false hopes. In the final analysis, only that person will be successful who takes a stand on the real rationale of Truth. The people who rely on suppositions in this world of God will be ultimately reduced to a state of utter helplessness. How could the final fate of the world, which is functioning under the strict control of the Almighty, become relegated to an abyss of false hopes?
6:60
God has created this world in such a way that it provides practical examples of those facts to which the attention of human beings is called. If a man does not close his eyes and does not screen off his mind with false veils, he will find in the whole universe practical demonstrations of the Quran’s challenge to man’s thinking processes. Branches emerge from a tree trunk and leaves sprout from the branches, but there is a difference in their respective joints. In other words, the Creator knows that the branches have to remain attached to the trunk, while the leaves have to detach themselves and fall down. If this were not so, the leaves would fail to separate from the branches and the entire system of bringing new life to the tree every year would be upset. Similarly, when a seed is sown, the earth in which it is placed already possesses all the ingredients from which it derives nourishment and finally grows into a full-fledged tree. Then, how is it possible that God who is aware of the conditions of such things as a leaf and a seed could be unaware of the human condition?

6:61-62
Our earth is a unique phenomenon in the whole universe. The system prevailing here has been made congenial to the conditions of God’s creatures—human beings. A major part of the interior of the earth consists of fire but it does not burst open. The sun is at exactly the right distance mathematically, and does not move closer or farther away. A man always needs air and water; so air has been spread over the earth in gaseous form and water has been stored under the surface of the earth in liquid form. There are countless similar arrangements that are constantly maintained in the right proportions on the earth. If there were even a slight variation in these, it would be impossible for a human being to live here. Sleep is a wonderful thing. Man roams about here and there; he sees and speaks; but when he sleeps all his senses become suspended, just as if life had oozed out of them. When he has had his full sleep and wakes up, he becomes as active as before. This is, so to say, an example of life and death. This event demonstrates how a man will die and how he will be resurrected, i.e. be brought back to life. These events prove that all men are in the power of God and soon that Day will come when God will take fateful decisions about them in the exercise of His powers.
6:63
No other living creature in this world faces so many troubles as human beings do. This is so, because man is intended to be subjected to adverse conditions so that all artificial, unreal thoughts are driven out of his mind, and he is able to see his own true nature. The fact is that whenever a man confronts any major trouble, he starts single-mindedly calling upon God. At that time, all the man-made veils are swept away from his mind. He comes to realise that in this world man is completely humble and helpless, and it is God alone who has all the power. But as soon as his troubles are eased, he reverts to his usual neglect and recklessness and becomes the same man as he was earlier.

6:64-65
Basically, polytheism (shirk) is the reposing of one’s faith in some entity other than God, while monotheism is directing of man’s entire faith solely towards God. One form of polytheism is that which involves worship of deities and of other phenomena. But exhibiting ingratitude instead of gratitude is also ‘shirk’. The more common form of shirk is that whereby a man makes a deity of himself; he starts having faith only in himself. When a man proves to be vain, it is as if he has faith in his efforts alone. When a man considers his earnings as actually having been generated by him, he in fact has faith only in his own talents. When a man overlooks another’s right, he thinks that nobody can inflict any punishment on him for doing so. When a man dares to oppress another, he thinks that he has full powers over the wronged person and there is nobody to prevent him from doing whatever he likes to him. All these are forms of vanity and pride. And pride is—before God—the worst type of shirk, because indulging in this amounts to placing oneself in the position of God.

6:66-68
If due consideration were to be given to the human condition, no one would ever be proud. Man is buffeted by winds which can turn into a cyclone at any time and completely wreck his life; he stands on land which can at any time be rent apart by earthquakes; he lives in a society which is so fraught with internal enmities that even a spark is enough to push the whole of society into a bloodbath.

6:69-70
‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas says that God fixed a religious festival day (‘Id) for every community, the purpose being that on that day they should glorify God, offer prayers to Him and fill the whole day with His remembrance. Those who came later made their religious festival (‘Id) a day of fun and frolic. (Tafsir Kabir). There is a purpose behind every religious activity and then there is its outward aspect too. The purpose of ‘Id’ is the collective demonstration of the glorification of God and His remembrance. But too much attention is paid to the externals of ‘Id—for example, the wearing of good clothes, arrangements for group activities, etc. Now, making ‘Id a mere event of fun and frolic amounts to neglecting its real purpose, which becomes forgotten in the fuss which is made about its outward and material aspects, such as a show of good clothes and possessions, the hustle and bustle of shopping, arrangements for entertainment, and the pomp which goes with a show of one’s position, etc.

6:71-72
When communities go astray, all religious acts undergo this change. People ignore the true objective of the religious act and lay stress on externals. Now, those who reach the stage of making religion a source of worldly fun and frolic and are completely oblivious to its intended purpose, prove by their deeds that they are neither serious nor sincere about religion. And those who are not serious about such matters cannot have anything explained to them in this connection, as this goes against their temperament. Moreover, possession of material things gives them the illusion that they are the possessors of truth also. Here, they observe that all their needs are adequately fulfilled. Everywhere they are the life and soul of the gathering. There is no void in their lives. So, they presume that in the Hereafter also they will be successful. Such people, because of their misapprehensions, are not serious about the Hereafter. But, they should know that whatever they perpetrate will not be without consequences. They will be undone by their own actions. Their very arrogance will very soon rebound on them and there will be no mitigation of their suffering.
6:73
There are two kinds of travellers in the desert. One puts his entire trust in God. When he goes astray, he begs God’s assistance and soon has his feet set on the right path once again. The other has faith in entities other than God. When he loses his way in the desert, he is hardly aware that he is wandering aimlessly and ignores the calls of the faithful who would gladly re-direct him. The reason for this difference in outlook is that the former traveller keeps an open mind. He has no difficulty in seeing which is the right path, and if he chances to stray from it, he is willing to accept God’s guidance in order to return to it. The latter traveller, however, is lost right from the beginning, because he has fallen under the influence of Satan. His mind, therefore, works in a perverse way. The result is that he may listen, but he does not hear, and he may look, but he does not see.
6:74
The seeking of things other than God is a futile pursuit of entities that have no power to benefit or harm anybody. Heaven and earth, along with the systems prevailing in them, deny the existence of any being having any powers except the one and only Supreme Being. Similarly, man makes worldly glories his purpose in life and, in his efforts to achieve this purpose, tramples upon the requirements of truth and justice. All this is absolutely wrong. This would mean that this world is but a showplace for selfish and egoistic persons. But, the fact is that the perfect system prevalent in this universe reveals resplendent glimpses of the Perfect God and it is quite unimaginable that such a Perfect Being as He would create a showplace without meaning. The present situation existing in this world is purely temporary. God may at any moment promulgate a new command and break down the existing system. Then man’s present freedom will come to an end and God’s authority will prevail over human beings as it does today over all the other creatures in the universe. At that point only those who have surrendered themselves to God during the test period will be successful, i.e. those who feared God without any pressure being brought to bear on them before they bowed down to Him in body and soul.

6:75-78
One night Abraham was looking up at the sky in search of signs of the one and only God. Soon, the planet Venus, whom his community was worshipping as God, appeared shining before him in all its brightness. A thought arose in his mind—not as a question, but as an expression of astonishment— ‘Is this the thing which could be my Lord? Is this the one we should worship?’ But then, he saw it setting, i.e. disappearing from his sight. He exclaimed over this and asked how a thing which shone momentarily and then disappeared could be treated as worthy of worship. This was an argument based on observation which testified to the truth of his own belief. He had the same experience with the sun and the moon. Everything shines for some time, leaves people wonderstruck and then vanishes. He presented these astronomical observations (which were for him a clear verification of the principle of the unity of God) before his community in his preaching as an argument, adopting the method which is known in philosophical terminology as ‘accusative logic’, that is, repeating the words of the addressee and then convincing him. This method has been used in the Quran at other places also, for example, in verse 97, chapter 20, entitled, Ta Ha. The signs of creation spread throughout the universe are not only a source of enhancement of Faith, but also provide strong arguments for the call for Truth.

6:80-81
The story of Abraham narrated here is not the story of his search for Truth but that of his observation of Truth. Abraham was born in Iraq four thousand years ago in an environment in which the sun, moon and stars were worshipped. However, Nature’s guidance and God’s special help kept Abraham away from polytheism. His keen vigilant eyes observed signs in the phenomena spread throughout the universe which supported the idea of the oneness of God (tawhid). Everywhere in the mirror of the universe, the face of the one God would appear before him. Feeling sorry for his community, he used to ask them why they were blind to reality, in spite of the facts revealed before them. Whenever a thing or person is given the status of the worshipped one (ma‘bud), it naturally follows that the concepts of mysterious pre-eminence and greatness become attached to that thing or person. People start thinking that, in the scheme of the universe, this being has a high status such as is not enjoyed by anybody else. Pleasing him brings good fortune, while displeasing him does the reverse. Accordingly, when Abraham said that his community’s deities were valueless and that in this world of God they had absolutely no powers, people were afraid that, as a result of this ‘insolence’, they might be subjected to some suffering and they started arguing with Abraham. They warned him against such talk and said that the vengeance of these deities would be wreaked upon him—he would become blind, go mad, would face destruction, etc.

6:82-84
In this world there is only one Supreme Being—God, whose majesty and greatness are based on sound arguments. All other kinds of so-called greatness and the reverence for them are based on superstitious beliefs. God’s supremacy stands by virtue of its own strength, while all other godheads owe their existence to the acceptance of their followers. If their followers refused to accept them, they would become non-existent. Looking to externals, the worshippers of these deities are misled into believing that they are more securely situated than the worshippers of the one and only God. But this is the worst type of misunderstanding. It is one who goes by sound arguments who is in the really safe position. But if it is by compromising with worldly considerations and customs that he attempts to better his situation, this has no value from the point of view of his final fate. Sometimes the domination of false deities becomes so universal that even the worshippers of the real God are overwhelmed by it and make compromises. Worldly considerations and material interests are so closely linked with these false deities that, to all appearances, it seems that there is no other way to have a respectable life than to effect a compromise with the structure formed under them. But this procedure amounts to such an adulteration of one’s own faith that it makes one’s sincerity doubtful in the eyes of God.

6:85-86
Excellence, or superiority, is not anyone’s racial or national prerogative. It is a gift of God to only those individuals who keep themselves righteous according to God’s guidance, who avoid all sorts of polytheism (shirk) and who throw themselves, body and soul, into the task of ‘preaching (admonition) without remuneration.’ These are the people who make the Book of God their real guide. They identify themselves with the Book to such an extent that the divine mysteries reveal themselves to them; the result of which process is known as wisdom (hikmah). These are the people whom God picks out, then commissions some of them, whom He likes, with the task of conveying His message, as prophets during the age of prophethood, and thereafter as da‘is. God’s reward either to prophets or da‘i will be entirely on the basis of righteous action (ihsan).

6:87-88
The task of giving the call of Truth is undertaken only by those people who have become so selfless and so immersed in this work that they have no material expectations whatsoever of their addressees. Then the preacher cannot stage protests or run a campaign of demands pitted against the very person or group of persons to whom he is conveying the message of the Hereafter. Such an action on the part of the messenger of Truth would risk his exhortations being treated as ridiculous in the eyes of his addressees, and in society at large his call could never thus attain the status of a serious effort to convey the Word of God.
6:89
In Makkah, a few individuals had embraced the faith on the strength of the Prophet Muhammad’s preaching. But, as a community, the people had rejected him. Thereafter, God the Almighty softened the hearts of the people of Madinah towards his call; and they embraced the faith as a community; so much so that it became possible for him to go to Madinah and establish a centre of Islam there. This aid from Almighty God was granted to the Prophet Muhammad in its complete form. However, God can give this aid even to the successors of the Prophet who rise to follow his call. This is something which God has always done according to the requirement of His da‘is.

6:90-91
When the call of the Prophet Muhammad reached the people of Makkah, some of them asked certain Jews what they thought about it and whether God’s Word had really been revealed to the Prophet Mohammad. The Jews replied that God had not made revelations to any human being. This is obviously very strange, because the Jews themselves accepted a series of prophets, thus tacitly admitting that God’s word had indeed been revealed from time to time to human beings. But when a man blindly opposes anything, he will go to the extent of contradicting his own accepted ideas in the heat of attempting to defeat his opponent.
6:92
This brazen disregard for the truth developed in the Jews because they had disintegrated God’s Book page by page. They used to call attention to certain teachings of God, while there were others which they deliberately omitted to mention. For example, they used repeatedly to listen to and recite all verses relating to rewards, while omitting those verses which mentioned the deeds which merited rewards. They used to make special mention of those verses from which they could draw support for the petty details of their politics, while ignoring the verses in which instructions were given about quiet reformation. They used to elaborate upon those verses which gave them the opportunity to display their verbal hair-splitting talents, while cursorily passing over verses in which the eternal realities of religion were set forth. Frequent public airings were given to such verses as gave an indication of their superiority, while verses in which their responsibilities were mentioned used to be neglected. In those who disintegrate God’s Book ‘page by page’ in this way, a tendency to insolent bravado naturally develops. They indulge in frivolous and trivial discussions, then bicker, and make contradictory statements. One cannot expect real co-operation from them. If people do not do justice to God’s Book, how can they be just while dealing with human beings? The call of religion is actually a call to awaken people. The caller, however perfect he may be, can be effective and make an impact on the listener’s heart only when the listener has a fearing heart in his breast and considers the Hereafter a matter of the utmost gravity. If these elementary qualities are not found in the listener, then the giver of the call cannot offer him any benefit.
6:93
When God chooses one of His subjects for the purpose of conveying His will to mankind, He blesses him with capability to do dawah work. A glimpse of the fear of the Hereafter is seen in his character. The power of divine reasoning emerging in his talk, he is successful in discharging his task of conveying God’s message in the best manner possible, even in the face of tremendous opposition. His whole existence is a sign of God in this world of God. But those who are lost in worldly glories are unable to understand the greatness of one who urges them to accept the realities of the Hereafter. By their own worldly material standards, their own personality appears to them to be greater than that of God’s messenger. This inclines them towards haughtiness or conceit, and from those of such a mentality, irrational behaviour is to be expected.
6:94
This haughtiness which develops in a man is due to his worldly position and the material goods that are available to him in the world. He forgets that whatever blessings come his way, are only for the purpose of testing him and that too during a finite period. As soon as the time of death arrives, all these things will suddenly be snatched from him. Thereafter, his will be a lone existence, just as it was at the time of his birth. Immediately after death man will reach that stage where he will have neither wealth nor position; where he will have neither his companions nor his intermediaries; there will be only God and himself. None of the things he was proud of in the world will be there to save him from God’s scourge. Many people try to charm their way through life with the magic of words. Every man seeks and finds words to show his existence to be justified and righteous. He portrays the path he treads as straightaway leading towards correct goals. But when the revolution of the Hereafter unveils the realities, how utterly meaningless will his words appear.
6:95
When anyone has to manufacture a motor car or any other such complex mechanism, he manufactures every part of it separately. Then he assembles these parts and gives them the requisite finish. But when God causes a tree to grow or creates a human being, the methodology is different. He produces the entity in its totality all at one time. In God’s workshop the whole tree or the whole man issues forth from the one seed or the one drop and then proceeds to grow. This is a unique process which no human being can set in motion. This proves that there exists a Being superior to the human being, a Being whose plan is superior to all other plans.

6:96-97
The volume of the sun is 1.2 million times that of the earth, and the earth itself is four times larger than the moon. The moon is about two hundred and fifty thousand miles away from the earth and revolves around it. The earth is at a distance of about 95 million miles from the sun and is moving round the latter in two ways—one in rotation on its axis and the other in orbit around the sun. Similarly, there is the revolution of other stars which are at vast distances from us and each other but all moving with extreme regularity. Due to this system of the universe, day and night come into existence; systems based on the measurement of time take shape; in turn, it becomes possible for man to regulate his life on land and sea. This gigantic system runs with such exactitude that no discrepancy has crept into it even after millions of years. This proves the immanence of a Being whose powers are of unlimited greatness. These large-scale signs of God show that the Maker of this workshop is extremely knowledgeable. No ignorant being could erect such a complex structure. He is all-powerful; otherwise the running of this enormous workshop in this manner would not have been possible. Its planning is absolutely perfect; without such planning, it would not have been possible to have such meaningfulness and harmony in such a colossal universe. God’s world is full of His signs and arguments. But reasoning or argument is the name of theoretical reasoning and not that of a hammer. So, acceptance of an argument by a man is possible only when he is really serious, i.e. when he is consciously ready to accept the argument, irrespective of whether it goes in his favour or against him.
6:98
Man-made workshops, or factories, are not capable of making a machine which can start giving birth to similar countless machines. Our factories have to manufacture such machines one after another. But in the workshop of God, such an event takes place every day. The seed of a tree is sown and then generations of trees go on multiplying out of that simple, original seed. This is the case with human beings also. Starting with a man and a woman, billions and billions of human beings have started coming into existence—and there is no end to this process. This observation shows that the power of God, who created the universe, is limitless. He is capable of this rare feat of creation by which, primarily, one entity is brought into existence and thereafter it continuously replicates itself in countless numbers. Similarly, God can create a great and perfect world out of this present world. The concept of the Hereafter is not a far-fetched theory; belief in it amounts to acceptance of the possible occurrence of certain future events on the strength of the present observation of similar events taking place every day.
6:99
Earth, or mud, is apparently a dead and inert thing. Then rain falls on it. Soon after the absorption of water, a new lush green world springs out of the earth. Sundry varieties of crops and different kinds of fruit-bearing trees come forth from it. This event also is an example of the coming world after this world. As soon as water permeates the earth, the emergence of a fresh, beautiful and fragrant carpet of colours from the earth indicates the potential which the Creator of the World has implanted here. The righteous deeds which a man performs in this world of today are on a parallel with this. When God’s grace rains down, this potential will become a reality—flourishing and producing the burgeoning crops of the Hereafter. Man, in the beginning, is nurtured in the womb of his mother and thereafter makes his entry into the present world. The grave is also, so to say, a sort of ‘womb’, to which man is ultimately consigned. Thereafter, he opens his eyes in another, future world, so that he may be sent to Heaven or Hell according to his deeds. Glimpses of and arguments in favour of the unseen hidden world, which man must necessarily accept, are already there in the present tangible and visible world. But only that person will accept it who is already mentally prepared to do so. It is only when a man has travelled half the distance along the path towards Faith (iman) that it is possible for the call to the faith to enter freely into his mind and to be acceptable to him. Exhortations to believe in God will not in any way benefit a man who has been travelling in a direction opposite to that of Faith.

6:100-102
Since ancient times it has been a weakness on the part of man to find some distinction or mysticism in a thing and then to consider that thing to be a partner of God and start worshipping it in order to seek its help or save himself from any harm it may do him. It was because of this mentality that many people started worshipping angels, stars and jinns, though the clear proof of their not being gods is that they do not possess the capacity to create. They have neither created themselves, nor are they capable of creating any other thing. They were themselves created by some other Being. So, the question is, whether the Creator will be accepted as God, or His creatures will usurp the position of His godhead. A tree receives the things it requires for its sustenance in perfect proportions. This is the condition of all things in the universe. When it is a fact that they receive things, (whatever be their nature) because a Giver gives them to them, then it naturally follows that the Giver will be the One who is aware of all things at all times. If He were not aware of them, how could He fulfil the needs of every single thing exactly according to its requirements? Now, for what purpose should God—the Possessor of such superlative attributes—take anybody as a partner in his godhead?

6:103-104
Man wants to see God in a tangible shape and when God does not manifest Himself in this way, he presumes other tangible things to be gods and thus satisfies his appearance-loving instinct. But this shows a very poor appreciation of God’s Being. After all, how can God, who is so great as to have created this gigantic universe with its highly regulated systems, be so ordinary as to present Himself to a weak human creature in a form that will be visible to his eyes and touchable with his hands? Man must rather discover God through his heart and see Him with the eye of his faith. Only one who is satisfied with observation through insight will discover God. One who insists on His being visible to the naked eye will never truly find God, just like the person who fails to recognise a flower by its fragrance and insists on referring to chemical standards.

6:105-106
There are some who have the urge to acquire knowledge and learn; who are in search of Truth. There are others who have acquired wealth and power and consider themselves successful to the point of feeling that there is nothing lacking in them which needs to be compensated for. When the call of Truth is given, it is mostly the former kind of people who accept it, unlike the latter who do not attach any significance to it. They never give it any serious thought, and therefore its importance does not become clear to them. The call of Truth provides answers for those who earnestly go in quest of the truth, and gives those who are not so inclined, a logical conclusion to their arguments. With regard to the former, the aim is to enable them to accept the truth; as for the others, it is meant to make them concede that at least the divine message had been conveyed to them in full.

6:107-108
Those who reject the divine message invent different excuses to justify their doing so. In these circumstances, it may occur to the preacher that he should change the way he conveys his message, so that it becomes acceptable to the addressees. But this would not be proper. He should adhere to the style which has been directly taught to him by God, because the real purpose of his activity is to link man with God and not to win people over and draw them into his sphere by hook or by crook. On the other hand, neither is it proper to respond to the addressee’s obduracy with abusive outbursts. The individual develops a bias in favour of the particular traditions to which he is born, or the kind of thinking with which he has become familiar. According to this, he develops a particular frame of mind which affects all his thinking process. This frame of mind presents the greatest impediment to the acceptance of Truth. Unless it can be altered, that door of his mind, through which the voice of Truth might enter, will never open.

6:109-110
The truth may be laid before a man with all its supporting arguments and he will still reject it. There is just one reason for this, i.e. his looking at things perversely instead of looking at them in a straightforward manner. An argument may be most rational and based on sound reasoning, but if one is not inclined to accept it, he will find some words or the other to reject it. For example, instead of viewing the arguments of a preacher as definitive, he will start discussing whether all the previous great men were all wrong and strangers to the Truth, and will go on to raise other similar points. It is extremely difficult for one who has developed such a temperament to arrive at the right path. He can give the wrong colour to any subject and seek an excuse to reject it. In order to contradict theoretical arguments, he will find the excuse that they were against the creed of his ancestors. Similarly, in order to allege the falsity of physical observations, he will voice the opinion that they are optical illusions or mere conjuring tricks. This attitude, which impedes the acceptance of theoretical arguments, will likewise obstruct the acceptance of physical facts in support of the truth. One who is determined to remain unreceptive to the truth will, as always, have to go without guidance. Such deniers are arrogant in nature. They want to see themselves set above others at any cost. When a preacher appears before them with a message of Truth, it frequently happens that he is a stranger in those surroundings and has none of the elegant trappings of the times. So, forming any connection with him amounts to degrading one’s position. Those with a superiority complex are therefore unable to accept him. Offering a variety of excuses, they reject him.
6:111
Wisdom lies in man’s acceptance of God’s plan and in preparing himself to regulate his mind according to that plan. Conversely, it would be foolish for a man to have a self-made standard instead of God’s plan and to maintain that he will accept anything which conforms to that standard and will reject anything which does not. For such a man there is nothing but perdition in this world. In this world of God man can reach his goal only by adopting the ways laid down by God—not by departing from them.
6:112
Ibn Jarir has quoted Abu Dharr al-Ghifari as saying, ‘I attended a meeting of the Prophet Muhammad. It was a long meeting. He asked me, “O, Abu Dharr, have you said your prayers?” I replied, “No, O Prophet of God.” He said, “Get up and offer salah of two rakat.” Thereupon, I offered salah and joined the meeting again. Then he (the Prophet) asked, “O Abu Dharr, did you seek the protection of God against the Satans among human beings and jinns?” I replied, “No, O Prophet of God. Are there Satans among human beings also?” The Prophet said, “Yes, those Satans are worse than those among the jinns.’” (Ibn Kathir, Tafsir). Here, ‘Satans among human beings’ refers to those people who have attained respectability and popularity on the basis of self-made religion, and who will stop at nothing to disprove the call of Truth. When the call of the Truth is given in its purest form, they feel that they are being stripped of all protection. The straight path for them would have been to accept the Truth on its being clarified. But, compared to acceptance of the Truth, their position is dearer to them. To save their position, they set about proving the dubiousness of the preacher and his call. They make allegations that are themselves baseless, but because they express themselves so beautifully, many people are influenced and are filled with doubt.
6:113
If a preacher of Truth can present the Truth in the language of rational arguments, the proponents of falsehood may also utter such beautiful words against the Truth as could appear to be valid arguments in its disfavour. Both liars and tellers of the truth having at their command the same range of plausible expressions with which to support their arguments creates a situation in which man is put to the test. He must at all events pass the test of being able to distinguish between true and false arguments, and then accept true arguments, having rejected whatever is baseless. This state of affairs will necessarily continue till Doomsday. The ‘Satans’ among human beings misuse their intelligence to deceive others, but only those who have no fears about the Hereafter are influenced by them. Anxiety about the Hereafter makes a man serious and the reality of things can never remain hidden from one who sincerely serves God. But those who are devoid of any cares about the Hereafter are not serious about Truth and, as such, they are unable to understand the difference between solid argument and triviality.

6:114-115
Rules about the sacrifice of animals were given in the Quran, it being specified where sacrificed animals might be eaten. There was also a ban on eating animals which had died of natural or other causes. On this some people commented, ‘The religion of Muslims is strange; they consider animals sacrificed by their hands as permitted and consider dead animals, i.e. those killed by God, as prohibited.’ In this statement there is no argument—only verbal gymnastics. But many people were deceived by it and started looking at Islam with suspicion. This always happens. In every age there are only a few people who can place matters in their true perspective. Many people become lost in a verbal labyrinth. They take illusory things to be real, only because these are described in beautiful words. But this is a world in which God has made Himself clear about all basic realities. So, going astray on the pretext of ignorance is not pardonable. God’s discourse is a clear touchstone by which every man can test all statements and ascertain whether they are mere verbal tricks or are based on facts. God has made true statements about all the essential matters of the past, present and future. He has shown the way of perfect justice in regard to all aspects of human relations. If a man is really serious, it is not at all difficult for him to know what is right and what is wrong. Only those whose thinking processes work under the influence of something other than God’s revelation will have doubts. For one who brings his thinking in line with Divine realities, there is no possibility of deviance of thought. Even after this Divine explanation, if a man goes astray, God knows his condition very well. He knows that person who, in order to maintain his status, attaches no significance to any reality beyond himself; that person whose bias has deprived him of any capacity to understand godly matters; that person who, due to his inclination for cheap display, pays no attention to the voice of Truth; that person who, being a prey to feelings of jealousy, remains a stranger to the Truth.

6:116-119
Whatever there is in the world is all ‘others’ property’ for us, because all of it belongs to God. We have no right to possess or use anything unless it is obtained and utilized in the manner shown by God. This holds good for animals also. Animals provide valuable food for us, but the question arises as to how we acquired the right to use them as food. God creates animals and He alone rears them and brings them to maturity. Then, how does it become permissible for us to use them as our food? Taking God’s name at the time of sacrificing an animal is the answer to this very question. But the taking of God’s name is not a verbal formality. It is, in fact, the recognition of God’s ownership rights over the animal and a demonstration of our gratitude to Him for his gift. Taking God’s name at the time of sacrifice is the symbol of this admission and of our gratitude—the ‘price’ on payment of which an animal in the eyes of our Lord becomes sacrificeable for us. However, one who faces accidental compulsion has been exempted by God from this restriction. When man neglects God’s commands on the subject of what is permitted or prohibited, legal or illegal, superstitions begin to take the place of divine injunctions. On the basis of superstitious ideas, people form divergent opinions. There are some self-devised philosophies behind these superstitions, and on their basis some formalities become established. It is necessary for those who want to become God’s obedient servants to completely give up these superstitions, in practice as well as in theory.

6:120-121
In the matter of eating and drinking and other everyday routines, every community develops a customary religion. People have strong feelings about this customary or traditional religion because of the testimonies of ancestors and of great men of the past, which exist in its support. Deviation from this becomes synonymous with turning away from the religion of the revered forefathers. So, when the call of Truth clashes with this customary religion, all sorts of objections are raised against it. The great men of the day seek out such aspects of established practices as will convince the general public that their customary religion is correct and the ‘new religion’ is wrong. But God is aware of everything. On Doomsday, when He lays bare the realities, every individual will see whether he has been standing on the firm ground of reality or on the thin ice of superstition.

6:122-123
In the eyes of God that person has life who accepts the light of guidance which appears before him and makes it the illumination of his path. Conversely, that person is lifeless who remains deprived of the light of guidance and roams about groping in the darkness of falsehood. The lifeless person is one who is so caught up in the net of superstitions and prejudice that true, straight facts do not fall within the scope of his understanding. He is so unaware of the true nature of things that he is unable to distinguish between meaningless argument and real discourse. He is so engrossed in self-aggrandisement that it is not possible for him to accept the Truth coming from any source other than that of tradition. Customary and traditional ideas so dominate his mind that he is unable to assess things by any other standard. Due to these weaknesses, he is left groping in the dark. Though apparently alive, he becomes virtually a dead person. In direct contrast to this, one who opens his heart to guidance becomes free of all psychological knots; it takes him no time at all to recognise the Truth. The veils of words fail to hide the face of reality from his eyes. The problems of taste and habit do not attain such a position in his life as to come between the Truth and himself. Truth becomes a bright reality for him; his gaze does not falter looking at it and he does not remain indolent once he has discovered it. He himself treads the path of light and endeavours to make others walk in that light.
6:124
Those who have captured public attention by claiming self-made things to be God’s religion, become inimical toward every voice which calls upon people to adhere to true religion. Every such voice appears to them to be a no-confidence motion directed against themselves. The luminaries of the time then ferret out trivial points by which to defame the call of Truth, so as to prevent the general public from being influenced by it. They give wrong direction to the reasoning of Truth and cause the public to become doubtful. They even try to denigrate the personality of the preacher by casting baseless aspersions on him. But such efforts only increase their guilt; they are unable to harm the preacher and his call in any way. The righteous person is one who sees the Truth, even when worldly glories have not graced it. Accepting the Truth when it is surrounded by worldly glories, amounts to accepting the worldly glories and not the Truth.

6:125-127
Truth by its very nature is so clear that it is not difficult for anyone to understand it. Still, in every age, in spite of the Truth being made clear, countless people do not accept it. This is due to a flawed mentality. One person attaches himself to ‘holy’ beings to the extent that he fears that leaving them will completely destroy him. In the case of another, the fear of the breakdown of the system of his worldly interests is so strong within him that it becomes impossible for him to proceed towards the Truth. Yet another feels that if he accepts anything against the established custom of the time, he might become a stranger to the whole atmosphere of his own society. Man is overcome by such thoughts to the extent that acceptance of Truth appears synonymous with climbing a steep and difficult slope and, simply by looking at it, he loses heart. The case of individuals who do not suffer from any psychological complications is entirely different; they place Truth higher than everything else. They are seekers of the Truth right from the very beginning. So, when the Truth appears before them, they recognise it without delay and, ignoring all excuses and suspicions, they accept it. God reveals His Truth before the people in the shape of signs and symbols. Now, those who have weaknesses in their hearts, make self-made interpretations of these signs to justify their rejection of them, whereas those who have open hearts, discover in these signs their real depth, and make them the nourishment of their minds. Their lives are immediately launched on that straight path which is traversed under the direct guidance of God and which leads a man to enduring success. What God values above all else is a man’s good deeds. One who obeys God will deserve God’s help and will be led to His Abode of Peace. This Abode of Peace is God’s Paradise, where man will lead a life of eternal peace, secure from every kind of grief or trouble. God’s help will be given to individuals in the life after death according to their deeds. Moreover, if a considerable number of people become obedient to God in the world, this group will be given a share of God’s grace in this world also.

6:128-129
If someone is misled by another, it is not a one-sided affair. Both the individuals for their part think that they are fulfilling some purpose. When Satan deceives a man and wins him over to his side, he tries to fulfil his challenge to God at the beginning of creation that he would make a large part of God’s creation fall a prey to his temptations (17:61). Those who surrender themselves to Satan have definite self-interests in mind. There are some who promote their business dealings through magic in the name of jinn, or connect their poetry or charms with some jinn master and thus establish superiority over the general public. Similarly, the supporters of all such movements as rise under satanic inducements, extend their support to them because they expect that in this way they can easily establish their leadership in society. Satanic slogans, as compared to the Divine call, have always proved to be more attractive to the general masses.

6:130-131
On Doomsday, when the veil is torn from reality, it will be clear that those who had gone astray, or had misguided others, did not do so because of any misunderstanding. The reason for this was not their being unaware of the truth but their deliberately ignoring it. They could not rise above worldly pomp and show; they could not forego timely benefits. The guidance provided by God through His special subjects was so clear that nobody could have remained unaware of realities, but their worship of the world drew a veil over their eyes; in spite of knowing, they became unaware; in spite of listening, they did not hear. In the Hereafter, they will be shorn of the artificial supports on the strength of which they had remained careless of the Truth. Then it will be pointed out how the Truth had appeared before them and how they had rejected it with the help of false words; how, though their mistake had been explained to them, they still thought that they had been successful in justifying their stand by clever misrepresentations.

6:132-135
In the life of this world we see that there is a difference between the status of one man and another. This difference is exactly in proportion to the efforts made and the struggle engaged in by each of them. A man’s wisdom, his diligence and accommodation of interests will determine the degree of his success in this life. The same state of affairs exists in the case of the Hereafter. In the Hereafter also, the award of status will relate exactly to the deeds performed by human beings in the world. A man has to spend time and money on the Hereafter also, just as he spends time and money on the world. In the matter of the Hereafter, too, he has to behave wisely, as he has been behaving in the world; he has to look after his interests and take care of delicate situations, just as he had been doing in the world. God, in whose hands lies the power of taking decisions in the Hereafter, is fully aware of the condition of each and every individual. It will not be difficult for Him to give everyone whatever he is entitled to. Through this world of trial which God has created, He has opened the door to immense and valuable possibilities for man, who by performing good deeds in the short temporary life of this world, can earn superlative rewards in the eternal life of the Hereafter. There is no benefit to God in this system. If the present generation does not accept God’s creation plan. He can raise in their place others who will accept His creation plan and enlist themselves in its support. Even the sands of the desert and the leaves of the trees can be raised by Him as His faithful subjects. In a world based entirely on Truth and Justice, the fact that freedom is enjoyed by tyrants and arrogant people as well as virtuous people, in itself proves that this freedom is not by way of reward but by way of trial. One who refuses to accept the Truth and still does not apparently lose anything, should not brag about his apparent good fortune, for this condition is purely temporary. Very soon the time will come when everything on the strength of which he behaved with arrogance, will be taken away from him. And he will be pushed towards eternal destruction, from which he will never be able to emerge, and where he will have the opportunity neither to perform good deeds nor to save himself from the final result of his misdeeds.
6:136
Man invents tangible deities because he does not have full faith in the intangible Supreme Being—God. In ancient times polytheists did, however, pay lip service to God, while reserving their real faith for their deities. This was evident from the inequitable way in which they apportioned their sacrificial offerings of grain and livestock to their deities on the one hand, and to God on the other. It was always the deities who were given preference in terms of the quantity and quality of the offerings, and never God. Moreover, when those who in reality are idolaters are ‘worshipping’ God, they devote a part of their prayers to that person, living or dead, whom they idolize. But when they worship the latter, they do not even mention the name of God. They will readily lavish upon a partner that ecstatic devotion which they should reserve for God. In any meeting held to extoll God’s greatness, the majesty and glory of the partner will somehow find a place; but in any meeting held to describe the greatness of the partner, there will be absolutely no mention of the majesty and glory of God. The importance of the ‘partner’ sometimes dominates minds to such an extent that a man will with pleasure sacrifice even his children for it—something which he will not do for the sake of God. All such acts are carried out in the name of God’s religion, but falsely so, because this amounts to attributing to God such precepts as had never been laid down by Him.

6:137-139
In ancient times, the people of Arabia used to attribute their religion to Abraham and Ishmael. But, in practice, the religion prevalent there was a self-made one, which their leaders had invented and introduced among them. The offering of their produce and cattle made in the name of God and His alleged partners were subject to strict restrictions of their own conception. For instance, if a freed animal was sacrificed and if a live offspring came out of its womb, then it was held that its meat could be eaten only by males and should not be eaten by females, whereas if the offspring was a dead one, it could be eaten by both males and females. Similarly, it was forbidden to ride on the back of certain animals or to place loads on them. In respect of some animals, it was their belief that God’s name should not be taken while riding, slaughtering or milking them. Such people are far removed from the real requirements of religion, i.e. the human being’s devotion to God and his concern about the Hereafter. Every day, they go beyond the limits fixed by God, but take care to strictly observe rules about irrelevant matters of minor importance. This is one of Satan’s complex strategies. He alienates people from the real religion by introducing unrelated matters among them in the name of religion. By creating a tendency to extremism in them, he instils the misunderstanding in man that he (the latter) is steadfast in God’s religion. Extremism in the outer formalities of prayers is the special product of this psychology. A man devoid of sincerity and humility pays meticulous attention to externals, imagining that he has performed the act of prayer to the utmost perfection.
6:140
How misguided such people are, is clear from the fact that many of them thought the savage act of killing one’s own progeny was quite proper. Such misapprehensions deprive people of the clear provisions made by God, so that while fighting over ordinary problems, they overlook matters which are of greater importance, but which might still be understood by the use of common sense.

6:141-142
God has created different types of food for man, some spreading out over the ground, like melons, and leafy vegetables; some growing on climbing plants like the grapes on the vine; and some growing high up in the trees, like dates and mangoes. Similarly, different kinds of animals, both big and small, have been created to fulfil the needs of man, for example, camels, horses, sheep and goats. Man, the birds and animals and all the green, growing things have come into existence quite independently of each other, but man sees that there is a strong harmony between himself and all the rest of God’s creations. If a man’s body needs nourishment, then outside, on the green trees, wonderful food packets are hanging. If his palate yearns for something delicious to eat, he has only to pluck fruits and then eat them. If his eyes have an aesthetic longing for scenic beauty, then the entire background of nature presents a panorama of scenic beauty and charm. If he needs to eat, ride or despatch goods, then such animals are available here as can serve his transport needs as well as provide him with valuable food. In this way, the entire existence of the universe has become a proclamation of the unity of God, because this uniformity observed in the various phenomena of the universe would not be possible unless its Creator and Lord were one. When a man sees that this great universal provision for him has been arranged without his necessarily deserving it, his heart is filled with gratitude for this freely given blessing. In consequence, this whole matter becomes nourishment for man’s God-fearing instinct, or piety (taqwa). It is the rule of nature that every privilege be accompanied by responsibility. This reminds man of reward and punishment, and induces him to live in this world with the active realisation that one day he has to appear before God to give an account of himself. If these feelings really take hold of a man, then, of necessity, two tendencies will develop in him. One is—whatever he receives—to appreciate that his Lord has a hand in it, and the other is to spend strictly according to his needs and not in excess of this or without occasion. But what Satan does is to divert a man’s mind from the right direction and enmesh it in diverse irrelevant matters.

6:143-144
By nature, there is in man the consciousness of God and the realisation of what is permitted and what is forbidden. Man, in pursuance of his internal urge, wants to make a Supreme Being his God and wants to distinguish between permitted and forbidden things. Satan knows this fact very well. He knows that if a man is allowed to go his own way under normal conditions, he will adopt the straight path of nature. So, in order to blunt man’s natural instinct, he introduces different types of false customs. In the name of God, he invents some imaginary gods. In the name of what is permitted and forbidden, he devises some baseless prohibition. In this way, Satan tries to entangle man in these imaginary matters, so that he should not arrive at the real truth, but stray from the right path; then, seeing himself apparently progressing, he should think that he is on the right path, even though it might be a crooked line and not the straight right path. Those who fall a victim to Satan’s misleading, are transgressors in the eyes of God. God had given them the understanding by which they could have differentiated between Truth and falsehood. But their prejudices warp their minds and, in spite of having the capacity to understand, they remain far removed from the truth.
6:145
Among the animals reared by the Arabs for the sake of their meat and milk, etc., four kinds were very well known—sheep, goats, camels and cows. With reference to them, they had framed different types of prohibitory regulations. But they had no authority to back these up save their polytheistic customs. The banning of the meat of the sheep, goat, camel or cow, whether male or female, has no rationality in it. All the meat on them is the best food for man. They do not even have any dirty habits which could make them undesirable for human consumption. Even in the teachings coming down from heaven there is no mention of their being forbidden. Then, why does it happen that different types of restrictive regulations gain currency? The reason for this is satanic inducements.

6:146-147
According to the divine Shariah (Islamic regulations), the truly forbidden things have always been the same as mentioned in the foregoing verse, viz. carrion, out-pouring blood, the meat of pigs and animals slaughtered in the name of any thing or being other than God. Anything else which is forbidden falls into a sub-group of the above-mentioned as a matter of detail. But along with this, among God’s prohibitory laws, another principle is at work, namely, that when a community blessed with His Book adopts the way of arrogance instead of obedience, it is subjected to new difficulties by way of punishment, i.e. such things as were not originally forbidden them in the Divine Shariah are now banned. One way in which this change comes about is that in such a community, leaders arise who are completely ignorant of the reality of the religion. They are conversant only with its outward formalities. The meticulousness which they should apply to the meaningful realities of religion is reserved by them for outward formalities and rites. The result is that unnecessary hair-splitting over externals becomes a set pattern in religion. Such leaders devise self-made outward standards of religion. By a process of extreme exaggeration, they make a simple commandment complicated and a legitimate thing unlawful. For instance, when arrogance set in among the Jews, certain scholars arose among them who, by their hair-splitting arguments, made the rule that for an animal to be deemed fit to eat, it should possess two qualities—one, that its hooves should be cloven or divided, and second, that it should be a cud-chewing animal. Even if one of these conditions was not fulfilled, that animal, according to them, was forbidden. Due to this self-imposed condition, even animals like the camel and the rabbit, etc., were unnecessarily banned. Similarly, by taking up an extreme position about the importance attached to claws, they unnecessarily placed ostriches, swans and ducks in the forbidden category. These unnatural restrictions narrowed their lives, whereas God had intended to give them wider latitude. After rejecting the Truth, man is not immediately seized upon by God. He finds himself free and his life as full as before. For this reason, he erroneously imagines that he is not going to lose anything by not accepting the Truth. He forgets that if he remains safe, it is simply because of the merciful forbearance of God. In spite of man’s arrogance, God gives him the opportunity to redeem himself till the very last moment. Finally, when he has not changed his behaviour, all of a sudden God swoops down on him—sometimes in this world and sometimes both in this world and the Hereafter.

6:148-149
The unadulterated missionary call for Truth always stands out as something rather strange. On the one hand, there is the customary religion which enjoys prominence in all social institutions. Centuries of traditions are behind it to lend it weight. On the other hand, there is the call for Truth, which has no time-honoured conventions in its favour. It is difficult, therefore, for people to understand that customary religion, which has such an elevated status and great popularity, will not be to God’s liking. The common presumption is that it has been possible for the customary religion to flourish to this extent because it suited God’s will and pleasure: had it not been so, it would not have spread and endured to this extent. They raise the question of whether God’s favoured religion will be one already enjoying a high status everywhere in this world of God or one which has no standing whatsoever.
6:150
God has made this world like one great examination hall in which He has left it up to man to do well or badly in the questions of right and wrong. Of course, differentiating between Truth and falsehood should always be based on real reasoning and not on conjecture or on references to popular custom. But man is not bound to opt for the path of logic. For, instead of forcibly imposing His will on man, God adopted the method of teaching man about what is right or what is wrong and left it to him to tread the right or the wrong path. This means that in the life of the world, argument (reasoning) is God’s representative. When a man bows before a correct or sound argument, it is as if he is bowing down before God, and when he refuses to do so, it is as if he is rejecting God. The reason why a man does not accede to reasoning is that he is unable to rise above his desires. In order to justify his actions, he is prepared to declare falsehood to be truth. His recklessness goes to the extent of ignoring God’s signs. He becomes careless of the fact that finally God is going to have him in His grasp, and gives to other things the importance which he should give to God alone.
6:151
In the name of Divine restrictions, people introduce different types of formal and outward restrictions, and by paying particular attention to these formalities, they feel satisfied that they have completely fulfilled their duty to God. But the regulations that God requires man to obey are real and substantial, and are not just formal rites. The first requirement is that man should accept as his God the one and only God. The greatness of anybody except Him should not dominate his mind. He should not have faith in anybody except Him; he should not entertain hopes of anybody except Him; he should not be afraid of anybody except Him; and he should not feel intense love for anybody except Him. If an individual’s parents are weak and needy, while he is strong, and if he treats them well, this is not the outcome of self-interest but of righteousness. In this way, the question of discharging the rights of parents becomes the first test of a man’s adoption of God’s religion, not just at the level of mere talk but as a matter of practical action. If he places emphasis on the parents’ rights rather than on their weakness, if his love for his friends and his wife and children does not take him away from his parents, he has, as it were given the first proof that his behaviour will be subject to principles and regard for rights and not to self-interest and self-consideration. But there are many who, out of greed, act oppressively, in that they do not allow God-created provision to reach all of God’s subjects in the proper manner. Then, when the artificially created problems of scarcity of essential commodities arise, they take the lives of unborn children. All such action amounts to negating God’s system of provision. Moreover, there are many wrongs that are so lewd in nature that no special knowledge is required to understand their evil, and man’s nature and his conscience are enough to indicate that it is not proper for such acts to be perpetrated upon anyone. Under these circumstances, if someone indulges in acts of shamelessness, he proves, as it were, that he is devoid of even the most rudimentary humanity. Every human being’s life is sacred. It is not legitimate to take the life of any man unless he commits a crime in terms of the Creator’s law, in which case it would be legitimate to take his life on the fulfilment of certain conditions. All these things are so clear that no one who exercises his mind could fail to realize this.
6:152
With the advent of the explosion of Doomsday, all hidden realities will reveal themselves to the people. At that time, man will be compelled to accept God and act only at His behest, but acceptance at that time will have no value. Only that acceptance is real acceptance which takes place at the stage of the Almighty still being unseen. True faith lies in accepting, without seeing, that which one is compelled to accept after seeing. One who accepts after seeing has, as it were, not accepted at all.
6:153
The orphan is the least likely to receive good treatment, because he is the weakest member of any society. In his case, any of the factors which would predispose an individual to behave well towards others are unlikely to come into play. Shouldering responsibility in the case of an ‘orphan’ can be done only by one who has become a man of character purely out of principle and not on the basis of self-interest. Such a person who is the well-wisher of an orphan will also give exceptionally good treatment to other people. All things in the universe are so interrelated as to ensure that giving and taking are done on an equitable basis and are mutually beneficial. This very principle has to be adopted by man in his life. If an individual has to measure out something for others, he should measure it out properly and, if he has to weigh out something, he should weigh it out properly. It should never happen that he uses one scale for himself and a different scale for others. It happens from time to time that a man is required to express an opinion against somebody. On such occasions, the way to win God’s approval is to utter such views as meet the standards of justice. Whether the person in question is one of his own or a stranger; whether his relations with him are friendly or inimical, whether or not his interests are linked with him, he should remain uninfluenced by all these factors and should say only what is right and proper. Every man is bound by certain vows. Some are in writing and others are purely verbal. But a man’s Faith, his humanity and his nobility demand that right action should be taken in the fulfilment of pledges of any form. The Muslim is duty- bound to fulfil both the written and the verbal kind—all this is very clear. Heavenly revelation and man’s mind both bear testimony to this being proper. But, only that person will learn a lesson from divine revelation who himself wants to learn. These commandments (verses 151- 53) are basic sections of the divine Shariah. To follow these within their strict and direct meaning is in fact to follow the straight highway of God. But if, by means of hair-splitting, different by-ways are introduced and if all emphasis is laid on them, this amounts to going astray on various paths (other than the straight highway) which will never lead a man towards God.

6:154-157
The Book which is revealed on behalf of God contains many details, but its purpose is but one and that is that man should firmly believe that he has to face God. In other words, he should spend life in the world in such a way that he should always treat himself as being answerable to God for his each and every action. His life should be a responsible life and not a free and unrestricted life. This was the purpose of previous Books and this is likewise the aim of the Quran. God has given full freedom to human beings, while keeping the rest of the world under His direct orders and subject to His regulation. The method devised by Him for human guidance is to make people aware of Truth and falsehood through the Prophets as well as His Books which are couched in the language of reason.In the world, God’s will appears before the people in the shape of reasoning. Here, acceptance of this reasoning means acceptance of God and rejection of this reasoning amounts to rejection of God.
6:158
With the advent of the explosion of Doomsday, all hidden realities will reveal themselves to the people. At that time, man will be compelled to accept God and act only at His behest, but acceptance at that time will have no value. Only that acceptance is real acceptance which takes place at the stage of the Almighty still being unseen. True faith lies in accepting, without seeing, that which one is compelled to accept after seeing. One who accepts after seeing has, as it were, not accepted at all. If those enjoying the power to choose today make themselves subject to God’s will, they will be rewarded by God with Paradise. But, if they bow down before God only after the arrival of Doomsday, their bowing down will amount to proving their guilt with more force. This will mean that, by their own admission, they did not accept something which was really worth accepting; they did not perform such tasks as were really worth performing.

6:159-160
Adherence to religion requires that the individual should not give a higher status to anyone in his life than God. He should build relations on the basis of recognition of the Truth and not on the basis of self-interest, and the first symbol of that is the proper treatment of parents. He should consider the provision made by God as a divine gift and should not meddle with His system. In this connection a man’s misguidance leads him into the foolishness of the killing of children. He should be shown deeds of shamelessness so that his heart’s sensitivity to evil remains alive. He should not exploit the weak: the acid test of this is how he treats an orphan. In the discharge of duties and in matters of give and take, he should strike a just balance. He should always speak with justice. He should spend his life with the feeling that he is bound by a divine pledge, and that he is never free of its responsibilities. This is the straightforward way for a man to spend his life—one which is liked by God. Man should keep himself on this straight path without deviating to the right or left. The Ten Commandments mentioned above (verses 151-153) are simple and natural. Every man’s mind testifies to their truth. If stress is laid on these things, there can never be differences or sectarianism. But when communities decline, such leaders are born among them as wilfully misinterpret these straightforward precepts and this is what fragments religious unity. If unnecessary discussions are introduced into the Faith of monotheism—e.g. whether God has a body or is bodyless; if there is hair-splitting on the subject of orphans, i.e. what is the definition of orphanhood; if the point is raised that Divine commands cannot be carried out unless the government is overthrown and as such the first task is changing the ‘un-Islamic’ government—there will be no end to the difficulties created and it will be impossible to achieve a general consensus on these points. Then different schools of thought will form; separate sects will take shape; long-established unity will turn into internal discord. To devote one’s full attention to this simple and natural religion is the best act of righteousness. But for this purpose, a man has to fight with his self; even if the atmosphere is unpropitious, one has to remain firm by exercising patience and making sacrifices. This is an arduous task, and that is why the reward for it is multiplied many times over by God. Those who practice evil, those who adopt paths other than that specified by God, indulge in the worst type of crime. However, God does not take excessive measures against them. He gives them a punishment commensurate with their crime.

6:161-162
In the pages of the Quran, God has revealed His religion in the uncorrupted state in which He had given it to Abraham and other prophets. Now, one who wants to be blessed by the Grace of God and His support should adopt this religion. He should dedicate his prayers to God; he should have a relation with God at the level of sacrifice; if he lives, he should live for the sake of God, and when he is overtaken by death, he should by that time have unreservedly become a subject of God, in body and soul. The vast universe with its heavenly bodies follows this religion of obedience to God. Then, how can a man adopt a path other than this? In the world of obedience to God, how can arrogance directed against God lead to success? This is a matter which concerns every individual. Nobody can share another’s reward or suffer another’s punishment. The individual should be as serious about this as he is about all matters which concern him personally.

6:163-165
The system of this world is that one person goes away and another takes his place. One community is thrust aside and another community takes its place and captures the resources of the land. These incidents remind us again and again that here nobody’s dominance is permanent. But man’s behaviour is strange. When he sees some opportunity to advance himself, he forgets the fate of his forebears. He fabricates different types of arguments to justify oppression and arrogance. But when God lays bare the realities, man will see that his actions—which he had considered strong enough to justify his position—were meaningless. The reason for man’s arrogance in this world is that he thinks of the good things of this life as God’s reward. The fact is that whatever a man receives in this life is meant to be a test and not a reward. If a man considers the good things available to him in this life as his due, this will cause him to be proud, but if he considers them as a means of testing him, this will develop a sense of humility in him. While a proud mentality is marked by haughtiness, a humble attitude is marked by the willingness to obey God.

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CHAPTER 6
The Cattle (Al-An'am)

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CHAPTER 6 The Cattle (Al-An'am)

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CHAPTER 6
The Cattle (Al-An'am)