Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 85

This verse contains two important themes. First, night and day are presented here as an argument for the Oneness of God, since their regular succession means that one and the same God governs both the earth and the sun, and the fact that their alternation benefits man and other earthly creatures is clear proof that this same one God is also the Creator of all these things, having designed this system with the utmost wisdom so that it benefits the creatures He created. Second, it makes those who deny God and associate partners with Him realize what a great blessing He has granted them in the form of night and day, and how deeply ungrateful they are that, even while benefiting from this blessing, they continue, day and night, to be disloyal and unfaithful to Him. (For further explanation, see Volume 2, pp. 296–298; Volume 3, pp. 461, 606, 659, 747; Volume 4, Surah Luqman verse 29, footnote 50; Surah Ya-Sin verse 37, footnote 32.)

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 86

That is, the alternation of night and day proves that He alone is the Creator of you and of everything else, and the great benefits and advantages this alternation holds for your life prove that He is your most merciful Sustainer. From this it inevitably follows that He alone is also your true God. It is utterly contrary to reason and justice that Allah should be the Creator and Sustainer, while others should become your gods.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 87

That is, who is misleading you into this topsy-turvy notion that those who are neither creators nor sustainers deserve your worship?

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 88

That is, in every age, common people have fallen into the trap of these deceivers for this very reason: that they did not accept the signs Allah sent down through His messengers to explain the truth to them. The result was that they became entangled in the net of these self-serving deceivers who had set up shrines to fake gods to further their own trade.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 89

For explanation, see Volume 3, pages 590–592.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 90

That is, you have not been left out in the open sky, such that calamities from the world above could rain down and utterly destroy you; rather, a highly stable celestial system (which appears to the eye as a dome) has been constructed above the earth, through which nothing destructive can reach you — not even the lethal radiation of outer space — and it is because of this that you live on earth in peace and security.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 91

That is, before creating you, He prepared for you such a secure and peaceful dwelling place. Then He created you, granting you an excellent body, perfectly suited limbs, and the highest degree of physical and mental faculties. This upright stature, these hands and feet, these eyes, nose, and ears, this speaking tongue, and this mind, a storehouse of the finest capacities — you did not bring these into being yourself, nor did your mother or father make them, nor did any prophet, saint, or deity have the power to make them. Their Maker was that Wise, Merciful, All-Powerful One who, when He decided to bring man into existence, created him with such an unparalleled body to work with in this world. Then, from the very moment of your birth, by His grace you found spread before you a vast banquet of pure sustenance — food and drink that is pure, not poisonous but wholesome, not bitter and unpleasant but delicious, not rotten and foul-smelling but fragrant, not lifeless husk but rich in the vitamins and beneficial nutrients most suited to nourishing and growing your body. This water, these grains, these vegetables, these fruits, this milk, this honey, this meat, this salt, pepper, and spices, so perfectly suited to your nourishment and so fitting not merely to give you the strength of life but also the enjoyment of life — who, after all, has provided these upon this earth in such abundance, and who has arranged for these boundless treasures of sustenance to keep emerging from the earth one after another, without the chain of their supply ever breaking? Had this arrangement of sustenance not existed, and you had simply been created, think what your life would have looked like. Is this not clear proof that your Creator is not merely a Creator, but a Wise Creator and a Merciful Lord? (For further explanation, see Volume 2, pp. 323–324; Volume 3, pp. 589–598.)

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 92

That is, true and real life belongs to Him alone. He alone is self-existing, living by His own power. Eternal, everlasting life belongs to none but Him. The life of everything else is granted, temporary, familiar with death, and destined for extinction.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 93

For explanation, see Tafhim al-Qur’an, Volume 4, Surah Az-Zumar, footnotes 3–4.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 94

That is, there is no one else whose praise should be sung and whose thanks should be rendered.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 95

Here again, worship and prayer are used as synonymous terms.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 96

That is, some die before birth, some before reaching youth, and some before reaching old age.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 97

“The appointed time” refers either to the time of death, or to the time when all humans must rise again and stand before their God. In the first sense, the meaning is that Allah carries every human being through the different stages of life to that particular hour which He has fixed for each one’s return — before which time, even if the whole world combined wished to kill someone, it could not, and after which time, even if all the powers of the world combined tried to keep someone alive, they could not succeed. In the second sense, the meaning is that this whole spectacle of existence has not been set up merely so that you should die, turn to dust, and be annihilated — rather, Allah carries you through these various stages of life so that all of you may be brought before Him at the time He has appointed.

Surah Al-Mu’min, Footnote No. 98

That is, you are not carried through these various stages of life merely to live like animals and die like them; rather, you are carried through them so that you may use the reason Allah has granted you, and understand the system through which these events occur even within your own being. The emergence of something as extraordinary as life from the lifeless matter of the earth; then the coming into being of a creature as astonishing as man from a microscopic organism in a drop of sperm; then, from the moment of conception in the mother’s womb until birth, its being nurtured inside in such a way that its sex, its appearance, the structure of its body, the characteristics of its mind, and its faculties and capacities are all determined right there, with no power on earth able to influence their formation; then the fact that whoever is destined to be miscarried is indeed miscarried, whoever is destined to die in childhood dies in childhood, whether he be the child of a king or anyone else, and whoever is destined to reach a certain age of youth or old age reaches that age even after passing through the most dangerous circumstances in which death would seem all but certain, while whoever is destined to die at a particular stage of life dies at that stage even under the care of the best doctors in the finest hospital in the world — do not all these facts point to the reality that the reins of our own life and death lie in the hands of some Absolute Power? And given that this is indeed the fact — that an Absolute Power governs our life and death — how, then, could any prophet, saint, angel, star, or planet ever become deserving of our worship and servitude? Since when has any servant attained such a station that we should pray to him and regard him as having authority over the making and unmaking of our fortune? And how did any human power come to hold the office that we should unquestioningly obey its law, its commands and prohibitions, and its self-invented categories of lawful and unlawful? (For further explanation, see Volume 3, pp. 203–204.)