Welcome to our weekly program "Path Towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an.

We start from where we left you last Friday and here are ayahs 29 and 30 of Surah Luqman:

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّـهَ يُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَيُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ كُلٌّ يَجْرِي إِلَىٰ أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى وَأَنَّ اللَّـهَ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ

ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّـهَ هُوَ الْحَقُّ وَأَنَّ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِ الْبَاطِلُ وَأَنَّ اللَّـهَ هُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْكَبِيرُ

“Have you not regarded that Allah makes the night pass into the day and makes the day pass into the night; and He has disposed the sun and the moon, each moving for a specified term, and that Allah is well aware of what you do?”

“That is because Allah is the Reality, and whatever they invoke besides Him is nullity, and because Allah is the All-Exalted, the All-Great.”

Last Friday, we said that God’s knowledge and power are infinite. He is the Creator of the whole universe, the Source of life, the Giver of death, and the Reviver of the dead on the Day of Resurrection. These ayahs that we recited to you today point to another example of Divine Power, that is, the shortening and prolonging of night and day, as well as the subservience of sun and the moon to Allah. Then it refers to the movement of each of them for an appointed time; and finally it implies that Allah is Aware of what all human beings do. The orderly functioning of the seasonal cycle as the Earth rotating on its axis revolves around the Sun, is all proof of Divine Wisdom.

As is evident by the next ayah, only Allah and whatever is from Him, whatever He has specifically attributed to Himself, and all that depends upon Him is the Truth, while the deities the warped minds of the polytheist created and whatever theories the unbelievers and atheists have coined are nothing but falsehood and perishable. Therefore, this ayah implies that the matters which were mentioned in the previous ayahs are some of the clear evidences that Allah is the Ultimate Truth, and indeed the Most High. Great and Exalted.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Among the ways of having proper cognizance of God is to study the nature and contemplate on the wonders of creation.
2. The orderly system of the whole universe, including our Planet, have a specific timetable. The world has an end which Divine Knowledge has determined.
3. Allah is the Ever-living and the Ultimate Truth, while all and everything is perishable.

Now we listen to ayahs 31and 32 of Surah Luqman:

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ الْفُلْكَ تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِنِعْمَتِ اللَّـهِ لِيُرِيَكُم مِّنْ آيَاتِهِ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِّكُلِّ صَبَّارٍ شَكُورٍ

وَإِذَا غَشِيَهُم مَّوْجٌ كَالظُّلَلِ دَعَوُا اللَّـهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ فَمِنْهُم مُّقْتَصِدٌ ۚ وَمَا يَجْحَدُ بِآيَاتِنَا إِلَّا كُلُّ خَتَّارٍ كَفُورٍ

“Have you not regarded that the ships sail at sea by Allah’s blessing, that He may show you some of His signs? There are indeed signs in that for every patient and grateful [servant].”

“When waves cover them like awnings, they invoke Allah, putting exclusive faith in Him. But when He delivers them towards land, [only] some of them remain unswerving. And no one will impugn Our signs except an ungrateful traitor.”

In the previous ayahs, the sky, the sun and the moon were pointed out while in this ayah, the earth, the seas, and ships are referred to. It implies that the movement of a ship on the sea is the consequence of a collection of Allah’s bounties such as: the blow of the wind, specific gravity, and the rules of the pressure of water which causes things to float on it. No doubt the movement of the ships on the surface of oceans is the fruit of a series of laws of creation: the regular blow of the winds, from one side; the specific gravity of wood or other materials by which a ship is built, from the other side; the level of the density of water, from the third side; and the pressure emerged from the side of water to the body of the things which cause them to float on it, from the fourth side, are among them. And if there appears any confusion in one of these things, either the ship sinks into the bottom of the sea, or it turns down, or it remains wandered in the midst of the sea. But the Lord Who has intended to set the expansion of the seas the best way for the voyage of human beings, and carrying the useful goods often from one point to another point, has also provided these conditions, each of which is a bounty out of His bounties. The greatness of the power of Allah in oceans and the smallness of man compared with it is so much so that, in the past when people used only the power of the wind for the movement of a ship, if all the people of the world gathered to make a ship run in the midst of the sea against the direction of a strong wind, they would not be able to afford it.

And now that the power of great engines has substituted the wind, again the strength of some storms is so hard and heavy that can shake even the greatest ships, and sometime it may break them.

And that at the end of the ayah the emphasis has been laid on being patient and grateful, it is either for the sake that living in this world consists of a collection of afflictions and favours, that both of them are means of trial, perseverance and patience against severe events, and thanksgiving for bounties, all form a combination of duties for human beings.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. The seas, oceans and other natural phenomena are the bounties of God and the proof of Divine Power and Wisdom that make us have a proper cognizance of the Almighty Creator.
2. A faithful believer ought to be patient and be thankful to Allah for His bounties.  

Now lets us listen to ayahs 33 and 34 of Surah Luqman:

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمْ وَاخْشَوْا يَوْمًا لَّا يَجْزِي وَالِدٌ عَن وَلَدِهِ وَلَا مَوْلُودٌ هُوَ جَازٍ عَن وَالِدِهِ شَيْئًا ۚ إِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّـهِ حَقٌّ ۖ فَلَا تَغُرَّنَّكُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَلَا يَغُرَّنَّكُم بِاللَّـهِ الْغَرُورُ

إِنَّ اللَّـهَ عِندَهُ عِلْمُ السَّاعَةِ وَيُنَزِّلُ الْغَيْثَ وَيَعْلَمُ مَا فِي الْأَرْحَامِ ۖ وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ مَّاذَا تَكْسِبُ غَدًا ۖ وَمَا تَدْرِي نَفْسٌ بِأَيِّ أَرْضٍ تَمُوتُ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّـهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرٌ

“O mankind! Be wary of your Lord and fear the day when a father shall not atone for his child, nor the child shall atone for its father in any wise. Indeed Allah’s promise is true. So do not let the life of the world deceive you, nor let the Deceiver deceive you concerning Allah.”

“Indeed the knowledge of the Hour is with Allah. He sends down the rain, and He knows what is in the wombs. No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it will die. Indeed Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware.”

Everybody must be in awe of Allah and avoid all kinds of creedal, ethical and practical deviations in order to be pious, because the best provision, for the day when even a father and son will not help each other, is piety. So, in this ayah, as a conclusion of the last admonishments and the evidences of Monotheism and Resurrection, at first the Qur’an attracts the attention of all human beings to Allah and the Day of Hereafter. Then it warns them against the pride stemming from the world and Satan; and after that it refers to the vast knowledge of Allah and that it encompasses everything. In fact, the first command refers to the Origin, and the second command refers to Resurrection. The first command awakens the power of attention in man, and the second divine command awakens in him the feeling of recompense and retribution. No doubt he who knows an aware and well-informed One Who sees all his deeds, knows them, and records them, and, on the other side, there will be held a just court to investigate all things in detail, such a person hardly commits any sin or vice.

In short these ayahs which are the last ayahs of Surah Luqman advise mankind to observe piety in life and mean to say that unlike this world in which family members can help each other in problems and resolve each other problems, on the Day of Resurrection no one will bear the burden of others on his shoulder. So we should not become proud of family relations and do not expect that without good deeds, we will be subjected to divine mercy. It is God Who is aware of the unseen including the time of the resurrection, time of death of every human and the position of embryo in wombs. It is to be noted that God’s knowledge of infants in mothers’ wombs is not restricted merely to their being male or female but it includes talents and states hundreds of facts to which human has no access and merely God is aware of them. However, the individual should never think that God is unaware of his secret acts.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Ancestry does not work on the Day of Resurrection. No father can avail for his child and no child can avail for his father on the resurrection.
2. Occurrence of the resurrection day is certain, although we cannot guess its time, in the same manner that the death of every human is certain but no one knows its time and place. Only God is aware of these affairs.
3. The world is deceitful and makes human being ignore resurrection.

AS/MG/SS