Surah al-Mu'minun (The Believers ) 23 : 79

Overview (Verses 75 - 80)

Inspiring Signs
 
These unbelievers are people who have lost their way and no longer benefit from the tests to which they are exposed, be they tests of plenty and affluence or those of hardship. Hence, when they are tested with favour “they think that by all the wealth and offspring We provide for them We hasten to them all that is good?” (Verses 55-56) Even if they are tested with difficulty and hardship, their hearts are not softened, nor are their consciences awakened. They do not turn back to God, appealing to Him to remove their hardship. They remain in such a condition until, on the Day of Judgement, they are visited with an even greater suffering. Then they will be truly desperate and bewildered.
 
Even were We to show them mercy and remove whatever distress might afflict them, they would still persist in their overweening arrogance, blindly stumbling to and fro. Indeed, We took them to task, but they neither humbled themselves before their Lord, nor do they submissively entreat [Him]. Yet when We open before them a gate of truly severe suffering, they will plunge in despair. (Verses 75-77)
 
These are common features among such people. They are hard hearted, oblivious of their duties to God, and they deny the hereafter. The idolaters who opposed the Prophet when he delivered his message were of the same type.
 
Showing humility at a time of hardship, and turning to God, entreating Him and recognizing Him as the only refuge and resort are indicative of a change of heart and a returning to faith. A heart which establishes such links with God is bound to soften. Reflection and remembrance then provide protection against further slips and errors. Thus, hardship brings about real benefit. But the person who persists in arrogance is a lost case, without hope. He is left to his destiny when he will be overwhelmed with suffering in the life to come. He will then plunge into despair, finding neither refuge nor support.
 
The sūrah then takes the unbelievers on a further round of reflection, in the hope that their hearts will awaken when they see the pointers to faith within themselves and in the universe at large:
 
It is He who has endowed you with hearing, and sight, and minds. How seldom are you grateful. And He it is who caused you to multiply on earth; and to Him you shall be gathered. And He it is who grants life and causes death; and to Him is due the alternation of night and day. Will you not, then, use your reason? (Verses 78-80)
 
Indeed if man would only reflect on his own form and constitution, the multi- faceted potential he has been given, and the faculties of perception with which he has been blessed, he would certainly acknowledge God. His guidance would be all these great faculties within him that testify to God’s oneness. No one other than God Almighty could produce such a creation with all these miraculous aspects, large and small. For example, how does our sense of hearing function? How are sounds picked up and distinguished? How does our eyesight function, sorting out shapes and shades of light? And then, what about our mind and how it works? How does it recognize forms and things? How does it understand meanings, concepts, values, feelings and physical forms?
 
The mere understanding of the nature of these senses and faculties and their ways of functioning is, in itself, a miraculous human discovery. How do we, then, look at their creation and placement in man’s body in such a way that is best suited to the nature of man’s world. The degree of harmony achieved here reflects an overwhelming delicacy. Should only one of the many ratios that need to be met, in either man’s nature or the nature of the universe, be disturbed, the whole relation no longer functions. Ears are not able to pick out sound, and eyes no longer see light. It is God’s perfect design and limitless power that has achieved this perfect balance between human nature and the universe in which man lives. But man does not show gratitude to God for His favours: “How seldom are you grateful.” (Verse 78) Gratitude begins with a clear acknowledgement of the One who has given us all these favours and blessings, glorifying Him and recognizing His attributes, then addressing all worship to Him alone. His oneness is testified by His creation. Gratitude is further enhanced when we use our faculties and senses to enjoy life in the manner of a firm believer who looks up to God before every action and in every situation.
 
“And He it is who caused you to multiply on earth.” (Verse 79) He has placed you in charge of building human life on earth, after He gave you your hearing, eyesight and mind, as well as all the faculties and potentials that you need to fulfil the task assigned to you. “And to Him you shall be gathered,” when you will be accountable for all that you do in your lives on earth. You will be rewarded for all the good you do, and for following divine guidance. By contrast, you will reap the fruits of any evil or corruption of which you are guilty. Your lives on earth are not meant in vain, and you are not carelessly abandoned in your habitat. It is all for a definite purpose God has determined.
 
“And He it is who grants life and causes death.” (Verse 80) Both life and death occur at every moment, but it is God alone who causes them both to occur. Man, the highest of all creatures on earth, cannot give life to a single cell. Similarly, man is totally incapable of depriving any living being of its life in the full sense of the word. People may be the means of ending life, but they are not the ones who truly deprive a living entity of its life. It is God alone who grants life and causes death.
 
“And to Him is due the alternation of night and day.” (Verse 80) He is the One who has set this alternation in operation, just like He grants life and takes it away. Both sets of parallel situations are natural laws: one operates within the human being while the other operates in the world at large. When life is taken away from a particular body, it stops functioning and becomes motionless. Similarly, when light is taken away from the earth it darkens and becomes stagnant. But then life is brought back again and light is allowed to spread as the alternation takes place and the cycle continues uninterrupted, for as long as God wills. “Will you not, then, use your reason?” (Verse 80) Will you not draw the right conclusion and admit that it is all part of God’s perfect design and elaborate planning. It is He alone who is in full control of life and the universe.