فَفِرُّ‌وا إِلَى اللَّـهِ (So flee to Allah....51:50). Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ said: "It means: Flee from your sins and take shelter in Allah for repentance." Abu Bakr Warraq and Junaid Baghdadi رحمۃ اللہ علیہما said that the base self of man and the devil invite him to commit sins, and they deceive him. He needs to take refuge in Allah who will protect him against their evil. (Qurtubi)

[ 60]

The Purpose of Jinn's and Mankind's creation

وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ (And I did not create the Jinns and the human beings except that they should worship Me."...51:56). This apparently may raise two questions: [ 1] If Allah has created a creature for a particular task, and it is His will that it should perform that task, rationally it is impossible for it to deviate from that task, because doing anything contrary to the will of Allah is inconceivable. [ 2] The purpose of jinn's and man's creation has been restricted to the worship of Allah whereas there are many other underlying reasons and benefits in their creation.

Scholars have made different approaches to solve these problems. Some say that this verse pertains to the believers only, that is, only believing jinn and believing mankind are created for worship and for no other task. It is obvious that the believers are more or less steadfast to worship. This is the view of Dahhak, Sufyan Thawri and others. According to one version of Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ ، the word mu'minin does occur in the verse thus: وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ مِنَ المُؤمِنِینَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ And I have not created the believing jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me'. This version supports the view that the verse is only in connection with the believers.

Another answer to the question, given by Moulana Ashraf ` Ali Thanawi (رح) is that: Allah has commanded all to worship, but at the same time He has equipped them with free will. Some of them exercised their God-given free will correctly and chose to worship Him, but others used their God-given free will incorrectly and deviated from worshipping Him. This is what Sayyidna Ali ؓ has said, as quoted by Baghawi. Tafsir Mazhari gives a plain and simple explication of this verse: Allah has equipped every jinn and man with the innate capacity to worship. Some use the capacity rightly and succeed, while others employ it wrongly in sinning and fulfilling their base emotions, and thus destroy it. The Messenger ﷺ is reported to have said:

کُلُّ مَولُودِ یُّولَدُ عَلَی الفِطرَۃِ فَاَبَوَاہُ یُھَوِّدَانِہٖ اَو یُمَجِّسَانِہٖ

"Every child is born according to the fitrah but his parents [ cause him to deviate from the unadulterated propensity ] and turn him into a Jew or a Christian or a Magian."

According to the majority of the scholars, fitrah here refers to the religion of Islam. Just as this Tradition tells us that every man is born with the natural capacity for Islam and true faith, but his parents adulterate and destroy that capacity, and put him on to the ways of disbelief, in the same way the phrase 'except that they should worship Me' could mean that every member of jinn and mankind has the natural, inborn capacity to worship. Allah, the Pure and Exalted, knows best.

Answer to the second question is that bringing any creation into being for the purpose of worship does not necessarily imply that they are unfit for other functions of life.

مَا أُرِ‌يدُ مِنْهُم مِّن رِّ‌زْقٍ (I do not want any sustenance from them, nor do I want them to feed Me...51:57). It means that by creating jinn and mankind, Allah does not stand in need of them, so that they will have to produce sustenance for Him or for themselves or for any of His other creations or that they earn to feed Him. This has been stated according to the general trend of people. The most affluent of men buys a slave and spends on him not for nothing, but he has an underlying purpose: He expects the slaves to work for him, help him in his tasks, fulfill his needs and earn livelihood for his master. Allah is immaculate, pure and above all these things. In creating human beings, He does not profit or benefit anything.

The word ذُنُوب dhanub in verse 59 is with lath on the letter [ dh ] which means a large bucket that is kept at the common wells of a locality for the purpose of drawing and filling water. A turn is designated for each of the persons using the large common bucket to draw out water from the well, so that he is conveniently able to fill it in his own private bucket in his turn. Thus the word here is employed in the sense of turn, share or portion. Hence it is translated above as follows: "So, those who did wrong deserve a share (in the punishment) like the share of their companions." The verse purports to warn the disbelievers that the past communities were given an opportunity to work. When each of these communities did not take advantage of the opportunity in their respective time and persisted in their evil course, they were punished and destroyed. Likewise, the present pagans of Makkah are designated a time and opportunity. If they do not take advantage of the allocated time and opportunity and persist in their paganism, they will be punished in this world; otherwise the punishment of the Hereafter is most certain. They will thus meet with a fate similar to that of the opponents of former Prophets. Like them they will come to a sad end. This verse, in which the word dhanuban occurs, indicates that they will receive their due share of the torment, and it will surely come in due time; so they should not ask for it to be hastened on or rushed to them.

Al-hamdulillah

The Commentary on Surah Adh-Dhariyat ends here.

وَكِتَابٍ مَّسْطُورٍ‌ فِي رَ‌قٍّ مَّنشُورٍ‌ (and by a book, written on an unrolled scroll....52:2-3) The word raqq means fine parchment or fine piece of skin, used for the purpose of writing on it. It is, therefore, usually translated as paper. Here it could be referring to man's account-book of deeds or, according to some of the scholars, it stands for the Qur'an. (Qurtubi)

Al-Bait-ul-Ma` mur

وَالْبَيْتِ الْمَعْمُورِ‌ (and by the Populated House [ AI-Bait-ul-Ma` mur ],...52:4) Al-Bait-ul-Ma` mur is the Ka'bah in the heaven meant for the angels' service and is parallel to the Ka'bah on earth. According to a Tradition in Sahihain that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said about his Ascension to the seventh heaven: "Then, I was taken to Al-Bait-ul-Ma` mur. It is visited every day by seventy thousand angels who will not come back to visit it again" because every day other new angels take their turn to visit it. (Ibn Kathir)

Al-Bait-ul-Ma` mur is the Ka'bah of the angels who reside in the seventh heaven. When the Holy Prophet ﷺ reached the seventh heaven on the Night of Ascension, he saw Holy Prophet Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) reclining with his back on Al-Bait-ul-Ma` mur. It was Holy Prophet Ibrahim (علیہ السلام) who built the Ka'bah on earth, and thus the reward is compatible with his action in that Allah Ta’ ala has blessed him with a special connection with Al-Bait-ul-Ma` mur (IbnKathir).

وَالْبَحْرِ‌ الْمَسْجُورِ‌ (and by the sea, filled up with fire...52:6) The word bar means sea and the passive participle masjur is derived from sajr which is used in several different senses, one of which is to kindle with fire. Some of the commentators interpret the participle in this sense here, that is, by the sea which will be kindled with fire on the Day of Resurrection, just as Allah said in another verse وَإِذَا الْبِحَارُ‌ سُجِّرَ‌تْ "And when the seas will be kindled with fire". In other words, it will be kindled with fire and become a raging fire surrounding the people in the plain of hashr. This was reported by Sayyidna Said Ibn Musayyab from Sayyidna Ali Ibn Abi Talib ؓ . Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas, Mujahid, and ` Ubaidullah Ibn ` Umair ؓ also report likewise. (Ibn Kathir)

A Jewish person asked Sayyidna ` Ali ؓ 'where is the Hell?'. He replied 'the sea'. The Jew, who was the scholar of the previous scriptures, confirmed this. (Qurtubi) Sayyidna Qatadah ؓ and others interpreted the phrase to mean 'filled sea'. Ibn Jarir (رح) preferred this interpretation (Ibn Kathir). ' This is the interpretation adopted by Maulana Ashraf Thanawi (رح)

إِنَّ عَذَابَ رَ‌بِّكَ لَوَاقِعٌ مَّا لَهُ مِن دَافِعٍ (the punishment of your Lord is sure to fall. There is nothing to push it back,....52:7-8) Verses 1-6 constituted swearing of an oath, and the present verse is jawab-ul-qasam or the fact for which the oath is sworn, assuring that the torment of Allah will come to pass, and none will be able to avert it.

The Incident of Sayyidna ` Umar ؓ

Sayyidna ` Umar ؓ one day recited Surah Tur. When he came to these verses, he heaved a cool sigh after which he fell ill for about twenty days. During his illness the people would visit him, not knowing what caused his illness. (Ibn Kathir)

Sayyidna Jubair Ibn Mut'im ؓ says that before embracing Islam, he once went to the holy city of Madinah to negotiate regarding the prisoners of the battle of Badr. When he arrived there, the Holy Prophet ﷺ was reciting Surah Tur in Maghrib salah and his voice could be heard outside the mosque. When he recited verses [ 7] and [ 81: 'The punishment of your Lord is sure to fall. There is nothing to push it back,' He suddenly felt that his heart would burst through fear. He instantly embraced Islam. He felt at the time that he would not be able to move unless the torment would descend on him. (Qurtubi)

يَوْمَ تَمُورُ‌ السَّمَاءُ مَوْرً‌ا (...the Day when the sky will tremble, a horrible trembling, ...52:9) The lexicographical denotation of the word mawr is violent shaking, or movement caused by unrest. This verse describes the violent movement of the heavens on the Day of Resurrection.