Surah Az-Zukhruf

Dangers of the trials of this Dunyah (world) with its beautification.

In this Surah, a forceful and severe criticism has been made of the common Arab creeds and superstitions in which they persisted. Their stubbornness has been exposed in a firm and effective way, so that every member of the society who was reasonable in some degree, should be made to consider the evils in which the community was involved.

The discourse starts in a way as if to say: “You, by means of your mischief, want that the revelation of this Book should be stopped, but Allah has never withheld the appointment of His Prophets and the revelation of His Books because of the mischief of the people, but has destroyed the wicked people, who obstructed the way of His guidance.” A little further in v. 41-43 and 79-80 the same thing has been reiterated. Though the people who were plotting against his life are meant, the Prophet ﷺhas been addressed to the effect: “whether you remain alive or not, We will certainly punish the wicked,” and the people themselves have been plainly warned to the effect: “If you have decided to take an action against Our Prophet ﷺ, We too will take a decisive action.”

Then, it has been asked, what is the reality of the religion that the people are following so devotedly and what are the arguments on whose strength they are resisting Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

They themselves admit that the Creator of the earth and heavens and of themselves and their deities is only Allah. They also know and admit that the blessings they are benefiting from, have been bestowed by Allah; yet they insist on making others associates of Allah in His sovereignty. They regard the servants as the children of God. They believe that the angels are goddesses; they have carved their images as females; they adorn them with female dresses and ornaments, and call them daughters of God: they worship them and invoke them for the fulfilment of their needs. How did they know that the angels were female?

When they are rebuked for these superstitions, they present the pretence of destiny and say, “Had Allah disapproved of these our practices, we could not have worshipped these images, whereas the means of finding out whether Allah had approved of something or not, are His Books and not those things which are happening in the world according to His Will. For under His Will, not only idol worship but crimes like theft and adultery, robbery, murder, etc. also are being committed. Can this argument be used to justify the commission of every crime and evil in the world?”

When it is asked: Have you any other authority, apart from this wrong argument, for this polytheism of yours? They reply, “The same has been the practice since the time of our forefathers.” In other words, this, in their opinion is a strong enough argument for a creed’s being right and true, whereas the Prophet Ibrahim, descent from whom is the only basis of their pride and distinction, had rejected the religion of his elders and left his home and he had discarded every such blind imitation of his forefathers which did not have the support of any rational argument. Then, if these people had to follow their elders only, for this also they selected their most ignorant elders and abandoned their most illustrious elders like the Prophets Ibrahim and Ishmael.

When they are asked: “Has ever a Prophet or a Book sent down by Allah also given this teaching that others beside Allah too are worthy of worship? They present this practice of the Christians as an argument that they took Jesus son of Mary as son of God and worshipped him; whereas the question was not whether the community of a Prophet had committed polytheism (Shirk) or not, but whether a Prophet had himself taught polytheism. Jesus son of Mary had never said that he was son of God and that the people should worship him. His own was the same teaching which every other Prophet had given: “My Lord as well as your Lord is Allah: so worship Him alone.”

They were disinclined to believe in the Prophethood of the Prophet ﷺbecause he was neither a rich man nor a person of high worldly position and rank. They said “Had Allah willed to appoint a prophet ﷺamong us, He would have appointed one of the great men of our two cities (Makkah and Ta’if). On that very basis, Pharaoh also had looked down upon the Prophet Musa and said, “If Allah, the King of the heavens, had to send a messenger to me, the king of the earth, He would have sent him with bracelets of gold and a company of angels in attendance. Wherefrom has this beggar appeared? I am superior to him, for the kingdom of Egypt belongs to me, and the canals of the River Nile are flowing under my control. What is the status of this man as against me? He has neither wealth nor authority.”

Thus, after criticizing each practice of ignorance of the disbelievers and rejecting it with rational arguments, it has been pointed out: “Neither has Allah any offspring, nor are there separate gods of the earth and heavens, nor is there any intercessor who may be able to protect from His punishment those who adopt deviation knowingly. Allah is far above this that He should have children. He alone is the God of the whole Universe: all others are His servants and not associates in His attributes and powers, and only such men can intercede with Him, who are themselves followers of the Truth and they also can intercede only for those who may have adopted obedience of the Truth in the world.”65 Connection between the beginning and the ending of the Surah The polytheists admit the Creator of everything is only Allah alone.

“And if you should ask them, “Who has created the heavens and the earth?” they would surely say, “They were created by the Exalted in Might, the Knowing.” (43:9) Tafheem al-Qur’an, Mawdudi.

“And if you asked them who created them, they would surely say, “Allah.”

So how are they deluded?” (43:87)