Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 40

Overview (Verses 40 - 41)

The Only Hope

Say: If God’s punishment befalls you or the Hour comes upon you, can you see yourselves calling upon anyone other than God? [Answer me] if you are truthful! No, on Him alone you will call, whereupon He will, if He so wills, remove the ill which caused you to call on Him; and you will have forgotten all those you associate as partners with Him. (Verses 40-41)

Here we have one of the various methods the Qur’ān employs to address human nature in order to present to it the Islamic faith. We have already seen how the Qur’ān draws people’s attentions to the elaborate system of life and the multitude of living creatures, and how God’s knowledge is total, flawless, absolute. Here, the Qur’ānic address makes use of God’s power and how human nature reacts when it reflects on any aspect of God’s might, shaking off all traces of idolatry. Thus, human nature regains its freedom and tears off what used to prevent it from acquiring proper knowledge of its Lord and believing in His oneness: “Say: If God’s punishment befalls you or the Hour comes upon you, can you see yourselves calling upon anyone other than God? [Answer me] if you are truthful!” (Verse 40)

Human nature is, thus, put face to face with the possibility of total destruction which may come as punishment in this life, or with the totally unexpected arrival of the Last Hour. Once human nature is made to visualize this eventuality, it responds positively  to  the  truth.  God  knows  that  such  a  positive  response  remains  latent within it. Human nature is shaken as it must own up to the truth it knows. God puts the question to the unbelievers, demanding a verbal answer to express their true, natural feelings: “can you see yourselves calling upon anyone other than God? [Answer me] if you are truthful!” (Verse 40)

The sūrah then states the true answer which corresponds to their natural feelings, although they may not give it verbal expression: “No, on Him alone you will call, whereupon He will, if He so wills, remove the ill which caused you to call on Him; and you will have forgotten all those you associate as partners with Him.” (Verse 41)

Thus,  all  thoughts  of  idolatry  are  forgotten.  The  fearful  prospect  lays  human nature bare, and thus it turns to God alone for security. Its knowledge of the true Lord is deeply rooted within it. Idolatrous beliefs are no more than a superficial, thin covering that beclouds human nature through external factors. When human nature is shaken by this fearful prospect, this covering falls off and the truth comes to the surface. Thus, man’s natural reactions operate and he turns to His Lord, praying to be spared that fate to which it has no answer.

Within this description of the natural human reaction to the prospect of God’s punishment, we are told of God’s response. He may, if He so pleases, respond to their supplication and remove what they fear. His will is free, unrestrained. It is His choice whether to respond to them or not and whether to remove the ill they fear in full or in part. In this, the only operative factors are His knowledge, wisdom and will.

Having outlined the attitude of human nature towards idolatry, into which it sinks as a result of deviation from the right path, it is pertinent to ask about its attitude towards atheism and the denial of God’s existence altogether. As I have said on several occasions, I have serious doubts that those who profess to be atheists, completely denying the existence of God, truly believe what they say. I doubt that anyone created by God can sink so deep into ignorance as to obliterate totally the distinctive mark of the hand that originated him, when he continues to have within him the same mark reflected in every one of his cells. Atheism is simply the result of long suffering at the hands of the Church, and the brutal struggle against it. The Church resorted to oppressive practices and denied natural human impulses at the same time as churchmen indulged in deviant pleasures.

That long history of suffering, endured for centuries by Europe, was responsible for pushing the Europeans into their professed atheism, simply to flee from their tormentors. Besides, Jewish forces have exploited this historical legacy to tempt the Christians away from their faith so that they spread immorality and its attendant misery among them. This facilitates what the Zionist Jews see as the manipulation of the `asses’, to use the expression as contained within the Talmud and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It would have been impossible for those evil forces to achieve any of this, or to drive people to atheism, without the exploitation which occurred during that grim period of European history.

These tireless efforts have been given their most striking picture in the efforts of Communism, itself a Jewish invention. Despite all the work of   the Soviet Communists, over more than half a century, using all the state suppressive agencies, to spread atheism, the Russian people themselves continue to indicate that deep at heart they yearn to have a faith based on belief in God. Stalin himself, described by his successor Khrushchev as exceedingly brutal, was forced into a period of truce in his fight against the Church. This was during the Second World War when Stalin was forced to release the Russian Archbishop. The war left him no option but to admit that faith in God was deeply entrenched in human nature. His own view and that of the few atheists wielding power with him was of little account.

The Jews have tried, with the help of the `asses’ from among the Christians they used, to spread atheism among the nations which professed to follow the Islamic faith. Although Islam was considerably weakened among the people of the Muslim world, their attempt, pioneered by Kemal Ataturk, the hero of Turkey, could achieve very little despite all the praise and glory they heaped on it and its hero. Numerous books have been written in praise of this leading experience. More recently, they have tried to benefit from the lessons of the Ataturk experience. They no longer give any new experience an atheistic colour. Indeed, they give it an Islamic banner so that it does not represent a shock to human nature as was the case with Ataturk’s experience. However, they put under that   banner everything they want of immorality, promiscuity and all that filth, as well as all the machinery which works to destroy the proper human element in the Muslim world.

The fact remains that human nature recognises its Lord well and submits to Him declaring its belief in His oneness. Should it fall for a while under a covering that screens facts and prevents it from seeing them, all that covering will fall off once human nature is shaken by a calamity. It regains its vision and returns to its Lord, humble, submissive, believing. All the schemes of the enemies of faith require no more than a clear declaration of the truth, and they will soon collapse. Human nature thus returns to faith. Evil will not have total mastery while there remains on the face of this earth people who will make this declaration. By the grace of God, there will always remain people to make this declaration of the truth, no matter how the advocates of falsehood try to wipe them out.