Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 46

Overview (Verses 46 - 49)

Important Points for Reflection

As the sūrah moves on, it puts those who associate partners with God face to face with His might and how it may strike them personally, taking away their hearing and eyesight and sealing their hearts. They are defenceless against it, and they can find no deity other than God to return what God may take away from them. The scene depicted here is very vivid, showing them their total powerlessness against God’s might. It also paints for them the stark reality of those partners they associate with God when they have to face a truly grave situation. The scene shakes them violently. God, the Creator of human nature knows how far it is affected by this scene and the truth it describes. Human nature realizes that God is able to take away people’s hearing and sight and seal their hearts. None of these organs can then function at all. Should He do this, there is no other deity to reverse what He has done.

As this scene sends a shiver into people’s hearts, it shows how hollow and erroneous the concept of idolatry is. The sūrah wonders at those who are shown different, wide-ranging and multi-faceted signs, beckoning them to faith, and yet still they turn away. Here, their attitude is painted in the image of a camel which has a particular disease in its legs, causing it to limp outwardly as it walks. The scene was familiar to the Arabs who were the first to be addressed by the Qur’ān. It fills us with a feeling of contempt for those who turn away: “See how varied and multifaceted We make Our signs, and yet they turn away!” (Verse 46)

They are hardly allowed to take their breath before they are put face to face with another possibility that may well not be far away from them. They are shown their own destruction as they are indeed the wrongdoers, a term which is often used interchangeably with those who associate partners with God. The scene here paints the destruction of the wrongdoers when they are taken unawares or when God’s punishment is inflicted on them in open daylight: “Say: Do but consider, if God’s punishment befalls you suddenly or in a perceptible manner, would any but the wrongdoing folk be destroyed?” (Verse 47)

Divine punishment may come in any form and in any situation. Whether it comes suddenly when least expected or it comes gradually, in broad daylight when they are fully prepared, total destruction would be the lot of the wrongdoing folk, a description often used in the Qur’ān to refer to the idolaters. This punishment will be visited on them alone. They cannot protect themselves against it whether it comes suddenly or openly, for they are too weak to repel it. Nor can any of the partners they associate with God spare them this punishment, because those partners are among God’s servants who are equally weak and powerless.

The sūrah raises this prospect before them, so that they may take the necessary steps to avoid it before it happens. Limitless is God in His glory: He knows that this prospect touches certain cords within human nature which know and truly fear what it entails.

When this passage of warning has reached its peak, having portrayed several scenes, making inspiring comments on each of them and giving serious warnings which have their effect on people’s hearts, it is concluded with a statement outlining the task of God’s messengers. Their communities demand supernatural miracles but their duty is merely to convey a message, bringing happy news and giving stern warnings. They have no say in people’s fate, which is determined by the attitudes people choose to adopt for themselves: “We send Our messengers only as bearers of good news and as warners. Those who believe and act righteously shall have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve. But those that deny Our revelations shall be afflicted with suffering as a result of their sinful deeds.” (Verses 48-49)

This faith of Islam began by preparing mankind for a stage of maturity which would enable it to use fully God’s great gift. With such usage people recognise and understand  the  truth  which  the  Qur’ān  reveals  and  to  which  it  directs  human intellect. Numerous signs pointing to this truth are present everywhere in the universe, as well as in the different stages of life and in every aspect of creation.

To attain such maturity requires a complete departure from the stage of physical miracles which confront those who deny the truth with what forces them to submit. Instead, the human intellect is directed to observe the final touches of what God creates in the whole universe. These are indeed miraculous, but they are permanent miracles upon which the whole universe is founded. The human mind is addressed with a superb book revealed by God, which is absolutely miraculous in its style, method and the social set-up it aims to create. This set-up remains unique, with nothing similar having ever existed previously or since.

For the human intellect to be familiar with this new high level which the departure from physical miracles represents, man has undergone careful education and instruction.  This  was  necessary  for  man  to  begin  to  read  the  open  book  of  the universe with his mind, under divine guidance and according to Qur’ānic directives and the Prophet’s teachings. Such reading should combine positive realism with the recognition of what lies beyond the realm of human perception. It should steer away from those abstract concepts that characterise a part of Greek and Christian philosophies, as well as the materialistic concepts which pervaded parts of Greek philosophy as well as Indian, Egyptian, Buddhist and Magian philosophies. Needless to say, it also required the discarding of naïve materialism characterized by some ignorant Arabian beliefs.

Part of that education was represented by the definition of the task of God’s Messenger and the nature of his role with regard to the divine message. The Messenger is a human being to whom God assigned the task of giving happy news as well as warnings. When he had completed that, his task was fulfilled and the response was left to human beings to determine. God’s will operates through this response and the reward or punishment is determined on its basis. He who believes and does good works need not worry about what he may encounter, or grieve over what he might have done. If he has slipped, he will be forgiven. If he has done well, he will be rewarded for it. But those who deny the signs the Prophet has brought, and to which their attention has been drawn, will have to be punished for their disbelief, or for “their sinful deeds”, to use the relevant reference in this passage. We should remember that the Qur’ān often uses the terms `wrongdoing’ and `sinful deeds’ to denote associating partners with God and total disbelief.

The result is a plain concept, which has no complication or ambiguity, and a clear outline of the Prophet’s task and his terms of reference. According to this concept, all attributes of Godhead are given to God alone. Everything happens by God’s will. But within that framework, man is given freedom of action and is required to account for what he chooses. The divergent destinies of God’s obedient servants and those who disobey Him are described in perfect clarity. All legends and arbitrary concepts that have prevailed in jāhiliyyah societies about the role of the Messenger are shown to be false. All this helps elevate mankind to maturity without letting it drift into the maze of abstract philosophies and futile arguments which continue to waste the energy of the human mind for generation after generation.