Al Rūm

لِيَكْفُرُوا بِمَآ ءَاتَيْنَاهُمْ فَتَمَتَّعُوا فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ

أَمْ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ سُلْطَاناً فَهُوَ يَتَكَلَّمُ بِمَا كَانُوا بِهِ يُشْرِكُونَ

34. “That they may be ungrateful for what We have given them. ‘Take your enjoyment, certainly you will soon know’.”
35. “Or have We sent down any authority upon them, such as it speaks of what they associate with Him?”

Polytheism is a step towards paganism and being unthankful, and returning to polytheism is a kind of being unthankful of divine bounties. As a threat to these incapacious polytheistic persons who neglect Allah when they reach bounties, this verse says:

Here, though the polytheists are addressed, it is probable that the verse has a vast concept and it encompasses all those who forget Allah (s.w.t.) at the time of affluence of bounties and are only busy enjoying them and neglect the endower of the bounties. It is evident that the application of the imperative form of the Arabic verb here is for threatening. In order to condemn this polytheistic group, next verse in the form of an objurgatory question says:

The word /’am/ here is used for the aim of question and this is an objurgatory question with negative sense. That is, following this path and this custom must be either for the sake of the call of ‘nature’, or it is the judgment of intellect the command of Allah. But their conscience and nature is made manifest at the time of afflictions and difficulties and it cries for a call of monotheism. The intellect also says we must go to the One Who is ‘the giver of bounties’.

There remains the command of Allah that in this verse it has been negated and the Qur’an says: He has not sent down such a command upon them. Thus, they are not relying on any acceptable principle for their own belief. The Arabic word /sultan/ is in the sense of something which creates dominion and victory, and here it means a firm and convenient reasoning. The application of the Arabic term /yatakallam/ (it speaks) is a kind of figurative meaning which is used when a proof is clear. Here it implies that this is an expressive proof that speaks with man.

Some commentators have said that the word /sultan/ here probably means an angel with authority. In this case, the word ‘speak’ has its real meaning. It means: “We have not sent down upon them an angel that speaks of what they associate with Him”.