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yā-bunayya ʾinnahā ʾin taku mithqāla ḥabbatin min khardalin fa-takun fī ṣakhratin ʾaw fī s-samāwāti ʾaw fī l-ʾarḍi yaʾti bihā llāhu ʾinna llāha laṭīfun khabīrun
‘O my son! Even if it should be the weight of a mustard seed, and [even though] it should be in a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, Allah will produce it. Indeed Allah is all-attentive, all-aware.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Luqman – Verse 16
16. “O’ my son! If there be (your deed but) the weight of a mustard-seed and it were (hidden) in a rock or in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth; (for) verily Allah is All-Subtle, All-Aware.”
The man’s faith to the presentation of his deed in the Hereafter is the source of his improvement. Luqman’s first admonition to his son was about the subject of Monotheism and struggle against polytheism. His second admonition was about the reckoning of deeds in resurrection, and it completes the ring of ‘Origin’ and ‘Resurrection’. So, in this verse, Luqman says:
Mustard is a plant which has some very small black seeds the smallness of which is often said as a parable. This meaning refers to the fact that the man’s good and evil deeds, even the smallest and the most worthless of them, that are hidden, like a mustard-seed that is hidden in a rock, or deep in the earth, or in a corner in the heavens, Allah, the Subtle, the Aware, Who knows everything throughout the world of existence, whether they are small or big, will bring it forth to be reckoned and to be recompensed with reward or retribution, and nothing will be lost in this system.
The pronoun in the Qur’anic word /’innaha/ refers to the good and evil deeds. The man’s attention to the awareness of Allah concerning his deeds and that all good and evil deeds will be protected in Allah’s knowledge and that nothing will be vanished in this world of existence, is the source of all individual and social improvements, and it is a strong motive towards doing righteous works and it is an effective impedimental factor for man from committing evils and vices.
Mentioning the words: ‘the heavens’ and ‘the earth’ after the statement of ‘rock’, in fact, are of the kind of mentioning a ‘general meaning’ next to a ‘particular meaning’. A tradition has been recorded in ’Usul-i-Kafi narrated from Imam Baqir (as) who said:
“Avoid (committing) the small sins because once they will be called to account and some of you (sometimes) say that they commit sin and then they will ask forgiveness, while Allah, Almighty and Glorious, says:
And He also says: