Ṣād

قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أَنَاْ مُنذِرٌ وَمَا مِنْ إِلَهٍ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ

رَبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا الْعَزِيزُ الْغَفَّارُ

قُلْ هُوَ نَبَؤٌاْ عَظِيمٌ

أَنتُمْ عَنْهُ مُعْرِضُونَ

65. “Say: ‘I am only a Warner and there is no god but Allah, the One, the Almighty’,”

66. “Lord of the heavens and the earth, and what is between them two, the Almighty, the Most Forgiving.”

67. “Say: ‘It is a message of (great) importance,”

68. “From which you are turning away’.”

The Arabic word /qahhar/ is in the sense of the supreme Power that all powers are overpowered and condemned by it. All the previous discussions, whether those which speak about the painful punishment of the people of Hell or those which discuss the worldly chastisement of the former sinful peoples all are as warnings and threats for the polytheists, arrogant ones, and oppressors. This very matter is pursued in these verses, saying:

It is true that the Prophet (S) is the giver of glad tidings, too, and the verses of the Qur’an refer to both of them, but since ‘glad tidings’ is for the believers and ‘warning’ is for the polytheists and mischief- mongers, and here the words address the recent group, then only warning is emphasized. Then the Qur’an continues saying:

The emphasis on His Wrath is also for the same purpose so that none might be proud of His Grace and counts himself far from His Wrath and enters in the course of infidelity and sin. As the mentioning of the reason for Monotheism and worship of Allah, the next verse immediately adds:

In this verse, in fact, three qualifications of the attributes of Allah have been stated, each of which is for proving a separate purpose. The first issue is His Divinity unto the whole world of existence. He is the Owner of this world entirely, a Possessor Who trains and directs them. The only One is worthy of being worshipped that is such, not the idols which have nothing of their own. The second issue is his Might. We know that the Qur’anic word /‘aziz/ from the point of meaning is called to a person unto whom none can overcome, and whatever he wills is doable; and, in other words, he is always victorious and never is defeated.

The one, who has such qualities, how is it possible to escape from his might? And how can a person be safe from his retribution? The third quality is His Rank of Forgiveness, the All-Forgiving. He is the One Who opens all the doors to the sinners and showers the rain of His Mercy over them, so that they do not think that if He is Almighty and Powerful it does not mean that He shuts the doors of mercy and repentance to His servants. In fact, one of them is the statement of ‘fear’ and the other is the statement of ‘hope’ that without the equality of these two the status of the man’s development is not possible: he either will be involved in pride and negligence, or dives into the whirl pool of despair and hopelessness.

In, other words, qualifying Him with ‘Almighty’ and ‘most forgiving’ is another proof over His Divinity, because He is worthy of being worshipped since, besides Lordship, and having the Power of punishing, the doors of His mercy and forgiveness are also open. In the third and fourth verses, the Prophet (S) is addressed by two short but expressive sentences:

Which message is this that the Qur’an has pointed out and counted it important? Is it the Holy Qur’an? Or is it the prophecy of the Prophet (S)? Or is it Hereafter and the fate of the believers and disbelievers? Or is it the Unity and singleness of Allah? Or are they all? In view of the fact that the Qur’an envelops all of these things the rejection of the disbelievers has also been upon it, the first meaning, i.e. the Qur’an, is the most fitting one.

Yes, this heavenly great Book is an important message, as great as the whole world of existence, which has been sent down from the side of the Creator of this world, Who is Almighty, Most Forgiving, and the One. It is a message that a lot of people did not find out its greatness at the time of its revelation. A group of them mocked it, and some others called it a sorcery, while some of them counted it poetry, but it did not last so much that this ‘great news’ showed its inside. It changed the way of mankind, and it was stretched over the expanse of the world. It created a great bright civilization in all fields.

And it is interesting that the announcement of this ‘great news’ is in this Meccan Surah, at the time when the Muslims were apparently in utmost weakness, and the doors of victory were all shut to them. Even today the greatness of this important message is not completely clear to human beings and even to the Muslims themselves, and future must show it. (By the way, according to some Islamic narrations, the purpose of /naba’-un-‘azim/ ‘a great News’ is Ali (as))

It has been recorded in Atyab-ul-Bayan, the commentary, concerning the above holy verse that in the narrations of the immaculate Imams (as) the phrase /naba’-un-‘azim/ (the great news) has been rendered into Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as); as Kulayni has narrated from Imam Baqir (as) who said:

“It is about Amir-ul-Mu’mineen”.

And Imam Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) said:

“There is no sign for Allah which is greater than me, and there is no message for Allah greater than me!”

And it has been narrated from Muhammad-ibn-il-Hassan-is-Saffar documented from Hadrat Sadiq (as) who said:

“And ‘message’ means Imamate”.

The explanation of this saying is that the sacred religion of Islam is complete, beyond entire and perfect, which contains all the true beliefs, excellent ethics, scientific and social aspects, and righteous deeds. It is free from any blemish and defect which exist in incorrect beliefs, corrupt epithets, and wrong deeds; but all of them are as the body of Islam which are perfect from any kind of view. But the body is without spirit and it is not more than a statue.

The spirit of Islam is ‘Wilayah’ (guardianship), and the faith is not faith save with guardianship. All worships and good deeds depend on the acceptance of the person’s ‘guardianship’. The evidence for this that the purpose of /naba’-il-‘azim/ (great message) is guardianship, not in what the commentators have said that the holy verses:

address the Muslims, because pagans and polytheists turn away from Islam, religion and the Qur’an entirely and they turn away even from Monotheism and messengership, not only from the ‘great message’ in particular, and it is the Muslims who turn away from guardianship. Moreover in the verse of Surah An-Naba’, pagans and polytheists do not differ in Islam but they completely deny Islam and difference exists in Muslims in relation to the matter of guardianship and Imamate.¹

Of course, this statement of the Qur’an which says:

is still true, and this very turning away of Muslims has caused that they are not able to be satiated fully from this gushing spring of the blessing of Allah, and go forward under the light of it and occupy the peaks of honour and dignity.

Footnotes

1. 1. Burhan, Safi, as well as other commentary books.