al-Dhāriyāt

فَفِرُّوا إِلَی اللَّهِ إِنِّي لَكُم مِّنْهُ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ

وَلَآ تَجْعَلُوا مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَهًا آخَرَ إِنِّي لَكُم مِّنْهُ نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ

50. Therefore, flee to Allah. Indeed, I am a plain warner to you from Him.

51. And associate not any other object of worship along with Allah. Indeed, I am a plain warner to you from Him.

The phrase:

“plain warner”

(nadhir mubin) is repeated twice in these two blessed Verses. Other instances, including;

“plain Book”

(kitab mubin)⁴,

“plain Message”

(balagh mubin)⁵,

“plain Arabic”

(‘Arabi mubin⁶) all bear witness to the clarity of Divine Message and Word and the Prophets’ warning. It is worthy of note that fleeing toward God Almighty is on a par with fleeing from shadows to light, ignorance to knowledge, anxiety to security, superstitions to truth, discord to unity, polytheism to monotheism, and sin to piety and fearing God Almighty. Imam Baqir (as) regards pilgrimage⁷ to Mecca as an instance of fleeing toward God Almighty.

In the blessed Verse 50 as in some other Qur’anic Verses, God Almighty commands His Messenger (S) to proclaim that he is sent on a Mission by God Almighty to warn people against obedience to concupiscent desires and satanic deceits by the jinn and men surrounding their hearts placing them in the multiplicities of the world of phenomena and deliver them from the ruses of concupiscence through enlightening them on the manner of fleeing from them such that they may not fall prey to their deception but be able to draw a distinction between the path to deliverance and that to error and thereby rest in safety free from perils.

In other words, the metaphorical expression ‘flee employed ad hoc is one of interest and delicacy, since ‘flee’ is commonly to instances when man is confronted with an awe-inspiring being or incident on the one side and he is aware of a place of refuge somewhere on the other; as a consequence of which he flees the place of incident and turns toward safe haven. The blessed Verse in question is asking men to escape polytheism and idolatry as terrible belief and turn to monotheism as a safe haven. Escape Divine torment and turn toward His Mercy. Escape disobedience to God Almighty and turn to repentance. In short, escape evils, vices, disbelief, shadows of ignorance, and everlasting torment and find a safe haven in Divine Mercy and everlasting bliss and happiness.

The blessed Verse 52 is asking people to refrain from associating false gods as objects of worship with the One God. The Noble Prophet of Islam (S) is sent unto mankind by God Almighty to warn them against disobedience to Him and manifest the path to obedience to Him. Treating the manner of escape the multiplicities of contingent existent beings toward Divine Unity, the blessed Verse is saying that the first path to be opted by believers is to refrain from associating false gods with the One God and turn toward Him wholeheartedly. Then, they are asked to acknowledge and believe in the Prophet Call of the Messenger of Allah (S).

Footnotes

1. 4. 15:1
2. 5. 16:82
3. 6. 26:195
4. 7. Usul Kafi, vol. 4, p. 256.