Quran Blogger

They drip from our tongues like honey, and yet we rarely taste their sweetness.  Their appealing rhymes regularly fill our ears, and yet we often fail really to hear them.  They are the surahs of the last part of the Quran, the 30th part.  Many Muslims can recite the words of the surahs of the 30th part by rote, having committed them to memory when they were very young, or when they first found Islam.  Being very short and rolling off the tongue with melodic ease, the surahs in the 30th part are conducive to easy memorization and lend themselves to regular recitation in our daily prayers.  Despite their brevity, however, they are packed with meaning and bursting with the significance of powerful messages.  It is as if, having led us through the first 29 parts of the Quran, having walked us through lessons about faith, statements of divine law and stories of our predecessors on this Earth, after hearing the bursts of Allah’s greatness and descriptions of the afterlife and man’s ultimate destinations, God now, in this 30th part and before the final page is turned, reinforces through quick, powerful ayahs some of the most important reminders of the message of the Quran, like flash cards students use to prepare for important tests.  The test is our lives, the book is the Quran, and the 30th part contains 37 short reminders drilling home significant points, beseeching us to remember our destination in the next life, to seek refuge in God alone from all manner of evil, deceit and treachery, to stick to our faith and to be thankful for our blessings.

My last post included a tease that the words of that post related to this one.  Many of us may know the 81st surah in the Quran (Al-Takwir; "The Folding Up") by heart.  We might even recite those words regularly as part of our rotation of surahs and ayahs to which we often turn during prayers.  But how many times do we actually think about those words?  How often do we pause at the awesome power of “when the mountains vanish” or reflect upon the poetry of God’s calling “the morning as it breathes” to testify to the truth of God's message?  How can we recite such remarkable words so frequently yet so rarely appreciate their meaning?  With this post, I would like to spend some time reflecting upon one such surah in the 30th part that I recite often during my own prayers.

I previously wrote in this space that “we ask God for a lot; maybe we should thank Him for more.”  It is on this point that I would like to elaborate by writing a bit about the 100th surah in the Quran, the surah known as Al-Adiyat, or “Those that Run.”

The surah starts with an oath, and powerful poetic imagery…

1.  By those [Steeds] that run, with panting breath,

2.  And strike sparks of fire,

3.  And push home the charge in the morning,

4.  And raise the dust in clouds the while,

5.  And penetrate forthwith into the midst (of the foe) en masse—

…and then follows with the crux of the message…

6.  Truly Man is to his Lord Ungrateful;

7.  And to that (fact) he bears witness by his deeds;

8.  And violent is he in his love of [wealth].

…before ending with a rhetorical flourish:

9.  Does he not know—when that which is in the graves is scattered abroad

10.  And that which is (locked up) in (human) breasts is made manifest—

11.  That their Lord had been well-acquainted with them, (even to) that Day?

Oaths appear in the Quran in two situations: (i) in the context of stories told in the Quran and descriptions of the language of individuals who swear by things they purport to hold sacred to affirm the veracity of the statements they utter; and (ii) in the context of an oath or adjuration made by God by reference to some mystical or miraculous thing in an appeal to the reader of the Quran to draw meaning from the reference and therefore to believe in some sublime message.  (Click here to read Appendix XI of A.Y. Ali’s translation for more on oaths and adjurations in the Quran).     

The Sun is one such thing by which God swears in the Quran, as is the Dawn, and the Morning, and the Night as it conceals and the Day as it appears in glory, and the Fig and Olive, and Time, and the Pen, and others.  As A.Y. Ali points out, these adjurations “are the despair of the translator, because the words used are widely comprehensive, with little that is precise in them.  There are layers upon layers of meaning, and only the profoundest spiritual experience can probe their depths.”  Let us now, together, probe a bit into the mystical meaning of this 100th surah, understanding from the start that we may never understand fully its true meaning, and that others may draw different meaning from the same words.

The imagery at the start of the surah is violently vivid: “By those that run with panting breath, and strike sparks of fire, and push home the charge in the morning, and raise the dust in clouds the while, and penetrate forthwith in the midst of the foe en masse—”.  Imagine horses, camels or other beasts of war carrying their riders into battle, seeing the violence of war before their eyes, yet charging ahead swiftly, striking sparks with their hooves on the ground beneath them.  They enter into the heart of the enemy, pushing forward the charge with their riders, unconcerned with their own safety and well-being.

Then comes the message: “Truly Man is to his Lord Ungrateful.  And to that fact he bears witness (by his deeds).  And violent is he in his love of [wealth].”

What are we to understand from this?  What does one have to do with the other?  In the first part of the surah, a picture is painted of warhorses charging forth into battle, and that leads directly into a statement that man is, in relation to his lord, ungrateful.  What does the reference to warhorses mean in light of man’s ungratefulness and his “violent,” or “harsh,” love of [wealth]?

In the poetic imagery of the start of the surah, the horse, charging into battle, seeing the horrors of war before its very eyes, exerting itself to push forward, does not waver from the battle, does not betray its master who rides on its back into war.  The master has fed the horse, cared for it and given it attention.  In turn, the horse loyally carries the master into harm’s way even though it could buck and kick and throw off its master; even though it could run in the opposite direction.  To its master it is true, loyal, obedient and grateful. 

Conversely, man is violent in his love of wealth, and that love can cloud man’s perception of God’s grace, mercy, compassion and blessings upon him.  That love can overtake a man and become his raison.  Its pursuit could become his guiding principle and overcome man's moral compass.  I have bracketed the word “wealth” in the translated ayahs above because the word used in the ayah (“khayr”), while typically used in the Quran to mean "wealth," in this case, I believe, means “anything that the person believes is good for him,” such as, e.g., wealth, power, position, respect, material possessions, offspring, companionship, friendship, adoration, sexual attention, food, drink, fame and other similar vices.  All have the potential to enslave.

The analogy in this case is extended by the use of the word rabb, which, as we’ve previously discussed means, “one who molds, cherishes, sustains and raises.”  The rider is the rabb of the horse, and the horse repays the rider with obedience and self-sacrifice, putting itself in harm’s way with ferocious commitment to the desires of its rabb.  God is man’s rabb, and yet man betrays himself by committing to the pursuit of wealth, material possessions, power, position, respect and other desires rather than to God’s pleasure.  God has provided everything for man.  He created him, molded him, blessed him with opposable thumbs, and jointed limbs, and eyesight, and hearing, and intelligence, and further with the means to provide himself shelter, food and clothing, and further still with the capacity to seek comfort, and happiness, and yes, even power and possessions.

God says in the 30th part of the Quran [93:6-8]:

Did He [God] not find thee [Man] an orphan and give thee shelter (and care)?

And He found thee Wandering, and He gave thee guidance.

And He found thee in need, and made thee independent.

In another part of the Quran [74:11-16], God says, in reference to Man:

Leave Me alone, (to deal) with the (creature) whom I created (bare and) alone!

To whom I granted resources in abundance,

And sons to be by his side!—

To whom I made (Life) smooth and comfortable!

Yet he is greedy—that I should add (yet more)—

By no means! For to Our Signs he has been refractory!

Man can be greedy.  Instead of thanking God for all that He has given him and acting in conformity with God’s will, ungrateful man instead devotes himself to the pursuit of something he loves more than his rabb: achieving and hoarding transient wealth, power, position, material possessions and the enjoyable riches of this world.  Ungrateful man’s deeds testify to such ungratefulness, and to such man’s love of such things.  People spend lifetimes planning how to attain such things.  They work for them, study for them, commit all or huge portions of their lives to their pursuit.  Some are driven to deception and dishonesty in their pursuit.  Some rob, cheat and steal in their cause.  Some beg and borrow for them.  Some compromise all sense of dignity, individualism, independence, honor and compassion for them.  Some give up their moral standards for them.  Their deeds testify to their love and commitment for them.  

For example, what impetus, do you suppose, drove Bernard Madoff to deceive just about everyone he ever came in contact with, to betray the trust and friendship of his friends and relatives?  The thrill of outsmarting others may be part of it, sure, but it seems likely that a bigger part of his motivation was his desire for worldly excess.  He betrayed himself and his lord with his actions.  But Madoff is an extreme example.  Lots of people testify with their deeds to the love of worldly riches, and those who don’t have to struggle within themselves so as not to fall into the same trap.

From the hadith we learn of Man's insatiable appetite for riches:

"Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: I heard the Prophet saying, 'If the son of Adam (the human being) had two valleys of money, he would wish for a third, for nothing can fill the belly of Adam's son except dust, and Allah forgives he who repents to Him.' 

[Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 76, Number 444]

For all of us, then, God asks a rhetorical question: do we think that all of those things that we do—all of those hours we spend working and plotting and planning and seeking those things that we desire for our own lives—will be forgotten or forever hidden from view?  Do we not realize--do we not know--that “when that which is in the graves is scattered abroad, and that which is (locked up) in (human) breasts is made manifest—that [our] Lord had been well-acquainted with [us], (Even to) that Day?”  All will be revealed-- even those secrets in the pursuit of wants and desires men hide deep inside their hearts then take to their graves--and one day we will stand before our rabb and be called to account for what we have done.

The horse carrying his rider into battle sees his rider, feels his weight on his back.  We may see God’s signs all around us, but we are, generally, left to our own devices without a physical hand to guide us this way or that.  What will you tell God when you are standing before Him in cold reality on the Last Day?  Will your deeds testify then to ungratefulness, to love of transient riches and ephemeral status, power or possessions?  Or will they testify to gratefulness, thankfulness and obedience to your Lord; to the loyal devotion to your lord's pleasure?

We need to recognize our blessings.  We need to appreciate God’s mercy and compassion upon us.  We need to thank God for them and make sure that we act in a manner consistent with that recognition.  We ask God for a lot; maybe we should thank Him for more.  Be grateful, be content, be satisfied and be not greedy.