ولله
ما في السماوات وما في الأرض ليجزي الذين أساءوا بما عملوا ويجزي الذين أحسنوا
بالحسنى (31) الَّذِينَ
يَجْتَنِبُونَ كَبَائِرَ الْإِثْمِ وَالْفَوَاحِشَ إِلَّا اللَّمَمَ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ
وَاسِعُ الْمَغْفِرَةِ هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِكُمْ إِذْ أَنشَأَكُم مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ
وَإِذْ أَنتُمْ أَجِنَّةٌ فِي بُطُونِ أُمَّهَاتِكُمْ فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
هُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنِ اتَّقَى (النجم 32)
“And to Allah belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is
in the earth - that He may recompense those who do evil with [the penalty of]
what they have done and recompense those who do good with the best [reward] –
(31) Those who avoid the major sins and immoralities, only [committing] slight
ones. Indeed, your Lord is vast in forgiveness. He was most knowing of you when
He produced you from the earth and when you were fetuses in the wombs of your
mothers. So do not claim yourselves to be pure; He is most knowing of who fears
Him.” (Sahih International Translation, Surat An-Najm [The Star], 53:32)
These two verses from Surat An-Najm touch on a very significant and very
well-discussed topic in Islam: that of forgiveness from Allah. Of course, there
are several other issues, such as staying away from committing sin, the
creation of humans and their development in the womb (a topic of miracles in
the Quran), and Allah’s knowledge of people. However, I think that the central
idea, that which all the others revolve around, return to, and inform, is that
of forgiveness and specifically the breadth, depth, and measure of Allah’s forgiveness
of his servants.
It’s the expression and description of this forgiveness that caught my
attention: “your Lord is vast in forgiveness.” Vast, denotatively,
refers to the expanse and immensity of a space. Idiomatically, it is used to
describe and show the breadth of less physical and more qualitative things,
such as wisdom, knowledge, etc., and it is used to show the degree of
something. At the same time, this use remains open to interpretation because of
the appropriation of a word that describes a physical entity to a non-physical
quality. Therefore, it is not a question of whether the use of the word “vast”
is metaphorical or not or borrowed or not, but what the use of a word that is,
essentially, one used for measurement of expanse and then degree, adds to the
meaning of the measure of Allah’s forgiveness.
Tafseer and Interpretation:
In the first verse, Allah asserts his ownership as King of the heavens
and the earth, stating that He is “independent of the need for anyone,” and
that He “is the authority over His creation and rules them with justice” [1].
The first verse begins by asserting that everything belongs to Allah: it
“belongs” to Him in every way—He created the heavens and the earth, it is with
his “permission” that it all exists and it is under his control. The fact that He
owns the heavens and the earth and what is in them results in his ability to
judge them (according to tafseer [2]). Based on this interpretation, and as
Yusuf Ali’s translation clarifies: “so that He rewards those who do evil,
according to their deeds, and He rewards those who do good, with what is best so that He rewards those who do evil, according to
their deeds, and He rewards those who do good, with what is best” [3]. It is as
a result of and because of His possession of everything in the heavens and the
earth that He rewards and punishes people based on their actions. The next
verse further clarifies that, since He has absolute knowledge of them, their
creation, birth, and actions, Allah approaches people in judgment through
forgiveness.
On one level, the breadth and vastness of his control – the heavens and
the earth – parallels the vastness of his forgiveness. It is because he has
control over all these people and creatures that he establishes forgiveness on
all of them – meaning that the vastness in this light refers literally to the
vastness across which His forgiveness reaches, as it reaches everything and
everyone equally, since they all belong to Him and are treated with equal
forgiveness.
In another way, this vastness also refers to the vastness of the
forgiveness itself, the capacity for forgiveness rather than on whom the
forgiveness is established, and this understanding is determined by the element
of “degree” in the meaning of “vastness”. The first verse ends with an
affirmation that Allah will “recompense those who do good with the best
[reward]” (31), and the next verse identifies these people: “Those who avoid
the major sins and immoralities, only [committing] slight ones” (32). What
follows is the statement: “your Lord is vast in forgiveness.” According to
Tafsir Ibn Kathir, this verse asserts that “His Mercy encompasses everything,
and His forgiveness entails every type of sin, if one repents” [1] Vastness,
therefore, also refers to the depth and capacity for forgiveness as well as the
degree to which sins are forgiven, so long as the person repents. While the previous
verse specifies that the first group would be punished and the second rewarded,
it still shows that the second group, those who do good, are also sinners, but
they try to avoid major sins and they repent.
Forgiveness is finally related to knowledge in this verse. It is in
Allah’s knowledge that He can be forgiving, but at the same time, He knows who
can be forgiven because of His knowledge. Therefore, while He knows what we
have done, good or bad, He knows enough about us to forgive us. So while the vastness of His forgiveness is
in the forgiveness itself, it also relates to the knowledge of the sins and
good deeds done. The distance and vastness of the heavens and the earth do not
hide anything as Allah knows what each person has done, just as “He was most
knowing of you when He produced you from the earth and when you were fetuses in
the wombs of your mothers.” Because of His knowledge of everything, meaning a
person cannot hide intentions or actions, the verse warns: “So do not claim
yourselves to be pure.”
In fact, the two names of Allah extracted from the noun “al maghfira”
(forgiveness) are “Al Ghaffar” and “Al Ghafur”. Al Ghazaly explains: “Al-Ghaffar
denotes an extreme ... of forgiveness in respect of forgiveness that is
repeated time after time” while “He is Al-Ghafur in the sense that He forgives
perfectly and completely” [4]. The understanding of forgiveness can be fearsome
to a certain degree when considering that Allah is all-knowing, but it is this
knowledge that can only bring peace to the minds and hearts of those trying to
do good, even if they’re failing because, while Allah knows what we have done
He also knows why, and while we may feel unheard or mistreated in the world,
there is One, the One who understands and knows us better than we know
ourselves, whose forgiveness will reach everyone and everything.
References:
[1] Tafseer Ibn Kathir. <http://www,quran4u.com>
[2] Al Tafseer al Kabeer. <http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom=4760&idto=4760&bk_no=132&ID=2415>
[3] “An-Najm.” <http://www.quran.com>
[4] “Al Ghafir.” <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghafir>
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