First,
to the anonymous faces reading this blog, thank you! I hope that what’s written
here makes you think, inspires you, distracts you for a few minutes from your
daily lives, anything. So long as it holds some relevance.
Some Surahs of the Quran have a
hold on some people, a certain intangible feeling, character that makes them
ring sharper and deeper. Surat Az-Zumar holds that kind of power for me, so
when I decided to choose a verse from Az-Zumar, it took all my willpower not to
just work through the whole Surah right away, and I chose the following verse:
(أَلَيْسَ
اللَّهُ بِكَافٍ عَبْدَهُ ۖ وَيُخَوِّفُونَكَ بِالَّذِينَ مِن دُونِهِ ۚ وَمَن
يُضْلِلِ اللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُ مِنْ هَادٍ) (39:36)
“Is not Allah sufficient for His Servant [Prophet
Muhammad]? And [yet], they threaten you with those [they worship] other than
Him. And whoever Allah leaves astray - for him there is no guide.” (Sahih
International, 39:36) [1]
“Is not Allah Sufficient for His slave? Yet they try
to frighten you with those (whom they worship) besides Him! And whom Allah
sends astray, for him there will be no guide.” (Muhsin Khan, 39:36) [1]
The challenge, the sheer
confidence, and the touch of incredulity in this verse makes it one unique to
the voices and messages of the Quran in my eyes. The Quran challenges: it
challenges people to write even one verse that comes close to a verse in the
Quran, it challenges people to listen with all their hearts and minds and still
not believe, it challenges those who believe not to weep, and it challenges
those who do not believe to equate what they believe in with Allah.
It is this challenge that is
inherent in this verse, and underlying it the strength that Allah gives His
believers and the fact, the indisputable truth upholding our entire belief in
Allah, that Allah alone is worthy of worship: “Is not Allah sufficient for His
slave?”.
For the Prophet (PBUH) and His Companions
In the traditional books of tafseer
(exegesis) the idea of sufficiency has been discussed in the historical
context and particular situation in which this verse was revealed to the
Prophet (PBUH). They explain that this verse was revealed to the Prophet,
addresses the Prophet (alone, according to some), and addresses his companions,
the other believers, when they were threatened by the nonbelievers who tried to
scare them with the “wrath” of the idols or gods that they worshipped [2, 3, 4,
5]. In this context, Allah’s “sufficiency” is that He has protected the
believers from the “evil” of the idols as well as the nonbelievers [2, 3, 4,
5].
Therefore, when the verse was
revealed, it was revealed to address the Prophet (and the believers) when they
were threatened by the nonbelievers through the use of their own gods – those
referred to in the verse as “besides” Allah. However, while in the time that
the verse was revealed these idols were actual gods that the nonbelievers
worshipped, this verse, like so many others in the Quran, sends a universal and
timeless message. While the gods they worshipped were used to threaten the Prophet
and his companions at the time, nowadays there are other objects of “worship”
that are used to try to deter people from believing in Allah, whether they are
ideologies and belief systems, scientific theories, people, or material things.
People worship a multitude of “things,” whether they identify what they do as
worship or not. However, none of these things are sufficient, enough, and they
all fall short of fulfilling the needs of a person: be it their needs in worship
and what they worship, their needs in their lives and afterlives, or the
protection supposedly offered by these objects of worship, from hardships,
people, and even ideas.
Whatever
a person believes can “save” him, protect him completely, answer all his
requests and questions, provide clarity and stability, and serve as the light
through which he views the world (especially when this thing is taken instead
of Allah) is an object of worship. Magic was the object in the past, idols,
witchcraft, nature, etc. Nowadays, all our answers are in scientific theories
of how the world works, and from science some conclude that God does not exist,
for example, because science has all the answers. Why turn to a God we cannot
see when we can turn to a machine that can cure, than can feed, that can
protect? However, these are all beneath Allah because they are insufficient –
they do not provide all that we need.
Allah’s Sufficiency
There are two sides to the
spectrum of belief and worship in this verse: belief in Allah and belief in
those who are beneath (besides) Allah. What
these idols represent, what the “thing” that is worshipped represents and can
offer the believer is set in contrast with Allah, who is sufficient. “Is not
Allah sufficient for his slave” has been explained primarily in relation to the
second statement in the verse: “they threaten you with those [they worship] other than
Him”. The idols with which they try to scare the believers are referred to in
the verse by the adjective: دون “dun,” which both means besides and beneath as the idols are
not equal to Allah and thus not worthy of worship. The explanation in the tafaseer
stresses the link between the first and second parts and contextualizes the
verse in the time and place it was revealed.
However,
to generalize the meaning of the verse to all believers, which the mufassereen
agree is whom the verse addresses after the Prophet, the word كاف (kaafi) (to be sufficient
for) needs to be understood within a more general and less
historically-specific context. At the same time, it is important to analyze the
contrast, which is set up by the worship of Allah versus the worship of other
idols especially in light of the fear of idols which Allah as well as the
worship of Allah protects the believer from. Indeed, the two ideas are linked
in the verse through the general meaning of sufficient, meaning that the verse
does not state clearly that Allah is sufficient in protecting the believer from
the nonbelievers, rather just states that Allah is sufficient and then moves on
to question the nonbelievers’ tactic of using their idols to threaten the
believers. The verse states that Allah is sufficient that the fear the nonbelievers
try to instill in the believers through their idols, which are beneath Allah,
should, through the implications of the contrast created, not scare the
believers.
Why?
Because, Allah is sufficient, and based on my analysis, I find that this verse
poses Allah as sufficient on three levels and in three aspects: (1) in worship,
(and as part of that) (2) in provision,
and (3) in protection.
The Scope of Allah’s Sufficiency
To begin understanding why
these are possible, it’s crucial to understand the meaning of the word kaafi.
Its essential meaning is that when one is kaafi, sufficient, for someone
else or of something then that “person” is enough in that nothing but is
required or needed. Another dimension to this meaning is that the “person”
provides enough for the other, making what he provides sufficient. Also, one of
the names of Allah is “Al Kaafi,”and it means that he provides for His slaves
what they need and protects them from evil.
In Worship
The most essential meaning and level
of sufficiency is that of Allah’s being sufficient for worship. In contrast,
the idols are not worthy of worship. Is Allah not enough, not sufficient as a
god to be worshipped? He is, absolutely. Why would we worship a specific idol
or ideology? For what it is and what it provides us. In what Allah is, he is
sufficient; He is THE sufficient god. He is complete, the Almighty, Allah.
Therefore, this verse poses the rhetorical question whose undeniable answer is
“Yes”: is Allah not the sufficient god that you should worship because of that
reason? In worship, then the idols cannot “threaten” a believer’s faith in
Allah, his worship of the Almighty because it is they that are not sufficient.
Another
dimension to this meaning is that the question also asks: has Allah not given his
slave (he who worships him) enough knowledge, reasons, and material with which
to know that he should worship Him, know how he should worship Him, and know
who He is so that he can worship Him? Here the question is not just whether
Allah is sufficient but whether Allah has given us enough (one meaning of
kaafi): enough to worship him.
In Provision
Within the idea of worship come
the reasons that make Allah sufficient for worship. First, in his holiness,
godliness, he is Allah, the god of the worlds. A second meaning of
“kaafi” is in relation to provision: being sufficient in providing for someone
anything and everything he needs or requires. Allah is the king of the heavens
and the earth, and everything within them belongs to Him; he, too, has the
power to will something into being. Therefore, the question here takes on
another level of meaning: Has Allah not given His slave everything he needs and
in that is sufficient for him as a god? Has he not provided all they need to
survive and live in a away that suits their purposes in life, their ultimate
goals? Moreover, when they ask, Allah provides within His knowledge of their
needs, since he is Al Mujeeb, the One Who Responds.
In
contrast, the idols and gods worshipped by the nonbelievers cannot provide, and
are therefore not enough to threaten. They cannot help themselves, let alone
help their worshippers. Even in a modern context, the theories that we have to
explain the world are limited, and try as we may, we cannot use science to
answer all our needs. We still have health problems, water and food shortages,
and other issues that science can explain (in most cases), but it cannot solve.
What or who do we turn to in these cases? Allah. To some, this strategy is
weak, mindless, but that perspective lacks creativity and depth of knowledge of
our limitations as humans, in my opinion.
In Protection
In
this verse, primarily, Allah is sufficient for his slaves in that he protects
them from evil, from the threats of the nonbeleivers who want to harm them and
from evil in general. The second part of the verse, which states “And [yet], they
threaten you with those [they worship] other than Him” determines the meaning
of the first in this case. Therefore, the verse reads: They threaten you with
those they worship other than Allah, and Allah has protected you from their
evil. Allah, therefore, is Al Kafi in the sense of protection from all evil: He
is all-powerful, and if He protects a person, nothing can harm him.
In this
case, the meaning of the second part of the verse and the next verse is related
to the idea of Allah’s protection. Therefore, “whoever Allah leaves astray -
for him there is no guide/ And whoever Allah guides - for him there is no
misleader” (39:36-37). For the second, Allah has protected him from the evil
and influence of “gods” beneath Allah, while the first does not have that
protection because of his choice not to worship Allah (thus connecting it to
the first level of “sufficiency,” that of worship). Therefore, they cannot scare the believer
because Allah protects him and because Allah is sufficient for the believer in
that he can discern that fear of Allah is above fear of things and they are
nothing but man-made idols and in that protection is protection from belief in
these false idols.
Therefore,
all in all, Allah is sufficient: He is the perfect god, the ultimate provider,
and the best protector. He is enough for worship so that we do not need to
worship anything or anyone else. How is he enough? He is perfect, He provides
us with all we need, and he protects us, and, topping it all off, He has revealed
to us the knowledge and tools with which we can be certain He exists, discover
His qualities, and know how to worship Him. And because He is sufficient for
our worship, a quality that provides us with the human perspective since Allah
does not actually need us to worship Him, we cannot but turn to Him and thank
Him for being enough, giving us enough, and asking for nothing but our
recognition of the fact in return.
References
[1] Az-Zumar. Quran.com.
[2] Tafseer Al Qurtubi (تفسير القرطبي). <http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom=2983&idto=2983&bk_no=48&ID=2430>
[3] Mohammad Ben Ali Ben Mohammad Ashoukani. (فتح القدير الجامع بين فني الرواية والدراية). <http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom=692&idto=692&bk_no=66&ID=731>
[4] Mohammad Al Taher Ibn Ashour. (التحرير والتنوير). < http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?idfrom=3177&idto=3177&bk_no=61&ID=3217>
[5] Tafseer Ibn Kathir. <http://www,quran4u.com>
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