THE CREATIVE POWER OF ALLAH BEING MANIFESTED WITH OPPOSITE EXTREMES, ENHANCING A VISION THAT THE TIME IS TRICKLING FAST AND THE SOULS NEED TO BE AWAKENED (SURAH NABA- 78 Part 1)

 

The Surah opens by shunning the enquirers and the inquiry regarding the question which has always preoccupied man above all others and the question is as to whether there is a life after death. It has been variously answered throughout the ages. And on the basis of this the people are divided into two ideas about it. There are those who believe in it and those who disbelieve in it. This surah begins with a question “ABOUT WHAT do they (most often) ask one another?”(Quran 78:1). And then an answer is given “About the awesome tiding (of resurrection)”(Quran 78:2). The Surah does not provide any more details about the event in question rather just a threat is given “on which they (so utterly) disagree” (Quran 78:3). The Qur’anic view of life to come, holds that there is an undiminished survival of the individual personality and consciousness. Regarding death and resurrection it mentions it as the twin stages of a positive act of re-creation of the entire human personality, in whatever form this may necessarily involve. “Nay, but in time they will come to understand (it)!” (Quran 78:4). The Arabic term, kalla, denotes strong shunning. The repetition of the entire sentence adds force to the threat implied. “And once again”: In the Qur'an as well as in pre-Islamic Arabian poetry – “thumma” has the significance of a repetitive stress, alluding to something that has already been stated and is now again emphasized. This particular usage of “thumma” is best rendered by the words "and once again", followed by a colon.  “Nay, but in time they will come to understand!” (Quran 78:5).

    This great event is then put aside for a while in this surah, only to be picked up later on. Quran then takes us on a quick round of the universe to let us ponder upon a multitude of scenes, creatures and phenomena. This observation of the vast universe, if done genuinely has the full capacity to shake any human heart drawing attention towards all the planning and designing implemented to bring up this whole creation. Firstly Quran makes us observe the earth and the mountains, “Have we not made the earth a resting-place (for you)”(Quran 78:6), “and the mountains (its) pegs?”(Quran 78:7). Allah has established the earth as a firm peaceful place. He made mountains as pegs for the earth to hold it in place, make it stable and firm. This is so that it may be suitable for dwelling and not quake with those who are in it. This all illustrates the creative power of Allah, who is all capable of creating and then re-creating universe and man as well.

 “And We have created you in pairs” (Quran 78:8); This is pointing towards polarity that is evident in creation, He has created everything in pairs out of whatever the earth produces and out of themselves, and out of that of which they have no knowledge. This includes both animate and inanimate creation. This polarity expresses itself in the existence of antithetic and yet complementary forces, like the sexuality in human beings, animals and plants, light and darkness, heat and cold, positive and negative magnetism and electricity, the positive and negative charges (protons and electrons) in the structure of the atom, and so forth. The mention of "that of which they have no knowledge" evidently relates to things or phenomena not yet understood by man but potentially within the range of his comprehension.

 

       As far as the humans are concerned it means ‘mate, companion, a couple, and gender (husband or wife)’ from which not only is a man created and through which his generation survives. The genders (masculine and feminine) are the complement of each other then, they become complete and this makes them a whole and thus become a source of fulfillment for each other. Since the term azwaj also means: ‘kinds, species, and classes’, some commentators have rendered it to mean: ‘the variations in man from the point of color, race, language, different spiritual levels and talents’; which are signs of Allah’s greatness and the cause of perfection in societies.

“and We have made your sleep (a symbol of) death” (Quran 78:9). This verse could hint at ‘sleep’, followed by wakefulness and the death followed by resurrection. If we consider our sleep at night as a mean of temporarily cutting our physical selves from the world around and the death as a permanent physical detachment from this world, then in both sleep and death the physical part perishes but the soul remains there.   This points to the fact that souls seem to be on a constant journey, thus necessitating the concept of resurrection (awakening from sleep).  “and made the night (its) cloak” (Quran 78:10). “and made the day (a symbol of) life” (Quran 78:11). In the polarity of sleep or "death" and wakefulness or "life" we see the allusion to bodily death and subsequent resurrection. Allah teaches us by means of opposites that mutually embrace and complete each other (man and woman, night and day, sleep and awakening). And that is how the world persists.

     “And We have built above you seven firmaments” (Quran 78:12), or "the seven firm ones", indicating the multiplicity of cosmic systems. It points towards the vastness, perfection and precision of cosmic system, adorned with both stable and moving stars. “and have placed (therein the sun) a lamp full of blazing splendor” (Quran 78:13). The use of the word ‘lamp’ to refer to the sun is very apt, for a lamp gives heat and light. Meaning sun is like a shining lamp giving light and heat to the entire world. It also plays an important part in forming the clouds by evaporating sea water. “And from the wind-driven clouds We send down waters pouring in abundance” (Quran 78:14), “so that We might bring forth thereby grain, and  herbs” (Quran 78:15), “and gardens dense with foliage” (Quran 78:16). The heat and the light provided by the sun, combined with the water flowing in abundance, time after time, from the clouds, help the seeds send out their shoots. This is how grains, vegetables, bushes and wide-branching trees grow. This harmony in the design of the universe could not have been achieved without Allah’s careful planning. Any man can appreciate this if his attention is drawn to it. Creation is not without purpose. This overwhelming evidence of purpose and plan in all observable nature points to the existence of a conscious Creator who has not created (anything of) this without meaning and purpose, and who as is stressed in the sequence will one day pronounce His judgment on every human being's willingness or unwillingness to live up to the standards of morality made clear to him through inborn instinct as well as through divine revelation. The Creator, who has accurately measured human life and carefully provided perfect harmony between it and the universe, will not let people just live and die in vain. Reason cannot accept that those who do good and the evildoers should both end in dust. The rightly-guided and the straying folk, the just and the tyrants cannot all share the same fate. There must be a day when everything is judged and evaluated.