Surah 55: Ar-Rahman
The Holy Qur’an with English Translation and Commentary (Five Volume Commentary)
[a]In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.[4043]
[a] See 1:1.
[4043] Commentary:
See 1:1.
The Gracious God
He taught the Holy Qur’an.[4044]
[4044] Commentary:
God revealed Himself through His Prophets and Messengers to whom He gave His Word. The Holy Qur’an constituted the culmination of Divine revelation. This revelation of God to man through His Word was not due to any good act on man’s part. It was a sheer gift flowing from God’s beneficence.
He created man.[b] [4045]
[b] 96:3.
[4045] Commentary:
The word الانسان (man), besides its general connotation, may also signify here "the Perfect Man," i.e. the Holy Prophet, in whom Divine attributes found their most perfect and complete manifestation. The verse thus signifies that out of beneficence God created man in order that he may rise to the highest peaks of spiritual development and may reflect in his person Divine attributes.
He taught him plain speech.[4046]
[4046] Commentary:
Man’s creation and his power to express himself was also due to God’s beneficence.
The sun and the moon run their courses according to a fixed reckoning.[c] [4047]
[c] 6:97; 10:6; 36:39-40.
[4047] Commentary:
See next verse.
And the stemless plants and the trees humbly submit to His will.[d] [4048]
[d] 13:16; 16:49; 22:19.
[4048] Commentary:
The verse, read along with the preceding one, shows that from the largest celestial body to the smallest stemless plant, all things are subject to certain laws and they perform regularly, punctually, and unerringly their allotted tasks. In the huge solar system, which is but one of millions of such systems, every orb proceeds safely on its destined course and never deviates from it. A little disturbance in or deviation from their set course would bring down in pieces the whole universe which has been created for the service of man. It is inconceivable, therefore, that man for whose service this vast and complicated but perfectly regulated universe has been brought into being should have been created without a purpose. The life of man surely has a grand divine aim to which repeated reference has been made in the Holy Qur’an.
And the heaven He has raised high and set up the measure,[a] [4049]
[a] 42:18; 57:26.
[4049] Important Words:
المیزان (measure) is derived from وزن. They say وزن الشیء i.e. he raised the thing in order to know its weight or measure. وزن الرجل (wazuna), means, the man was or became of sound and weighty opinion. وزن means, weight; measure; توازن means to be equal to one another in weight, measure or value; equilibrium; المیزان means, balance; measure; counterpart; justice. They say, استقام میزان النھار i.e. it was midday (Aqrab).
Commentary:
The whole universe is subject to a uniform law and all its constituent parts unite to form a glorious harmony of structure and motion. If this harmony or equilibrium between different things is in the least disturbed, the whole universe would fall to pieces. But God has kept all the laws that regulate the world under His exclusive control, beyond the reach of man.
That you may not transgress the measure.[4050]
[4050] Commentary:
See next verse.
So weigh all things with justice and fall not short of the measure.[b] [4051]
[4051] Commentary:
As there is an all-comprehensive harmony in the whole universe, so is man—the crown and object of creation—enjoined to maintain a just balance and to treat with equity and justice his fellow beings, giving, every one his due, and to avoid extremes, and follow the golden mean in the discharge of his duties towards his Creator. This is the significance of the expressions, "you may not transgress the measure" and "fall not short of measure."
[b] 11:85-86; 17:36; 26:182; 83:2-4.
And He has set the earth for His creatures;[4052]
[4052] Important Words:
الانام (creatures) means, mankind or the jinn or all the creatures that are on the surface of the earth; everything having a soul (Lane & Aqrab).
Therein are all kinds of fruit[a] and palm-trees with sheaths,[4053]
[a] 50:10-11.
[4053] Commentary:
See next verse.