COMMENTARY ON THE QUR`AN
Chapter 55: Surat Al-Rahmân
The Beneficent

By: Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri

In the name of Allah,
the Beneficent, the Merciful

1. The Beneficent,

2. Taught the Qur`an.

3. He created man.

4. Taught him speech.

Al-Rahmân, the Beneficent, is one of the key Attributes of Allah. The Attributes are also known as the Beautiful Names of Allah. Every Attribute is a sign (âyah) indicating the oneness of Allah. Everything in creation is connected to Him.

So that man may understand, appreciate and experience the mercy (rahmah) of the Beneficent, knowledge has been bestowed upon him. One cannot, however, understand something unless and until it is experienced. Therefore, the most valuable knowledge in life's journey, the knowledge of the Qur`an, cannot be understood unless it is learned and experienced. Man's link to God is through the Qur`an and through the knowledge that enables him to see the all-encompassing mercy of the Creator.

The Creator contains the knowledge of what He will create. His creation is based on that knowledge. The highest creation is the Muhammadan light, the prefect being. The knowledge of this final creation, the ultimate being, the vicegerent (khalîfah) of God on earth, was with the one-and-only Knower (al'Alîm) from the beginning. Thus, the light of Muhammad was there when Adam was still between water and clay. The ultimate purpose of creation was the Perfect Man, whose blueprint lies potentially within all humankind.

Every aspect of the creation has the label of the Creator on it. By His decree His mercy is manifested and distributed. The Qur`an is the manifested mercy of knowledge. When the mercy of Allah materializes through the creational act, it produces wider and wider ripples which are 'the clear evidence' (bayân). What is most subtle appears in gross, physical manifestations towards which man focuses his perception. Everything that is seen bears witness to its subjugation to the decree of the beneficent.

The knowledge of the Qur`an is the knowledge of unity (tawhîd). Access to knowledge of Allah is through the understanding of His decree. Creation took place according to the decree, and the clear evidence is the manifestation of that creation. Man seeks evidence for everything. He is always seeking knowledge. He seeks to know the cause, effect and proof of things. Nothing is haphazard, everything leaves its trace. Man is the trace of the Creator. He is His evidence. Everything in His existence is a sign of Him (âyat Allâh). If man knows himself, he has known the meaning of lordship (rubûbîyyah), for tradition relates: 'He who knows himself has known his Lord.'

5. The sun and the moon follow a reckoned course.

6. And the herbs and the trees prostrate in adoration.

Life cannot exist without the sun. When the sun begins to disappear, life will cease in its different forms, and will end totally. The sun is self-effulgent while the moon is a faithful reflector; it, too, has its influence over life. Reality's reflector is the prophetic being. Both the sun and the moon have a beginning and an end: They 'follow a reckoned course'. Likewise, the cosmic journey had its start and will have its end. This is the condition of any journey in this universe.

'And the herbs and the trees prostrate in adoration': najm means herbs or grass and also a start. All of creation adores, prostrates, and is under the control of the one Reality. It makes no difference whether they be celestial or terrestrial entities, all are under the guardianship (haymanah) of Allah. Their very existence glorifies their Creator.

7. And the heaven, He raised it high, and He set up the balance.

The heavens are uplifted, the cosmos is expanded, and the balance of its destiny has been set. The entire creation is based on the balancing forces of the cosmos that hold it together in dynamic flux. Everything is in balance, balance based on gross and subtle interrelationships and harmonies, ever-changing patterns based on unity.

Transgression is against oneself and everyone else. When someone unjustly destroys another human being, he symbolically destroys the entire creation, which includes himself. Every human being contains the meaning of the cosmos. To re-establish the balance the killer himself must be destroyed. The killer's punishment is the same as his crime. Because he has destroyed himself inwardly, so he must also be destroyed in the outer form.

If human love is lost, one is better off ending the friendship. If there is no love or respect between people, the inner reality will emerge in the outer relationship. One cannot affect one side of a balance without the other side being affected. It may be so subtle that one does not recognize the difference, but nothing goes unheeded by Reality. As far as the balancing act in creation is concerned, small is as significant as large. Reflect on the size of the atom bomb compared to the destruction that it causes. What is the size of love? Man is not the judge or the balancer; Allah is; all is measured in His judgment.

Man expects equity, which means that, potentially, everyone has the same base. He does not accept someone being placed higher than himself without just reason. Equity is expected, but to expect equality is thoughtless, for men excel through their efforts or natural gifts. If one person spends life purifying his heart through good deeds. while another does not, will the two reap the same result? By using one's faculty of reason one can understand that equality does not exist. Every finger of the hand is different, yet there is equity among them in that they each perform vital and unique functions. If someone builds a house while another spends his time bird-watching, in the end one will have a house and the other will be an expert ornithologist. Having a house is not equal to being able to distinguish bird calls, they are different. One can reasonably recognize this inequality. There is no equality here, but there can be equity and justice.

Spiritually, everyone has the same possibility of recognizing higher Reality, of knowing Allah. Man's outer potential is restricted within the bounds of certain circumstances. For example, a person may have to live with a handicap as a result of an accident or birth defect. Within these bounds, however, there is no restriction in the degree to which one may abandon oneself in trust, the degree to which one may believe, the degree to which one may live in a state of dynamic submission and inspiration. If this were not the case, where would the mercy of Allah be? If there is a predestined, inescapable decree of fact, there would be no mercy. The highest gift relates to spiritual progress and freedom of man through abandonment and submission: Islam.

In this life people are on different levels of spiritual and material planes. This is the outcome of the interaction of man's will with the creational laws and realities, some of which he may never overcome. Someone who suffers a severe defect, for example, may never rehabilitated. It is a limitation. However, it is in the spiritual dimension that we are potentially limitless.

Through knowledge of the Book of creation, through the Qur`an, the Beneficent has bestowed upon man the possibility of rising towards Allah to the ultimate degree. This goal is reached through avoiding other-than-Allah. This is the freedom man has; otherwise he is limited. Everyone has limitations, but where man is not limited is in the degree to which he can depend on Allah, yield himself up to Allah, have no thought except of Allah and no expectation other than Allah. To unify one's destiny with Allah's will, that is freedom.

Man will sometimes accept situations that do not allow for the possibility of fearful awareness (taqwâ), of being a true representative (khalîfah) of Allah, which is the mark of his humanity. He, therefore, has to strive. The path is clear: it is the path of Islam based on the knowledge of the Qur`an which is the manifestation of Allah's mercy.

8. That you not exceed the measure.

9. And keep up the balance with equity and do not make the measure deficient.

The word for 'exceed' is the verb taghâ which means 'to go beyond the bounds'. Tâghiya means a despot or tyrant. There are many subtler forms of transgression more difficult to discern and which one must shed so that one does not cut across the laws of reality. Allah's way is the perfect balance (mîzân) free of transgression.

Should man lose the balance, he has lost himself, because he has allowed the lower self to act according to its orientation of imbalance and denial. This denial is of the Beneficent and source of creation.

If man makes sure not to upset what is already in balance, he is unlikely to do himself harm, and is closer to being a living Qur`an. Allah is telling man to give value to a life of harmony. Man should be concerned, conscientious, aware, and in remembrance (dhikr). Does he know what he is doing and what his intention is for doing so? Are his intentions and actions unified?

The Prophet said, 'Anger corrupts trust and faith (îmân) as vinegar corrupts honey.' We construct things, and then corrupt them because we do not give priority and importance to what matters. What weight does man give to the meaning of 'And do not make the measure deficient'? We must not forget that we are on a journey, a path from the womb to the tomb. Balance is about recognizing that one is the interspace between two worlds. We are in this world but not of this world. Man has come only to leave.

10. And He has placed living creatures on the earth.

11. Therein are fruit and palms with sheathed clusters.

Allah set up the earth in order that man, who is in continuous flux and disturbance, should come to recognize his origin, to recognize his innate nature (fitrah), to recognize how he has come into being from non-being. As part of His mercy, man has been dropped into the garden (jannah) in the same way as his forefathers were. When Adam came out of the crack of non-time, Allah told him that this garden had been given to him so that he could have a place of stability (maqarr), a place to settle for a while.

The earth (al-ard) is necessary for man's progress. It is a foundation or ground floor which provides man, who is in continuous turmoil biologically, physiologically, mentally and spiritually, with the possibility of remembering the beyond-time. Allah says, 'Am I not your Lord?' By forgetting everything else, the innate (fitî) remembrance that there is only Allah, will come to be recognized. On the earth man is able to recognize that all the creatures, plants and other living things fulfill innate natures and have also come from the one Creator.

The physical description of the Garden is a metaphor and it is the state which the Garden brings about that is important, not the physical Garden itself or the detailed description thereof. Creation manifests in clusters: from the one branch come the many, and Allah's mercy is abundantly displayed in every form.

We have been brought to this earth to be groomed as part of our spiritual upbringing (tarbîyyah). We recognize what is transient and what is not, what is permanent and what is not, what is meaningful and what is not. Whatever changes is part of human experience. The reason man does not see the sole hand of Allah behind everything is because the self (nafs) interferes and continually projects experiences. If he were to put himself aside, there would be the experience of the One-and-Only Reality.

The original 'fall' from the state of the Garden came about with the rise of consciousness and the process of reasoning and questioning. If man desires to be in the Garden, he should submit and give up all questions. As a result, he will receive answers to all the real questions. When one enters the inner garden of one's heart in this life, one has tasted the Garden of the next. Then even the desire for the Garden falls from one's heart. What is left is witnessing the face of Allah in every direction towards which one turns.

Life is characterized by motion and can only be experienced in time. Time stops when life stops. When that happens there is no opportunity left to change past good and bad actions. People who have come close to death through an accident, see the film of their life replayed before them instantaneously. Life is transient, in perpetual change and therefore unstable. How can one take man's changing moods and desires seriously? What one desires now has nothing to do with what was desired a few years ago; yet we have the audacity to claim to be the same person as fifteen years ago.

On the other hand, how can anyone say that he has changed if he has failed to recognize and experience the core within him that never changes? How can man get up in the morning and say that he has slept well or badly unless there is something within him that never sleeps? 'Slumber does not overtake Him nor does sleep' (2:225). How can man say that he has been angry unless there is something within him that is always steadfast and considerate? What man wants most earnestly is what is constant, reliable and enduring, the Ever-Continuing root (al-Bâqî). Everyone is on the path to know Allah whether he recognizes it or not.

If man is to qualify for knowledge of Allah, it must be by his knowledge of the Beneficent, and that is attained by upholding the balance, the Qur`an. Man's qualification for being admitted to the mercy of the Qur`an's knowledge is dependent upon leaving himself behind when he enters this knowledge, because the Qur`an is the treasury of Allah where His laws and knowledge are kept. One can only come to Allah with fearful awareness and abandonment, waiting to witness mercy, trusting that there is only mercy of Allah, praying that one will see it manifest in the form of knowledge which can then be transferred into behavior.

Everything goes back to Allah. Every ounce of knowledge takes man back to its point of emanation, its root and source.

12. And the grain with its husk and fragrance.

13. Which then of the bounties of your Lord will you deny?

Big things come from little things. Habb or grain, is literally a seed that comes from grass. There are many different types of vegetation, and their meanings are linked to the nourishment which they provide. The living, sentient creatures and the vegetable kingdom are interdependent. The highest creature, the human being, depends on those that are lower because physically he is formed from the lowest: dust. Yet he loves what is high because he originates from the Most High. There is the drive of essence in him that always makes him love subtler meanings.

The Prophet said he loved prayer, perfume and women. Once one's physical needs are fulfilled, one seeks higher satisfaction in meanings. If a man is fortunate, he experiences physical and material fulfillment as well as inner equilibrium and contentment. Most people only achieve short-term physical or material pleasures devoid of any deep meaning or significance.

Wherever man looks there is a sign of the Beneficent, even in what one considers to be an affliction. All events occur according to the laws that govern existence which are from the Lord, Allah. We may not like an event, but that is because of our expectations. But what we want may not happen, and what is destiny will certainly happen. If what one wants is what Allah wants, there exists perfect harmony between the decree and personal destiny. If there is disharmony, all one can do is turn to Allah in repentance for having acted in incongruity to His laws.

14. He created man from dry clay like earthen vessels.

15. And He created the jinn from the smokeless fire.

16. Which then of the bounties of your Lord will you deny?

Man is materially created from the constituents of earth. His physical nourishment is like that of a plant. But his overall needs include nourishment of a most subtle variety. The subtlest of nourishments is that of the heart; this is achieved by turning it away and weaning it from desires and attachments.

Everything in existence has its mirror image or opposite. For man there is the jinn, or unseen beings. The human being is the visible creature in creation. The Arabic word for mankind is insân, a word related to uns which means intimacy, solace, companionship. Nasiya is also related and means to forget. Nisâ`, women, comes from this root. Man forgets Allah when he allows himself to become infatuated with women. Nisâ` is related to uns because women do bring solace and intimacy, as well, but when that solace becomes obsession and dependence, as with anything that is carried to its extreme, the result is forgetfulness of the higher.

Jinn are entities which do not manifest in a physically solid form. They are created from an ether-like substance described as smokeless fire. Jinn have their bounds in a physical but unseen dimension as man has his bounds within the seen. The subtle source of both the world of jinn and of man is light or nûr. 'Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth'. (24:35).

Whatever one looks at is a sign of the immeasurable glory and majesty of the Creator. How can man deny any of these bounties? Every sign is a bounty and a provision. What one seeks is the confidence of knowing that the Beneficent is behind each reflection of creation. Wherever one turns, there is the generosity and blessing of Allah.

But one takes this for granted and does not recognize that all is from Allah. One forgets and becomes distracted because one sees only what is in front of oneself in a habitual way. It is said that if a Muslim reads this chapter every day after dawn, he will never be troubled or afflicted, for he will see only the mercy of the Beneficent at all times. The reader becomes what is read, if he truly reads with deep recognition.

17. Lord of the two risings (east) and Lord of the two settings (west).

18. Which then of the bounties of your Lord will you deny?

One of the meanings of the former verse was given by 'Alî ibn Abî Tâlib who said, 'The east or sunrise (shurûq) of winter is different from that of summer, and the west or sunset (ghurûb) of summer is different from that of winter.' Indeed every day's sunrise and sunset is different. Winter and summer encompass dual and opposite experiences and meanings. In winter everything is dormant, while in summer life is in full bloom. The sun and life of winter is different from the sun and life of summer.

There is also a double rising of consciousness for this life and for the next. The people of inner knowledge often refer to the two risings as the risings of knowledge in the heart and intellect ('aql), and the two settings as the settings of the ego and self.

19. He has made the two seas to flow freely and they meet,

20. Though between is a barrier which they cannot pass.

21. Which then of the bounties of your Lord will you deny?

On the earth the two seas are the sweet water that comes from the mountains and rivers, and the salty water of the oceans and seas. The two do not mix, but they do meet.

Also, the seas may be likened to the two states of wakefulness and sleep or the two seas of the outer Law (Sharî'ah) and inner reality (haqîqah), or the two seas of the sensory and meaning. Both the physical and non-physical parts of man's life have their bounds and laws; they interface but do not impinge on each other. The way of haqîqah (inner reality) hinges on the loyalty of abandonment, which takes one to the station of the truth of certainty (haqq al-yaqîn). The way of Sharî'ah (outer revealed Law), on the other hand, holds one to the five pillars of Islam, so necessary because one's journey is in the tempestuous sea of sensory experience.

How can one deny the bounties of either the inner or outer sea? They will meet as they have met before. At the point of creation they were one and at the point of death they will merge once again. For the duration of this life there is an invisible barrier, an interspace, between an apparent duality that does not allow the seas to connect.

In the same way the sun and the moon follow a reckoning. They came from one source and then were catapulted into space as two. Moving according to a certain, complex pattern, they will eventually come together again. There is an interspace between them that holds them apart as a man's body appears to be separate from his spirit (rûh).

There is the qalb, heart, from the root (qalaba) meaning to turn, and there is the spirit (rûh) which is disconnected from the world yet connected to the essence. Unlike the spirit, the heart may be seized by the world when it falls for desires and is tarnished by the world's 'salty sea'. The self is then darkened and the spirit can no longer provide the real nourishment and inner comfort needed. When the heart is purified, the self becomes transparent to the eternal spirit and is no longer destroyed by the storms of the journey in the world.

Everywhere one looks there are the two seas separated by a subtle barrier. The seas of knowledge and ignorance do not mingle. Life and death do not mix. Nothing transgresses the bounds because of the balance (mîzân). Creation is part of a perfect cosmos, not chaos.