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

22. From them come forth pearls and coral.

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

From the seas come the pearl and the coral. The Arabic word for jewel is jawhar which also means intrinsic nature or essence. If one wants the essence of these seas, one must obtain their jewels, but diving for them is hazardous, perilous and uncertain. The risk of sustaining bruises and cuts from the coral reef is one of the numerous dangers.

The formation of the pearl (lu`lu`), is an act of protection. The material of the pearl is the secretion the oyster uses to isolate the grain of sand that has entered its body. It is the material used to disconnect and isolate it. Coral (marjân), is formed by the reverse process. It is the substance that enables the animals to have a structured shelter and a firm foundation for dwelling. Thus pearls are formed by the power of repulsion and coral by the power of attraction. Every human action is motivated by either attraction or repulsion. Every thought process also relates to either repulsion or attraction. Whatever we experience is either something we desire and which attracts, or which repels; it is either pearl or coral.

All creational opposites grow, however, from the same root. These are two distinct entities that emanate from the same origin to which they will ultimately return.

24. His are the ships that loom upon the sea like banners.

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

The word for banner ('alam) sounds similar to the word which means knowledge ('ilm). It is the sails that give the first evidence of an approaching vessel. Appearing and disappearing masts were one of the proofs centuries ago that the earth was, in fact, round and not flat, as had been believed.

Reflect upon how certain situations when looked at differently are the opposite of what one had originally thought. All that one sees, all of these projections of Reality, all these flickers of knowledge or experience will ultimately disappear because all is within the bounds of space-time.

26. Everything on it must pass away.

27. And the face of your Lord possessed of majesty and glory alone will remain.

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

Whatever is on this earth, whatever is physical and appears solid or to have a separate identity, has its root and origin by command of Allah: 'There is no god but Allah' (lâ ilâha illa Allâh). Everything announces its perishability. What remains is the fount of creation, the face of the majestic Lord. Face (wajh) also means sign, manifestation or direction. In his formal worship, the Muslim must face towards the formal, ancient 'House of God' that was built through the inspiration of Abraham in Mecca.

All of creation must honor its covenant, must honor 'the Lord of majesty and glory'. Man is an honorable creature if he would realize it, if only he would unify his physical material and emotional reality with his boundless inner reality. Man honors his biological contract by perishing. Everyone honors this physical destiny. How many of us honor our spiritual contract?

In the facade of creation one can recognize the constant manifestation of Allah's act. In the case of humans, actions are a result of the interplay of one's self and one's heart, for the faculty of witnessing and cognition is the heart. The less involved the lower self is, the freer the heart. When one's lower self has been eliminated or burnt away, then one's heart is active and pulsating and fed by the spring of inspirations from the spirit. Such a heart reflects the truth reliably.

Those who are not in submission refuse to accept the reality of their destiny. When one is a child, one thinks adults are ancient. One can not communicate with one's elders. But when one attains adulthood, one thinks one is still quite young. This change in relative perception is because there is within us an echo of eternity. But there is also in us the possibility of rejection and rebellion against reality. One refuses to admit that the self does not live forever and fails to remember physical death.

The seeker is advised by the Prophet that the most potent medicine for ailments of the soul is remembrance of death. This remedy is not to paralyze man or make him inactive and despondent but to make him efficient and clear in his actions, for it gives him a sense of urgency. When one constantly remembers death, one's actions are more real and less tarnished by personal greed, arrogance, vanity, revenge, and other attributes characteristic of the lower self.

Man wants to be in an environment that will help him in obtaining a deeper knowledge of reality, of which there is no end. The more one becomes aware of the immensity of Allah's Attributes, the greater the desire to know more of Allah. One should not assume that once somebody has had a glimpse of Allah's reality, that is the conclusion of the affair. There is no beginning or end to absolute Reality. The gnostic ('ârif bi'llâh) is one who has had a window opened, with a reliable view of reality. The more he is able to look out from that window the more he will see the wider horizons and vistas.

29. All those who are in the heavens and the earth beseech Him. Every day He is upon an affair.

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

Allah is the source of creation. Lordship sustains its emanation. The lord of a house must attend to every aspect of the house, every affair (sha`n). The lord of a house looks after its maintenance as well as all aspects of its inhabitants, in the same way as the Lord of lords looks after His entire creation. In every instant, every affair returns to Him. Lordship is attending to every affair, for it is based on unitive creation. Unity is the core whence all networks of existences emanate, superimposed on each other and interconnected.

31. Soon We shall be done with you, O you who deem yourselves weighty.

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

Every jinn and man, whether believer (mu'min) or denier (kâfir), having attained knowledge or remained in ignorance, will come to know the Day of Reckoning. Everyone knows deep inside himself that whatever affair he is engaged in will come to an end. If it does not come to an end in this world while he is still alive, it will come to an end with death. Man is completely and totally cornered. He has no way to escape from the temporary prison of space-time which is his physical body nor any way to escape the experience of death. If he submits to his situation, he is enlivened by Absolute Reality: Allah. If one dies to time, one will not experience its movement any more; it will be as if time has disappeared.

33. O assembly of Jinn and men! If you are able to surpass the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You cannot pass, however, except with authority.

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

Allah encourages us to explore and reflect upon creation, but warns that there is courtesy to be observed. It is a positive challenge to man. Every sphere or zone has its bound and limitation. For a man to go beyond a zone he must be able to pierce or overcome its limit. To escape the gravitational pull of earth a rocket needs to exceed the speed of 17,000 miles per hour. This is the courtesy due to overcome gravity. All of the powers are derived from the one-and-only All-Encompassing Divine Power.

35. The flames of fire and misfortune will be sent upon the two of you and then you will not be able to defend yourselves.

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

Within the boundaries of the heavens and earth a point is reached where the possibility of penetration ceases. There is a limit to every system and every creational situation. Jinn and man can penetrate into the heavens, as man has done in the past few decades.

37. So when the heaven is rent asunder and becomes red like hide.

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

When the heavens eventually break apart, when creation fragments, another state will prevail in the cosmos. At present, the heat of our solar system is in a state of equilibrium. An example of disequilibrium is found in the form of sunspots. Whenever they occur on the sun there are disturbances on the earth, though none great enough to throw it out of balance. The system of counterbalanced forces will break when the cosmic journey nears its end.

This shattering will also be experienced by man, for he contains the model and image of the entire cosmos. While he lives, his spiritual and physical bodies hold together. All of the functions in his physical body are in equilibrium. However, this amazingly intricate entity falls apart and the body begins to decay when the soul departs.

39. So on that day neither man nor jinn shall be asked about their wrong actions.

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

While the previous group of verses spoke of the outer heavens, this group speaks of the inner space of the individual. Every soul will experience what it has earned during the period of life in this world. There will be no questions or doubts because the answers will become fully evident.

In physical existence one can live in hypocrisy. One may hide fears, anxieties and suspicions. The Arabic word for hypocrisy is nifâq. It is related to a word which means a tunnel (nafaq). Man is forever tunneling, trying to escape. The end to these escapist efforts occurs when questioning ceases and he himself becomes the answer. He will experience and transmit the state in which he left this world. If he has been transformed by the Qur`an, he will be close to the main transmitter, Allah. He will be one of the 'companions of the right hand' (56:38). If, however, he has been exclusively concerned with his ego-self and its cacophony of desires and expectations, his experience and transmission will be endless disturbance.

41. The guilty will be recognized by their marks, so they will be seized by their forelocks and their feet.

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

Everyone is entrapped by their own actions. Those who have not let their hearts spin in free abandonment will not have seen the perfection and justice in this world nor will they have known tawhîd, unity. Those who have been deprived of unity and the knowledge of the one source are known by their marks, their scars. Those who have enabled their hearts to be empty, to remain clear and pure are able to reflect reality and see the truth of every situation. In the next life there is an immediate recognition, because there is no longer duality at play. There is one absolute Reality.

The forelock represents the highest point of a human standing upright and the feet are the lowest part; thus man is caught in his entirety. There is no escape for him, so how can he deny the Truth? He is the outcome of what he has put forth, of where his feet have taken him and to what his forehead has prostrated and inclined in desire and fear.