An in depth-analysis of Surah Rahman | Session 1 | Mufti Abdul Wahab Waheed

An In-Depth Analysis of Sūrah Al-Raḥmān — Session 1

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ نَحْمَدُ اللَّهَ وَنُصَلِّي عَلَى رَسُولِهِ الْكَرِيمِ أَمَّا بَعْد

Allah says in His noble Book:

And the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 5027)

Dear brothers and sisters, today we will be reciting and learning about a sūrah which is extremely beloved to the Prophet ﷺ. From the Prophetic narration and tradition we find that the ṣaḥābah themselves had a very strong attachment to this sūrah — they loved it, they were connected to it, and they used to recite it openly in front of the public to show them the beauty of the Qurʾān.

So we will start the session today beginning with the virtues of this sūrah — why this sūrah is virtuous, why we should love it, and why we should have an attachment to it. From there we will speak about the connection of this sūrah with the sūrahs before it and with Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah, which is the sūrah after it. Then, inshāAllāh, we will begin talking about the themes, and hopefully from there we can start diving into the actual āyāt of this sūrah.

Virtues of Sūrah Al-Raḥmān

So we begin talking about the virtues — why is Sūrah Al-Raḥmān virtuous in its own sense, and why do we have an attachment towards it beyond the fact that it sounds nice and has a nice rhythm?

The Prophet ﷺ was given this sūrah — according to many, the accepted opinion — in Mecca. It is a Meccan sūrah, and it was given to the Prophet ﷺ when the people of Mecca became stubborn. The style, the tone, and the feel of this sūrah is that Allah is speaking to the people of Mecca, and therefore there is a repetition within it:

That repetition is to show that Allah is directly speaking to the people of Mecca — and of course, by extension, also speaking to us.

First Virtue: The Jinn's Response

One of the virtues of this sūrah is that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned to us that this is a sūrah which reminds us about our niʿmah — it connects us to Allah by reminding us about the blessings we have in our life. In this time today, perhaps more than ever before, we need that reminder, because sometimes we sit down and feel that we are not blessed. But Sūrah Al-Raḥmān is an open call and an open declaration that every single person here is blessed in so many ways.

The Prophet ﷺ mentions that when he started reciting this sūrah to the humans — to the ṣaḥābah, raḍiyaAllāhu ʿanhum ajmaʿīn — he mentioned to them that the jinn had a better response to this sūrah than you. He said:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhī, Hadith 3291)

"When I recited this sūrah to the jinn on the night of Laylat al-Jinn" — which happened in the 10th or 11th year of Prophethood, confirming it is a Meccan sūrah — "they had a better response." And their response was that every single time he ﷺ would recite:

They would respond by saying:

"There is not a single blessing of Yours, O Allah, that we can ever reject or ever deny." So the Prophet ﷺ says whenever he recited this to the jinn, this was their response.

Second Virtue: The Bride of the Qurʾān

There is a second narration narrated by ʿAlī raḍiyaAllāhu ʿanhu, where he says:

(Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-Īmān; this narration has some weakness but is cited for virtue)

"The beauty, the bride of the Qurʾān — that which brings out the beauty of the Qurʾān — is found in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān."

Third Virtue: Recitation on the Day of Judgment

The third narration — which has some weakness but we can take it for the sake of virtue — is that on the Day of Judgment, Allah will turn towards mankind and jinn-kind and say to one and all: "Those who have not listened to ḥarām in their life — do you want to listen to something beautiful?" We will all respond, "Yes, O our Lord, O Allah — please let us hear something beautiful." Allah will order Dāwūd ʿalayhi al-salām to recite from the chapters of the Zabūr. We know Dāwūd's voice was one of the most melodious voices the world has ever known. We will stop in our tracks and say, "Yā Allāh, we have never heard something as beautiful as Dāwūd's recitation." Then Allah will tell the Prophet ﷺ and order him to recite — in some narrations the Prophet ﷺ recites Sūrah Ṭāhā, and in others Sūrah Yāsīn. Once again our response will be, "Yā Allāh, we have never heard anything as beautiful." Then Allah will turn towards us and say, "Do you want to hear something more beautiful?" And then the Raḥmān Himself will recite Sūrah Al-Raḥmān — and on that day, His recitation of it will be His declaration of His mercy for all of those human beings who are able to hear it and benefit from it.

Fourth Virtue: People Who Became Muslim Upon Hearing It

Ibn Kathīr raḥimahullāh mentions that there were many ṣaḥābah who became Muslims just by hearing Sūrah Al-Raḥmān, and he counts more than seven. One of them he mentions by name is the ṣaḥābī Qays ibn ʿĀṣim. He came to Mecca, saw the Prophet ﷺ, and was told: "This man says he is a prophet." So he went to him and said:

"Recite to me that which has been revealed to you — read something to me. I want to know what this whole ruckus is about and why everyone is speaking about you." The Prophet ﷺ chose to recite Sūrah Al-Raḥmān. When he recited it, Qays said, "اعدها، اعدها، اعدها يا رسول الله" — "Please repeat it, repeat it" — three times. And when it was finished, he said, "I have never heard something more beautiful and melodious in my life. This cannot be the words of a human being."

"A human being can never come up with such beautiful words." And he said:

And he became Muslim. These are multiple narrations about ṣaḥābah becoming Muslim by hearing Sūrah Al-Raḥmān.

The virtues are numerous, but we are not going to stop at the virtues — because the entire Qurʾān is full of beautiful blessings — and this is just for Sūrah Al-Raḥmān.

Connections with Sūrah Al-Qamar and Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah

I am a student of knowledge, but I am also an avid student of how Allah has arranged these sūrahs — in what sequence He has brought them, and whether there are any internal connections to be found within them. That is a science of its own called نَظْمُ الْقُرْآنِ — the arrangement and sequence of how Allah connects the sūrahs.

In this sūrah there are many connections. One of them is that Allah ends His previous sūrah — Sūrah Al-Qamar — by saying:

That the people of Jannah, on the Day of Judgment, will be given a seat next to Allah — ʿinda malīkin muqtadir. Muqtadir means all-capable; He has absolutely no limitations. This perhaps gives us a slightly fearful feeling towards Allah — that He might punish us. So Allah starts off the next sūrah reminding us that that Allah, in Whose presence you will be sitting — Who is all-capable and has no limitations — He is also Al-Raḥmān.

It is Imām Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī raḥimahullāh — the giant — who says that we find a consistent theme in the Qurʾān: wherever Allah speaks about His power and His punishment, He automatically connects His mercy and His forgiveness with it, so that a person neither becomes paralyzed by fear, nor becomes too loose and overly hopeful in the mercy of Allah without any balance in their life.

Three Connections Between Sūrah Al-Qamar and Sūrah Al-Raḥmān

I want you to remember these connections, because these are things that perhaps many people are unaware of:

Connection One: Sūrah Al-Qamar ends with the name of Allah speaking about His power — Malīk al-Muqtadir — and Sūrah Al-Raḥmān begins with the name of Allah speaking about His mercy — Al-Raḥmān.

Connection Two: Sūrah Al-Qamar starts with a miracle that shows Allah's jalāl and power — the splitting of the moon:

And Sūrah Al-Raḥmān starts with a miracle that shows Allah's love for us — the miracle of the Qurʾān, which is the greatest miracle the Prophet ﷺ was ever given.

Connection Three: In Sūrah Al-Qamar, Allah repeats over and over again:

"We have made the Qurʾān easy for you — is there anyone to come and learn it, recite it, and memorize it? Fa-hal min muddakir — is there anyone to take it?" And Sūrah Al-Raḥmān begins by saying ʿAllama al-Qurʾān — "We have already made the Qurʾān easy for you; all you have to do now is pick it up and learn it."

The Connection with Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah

Now let us jump to Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah. I believe that the sequence of the Qurʾān is not a coincidence — this is divine, ordained by Allah. There must be a reason behind why these sūrahs have this sequence, otherwise we could pluck whatever sūrah we want and place it wherever we want, and it would not make a difference. But that is not the case. The connections between the sūrahs are there — they are hidden, and they require study to understand why Allah brought these sūrahs together.

The 27th juzʾ — the juzʾ in which Sūrah Al-Raḥmān is found — has a very similar theme throughout: the greatness of waḥy, the Day of Judgment, and the blessings of Jannah. We will see this in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān as well.

The Five Themes of Sūrah Al-Raḥmān

Before we move ahead, I will speak about some of the themes found in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān and how those same themes are found in Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah — but flipped. It is profound when you recognize that the same themes are mentioned in both sūrahs, but in reverse order.

There are five themes that Allah speaks about in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān:

Theme One: The blessing of the Qurʾān — the blessing of waḥy — and how the greatness of the Qurʾān is displayed as the first theme in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān.

Theme Two: The blessings that we absolutely require for our survival — blessings that everyone can agree upon, that are major blessings which nobody can deny. It is interesting that Allah speaks about those blessings that you truly cannot deny, because every single person is actually benefiting from them.

Theme Three: Jahannam — the punishment of Allah, and how it comes to those who are disbelievers and those who earn the wrath of Allah.

Theme Four: The people of Jannah — but not just any people of Jannah. We will call it Jannah A — the first level of Jannah.

Theme Five: What we call Jannah B — a second, higher level of Jannah.

So: (1) Qurʾān, (2) the blessings we require to survive, (3) the people of Jahannam, (4) the people of Jannah at the first level, and (5) the people of Jannah at a higher level.

The Same Five Themes in Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah — But Flipped

Now look at Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah. These same themes come up, but they are flipped:

The first theme in Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah is the higher level of Jannah — the Sābiqūn, ulāʾika al-muqarrabūn. We believe there are three categories of people in the ākhirah:

One — those who go forward and go above and beyond. Two — those who do what is required. Three — those who wronged themselves and did not pass their exam. So for the people of Jannah, Allah breaks them into two categories: the level of Islām (a combination of aʿmāl and īmān), and the level of iḥsān, which is a whole other level.

The first theme of Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah = the higher level of Jannah (al-Sābiqūn). The second theme = the lower level of Jannah (Aṣḥāb al-Yamīn — mā Aṣḥāb al-Yamīn). The third theme = the people of Jahannam. The fourth theme = the blessings of Allah that we cannot deny. The fifth and final theme = the blessing of the Qurʾān. Allah ends Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah speaking about the Qurʾān, where He says:

So these same themes are found in both sūrahs, just flipped in the opposite order. That is how Allah is speaking between the lines — that if you did not understand it in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān, you will get it in Sūrah Al-Wāqiʿah.

Tafsīr of Sūrah Al-Raḥmān — Beginning the Āyāt

Now let us get into the actual sūrah. We will start from the beginning and hopefully try to cover as many āyāt as we can.

Āyah 1: الرَّحْمَانُ

Al-Raḥmān is obviously one of the most prestigious names of Allah — one of the names we connect to because it speaks about His mercy.

It is interesting that Imām al-Qurṭubī raḥimahullāh quotes Imām Mujāhid — who was a great mufassir — who says that Al-Raḥmān is a combination of three different ways that sūrahs begin. Some sūrahs begin with الر, some begin with حم, and one sūrah — Sūrat al-Qalam — begins with ن. So Raḥmān is a combination of all those letters: the rāʾ of الر, the ḥāʾ and mīm of حم, and the nūn of Sūrat al-Qalam. That is where Al-Raḥmān comes from — Allah puts those letters together and begins Sūrah Al-Raḥmān with them.

Allah starts off Sūrah Al-Raḥmān by telling us something very interesting — He says: regardless of what you hear in this sūrah, regardless of how much I speak about the Fire of Jahannam, recognize and understand that I began with Al-Raḥmān. That means all of these punishments and hardships that I speak about, I speak about them because I love you. It is like a father using some negative reinforcement for the benefit of his child, where the father says, "You better take care of this, or else you'll end up on the streets." No one would say that is a father who is rough or has no love — that is a father or a mother looking out for their child's future.

So Allah, who loves us more than anyone else in this world, is looking out for our future — saying: I really love you. Ar-Raḥmān comes from the root letters of raḥima, and al-raḥim is the womb of a mother. The womb of a mother is the greatest display of love in this world, because the child is able to get all of its needs from the womb of the mother. It does not need anything else to survive inside the womb — all it needs is a mother's love and nourishment. Similarly, dear brothers and sisters, to survive in this world all we truly need is Allah to be Al-Raḥmān for us. If Allah is Al-Raḥmān for us, that means Allah will be Al-Razzāq for us. Allah will show us His love. Allah will be there for us in difficult times.

Ar-Raḥmān coming at the beginning of the sūrah allows us to understand that this entire sūrah is not meant to instill fear within us — rather, it is to remind us that regardless of how far you have strayed, I am still Ar-Raḥmān for you, and I can still forgive you, and I will still forgive you.

Someone once came to me while I was speaking in a masjid that had some non-Muslims present. A young Muslim sister came to me and said, "Dear sheikh, why does Allah instill fear within us in the Qurʾān if He is supposed to love us? I don't understand the logic behind why Allah speaks about fear if He loves me." I asked her which āyah about fear she was referring to, and she cited the āyah in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān:

"Whosoever fears Allah, they will get Jannah — why is Allah speaking about fear?" I asked her: how many times is the word "fear" — or any word that conveys fear — mentioned in the entire Qurʾān? She said she didn't know. I said: in the entire Qurʾān, words conveying the meaning of fear are mentioned 126 times. And words in the Qurʾān that speak about Allah's mercy and love? 624 times. Not double, not triple — four to five times more than the times Allah mentions fear, He mentions His mercy and His love for us.

Al-Raḥmān is a key to all of Allah's other names. And Al-Raḥmān is the only name of Allah which is used alone, independently from any other name. Generally, Allah's practice in the Qurʾān is that when He brings His names or qualities, He always combines two together — you will see ʿAzīz al-Wahhāb, you will see Ghafūr al-Wadūd, you will see Allah's names being combined. But Al-Raḥmān is the only name in the Qurʾān that comes alone, three times, and that shows its preference and status over other names.

All of Allah's names are beautiful and all of them are special — but Al-Raḥmān has a unique specialty which Allah is signaling to us by beginning the sūrah with this name. And Al-Raḥmān is the first āyah itself. Allah is saying: remember — regardless of what you heard in Sūrah Al-Qamar, where many nations were destroyed, and regardless of what you will hear here, remember that I am your Raḥmān. I can do whatever I want —

No one can question Allah about what He does. I can make it happen for you — you just have to remember that I am Al-Raḥmān for you and your family as well.

I personally do not like to translate an āyah with the word "verse" or "sentence" — because Al-Raḥmān is just one word, yet it has so much depth to it. It is not an entire sentence; it is just one word, but it is an āyah. An āyah is an āyah.

Āyah 2: عَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ

The first theme in Sūrah Al-Raḥmān was the blessing of the Qurʾān. So Allah says: it is out of My sheer mercy for you and for all of humanity — ʿallama al-Qurʾān — that He has taught the Qurʾān. ʿAllama with a shaddah on the lām means to teach, not merely to learn. So Allah says He has taught the Qurʾān.

When a mother speaks to her son about how much she loves him, she starts with the greater blessings first: "I brought you into the world, I fed you, I clothed you." So Allah is saying: I am Al-Raḥmān, I am all-merciful, and the greatest sign of My mercy is ʿallama al-Qurʾān — that He has taught the Qurʾān.

We find that the greatest blessing we have in this world is the ability to understand the words of Allah — because understanding the words of Allah grants us deep value. There is a communication happening between us and Allah through understanding the Qurʾān. And it is also significant that Allah mentions ʿallama al-Qurʾān — our purpose — before He mentions khalaqa al-insān — our existence. The purpose of your existence is ʿallama al-Qurʾān — that you have been taught the Qurʾān and are able to learn the Qurʾān.

We see this highlighted in other verses as well. Allah taught Ādam ʿalayhi al-salām the ability to speak and learn:

And the first waḥy given to our beloved Prophet ﷺ in Ghār-e-Ḥirāʾ was:

So Allah is saying: ʿallama al-Qurʾān is a sign that the greatest blessing in our life is the ability to recognize the greatness of Allah. If khalaqa al-insān — our creation — is present, meaning we are alive and existing, but we don't have a purpose, then our existence means nothing. Our existence is only valuable when our purpose is supplemented to it. And our purpose is ʿallama al-Qurʾān — that we recognize and understand what Allah is saying to us.

So Allah says ʿallama al-Qurʾān — He taught the Qurʾān. Who taught whom? There is no explicit subject mentioned. We say that Allah taught the Prophet ﷺ the Qurʾān. And by extension, every single person who learns the Qurʾān — Allah is our teacher. Why? Because my teacher was taught by another teacher, who was taught by another teacher, and it goes all the way back to the ṣaḥābah. The ṣaḥābah were taught by the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ was taught by Jibrīl ʿalayhi al-salām. And Jibrīl was taught by Allah. So in a way, our grand-grand-grand-teacher is Allah Himself.

You know how people take pride in the institutions or schools they graduated from? Well, we are learning — by extension — from Allah. No one can understand or learn the Qurʾān without the blessing of Allah. So ʿallama al-Qurʾān — Allah taught us the Qurʾān — that is the first display of raḥmah for us. The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 7274; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 152)

"I have not been given any miracle except for the Qurʾān" — because the Qurʾān serves as a miracle until the Day of Judgment.

Āyah 3: خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ

The second display of Allah's mercy is that He created us, and He made us special. Imām al-Ghazālī says that one of the greatest blessings of Allah — one of the only things we need to be grateful to Allah for — is wujūd: that we are present, alive, existing. If Allah wanted, He could have taken us away without anyone asking Him any questions. So just being here is in itself one of the greatest blessings of Allah.

Khalaqa al-insān — He created the human being. What does insān come from? I will spend a moment speaking about this word, because I find the linguistics of the Qurʾān to be one of its most beautiful aspects.

Insān can come from two different root letters in Arabic. First, it can come from the word nasiya, meaning "to forget." As humans, we are forgetful creatures, and it is actually a blessing for us to forget — if we never forgot, we would always store negative things in our minds and be unable to get over them. Second — and this understanding I enjoy more — it can come from the word anisa, meaning maʾnūs: to be a creature that requires compassion. In Urdu, you say unsiyat — to require love and societal belonging. This makes so much sense, because the greatest punishment a human being can be given in this world is solitary confinement. Why is that a punishment? Because a human being needs to see people, interact with people, and see love from people. If we don't see love from people, we become depressed and lonely, which leads to other psychological problems. So one of the root words that creates insān is anisa — meaning that we as humans are beings that require love and compassion.

It is in the mercy of Allah that He created us from such a nature — that we require seeing love from people. That is a blessing, because if we did not require love from people, our relationships would mean nothing. Why have children? Why get married? Why be respectful to your parents? All of this is a sign that Allah loves us — that He allowed us to show love to people, and He allowed us to see and benefit from the love of people.

So: Al-Raḥmān — He taught the Qurʾān (that is our purpose), and the third āyah, khalaqa al-insān — He created the human being (that is our existence). The purpose of insān's creation is to learn the Qurʾān. But the creation of insān is also a blessing in itself, because we are what we call ashraf al-makhlūqāt:

Allah has given us the most honor beyond anything else — beyond the angels, beyond any other creation. Allah has made us the most beautiful and most perfected creation.

There are three types of beings in this world. First, Allah, who has no beginning and no ending — wa huwa al-awwalu laysa qablahu shayʾ, wa huwa al-ākhiru laysa baʿdahu shayʾ — and that is the greatest Being. Second, creations that have a beginning and also have an ending — like animals, mountains, the earth itself — all of these have a beginning and an ending, and that is the weakest type of creation. Third, those that have a beginning but never have an ending — and that is human beings. We have a beginning:

There was a time when no one knew who we were, what our names were — we were never even thought about. So we had an ibtidāʾ, a beginning. But we don't have an intihāʾ, an ending — because once we leave this world, our second life starts, which is the life of the Hereafter.

The reason why "taught" comes before "created" is because the purpose of our creation is to learn. If we don't have that, then being alive doesn't give us much value. You become the greatest creation once you implement the recognition of Allah in your life. If you have an absence of Allah's recognition in your life, then you are not fulfilling the role of the greatest creation. That is why Allah brings it in this order.

Āyah 4: عَلَّمَهُ الْبَيَانَ

ʿAllamahu al-bayān — Allah taught that human the ability to speak and to communicate. Bayān comes from the root letters of bayyana, meaning to be clear, to be able to speak, to have a conversation. One of the beautiful blessings that humans have is that we are able to converse. Toddlers, as children, cannot speak — they grunt, make noises, cry — but a blessing of Allah is that He has given us the ability to actually speak. He has taught us speech.

Why has Allah taught us speech? We have to go back to āyah number two. ʿAllamahu al-bayān — Allah taught the human being how to communicate, so that he can communicate that which he learns. So Allah speaks about the creation of insān in the middle, but before it and after it He speaks about our purpose: number one, we have been created to learn — ʿallama al-Qurʾān — and number two, we have been created to teach. Al-taʿlīm wa al-taʿallum.

Our second portion of our creation is to go on and teach people:

"There is no one better than a person who calls people towards Allah." One of the three job duties of the Prophet ﷺ was yatlū ʿalayhim āyātih — he was sent to teach people the Qurʾān and call people towards Allah:

Both interpretations are valid — that ʿallamahu al-bayān refers to the Prophet ﷺ, or that it refers to insān in its entirety — and both are found in the books of tafsīr. The greatest sign of Allah's mercy is that He has given us the ability to learn the Qurʾān and understand who He is, and His second sign of mercy is that He created us and made us special — His close and honored creation — and then He gave us the ability to speak and communicate what we have learned.

The Second Theme: Blessings We Cannot Deny (Āyāt 5–9)

Āyah 5: الشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ بِحُسْبَانٍ

The sun and the moon are very precisely calculated. This is the second theme of Sūrah Al-Raḥmān — blessings in our life that no one can deny. The blessing that no one can deny is that we are in need of the sun and equally in need of the moon. We need the day and we need the night.

Al-shamsu wa al-qamaru bi-ḥusbān means that the sun and the moon are precisely calculated. Ibn ʿAbbās raḍiyaAllāhu ʿanhumā — who is Mufassir al-Ummah — mentions a few things. One is that the moon and the sun know exactly when to come out and when to leave — they know when it is their turn. If they did not know when their turn was, they would take over each other's spots. Ḥusbān means that everything is calculated — the sun and the moon operate with precision.

Another way of understanding it is that al-shamsu wa al-qamaru refers to the entire universe — the earth, the solar system, the planets — all of which follow the commandments of Allah and know exactly what they are doing. This is why Allah says:

"If I were to make the entire 24-hour cycle darkness and night, who would bring you light? No one could." So the sun and the moon are not contradicting each other and are not taking over each other's times.

Another meaning of ḥusbān is that they know when their time will come to an end. Ḥusbān can also mean destruction. The sun and the moon know when their time will come to an end, and they are simply waiting — as if they have been told: "At this appointed moment your time will come to an end. Continue doing your job until then, and when that moment comes, you will be finished." That is another meaning of al-shamsu wa al-qamaru bi-ḥusbān.

Āyah 6: وَالنَّجْمُ وَالشَّجَرُ يَسْجُدَانِ

Three āyāt come back-to-back to explain to us the blessings from above, and the next few āyāt talk about the blessings of the earth. Allah has created the stars and He has created the trees. Al-najm speaks about the blessings of the sky, and al-shajar speaks about the blessings of the world.

As I found in Imām al-Ālūsī's tafsīr — al-najm, al-qamar, al-shams are all speaking about the blessings of the sky that we require. And shajar speaks about the blessings of the world. Why are people up in arms about cutting trees? Because trees create oxygen, and if there are no trees in this world, we don't survive. The greenery of this world, the trees of this world, create life — they are the source of life for us. If we take away all the trees, we are also limited in how long we can live.

So Allah is saying: all of these things that create life for you — the sun creates life for you, the moon creates life for you, the stars create life for you from the sky, and the trees in this world create oxygen for you and allow you to survive — and guess what? All of these things perform sajdah in front of Allah. They prostrate to Allah.

How do they prostrate? Only Allah knows. But many various tafāsīr say that the prostration of the moon is when it sets, the prostration of the sun is when it sets, and the prostration of the stars is when they dwindle away at night-time. The prostration of the trees is when their branches hang low due to the weight of leaves or fruits. But we understand that the prostration of these things happens however Allah wants it to happen. Allah says in another verse:

Every single creation in this world performs sajdah to Allah. Imām al-Qurṭubī raḥimahullāh mentions that sajdah here means they obey Allah — whatever Allah wants from them, they do without any questions.

Āyah 7: وَالسَّمَاءَ رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ

The sky has been raised. Allah speaks about the architecture of the sky. If we walk into any house or banquet hall, one of the first things we look at is: does it have a high ceiling or a low ceiling? How does the ceiling look? Is it attractive? How is the lighting?

Wa al-samāʾa rafaʿahā — just think about the blessing of the sky. The sky has no pillars. That is one of the greatest blessings of the sky — try to put up a room without walls and pillars; it will fall, it needs a support system. The sky has no pillars. Second, Allah speaks about how there is no flaw in the sky:

"Look back again and again — is there any flaw in the sky?" There is none. It is a very high ceiling, it is a beautiful ceiling, and it has a lot of light from the shams. When you want to make it less bright and more romantic, it has the qamar. And if you want to dwindle the light even further, it has the nujūm. Allah shows the various usages of the sky. Wa al-samāʾa rafaʿahā — it has been raised to an extent that everyone can benefit from it and enjoy it. And that is where our blessings come from — that is where water comes from:

He sends water down from the sky, and that water gives us sustenance through the life of the crops and the life of the earth. Those crops are eaten by animals, and we eat those animals, and so on and so forth.

Āyāt 8–9: أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ

Then Allah changes the tone — He changes the blessings He is speaking about. So far He was speaking about the skies. Then He says wa waḍaʿa al-mīzān — all of this has been set on a balanced rotation. And your responsibility, in order to continue benefiting from these blessings, is allā taṭghaw fī al-mīzān — do not transgress in the balance of Allah.

What is that balance? The balance of knowing how to deal with people. The balance of knowing how to worship Allah. The balance of not cheating people in business. The balance of not lying to people. Allā taṭghaw fī al-mīzān — do not transgress in the balance that Allah has set. The balance that Allah has set is what allows the world to continue, and the moment you break that balance, Allah also holds back His blessings. The Prophet ﷺ says:

(Sunan Ibn Mājah, Hadith 4019)

"Five things happen because of five things." The first — and most relatable to us right now — is: there is no community, there is no nation that openly starts disobeying Allah and loses their sense of modesty, except that Allah brings upon them plagues and sicknesses that they never heard of before. So if we break the balance that Allah has set, then Allah takes away those blessings. The blessings we receive are in proportion to the aʿmāl that we do — the more aʿmāl we do, the more blessings Allah brings into our life.

Wa aqīmū al-wazna bi al-qisṭ wa lā tukhsirū al-mīzān — establish the correct weights with justice. Allah says:

"Be just, even if it is against your own selves." Justice is what creates and sustains Islam — that there is justice within our community. Till today, the world is looking for the right formula of justice. Allah already set that formula by telling the world through the Prophet ﷺ:

(Musnad Aḥmad, Hadith 23489 — from the farewell sermon of the Prophet ﷺ)

"There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab except by taqwā of Allah." There is no racism in Islām — everyone is equal, and everyone has their rights. There is justice. An orphan should not be robbed of his or her money. There is justice — that children should be given their rights. That parents should be respected. That you cannot cheat people in business:

(Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Hadith 101)

"Whosoever cheats us is not from amongst us." If you lie, you are breaking the justice of Allah. If you harm someone else, Allah, through the correct justice system of Islām, allows that person to take retribution. All of that is wa aqīmū al-wazna bi al-qisṭi wa lā tukhsirū al-mīzān — do not make it deficient, do not break this balance.

We will stop at āyah number 9 and continue from āyah number 10 after a short break for ṣalāh, inshāAllāh.