Welcome to our weekly programme "Path towards Enlightenment" in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an. We start from where we left you last Friday and here are ayahs 149 to 152 of Surah Saaffaat:

 

7. فاسْتفْتهمْ ألربّک الْبنات ولهم الْبنون
8. أمْ خلقْنا الْملائکة إناثًا وهمْ شاهدون
9. ألا إنّهم مّنْ إفْکهمْ لیقولون ‎
10. ولد اللّه وإنّهمْ لکاذبون

 “Ask them, are daughters to be for your Lord while sons are to be for them?”

“Did We create the angels females, while they (the accusers) were present?”

“Look! It is indeed out of their mendacity that they say,”

“Allah has begotten,’ and they indeed speak a falsehood.”

As is clear from the wordings of these ayahs, God Almighty answers to the blasphemous ideas of the polytheists, and raises questions to jolt the conscience of all readers of the holy Qur’an as the key to proper contemplation and as a warning for the deviated people.

In the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), a group of polytheist Arabs, because of the lack of knowledge and degradation of thought, compared Allah with their own selves, and considered child, and sometimes wife, for Him. They speculated that the angels were feminine beings and God’s daughters, and that the jinn are divine offspring.

The comparison of the Creator with the creatures is the worst factor of aberration in recognizing Allah. At first the Qur’an refers to those who considered the angels as the daughters of Allah and answers them in three various ways: experimental, intellectual, and traditional. It implicitly asks them how they consider for Allah that which they do not desire for themselves. This statement is in accordance with the wrong belief of the pagan Arabs who hated daughters and desired sons, since sons had a very effective function in their lives, their fights, and their robberies while daughters could not help them in these affairs.

No doubt, from the point of value and being a ‘human’, a daughter and a son are the same with Allah and the criterion of both of them is piety. Those who consider the angels as pregnant women will be called to account by Allah. The Qur’an asks whether Allah created the angels as girls and those who hold such absurd beliefs were witnesses over it. No doubt their answer in this regard will be negative because none of them can claim that they were present at the creation of the angels.

In the next ayahs the Qur’an cites more rational proofs to reject the idea of the infidels that God, like His creatures, begets children. The holy Qur’an means to ask them, do they understand what they say? Is it not the time they would leave these vanities and ugly superstitions, because these words are so vain and baseless that if a person has a little intellect and contemplates he will realize its vanity!

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. God, through revelations to His Prophets endeavours to lift the intellect of the people by raising questions in order to make the polytheists realize the falsity of their beliefs.
2. In the paintings of non-Muslim cultures, angels are depicted in feminine features, and such ideas are totally rejected.

Now we listen to or read ayahs 153 to 157 of Surah Saaffaat:

7. أصْطفى الْبنات على الْبنین 
8. ما لکمْ کیْف تحْکمون
9.  أفلا تذکّرون
10. أمْ لکمْ سلْطانٌ مّبینٌ ‎
11. ‏ فأْتوا بکتابکمْ إن کنتمْ صادقین

“Has he preferred daughters to sons?”

“What is the matter with you? How do you judge?”

“Will you not then take admonition?”

“Do you have a manifest authority?”

“Then produce your scripture, should you be truthful.”

In continuation of the previous ayahs, these ayahs mean to say: how do you consider angels to be girls and attribute them to God? Is it not time to stop these superstitions and baseless remarks and think properly? A little thought on this subject makes it clear that such ideas are false and irrational.

The holy Qur’an says, after rejecting the wrong beliefs of pagans about angels rationally, means to say: If you have a reason for this claim, provide the reason. In which heavenly scripture has God mentioned such a thing, or which of the prophets said that God has children and angels are His offspring.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Those who believe that a girl is bad and a boy is good and then attribute girls to God and boys to themselves are caught up in a false belief.
2. Belief in God should be based on rational or transcendental reasons and one cannot attribute something to God on the basis of superstition and false thoughts.

Now we listen to or read ayahs 158 to 160 of Surah Saaffaat:

 

7. وجعلوا بیْنه وبیْن الْجنّة نسبًا ۚ ولقدْ علمت الْجنّة إنّهمْ لمحْضرون
8. سبْحان اللّه عمّا یصفون
9. ‏ إلّا عباد اللّه الْمخْلصین

“And they have set up a kinship between Him and the jinn, while the jinn certainly know that they will indeed be presented [before Him].”

“Clear is Allah of whatever they allege [about Him],”

“—[all] except Allah’s exclusive servants.”

These ayahs mean to say that the polytheists set up a kinship between God and the jinn, even considering these species of creation as partners of God and worshipping them. The holy Quran rejects such superstitious ideas and means to say that the jinn are also God’s creation and are subject to reward and punishment depending on their deeds. Allah is indeed Glorious of whatever they allege as per their wild imagination, and the devout and obedient servants of Allah are aware of these facts.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Human beings, if they fail to properly use their God-given intellect, are liable to fall into error by attributing false ideas to God the All-Glorious.
2. The Jinn are a species of creation which mostly remain invisible to the human eye, but will be resurrected on the Day of Judgement to be meted out divine justice in accordance to their deeds.
3. All human beings, except the devout ones, cannot properly describe God’s Glorious attributes, and it is from them, that is, the Prophets and the Imams, we should learn the correct beliefs.