Surah Al-An'am, Ayah 38

The Idolators Ask for a Miracle

Allah states that the idolators used to proclaim, "Why does not (Muhammad) bring an Ayah from his Lord," meaning, a miracle of their choice! They would sometimes say,

لَن نُّؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّى تَفْجُرَ لَنَا مِنَ الاٌّرْضِ يَنْبُوعًا

("We shall not believe in you, until you cause a spring to gush forth from the ground for us.") 17:90.

قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَادِرٌ عَلَى أَن يُنَزِّلٍ ءايَةً وَلَـكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ

(Say: "Allah is certainly able to send down a sign, but most of them know not.") Certainly, Allah is able to send an Ayah (sign). But, He decided out of His wisdom to delay that, because if He sends an Ayah of their liking and they still do not believe, this will hasten their punishment as with the previous nations. Allah said in other Ayat,

The sixth verse (38): وَمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ (there is no creature moving …) tells us that, on the day of Qiyamah, animals will also be given life along with human beings. Following a narration of Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ ، it has been reported by Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim and Baihaqi that, on the day of Qiyamah, all animals, beasts and birds will also be given life once again. Such will be the measure of Divine justice that a horned animal which had hit the hornless one shall be subjected to retaliation, as would be the case with others too. And when all injustices have been vindicated, all of them would be commanded to become dust - and then, dust they shall become. This would be the time when the disbeliever will say: يَا لَيْتَنِي كُنتُ تُرَ‌ابًا [ 78:40] that is, ` would that I too were to become dust, and thus saved from the punishment of Hell!'.

In another narration, again from Sayyidna Abu Hurairah ؓ ، Imam Al-Baghawi reports that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: On the day of Qiyamah, rights of all holders of rights shall be vindicated, to the limit that a hornless goat shall be vindicated against the horned one.

Maximum Regard for the Rights of Allah's Creation

Everyone knows that animals have not been obligated to observe the percepts of any Shari` ah or code of laws. Only human beings and Jinns have been so obligated. And it is obvious that the jurisdiction of reward and punishment does not apply to the non-obligated. Therefore, ` Ulama' have said that the retaliation against the behaviour of animals on the day of Resurrection will not be because of their being obligated, but it will be because of the Lord's utmost regard for equity and justice - based on which the cruelty of one living creature against' the other living creature will be recompensed, with no reward or punishment to follow for the rest of their behaviour. This tells us that the matter of mutual rights, and their infringements, pertaining to the creation of Allah is so serious that even non-obligated animals have not been left as exempted from it. But, it is regrettable that there are even many religiously-observing people who would act negligently about it.

Abu Jahl said to the Prophet, ‘O, Muhammad! By God, we do not reject you. Only we deny that which you have brought.’ That is, the people of Makkah who had not embraced the faith nevertheless admitted that he was a righteous person. But, to say of a person that his utterances were marked by Truth and reality amounted to glorifying him, and they were not prepared to give him such high honour. When they called him, ‘truthful and honest’ they had the mental satisfaction that he was a man of their own level, but admitting that God’s own discourse emanated from his lips amounted to according him a status higher than their own, and such an admission is the most difficult one for any man to make. In the present world, God does not appear directly in His original shape. He appears before man in the shape of arguments, signs and symbols. Therefore, not accepting arguments in support of the Truth, or turning a blind eye to the signs in its favour amounts to a refusal to accept God, or to turning one’s eyes away from the face of God. However, it is not part of God’s plan to appear along with compelling miracles, for if His call were to be presented in this context, freedom of action would come to an end; for the purpose of maintaining test conditions, an atmosphere of freedom of action must be perpetuated. The da‘i should not be put out by the fact that he has only the weight of arguments to offer or that he possesses no extraordinary powers of control. Instead of being worried on this account, he should exercise patience. The making of efforts in connection with the mission of truth, is on the one hand, a test of the da‘i ’s patience and, on the other, a test of the addressees as to whether they are able to see a glimpse of God’s representative in a man like themselves. Are they able to recognise the majesty of God’s message in the words coming out of a man’s mouth; do they bow down before arguments that are devoid of material strength, as they will bow down before a strong and powerful God? For those who have life in them, the whole universe is full of God‘s signs, but those who have extinguished the fire of their sensitivities will not be able to learn a lesson from anything except the terrors of Doomsday.