16:51 An-Nahl (The Bee)

يأمر تعالى بعبادته وحده لا شريك له، ويستدل على ذلك بانفراده بالنعم والوحدانية فقال: { لَا تَتَّخِذُوا إِلَهَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ } أي: تجعلون له شريكا في إلهيته، وهو { إِنَّمَا هُوَ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ } متوحد في الأوصاف العظيمة متفرد بالأفعال كلها. فكما أنه الواحد في ذاته وأسمائه ونعوته وأفعاله، فلتوحِّدوه في عبادته، ولهذا قال: { فَإِيَّايَ فَارْهَبُونِ } أي: خافوني وامتثلوا أمري، واجتنبوا نهيي من غير أن تشركوا بي شيئا من المخلوقات، فإنها كلها لله تعالى مملوكة.

يخبر تعالى أنه لا إله إلا هو وأنه لا تنبغي العبادة إلا له وحده لا شريك له فإنه مالك كل شئ وخالقه وربه.

Allah Alone is Deserving of Worship

Allah tells us that there is no god but He, and that no one else should be worshipped except Him, alone, without partners, for He is the Sovereign, Creator, and Lord of all things.

وَلَهُ الدِّينُ وَاصِبًا

(His is the religion Wasiba) Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, `Ikrimah, Maymun bin Mahran, As-Suddi, Qatadah and others said that this means forever. It was also reported that Ibn `Abbas said, "It means obligatory." Mujahid said: "It means purely for Him," i.e., worship is due to Him Alone, from whoever is in the heavens and on earth. As Allah says:

أَفَغَيْرَ دِينِ اللَّهِ يَبْغُونَ وَلَهُ أَسْلَمَ مَن فِى السَّمَـوَتِ وَالاٌّرْضِ طَوْعًا وَكَرْهًا وَإِلَيْهِ يُرْجَعُونَ

(Do they seek other than the religion of Allah, while to Him submitted all creatures in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly. And to Him shall they all be returned.) (3:83) This is in accordance with the opinion of Ibn `Abbas and `Ikrimah, which is that this Ayah is merely stating the case. According to the opinion of Mujahid, it is by way of instruction, i.e., it is saying: You had better fear associating partners in worship with Me, and be sincere in your obedience to Me. As Allah says:

أَلاَ لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ

(Surely, the pure religion (sincere devotion) is for Allah only.) (39:3) Then Allah tells us that He is the One Who has the power to benefit and harm, and that the provisions, blessings, good health and help, His servants enjoy are from His bounty and graciousness towards them.

ثُمَّ إِذَا مَسَّكُمُ الضُّرُّ فَإِلَيْهِ تَجْـَرُونَ

(Then, when harm touches you, to Him you cry aloud for help.) meaning because you know that none has the power to remove that harm except for Him, so when you are harmed, you turn to ask Him for help and beg Him for aid. As Allah says:

وَإِذَا مَسَّكُمُ الْضُّرُّ فِى الْبَحْرِ ضَلَّ مَن تَدْعُونَ إِلاَ إِيَّاهُ فَلَمَّا نَجَّـكُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ أَعْرَضْتُمْ وَكَانَ الإِنْسَـنُ كَفُورًا

(And when harm touches you at sea, those that you call upon vanish, except for Him. But when He brings you safe to land, you turn away. And man is ever ungrateful.)(17:67) Here, Allah tells us:

ثُمَّ إِذَا كَشَفَ الضُّرَّ عَنْكُمْ إِذَا فَرِيقٌ مِّنْكُم بِرَبِّهِمْ يُشْرِكُونَ لِيَكْفُرُواْ بِمَآ ءاتَيْنَـهُمْ

(Then, when He has removed the harm from you, behold! some of you associate others in worship with their Lord (Allah). So they are ungrateful for that which We have given them!) (16:54-55) It was said that the Lam here (translated as "So") is an indicator of sequence, or that it serves an explanatory function, meaning, `We decreed that they would conceal the truth and deny the blessings that Allah has bestowed upon them. He is the One Who bestows blessings and the One Who removes distress.' Then Allah threatens them, saying:

فَتَمَتَّعُواْ

(Then enjoy yourselves) meaning, do what you like and enjoy what you have for a little while.

فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ

(but you will soon come to know.) meaning the consequences of that.

And God has said ‘Do not choose two gods ithnayn is for emphasis. Truly there is only One God — He has added this statement to affirm His Divinity and Oneness — so be in awe of Me alone’ fear Me to the exclusion of anyone else — herein is a shift from the third person to the first.

Even the Punishment of the World is Mercy in Disguise

In the verses cited above, after having mentioned various punishments which could seize disbelievers within this world, it was said in the end: فَإِنَّ رَ‌بَّكُمْ لَرَ‌ءُوفٌ رَّ‌حِيمٌ (So, indeed your Lord is Very Kind Very Merciful).

First of all, by using the word: رَبّ (Rabb: Lord) here, the hint given is that all these punishments which overtake human beings in this world are there to warn them as part of the dictates of Divine mercy. After that, by introducing the word: رَ‌ءُوفٌ(Ra uf: Kind) headed by the intensifying particle lam) that is, the lam of ta'kid), and thus by placing stress on the fact that Allah Ta’ ala was Very Kind and Very Merciful, the hint given was that warnings sent during the life of the world were, in reality, called for by His intrinsic Kindness and Mercy so that heedless men and women would learn from the warning and correct their deeds (before comes 'the last spasm of mass extinction' they themselves are talking about at the closing of the twentieth century, but are still not ready to learn, believe and correct).

And God says, “And take not two gods. Surely He is only one God, so be in awe of Me.” This is an affirmation of tawḤīd. TawḤīd is the basis of the religion and the great pillar of the submission. Without tawḤīd obedience is not accepted, and along with associationism worship is useless. Know that the reality of tawḤīd is of two sorts: saying one and knowing one. Saying one is the beginning of all the sciences, the basis of all the recognitions, the foundation of the religion, and the partition between enemy and friend. It has three descriptions: first, testifying to God's oneness in Essence and His being pure of spouse, child, and peer. Next is testifying to God's oneness in attributes and to the fact that nothing is similar to or like Him. His attributes are not intelligible, nor is their howness understood, encompassed, or defined. They are outside imagination and no one knows how they are. Third is testifying to God's oneness in His true, beginningless names and the fact that for Him these names are realities and for others they are loaned and created. The names He has are His names in reality-eternal and beginningless as is fitting for Him. The names of the creatures are created and newly arrived as is fitting for them. “God” and “All-Merciful” are His names by which no one else is called. Dost thou know any named by His name? [19:65] As for knowing one, that is in service, practice, and aspiration. In service it is abandoning eye-service and observing self-purification. In practice it is to make the secret core limpid and to realize remembrance. In aspiration it is to lose everything other than Him and to be released through freedom of the heart from everything other than Him. Become free of everything in the realm of being- be that Heart-taker's “companion of the cave.” The Pir of the Tariqah said, “In all things expression is easy but finding is difficult. In tawḤīd finding is easy but expression is difficult. The expression of tawḤīd is outside of intellect, the es- sence of tawḤīd is safe against imagination, the newly arrived things are lost in the Beginningless. TawḤīd is that there is no more than one. There is the Recognized, but not the recognizer; there is the Intended, but not the intender.