087- AL-A’LA
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
# Glorify the Name of thy Lord, the Most High, # Who created, then fashioned, # Who measured out, then guided, # and Who brought forth pasture, # then made it as blackened stubble. # We shall teach thee to recite, that thou wilt not forget, # save what God wills. Truly He knows that which is open and that which is hidden. # And We shall ease thy way unto ease. # So remind, should the reminder benefit: # he who fears will remember; # while the most wretched shall avoid it; # he who enters into the greatest Fire, # then neither dies therein nor lives. # He indeed prospers who is purified, # remembers the Name of his Lord and prays. # Nay, but you prefer the life of this world, # while the Hereafter is better and more enduring. # Truly this is in the scriptures of old, # the scriptures of Abraham and Moses.
Commentary
# Glorify the Name of thy Lord, the Most High,
1 Regarding the relationship between the different ways in which God is glorified in the Quran, see 64:1c. The Most High can be understood to modify Lord or the Name, though most prefer the former (R, Ṭ). When Most High modifies Lord, the verse is simply an injunction to glorify God. When it modifies the Name, the verse is understood to provide instruction regarding the manner in which one should glorify God, meaning that one should refrain from associating the Name of God with any other thing (R) or that one should praise God with the Names that God has revealed, as in 17:110: Call upon God, or call upon the Compassionate (R). It is said that when So glorify the Name of thy Lord, the Magnificent (56:74) was revealed, the Prophet told his Companions, “Enact it when you bow [in prayer],” and when the present verse was revealed, he said, “Enact it when you prostrate” (Q, R). Muslims thus say “Glory be to God, the Magnificent” three times when bowing in prayer and the formula “Glory be to God, the Most High” three times when prostrating.
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# Who created, then fashioned,
# Who measured out, then guided,
2–3 Here created refers to human beings in particular, to human beings and animals, or to all of creation (R). With regard to the first, God fashioned the first human being after breathing into him of His Spirit, leaving him without irregularities. Then He measured out his form and figure and bestowed the nourishment required for existence (Ṭs). Measured out renders qaddara, which can also be read qadara, meaning to have power or to determine, in which case the verse indicates that after God created and fashioned, He maintained direct power over all that He created (R). Here guidance refers to the instinct God puts in all things to be able to seek the nourishment that He has already measured out for them or to the manner in which He guides people to His religion and to knowledge of His Unity by manifesting signs and clear proofs (Ṭs). The broader implication is that creation is as it should be, without imperfection or flaw (see 67:3–4c).
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# and Who brought forth pasture,
# then made it as blackened stubble.
4–5 These verses allude to the manner in which God maintains power over the creation and destruction of all living things. Pasture renders marʿā, which refers to all forms of vegetation.
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# We shall teach thee to recite, that thou wilt not forget,
6 This verse is an assurance that God will grant revelation in due time and ensure the Prophet does not forget it. It is reported that when the Archangel Gabriel came, the Prophet would sometimes recite the beginning of the passage being revealed before Gabriel had finished, fearing that he might forget. So this verse was revealed (Bg, Ṭs). In 20:114 and 75:16–17, the Prophet is also counseled not to “hasten” the revelation.
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# save what God wills. Truly He knows that which is open and that which is hidden.
7 The Prophet is counseled that if a verse has been forgotten, it is because God willed it, not because of a fault on the part of the Prophet (R). Muslims believe that God abrogated some verses and caused others to be “forgotten,” but always replaced them with better verses. For a discussion of abrogation, see commentary on 2:106: No sign do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but that We bring that which is better than it or like unto it; and the essay “The Quran as Source of Islamic Law.”
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# And We shall ease thy way unto ease.
8 Some understand this verse as an allusion to the uncomplicated nature of the revealed law (JJ, R). See 2:185: God desires ease for you, and He does not desire hardship for you; and 94:5–6. Others say that in light of vv. 6–7, this verse indicates that God will make it easy for the Prophet to memorize the Quran (R). Others interpret the verse as a reference to God’s easing the way for believers to enter Paradise (R).
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# So remind, should the reminder benefit:
9 This verse implies that whether it is of benefit or not, all should be reminded of God’s message (Bg), for all will be held accountable.
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# he who fears will remember;
10–11 Those who are certain of the return to God and those who admit to it but are not certain of it are those who fear God (v. 10), while those who deny the return to God are the most wretched (v. 11; R). In relation to v. 9, these verses imply that the reminder only benefits those who fear God. 10 Cf. 50:45: So remind, by the means of the Quran, those who fear My Threat.
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# while the most wretched shall avoid it;
# he who enters into the greatest Fire,
# then neither dies therein nor lives.
12–13 Cf. 20:74; 74:28–29. The “greatest” or “greater” Fire is that of the Hereafter, while the lesser fire is that of this world (JJ, R). Alternately, v. 12 alludes to different degrees of punishment, with the greatest Fire being that for which the most wretched are destined (R). In Arabic, to say that one neither lives nor dies is to indicate that one is suffering great trials (R); see 35:36.
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# He indeed prospers who is purified,
# remembers the Name of his Lord and prays.
14–15 According to some, He indeed prospers who is purified refers to purification from idolatry by professing God’s Oneness. Others say that it refers to purification through good deeds, while still others say it refers specifically to the alms given on ʿĪd al-fiṭr (Bg, Ṭb, Ṭs). According to Shiite tradition, the sixth Imam, Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, stated that the order of the verses refers to the alms being given in the morning before the two cycles of the ʿĪd prayer. Here prayer is taken by most as a reference to the five canonical prayers, and by some as a reference to the congregational prayer said on the morning of ʿĪd alfiṭr (Bg). According to some, remembers the Name of his Lord refers to mentioning the Name of God in the basmalah at the beginning of each prayer (Ṭs); others emphasize that it means to remember with both heart and tongue, as remembering God with the tongue while being heedless of God in the heart has no benefit and no reward (Āl). These two verses can be taken together as referring to worshipping with all aspects of one’s being by purifying the heart, remembering God with the tongue, and performing the actions commanded by God, the foremost of which is prayer (Āl).
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# Nay, but you prefer the life of this world,
# while the Hereafter is better and more enduring.
16–17 According to some, you is here an address to the disbelievers, while others say that it refers to all of humanity. Regarding the relationship between this world and the Hereafter, a ḥadīth states, “The world is the prison of the believer and the garden of the disbeliever”; see 93:4c.
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# Truly this is in the scriptures of old,
# the scriptures of Abraham and Moses.
18–19 This refers to either the subjects mentioned in vv. 14–17 (Ṭs), the whole of this sūrah (Ṭ), or the entire Quran, as in 26:196: It is indeed in the scriptures of those of old (Āl). Although Judaism and Christianity do not ascribe a revealed book to Abraham, that Abraham had a particular scripture is implied in both the Quran and the Ḥadīth. When the Prophet was asked how many revealed books there were, he responded, “One hundred and four books. He sent down fifty scrolls to Seth, thirty scrolls to Idrīs, ten scrolls to Abraham, and ten scrolls [understood by some to be tablets (alwāḥ)] to Moses before the Torah. And He sent down the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Criterion [i.e., the Quran]” (Āl). This tradition has a slightly different narration in Shiite sources (Ṭs); some say the scrolls revealed to Abraham were twenty in number.
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