091- AL-SHAMS
THE SUN
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE COMPASSIONATE, THE MERCIFUL
# By the sun and its morning brightness; #by the moon when following it; # by the day when disclosing it; #by the night when enshrouding it; # by the sky and the One Who established it; # by the earth and the One Who spread it; # by the soul and the One Who fashioned it #and inspired it as to what makes it iniquitous or reverent. # Indeed, he prospers who purifies it. #And indeed he fails who obscures it. # Thamūd denied in their rebelliousness, # when the most wretched of them was dispatched. # So the messenger of God said to them, “[This is] the she-camel of God; give her drink!” # But they denied him, then hamstrung her. So their Lord crushed them for their sin, then leveled it; # for He fears not the consequence thereof.
Commentary
# By the sun and its morning brightness;
1 For the meaning of ḍuḥāhā, here translated its morning brightness, see the introduction to Sūrah 93.
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# by the moon when following it;
2 This verse can be read as an allusion to the moon’s receiving its light from the sun or to the new crescent moon, which at the start of each lunar month is visible above the horizon near where the sun sets and itself sets soon thereafter. It could also be seen as an allusion to the differing orbits of the moon and the sun, which can be used to measure the passage of time; see 36:40c.
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# by the day when disclosing it;
3 Cf. 92:2. It can be taken as a reference to the sun (Q, Ṭ) or to the world or the earth (Q). It can also be seen as a reference to “the darkness” (Ṭ), in which case the verse would read “by the day when dispersing it.” From a spiritual perspective, this verse can be read as an allusion to the light of faith extinguishing the darkness of ignorance (ST).
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# by the night when enshrouding it;
4 This verse refers to the night enshrouding the sun (Q, Ṭ) or enshrouding the world (Q); cf. 92:1. From a spiritual perspective, it can be read as an allusion to sins, persistence in which covers the light of faith (ST)
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# by the sky and the One Who established it;
5–7 According to some, the One Who in these three verses is not appropriate, since God could not swear upon Himself (R). They would thus read “that which” in place of the One Who. Or the three verses could be read, “its being established” (v. 5), “its being spread” (v. 6), and “its fashioning” (v. 7; Q, R, Ṭ), the reading preferred by al-Qurṭubī.
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#by the earth and the One Who spread it;
5–6 Cf. 51:47–48: And the sky We established with might; truly We make vast! And the earth We laid out—what excellent spreaders! V. 6 is taken by some to mean, “What He created in it,” and by others to mean that He proportioned it (IK).
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# by the soul and the One Who fashioned it
7 The One Who fashioned it means the One Who created the soul sound and well proportioned, as it was in the original primordial nature (fiṭrah), as indicated in 30:30: Set thy face to religion as a ḥanīf, in the primordial nature from God upon which He originated mankind (IK). Here the soul can be taken as an allusion to the soul of Adam, or the souls of all human beings. As such, it is a call to meditate upon the true nature of the human being, since God created man in the most beautiful stature (95:4; cf. 40:64: My). The invocation of the soul in the midst of this series of polarities implies that the soul has an inherent duality, as becomes clear in the following verses and in 79:37–41. This duality is seen by many in the pair the soul at peace (89:27), which is in control of its lusts and desires and has attained certainty, and the soul that commands to evil (12:53); an intermediate station between the two is the blaming soul (75:2); see 75:1–2c; 89:27c.
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# and inspired it as to what makes it iniquitous or reverent.
8 As translated, this verse indicates that God taught the soul the nature of evil and good and set the course for which it should follow. Some relate it to 90:8–10: Did We not . . . guide him upon the two highways? (Q, Sh). It could also be rendered, “He placed its iniquity and its reverence within it” (IK). In both translations it can be taken as a reference to God’s instillation of the knowledge of good and evil in every human soul, even before various prophetic revelations. As other verses indicate (e.g., 75:14–15; 81:14; 82:4–5), every soul is intrinsically aware of good and evil, right and wrong, its relation to God, and the covenant to which it attested (see 7:172).
These verses can also be read as an indication that God decrees all things for each human being, the reading preferred by most Ashʿarite theologians. Regarding this interpretation, it is reported that a man asked the Prophet, “O Messenger of God! Do you consider the actions of mankind and their struggles to be something ordained (qaḍāʾ) for them and coming to pass from a previous measuring out (qadar), or something written for them only after the Message came to them from their Prophet, when there will be a clear proof against them?” To which he replied, “Rather, it is ordained for them.” So the man said, “Then what is the point of our actions?” The Prophet replied, “Whosoever God created for one of the two positions [Paradise or Hell], He makes it easy for him [to attain]. The proof of that is in the Book of God: By the soul and the One Who fashioned it and inspired it as to what makes it iniquitous or reverent” (IK). It is also reported that when reciting this sūrah, the Prophet would stop at this verse and pray, “O God! Give my soul its reverence. Thou art its Protector and Master, and the best to purify it” (IK, Q).
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# Indeed, he prospers who purifies it.
# And indeed he fails who obscures it.
9–10 These two verses have served as the inspiration for extensive literature on the “purification of the soul” (tazkiyyat al-nafs), which some argue is the entire purpose of the Quran. Most take v. 9 to be the beginning of the answer to the oaths taken in vv. 1–7 (Bg, Sh); others say that the answer has been omitted from the text and is only implied (Sh). The text speaks of those who cleanse the soul of lowly and despicable character traits (IK) and, conversely, those who dull the soul by neglecting it through heedlessness and disobedience (IK). According to some of the earliest commentators, these two verses could also be read with God as the subject, meaning, “He whose soul God purifies has indeed prospered, and he whose soul God obscures has indeed failed” (IK, Q, Ṭ). The ambiguity of the subject can also be seen as an allusion to the cooperation between God and human beings, who work together to purify the soul, for, on the one hand, Whosoever purifies himself purifies himself only for his own soul (35:18), and on the other, You do not will but that God wills (76:30); thus 4:49 states, Rather, it is God Who purifies whomsoever He will (cf. 24:21). Nonetheless, there is a subtle reciprocity in every step one takes toward God, for as 13:11 proclaims: Truly God alters not what is in a people until they alter what is in themselves. The literal meaning of purify (zakkā) is “to grow,” and according to most the literal meaning of obscure (dassa) is “to bury” (Sh, Z). These verses could thus be translated, “He prospers who grows it, and he fails who buries it.” V. 9 thus indicates those who make the soul grow through purification, while v. 10 indicates those whose souls are buried in reprehensible acts.
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# Thamūd denied in their rebelliousness,
# when the most wretched of them was dispatched.
# So the messenger of God said to them, “[This is] the she-camel of God; give her drink!”
# But they denied him, then hamstrung her. So their Lord crushed them for their sin, then leveled it;
11–14 The tribe of Thamūd is cited as an example of those who “obscure” the soul through disobedience. They were a pre-Islamic northern Arabian tribe who rejected the Prophet Ṣāliḥ; see 7:73–79; 11:61–68; 54:23–31. It is said that after Ṣāliḥ made it clear to them that a particular she-camel that God had brought forth from a rock was a sign of God and exhorted them to justice and the distribution of water ordained by God, their leader proceeded to hamstring the she-camel and leave her for dead (54:23–30). For the she-camel of God, see 7:73c. For giving her a drink, see 26:155c. According to some commentators, they had agreed that the she-camel would drink one day and the other animals would drink the next, and the people killed the she-camel because they did not like this arrangement (see 54:27–29).
It is recorded that the Prophet said that the most wretched of previous generations (al-awwalīn) are those who hamstrung the she-camel (IK, Q). Some interpret hamstrung her (ʿaqqarūhā) as “slaughtered her”; see 7:77–78c. Crushed them (damdama ʿalayhim) indicates the most severe of punishments that came upon them suddenly, annihilating them and covering them entirely. Leveled it translates sawwāhā, which has a broad range of meaning; as translated it indicates that God razed their city or that he leveled the earth over them. It could also be rendered, “He distributed it equally,” meaning that God distributed the same punishment upon every member of the tribe (IK, Q). The verb sawwā is also translated in v. 7 and in relation to the creation of human beings in 18:37; 32:9; 75:38; 82:7. The use of sawwā in this context, in relation to both the creation of human beings in v. 7 and their destruction in v. 14, indicates, on the one hand, that God can destroy human beings as easily as He created them and, on the other, that God’s Punishment is part of the continuing process through which God fashions the human soul.
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# for He fears not the consequence thereof. 15 This verse means that God does not fear the consequences of destroying a people like the tribe of Thamūd (IK, Q). It is thus a warning to the tribe of Quraysh that God has no need of them and could wipe them out just as easily as He did the tribe of Thamūd. It could also be rendered, “And he did not fear its outcome,” in which case the subject is either the most wretched (v. 12), who hamstrung the she-camel and did not fear the outcome of his actions because of his heedlessness (Q), or the Prophet Ṣāliḥ, who did not fear the outcome because he had fulfilled his duty by transmitting God’s message and was spared their punishment (Q).
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