Surah Al-Qalam: Verse 1 - ن ۚ والقلم وما يسطرون... - English

Commentary

Linkage of Surahs

The preceding Surah dealt with the existence of Allah, His Oneness, and His knowledge and power, and adduced, as a positive proof of these attributes, was the fact that Allah is the Creator of death and life, and of the entire universe through whose component parts there runs the beautiful order that pervades the cosmos. He has created man to serve a sublime object and to achieve a noble goal. But man in his ingratitude has always rejected the Divine Message and consequently has been incurring Divine scourge. This is mentioned, in Surah Al-Mulk, with particular reference to the pagans of Makkah. The present Surah deals with the truth of the Holy Prophet's ﷺ claim, and gives sound and solid proof of it. Thus it rebuts the criticisms and taunts of the pagans against the Holy Prophet ﷺ . Their first criticism was that he is [ God forbid!] insane whereas he was perfectly sane person, an embodiment of knowledge and a paragon of virtues. Another reason why they probably called him insane is that whenever an installment of revelation descended upon the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، a physical change came over him. For instance the colour of his face would change and become red, or he would sometimes snore or he would at other times appear to be in grief, or there were times when he would hang his head down. When any of these states was over, he would recite the revealed verses to the people. This matter was beyond the understanding and perception of the pagans. Therefore, they regarded this experience of receiving revelation as insanity. Or they called him insane presumably because he put forward to his people and to the whole world that there is no object worthy of worship except Allah. He put it to them that their self-carved idols cannot be gods because they are insensate and lacking knowledge; and they lack the ability to benefit or harm anyone. His voice of Truth sounded alone yet with this lone voice of Truth without any apparent means and support, he stood unwaveringly against the whole world. People without any insight or foresight did not think that it was possible for him to achieve his goal and they called it insanity. Some called him insane for the sake of calling him insane, without any reason. Having no excuse to refute the teachings of Allah's Messenger ﷺ ، all the pagans could do was to dub him insane. The initial verses of Surah Al-Qalam refute under emphatic oath their false charges.

ن وَالْقَلَمِ وَمَا يَسْطُرُ‌ونَ مَا أَنتَ بِنِعْمَةِ رَ‌بِّكَ بِمَجْنُونٍ (Nun, by the pen and what they write, with the grace of your Lord, you are not insane....68:1-2). The letter Nun is one of the isolated letters that have been revealed at the beginning of many Surahs. They are the secret signs and symbols and mysteries of Allah. Allah alone knows their hidden meaning, or Allah made their mysterious meanings known to His Messenger. The Ummah is not permitted to investigate the hidden meaning of such isolated letters.

Pen and its Significance

In the phrase wal-qalami, the waw is the particle of oath [ translated here as 'by the pen']. 'Qalam' refers to 'pen', and there are three types of pen: [ 1] the pen of destinies; [ 2] the pen of angels; and [ 3] the pen of human beings. It could refer to any or all of these types of pen. A pen is an object that is used for writing anything [ as is the view of Abu Hatim Al-Busti ]. According to Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas ؓ ، it specifically refers to the pen of destinies. Sayyidna ` Ubadah Ibn Samit ؓ narrates regarding the pen of destinies that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "The first thing Allah created was the pen, and He told it to write, and when it asked Him what it should write, He told it to write what was predestined, so it wrote what would take place to all eternity." [ Transmitted by At-Tirmidhi, saying that this is a Tradition whose chain of narrators is gharib ]. Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn ` Umar ؓ narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Allah recorded the destiny of all creatures 50, 000 years before creating the heavens and the earth." [ Sahib Muslim ]. Qatadah (رح) says that pen is a great gift of Allah that He has endowed upon His servants. Some scholars say that Allah first created the pen, and that was the pen of decrees which recorded the destinies of the entire universe and all the creatures. Then He created the second pen that is used by the inhabitants of the earth. The second pen is referred to in Surah Iqra' in verse [ 96:4], thus: عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ '{ He who} taught by the pen'. And Allah knows best!

If qalam 'pen' in the verse under comment refers to the pen of destinies, its greatness and its superiority over everything is quite obvious and swearing by it is quite understandable. If it is taken to refer to all pens in general, including the pen of destinies, the pen of angels, and also the pen of human beings, swearing an oath by it is apt because all great tasks are accomplished by pen. In the conquests of territories, pen play a mighty role: 'The pen is mightier than the sword' goes the famous saying. Abu HatimAl-Busti has encapsulated this idea in two short verses:

اذا اقسم الابطال یوما بسیفھم وَعدّوہ ممّا یکسب المجد وَ الکرم

When the brave people swear by their sword some day,

And count it among things that give honour and veneration to men,

کفٰی قلم الکتاب عزّا ورفعۃ مدی الدّھر انّ اللہ اقسم بالقلم

The writers' pen is sufficient for their honour and superiority

For all times to come, because Allah has sworn oath by the pen

In any case, it is immaterial whether the pen in the verse refers to the pen of destinies or it refers to the pen of creation in general. Then it swears an oath by مَا يَسْطُرُ‌ونَ 'what they write [ 1] '.

In other words, swearing an oath by what the pens have written or what they will record in the future, Allah refutes the unbelievers' false charge of madness that they made against the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، thus:

مَا أَنتَ بِنِعْمَةِ رَ‌بِّكَ بِمَجْنُونٍ (with the grace of your Lord, you are not insane....68:2). The verse contains the phrases بِنِعْمَةِ رَ‌بِّكَ (with the grace of your Lord....68:2). It states not only the claim, but also evidence to support and substantiate the statement of claim. [ See special note below.] Man is required to turn the pages of history, and he will realize that a person as great as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ، upon whom Allah has conferred great blessings and grace, cannot be insane. Calling such a sane person insane is itself insanity.

Special Note

Scholars have explained the Qur'anic concept of 'oath': Wherever Allah has sworn an oath by an object or a phenomenon, its subject has been cited as evidence or testimony to support and substantiate the claim. Here the phrase مَا يَسْطُرُ‌ونَ 'what they write [ 1] '. Is the proof of the claim, that is, world history has been cited as testimony for critics to look into the pages of history, if they can ever find a person of such lofty calibre as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ ، with high morals insane. He takes care of other people's sanity. The next verse reinforces the subject.

Which was revealed in Makkah

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

(Nun), is like Allah's saying,

(Sad), and Allah's saying,

(Qaf), and similar to them from the individual letters that appear at the beginning of Qur'anic chapters. This has been dis- cussed at length previously and there is no need to repeat it here.

The Explanation of the Pen Concerning

Allah's statement,

(By the pen) The apparent meaning is that this refers to the actual pen that is used to write. This is like Allah's saying,

(Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous. Who has taught by the pen. He has taught man that which he knew not.) (96:3-5) Therefore, this statement is Allah's swearing and alerting His creatures to what He has favored them with by teaching them the skill of writing, through which knowledge is attained. Thus, Allah continues by saying,

(and by what they Yastur.) Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and Qatadah all said that this means, "what they write." As-Suddi said, "The angels and the deeds of the servants they record." Others said, "Rather, what is meant here is the pen which Allah caused to write the decree when He wrote the decrees of all creation, and this took place fifty-thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth." For this, they present Hadiths that have been reported about the Pen. Ibn Abi Hatim recorded from Al-Walid bin `Ubadah bin As-Samit that he said, "My father called for me when he was dying and he said to me: `Verily, I heard the Messenger of Allah say,

(Verily, the first of what Allah created was the Pen, and He said to it: "Write." The Pen said: "O my Lord, what shall I write" He said: "Write the decree and whatever will throughout eternity.")" This Hadith has been recorded by Imam Ahmad through various routes of transmission. At-Tirmidhi also recorded it from a Hadith of Abu Dawud At-Tayalisi and he (At-Tirmidhi) said about it, "Hasan Sahih, Gharib."

Swearing by the Pen refers to the Greatness of the Prophet

Allah says,

(You, by the grace of your Lord, are not insane.) meaning -- and all praise is due to Allah -- `you are not crazy as the ignorant among your people claim. They are those who deny the guidance and the clear truth that you have come with. Therefore, they attribute madness to you because of it.'

(And verily, for you will be reward that is not Mamnun.) meaning, `for you is the great reward, and abundant blessings which will never be cut off or perish, because you conveyed the Message of your Lord to creation, and you were patient with their abuse.' The meaning of:

(not Mamnun) is that it will not be cut off. This is similar to Allah's statement,

(a gift without an end.) (11:108) and His statement,

(Then they shall have a reward without end.) (95:6) Mujahid said,

(Without Mamnun) means "Without reckoning." And this refers back to what we have said before.

The Explanation of the Statement: "Verily, You are on an Exalted Character."

Concerning Allah's statement,

(And verily, you are on an exalted (standard of) character.) Al-`Awfi reported from Ibn `Abbas, "Verily, you are on a great religion, and it is Islam." Likewise said Mujahid, Abu Malik, As-Suddi and Ar-Rabi` bin Anas. Ad-Dahhak and Ibn Zayd also said this. Sa`id bin Abi `Arubah reported from Qatadah that he said concerning Allah's statement,

(And verily, you are on an exalted (standard of) character.) "It has been mentioned to us that Sa`d bin Hisham asked `A'ishah about the character of the Messenger of Allah , so she replied: `Have you not read the Qur'an' Sa`d said: `Of course.' Then she said: `Verily, the character of the Messenger of Allah was the Qur'an."' `Abdur-Razzaq recorded similar to this and Imam Muslim recorded it in his Sahih on the authority of Qatadah in its full length. This means that he would act according to the commands and the prohibition in the Qur'an. His nature and character were patterned according to the Qur'an, and he abandoned his natural disposition (i.e., the carnal nature). So whatever the Qur'an commanded, he did it, and whatever it forbade, he avoided it. Along with this, Allah gave him the exalted character, which included the qualities of modesty, kindness, bravery, pardoning, gentleness and every other good characteristic. This is like that which has been confirmed in the Two Sahihs that Anas said, "I served the Messenger of Allah for ten years, and he never said a word of displeasure to me (Uff), nor did he ever say to me concerning something I had done: `Why did you do that' And he never said to me concerning something I had not done: `Why didn't you do this' He had the best character, and I never touched any silk or anything else that was softer than the palm of the Messenger of Allah . And I never smelled any musk or perfume that had a better fragrance than the sweat of the Messenger of Allah." Imam Al-Bukhari recorded that Al-Bara' said, "The Messenger of Allah had the most handsome face of all the people, and he had the best behavior of all of the people. And he was not tall, nor was he short." The Hadiths concerning this matter are numerous. Abu `Isa At-Tirmidhi has a complete book on this subject called Kitab Ash-Shama'il. Imam Ahmad recorded that `A'ishah said, "The Messenger of Allah never struck a servant of his with his hand, nor did he ever hit a woman. He never hit anything with his hand, except for when he was fighting Jihad in the cause of Allah. And he was never given the option between two things except that the most beloved of the two to him was the easiest of them, as long as it did not involve sin. If it did involve sin, then he stayed farther away from sin than any of the people. He would not avenge himself concerning anything that was done to him, except if the limits of Allah were transgressed. Then, in that case he would avenge for the sake of Allah." Imam Ahmad also recorded from Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah said,

(I have only been sent to perfect righteous behavior.) Ahmad was alone in recording this Hadith. In reference to Allah's statement,

(You will see, and they will see, which of you is afflicted with madness.) then it means, `you will know, O Muhammad -- and those who oppose you and reject you, will know -- who is insane and misguided among you.' This is like Allah's statement,

(Tomorrow they will come to know who is the liar, the insolent one!) (54:26) Allah also says,

(And verily (either) we or you are rightly guided or in plain error.) (34:24) Ibn Jurayj reported from Ibn `Abbas, it means "You will know and they will know on the Day of Judgement." Al-`Awfi reported from Ibn `Abbas;

(Which of you is Maftun (afflicted with madness) means which of you is crazy. This was also said by Mujahid and others as well. The literal meaning of Maftun is one who has been charmed or lured away from the truth and has strayed from it. Thus, the entire statement means, `so you will know and they will know,' or `you will be informed and they will be informed, as to which of you is afflicted with madness.' And Allah knows best. Then Allah says,

(Verily, your Lord is the best Knower of him who has gone astray from His path, and He is the best Knower of those who are guided.) meaning, `He knows which of the two groups are truly guided among you, and He knows the party that is astray from the truth.'