Surah Luqman , 31....Epilogue

THE SURAH GOES ON TO EXPOUND GOD'S grace for which humans should be grateful. It says:

See ye not how Allah hath made serviceable unto you whatsoever is in the skies and whatsoever is in the earth and hath loaded you with His favours both without and within? Yet of mankind is he who disputeth concerning Allah, without knowledge or guidance or a scripture giving light. (20)

It continues in this vein until it says:

Hast thou not seen how the ships glide on the sea by Allah's grace, that He may show you of His wonders? Lo! therein indeed are portents for every steadfast, grateful (heart). (31) 

The surah ends with an affirmation of individual human accountability. It says:

O mankind! Keep your duty to your Lord and fear a Day when the parent will not be able to avail the child in aught, nor the child to avail the parent. Lo! Allah's promise is the very truth. Let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the deceiver beguile you, in regard to Allah. (33)

The fact of the matter is that every man is a maker of his own destiny; if saved it will be because of his good deeds, or else his evil deeds will bring about his downfall. We read elsewhere in the Qur'an that: " And no burdened soul can bear another's burden, and if one heavy laden crieth for (help with) his load, naught of it will be lifted even though he (unto whom he crieth) be of kin. Thou warnest only those who fear their Lord in secret, and have established worship. He who groweth (in goodness), groweth only for himself, (he cannot by his merit redeem others). Unto Allah is the journeying. "(al-Fatir : 18) 

The surah then goes on to deny that any soothsayer or oracle can see in the future or have prior knowledge of what is to come. It says:

Lo! Allah! With Him is knowledge of the Hour. He sendeth down the rain, and knoweth that which is in the wombs. No soul knoweth what it will earn to-morrow, and no soul knoweth in what land it will die. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware. (34)

Weather forecasting, for example, would not be classified as soothsaying because it is the result of inferences based on the intelligent study of certain physical and meteorological phenomena. Neither would other scientific and medical processes such as ultrasonic scanners to determine the sex of a baby during pregnancy. What the surah refers to is the ability to encompass full and total knowledge of what the female creatures all over the world are likely to carry in their wombs, for all time everywhere.


" A Thematic Commentary On The Qur'an "
Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazal





Commentary by Shaykh Tawfique Chowdhury
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xwrZ65cqSE




Commentary by Ustaz Asim Khan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5kT8Z3VBgk&spfreload=5