Free Will & Moral Choice

BUT IF thou art amazed [at the marvels of God's creation], amazing, too, is their saying, "What! After we have become dust, shall we indeed be [restored to life] in a new act of creation?" It is they who [thus show that they] are bent on denying their Sustainer; and it is they who carry the shackles [of their own making] around their necks; and it is they who are destined for the fire, therein to abide.

AND [remember the time] when Abraham spoke [thus]:48 "O my Sustainer! Make this land secure, and preserve me and my children from ever worshipping idols50-

AND DO NOT think that God is unaware of what the evildoers are doing: He but grants them respite until the Day when their eyes will stare in horror,

[He will resurrect them] to the end that He might make clear unto them all whereon they [now] hold divergent views, and that they who are bent on denying the truth [of resurrection] might come to know that they were liars.

And God has given you [the ability to build] your houses as places of rest, and has endowed you with [the skill to make] dwellings out of the skins of animals - easy for you to handle when you travel and when you camp and [to make] furnishings and goods for temporary use of their [rough] wool and their soft, furry wool and their hair.

or any [other] substance which, to your minds, appears yet farther removed [from life]!" And [if] thereupon they ask, "Who is it that will bring us back [to life]?" - say thou: "He who has brought you into being in the first instance." And [if] thereupon they shake their heads at thee [in disbelief] and ask, "When shall this be?" - say thou: "It may well be soon,

And say [in thy prayer]: "O my Sustainer! Cause me to enter [upon whatever I may do] in a manner true and sincere, and cause me to leave [it] in a manner true and sincere, and grant me, out of Thy grace, sustaining strength!"

Such will be their requital for having rejected Our messages and having said, "After we will have become bones and dust, shall we, forsooth, be raised from the dead in a new act of creation?"

and say: "All praise is due to God, who begets no offspring," and has no partner in His dominion, and has no weakness, and therefore no need of any aid" - and [thus] extol His limitless greatness.

[Zachariah] exclaimed: "O my Sustainer! How can I have a son when my wife has always been barren and I have become utterly infirm through old age?"

[Zachariah] prayed: "O my Sustainer! Appoint a sign for me!" Said [the angel]: "Thy sign shall be that for full three nights [and days] thou wilt not speak unto men.

Excepted, however, shall be those who repent and attain to faith and do righteous deeds: for it is they who will enter paradise and will not be wronged in any way:46

Said [Moses]: "O my Sustainer! Open up my heart [to Thy light],

out of this [earth] have We created you, and into it shall We return you, and out of it shall We bring you forth once again.

And [know, O man] that the Last Hour is bound to come, beyond any doubt, and that God will [indeed] resurrect all who are in their graves.

seeing that it is He who gave you life, and then will cause you to die, and then will bring you back to life: [but,] verily, bereft of all gratitude is man!

Said [Noah]: "O my Sustainer! Succour me against their accusation of lying!"

Hence, [O believer,] say: "O my Sustainer! Grant [me] forgiveness and bestow Thy mercy [upon me]: for Thou art the truest bestower of mercy!"

And as for those who accuse chaste women [of adultery], and then are unable to produce four witnesses [in support of their accusation], flog them with eighty stripes; and ever after refuse to accept from them any testimony - since it is they, they that are truly depraved!

Why do not the believing men and women, whenever such [a rumour] is heard, think the best of one another and say, "This is an obvious falsehood"?

[In the nature of things,] corrupt women are for corrupt men, and corrupt men, for corrupt women just as good women are for good men, and good men, for good women. [Since God is aware that] these are innocent of all that evil tongues may impute to them, forgiveness of sins shall be theirs, and a most excellent sustenance!

AND [you ought to] marry the single from among you as well as such of your male and female slaves as are fit [for marriage]. If they [whom you intend to marry] are poor, [let this not deter you;] God will grant them sufficiency out of His bounty - for God is infinite [in His mercy], all-knowing.

AND [know that] women advanced in years, who no longer feel any sexual desire, incur no sin if they discard their [outer] garments, provided they do not aim at a showy display of [their] charms. But [even so,] it is better for them to abstain [from this]: and God is all-hearing, all-knowing.

And they [who now deny Our messages] must surely have come across that town which was rained upon by a rain of evil:35 have they, then, never beheld it [with their mind's eye]? But nay, they would not believe in resurrection!

and seeing that he who repents and [thenceforth] does what is right has truly turned unto God by [this very act of] repentance.

They answered: "We worship idols, and we remain ever devoted to them."

"O my Sustainer! Endow me with the ability to judge [between right and wrong], and make me one with the righteous,

[Whereupon] he prayed: "O my Sustainer! Behold, my people have given me the lie:

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NOW WHEN he arrived at the wells of Madyan, he found there a large group of men who were watering [their herds and flocks]; and at some distance from them he came upon two women who were keeping back their flock. He asked [them]: "What is the matter with you?" They answered: "We cannot water [our animals] until the herdsmen drive [theirs] home - for [we are weak and] our father is a very old man.

Say: "Go all over the earth and behold how [wondrously) He has created [man) in the first instance:15 and thus, too, will God bring into being your second life - for, verily, God has the power to will anything!

GOD CREATES [man] in the first instance, and then brings him forth anew:9 and, in the end, unto Him you all will be brought back.

And among his wonders is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your tongues and colours: for in this, behold, there are messages indeed for all who are possessed of [innate] knowledge!

And among His wonders is this: the skies and the earth stand firm at His behest. [Remember all this: for] in the end, when He will call you forth from the earth with a single call - lo! you will [all] emerge [for judgment].

[For Him,] the creation of you all and the resurrection of you all is but like [the creation and resurrection of] a single soul:26 for, verily, God is allhearing, all-seeing.

VERILY, in the Apostle of God you have a good example for everyone who looks forward (with hope and awe] to God and the Last Day, and remembers God unceasingly. 20 Lit., "and would not have tarried more than a little [while]". 21 Lit., "for then" or "in that case" (idhan), signifying here "however it may be". 22 Sc., "but would come back in force and resume the siege". 23 Lit.,"'they would not fight except a little". 24 This verse (and the passage that follows) connects with verses 9- above, and especially with verse 11 - "there and then were the believers tried, and shaken with a shock severe" - which summarizes, as it were, their experiences during the critical days and weeks of the War of the Trench. Although it is addressed, in the first instance, to those early defenders of Medina who were thus exhorted to emulate the Prophet's faith, courage and steadfastness, the above verse is timeless in its import and its validity for all situations and conditions. - Since the verb rajawa, as well as the noun-forms rajw, rujuww and raja' derived from it, carry the connotation of both "hope" and "fear" (or "awe"), I have rendered yarju accordingly.

O PROPHET! Say unto thy wives: "If you desire [but] the life of this world and its charms - well, then, I shall provide for you and release you in a becoming manner;

VERILY, for all men and women who have surrendered themselves unto God, and all believing men and believing women, and all truly devout men and truly devout women, and all men and women who are true to their word, and all men and women who are patient in adversity, and all men and women who humble themselves [before God], and all men and women who give in charity, and all self-denying men and selfdenying women, and all men and women who are mindful of their chastity, and all men and women who remember God unceasingly: for (all of] them has God readied forgiveness of sins and a mighty reward.

[And know, O believers, that] Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but is God's Apostle and the Seal of all Prophets. And God has indeed full knowledge of everything.

O YOU who have attained to faith! If you marry believing women and then divorce them ere you have touched them, you have no reason to expect, and to calculate, any waiting-period on their part:55 hence, make [at once] provision for them, and release them in a becoming manner. 50 I.e., he is the spiritual "father" of the whole community (cf. note 8 on verse 6 of this surah), and not of any one person or particular persons thus, incidentally, refuting the erroneous idea that physical descent from a prophet confers, by itself, any merit on the persons concerned. 51 I.e., the last of the prophets, just as a seal (khatam) marks the end of a document; apart from this, the term khatam is also synonymous with khitam, the "end" or "conclusion" of a thing: from which it follows that the message revealed through Muhammad the Qur'an - must be regarded as the culmination and the end of all prophetic revelation (cf. note 66 on the first sentence of the second paragraph of 5:48, and note 126 on 7:158). See also note 102 on 21:107. 52 Lit., "at morn and evening", i.e., at all times. 53 I.e., at His behest (Tabari). 54 Or: "yet [withal,] abstain from injuring them" (Zamakhshari) - depending on whether adhahum is taken to mean "the hurt caused by them" or "done by them". 55 Lit., "you have no waiting-period whatever upon them which you should count" - i.e., "which either of you should take into accoupt as an obligation": cf. the first part of 2:228, and the corresponding note 215. Since the question of pregnancy does not arise if the marriage has not been consummated, a waiting-penod on the part of the diyorced wife would be meaningless and of no benefit either to her or to her former husband. 56 This injunction, relating to certain marital problems which affect the believers in general, forms an introduction, as it were, to a resumption, in the next verse, of the discourse on the marital laws applying exclusively to the Prophet: thus, it connects with the passage beginning with the words, "O wives of the Prophet! You are not like any of the [other] women" (verse 32), as well as with the subsequent reference to his marriage with Zaynab (verses 37 f.). 30:50 O PROPHET! Behold, We have made lawful to thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowers, as well as those whom thy right hand has come to possess from among the captives of war whom God has bestowed upon thee:58 And [We have made lawful to thee] the daughters of thy paternal uncles and aunts, and the daughters of thy maternal uncles and aunts, who have migrated with thee [to Yathrib]; and any believing woman who offers herself freely to the Prophet and whom the Prophet might be willing to wed:60 [this latter being but] a privilege for thee, and not for other believers - [seeing that] We have already made known what We have enjoined upon them with regard to their wives and those whom their right hands may possess. [And] in order that thou be not burdened with [undue] anxiety - for God is indeed much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace -

[However,] it is no sin for them [to appear freely] before their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk, or such [male slaves] as their right hands may possess. But [always, O wives of the Prophet,72] remain conscious of God - for, behold, God is witness unto everything.

[And so it is] that God imposes suffering on the hypocrites, both men and women, as well as on the men and women who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him. And [so, too, it is] that God turns in His mercy unto the believing men and believing women: for God is indeed much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace! 87 The classical commentators give all kinds of laborious explanations to the term amanah ("trust") occurring in this parable, but the most convincing of them (mentioned in Lane 1, 102, with reference to the above verse) are "reason", or "intellect", and "the faculty of volition" - i.e., the ability to choose between two or more possible courses of action or modes of behaviour, and thus between good and evil. 88 Sc., "and then failed to measure up to the moral responsibility arising from the reason and the comparative free will with which he has been endowed" (Zamakhshari). This obviously applies to the human race as such, and not necessarily to all of its individuals. 89 In other words, on those who offend against what their own reason and conscience would have them do. This suffering, whether in this world or in the hereafter, is but a causal consequence - as the lam al-'aqibah at the beginning of this sentence shows - of man's moral failure, and not an arbitrary act of God. (Cf. in this connection note 7 on 2:7, which speaks of God's "sealing" the hearts of those who are bent on denying the truth.)

As against this, they who are bent on denying the truth say [unto all who are of like mind]: "Shall we point out to you a man who will tell you that [after your death,] when you will have been scattered in countless fragments, you shall - lo and behold! - be [restored to life] in a new act of creation?

ART THOU NOT aware that God sends down water from the skies, whereby We bring forth fruits of many hues - just as in the mountains there are streaks of white and red of various shades, as well as [others] raven-black,

Verily, We shall indeed bring the dead back to life; and We shall record whatever [deeds] they have sent ahead, and the traces [of good and evil] which they have left behind: for of all things do We take account in a record clear.

Say: "He who brought them into being in the first instance will give them life [once again], seeing that He has full knowledge of every act of creation:

except an old woman who was among those that stayed behind;

he prayed: "O my Sustainer! Forgive me my sins, and bestow upon me the gift of a kingdom which may not suit anyone after me:33 verily, Thou alone art a giver of gifts!"

He has created you [all] out of one living entity, and out of it fashioned its mate; and he has bestowed upon you four kinds of cattle of either sex; [and] He creates you in your mothers' wombs, one act of creation after another, in threefold depths of darkness. Thus is God, your Sustainer: unto Him belongs all dominion: there is no deity save Him: how, then, can you lose sight of the truth?

For among His signs is this: thou seest the earth lying desolate - and lo! when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells [with life]! Verily, He who brings it to life can surely give life to the dead [of heart as well]: for, behold, He has the power to will anything.

And He it is who sends down, again and again, waters from the sky in due measure: and [as] We raise therewith dead land to life, even thus will you be brought forth [from the dead].

ARE, THEN, they [who deny the life to come] not aware that God, who has created the heavens and the earth and never been wearied by their creation, has [also) the power to bring the dead back to life? Yea, verily, He has the power to will anything!

[And can] the parable of the paradise which the God-conscious are promised - [a paradise] wherein there are rivers of water which time does not corrupt, and rivers of milk the taste whereof never alters, and rivers of wine delightful to those who drink it, and rivers of honey of all impurity cleansed, and the enjoyment of all the fruits [of their good deeds] and of forgiveness from their Sustainer -: can this [parable of paradise] be likened unto [the parable of the recompense of16] such as are to abide in the fire and be given waters of burning despair to drink, so that it will tear their bowels asunder?

Know, then, [O man,] that there is no deity save God, and [while there is yet time,] ask forgiveness for thy sins and for [the sins of] all other believing men and women: for God knows all your comings and goings as well as your abiding [at rest].

[and] that He might admit the believers, both men and women, into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide, and that He might efface their [past bad] deeds: and that is, in the sight of God, indeed a triumph supreme!

And [God has willed] to impose suffering [in the life to come] on the hypocrites, both men and women, and on those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, both men and women: all who entertain evil thoughts about God. Evil encompasses them from all sides, and God's condemnation rests upon them; and He has rejected them [from His grace], and has readied hell for them: and how evil a journey's end!

O YOU who have attained to faith! No men shall deride [other] men: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better than themselves; and no women [shall deride other] women: it may well be that those [whom they deride] are better than themselves. And neither shall you defame one another, nor insult one another by [opprobrious] epithets: evil is all imputation of iniquity after [one has attained to] faith; and they who [become guilty thereof and] do not repent - it is they, they who are evildoers!

O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

and that [therefore] it is within His power to bring about a second life;

O you who live in close communion with [evil] invisible beings and humans! If you [think that you] can pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, pass beyond them! [But] you cannot pass beyond them, save by a sanction [from God]!

from changing the nature of your existence and bringing you into being [anew] in a manner [as yet] unknown to you.

on the Day when thou shalt see all believing men and believing women, with their light spreading rapidly before them and on their right, [and with this welcome awaiting them:] "A glad tiding for you today: gardens through which running-waters flow, therein to abide! This, this is the triumph supreme!"

On that Day shall the hypocrites, both men and women, speak [thus) unto those who have attained to faith: "Wait for us! Let us have a [ray of] light from your light!" [But] they will be told: "Turn back, and seek a light [of your own]!" And thereupon a wall will be raised between them [and the believers], with a gate in it: within it will be grace and mercy, and against the outside thereof, suffering.

And so, they who come after them pray: "O our Sustainer! Forgive us our sins, as well as those of our brethren who preceded us in faith, and let not our hearts entertain any unworthy thoughts or feelings against [any of] those who have attained to faith. O our Sustainer! Verily, Thou art compassionate, a dispenser of grace!"

O YOU who have attained to faith! Whenever believing women come unto you, forsaking the domain of evil, examine them, [although only] God is fully aware of their faith; and if you have thus ascertained that they are believers, do not send them back to the deniers of the truth, [since] they are [no longer] lawful to their erstwhile husbands, and these are [no longer] lawful to them. None the less, you shall return to them whatever they have spent [on their wives by way of dower]; and [then, O believers,] you will be committing no sin if you marry them after giving them their dowers. On the other hand, hold not to the marriage-tie with women who [continue to] deny the truth, and ask but for [the return of] whatever you have spent [by way of dower] - just as they [whose wives have gone over to you] have the right to demand [the return of] whatever they have spent. Such is God's judgment: He judges between you [in equity] - for God is all-knowing, wise.

And if any of your wives should go over to the deniers of the truth, and you are thus afflicted in turn, then give unto those whose wives have gone away the equivalent of what they had spent [on their wives by way of dower], and remain conscious of God, in whom you believe!

O YOU who have attained to faith! When the call to prayer is sounded on the day of congregation, hasten to the remembrance of God, and leave all worldly commerce: this is for your own good, if you but knew it.

It is they who say [to their compatriots 8], "Do not spend anything on those who are with God's Apostle, so that they [may be forced to] leave." However, unto God belong the treasures of the heavens and the earth: but this truth the hypocrites cannot grasp.

O PROPHET! When you [intend to divorce women, divorce them with a view to the waiting period appointed for them, and reckon the period [carefully], and be conscious of God, your Sustainer. Do not expel them from their homes; and neither shall they [be made to] leave unless they become openly guilty of immoral conduct. These, then, are the bounds set by God - and he who transgresses the bounds set by God does indeed sin against himself: [for, O man, although] thou knowest it not, after that [first breach] God may well cause something new to come about.

O PROPHET! Why dost thou, out of a desire to please [one or another of] thy wives, impose [on thyself] a prohibition of something that God has made lawful to thee? But God is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace:

O you who have attained to faith! Turn unto God in sincere repentance:16 it may well be that your Sustainer will efface from you your bad deeds, and will admit you into gardens through which running waters flow, on a Day on which God will not shame the Prophet and those who share his faith:17 their light will spread rapidly before them, and on their right; [and] they will pray: "O our Sustainer! Cause this our light to shine for us forever, and forgive us our sins: for, verily, Thou hast the power to will anything!"

VERILY, man is born with a restless disposition.

and [then] He will bring you forth [from it] in resurrection.

And Noah prayed: "O my Sustainer! Leave not on earth any of those who deny the truth:

"O my Sustainer! Grant Thy forgiveness unto me and unto my parents, and unto everyone who enters my house as a believer, and unto all believing men and believing women [of later times]; and grant Thou that the doers of evil shall increasingly meet with destruction!"

Does man think that We cannot [resurrect him and] bring his bones together again?

and the moon is darkened,

and the sun and the moon are brought together -

And We have created you in pairs;

and then, if it be His will, He shall raise him again to life,

They will be given a drink of pure wine whereon the seal [of God] will have been set,

Verily, as for those who persecute believing men and believing women, and thereafter do not repent, hell's suffering awaits them: yea, suffering through fire awaits them!

Behold, it is He who creates [man] in the first instance, and He [it is who] will bring him forth anew.

Now, verily, He [who thus creates man in the first instance] is well able to bring him back [to life]

Consider the human self, and how it is formed in accordance with what it is meant to be,

Consider the creation of the male and the female!

Verily, We create man in the best conformation;

Woe, then, unto those praying ones