Interpretation of Sura al-Fatir - Verse 40

40.“Say: ‘Have you seen your associates on whom you call, apart from Allah? Show me what they have created in the earth; or have they a partnership in (the creation of) the heavens? Or have We given them a Book so that they follow a clear argument from it? Nay, the unjust promise each other nothing but delusions.”

Commentary

Islam is a logical religion. It awakens conscience of people by asking questions.

The Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) had a duty to speak with the opponents of Islam.

This verse is another decisive answer to the polytheists. It tells them that if a person follows something, or loves it, he must have a reasonable reasoning from intellect for it, or a reasoning from conclusive tradition, but you have neither of these two, and you have no support save delusion and pride. The verse says:

“Say: ‘Have you seen your associates on whom you call, apart from Allah? Show me what they have created in the earth; or have they a partnership in (the creation of) the heavens? …”

Yet, what is the reason of the polytheists’ worship? The act of being object of worship is a secondary thing to creative power. Now that you know that the creator of the heavens and the earth is only Allah, and there will be no object of worship except Him, because the Unity of divinity is always a reason upon the Unity of worship.

Now that it was proved that there is no intellectual reasoning for your claim, do you have any reasoning from tradition with you?

Or do you have a heavenly Book for it? The verse says:

“… Or have We given them a Book so that they follow a clear argument from it? …”

No, they have no clear proof from the Divine Books with them. Therefore, their capital for it is nothing save guile and delusion. In this regard, the verse says:

“… Nay, the unjust promise each other nothing but delusions.”

In other words, if the idolaters, and other polytheists of any kind and group, claim that the idols have a kind of power on the earth to provide their needs, they should deliver an example of their earthly creation.

And if they believe that these idols are the manifestation of the angels and heavenly sacred beings, as it was the belief of a group of them, they must show their participation in creation of the heavens.

And if they believe that these are not some partners in the creation, and only the rank of intercession has been given to them, as some of the polytheists believed, they must bring a proof from the heavenly Book for proving this claim.

Now that they have none of these proofs, then they are some unjust deceivers who tell each other false words.

It is notable that the purpose of ‘the earth and the heavens’ here is the entire creations on the earth and in the heavens, and the application of the word creation due to the earth and having a partnership in the creation of the heavens, points to this fact that ‘the partnership in the heavens’ should be by the way of creation.

And, the application of the Arabic word /kita-ban/, in an indefinite form and also concerned to Allah, is a hint to the fact that there is the least reasoning for their claim in neither of the heavenly Books.

The Arabic word /bayyinah/ points to this fact that the clear reasoning can be found in heavenly Books.

The application of the Qur’a-nic plural word /za-limu-n/ (the unjust) is another emphasis on this meaning that ‘polytheism’ is a clear ‘injustice’.

The application of ‘the promises of delusion’ is a hint to this fact that the polytheists used to take these superstitions and delusions from each other in the form of some hollow vain promises, and some of them transfer them to some others in the form of gossips and baseless imitations.

Adopted from the book : "The Light of the Holy Qur'an; Interpretation of Surah al-Fatir" by : "Sayyid Kamal Faghih Imani and a Group of Muslim Scholars"