55: The Beneficent (Ar-Rahman)

Al-Raḥmān is the Beneficent God Who brought things into existence for the sustenance of man before his creation. Man has not earned them. The same Beneficent God, we are here told, has taught the Quran, which is a necessity for the spiritual life of man. It is a Divine gift for the spiritual sustenance of man, like so many gifts for his physical sustenance.

Everything created, from those large bodies in the heavens to the smallest herbs that grow on land, follows a law. Is not, then, a law needed for the spiritual perfection of man? Najm means star as well as herb.

The word mīzān in the Quran does not signify a pair of scales for weighing things, but a measure, as signifying any standard of comparison, estimation, or judgment, and the term is here, as elsewhere, used in this broad sense. See 57:25, where the mīzān is that which enables people to be just in their actions. See also 42:17 footnote.

The husk or the outer covering is generally considered to be a worthless thing. In speaking of it as one of the bounties of God it is hinted that even the husk can be turned into a useful and valuable thing. In contrast with the husk is mentioned the fragrance, which resembles the spirit in the body. Neither should the outer form of the Divine law be considered to be a thing of no use, nor should the spirit of the law be neglected.

This verse is repeated several times in this chapter. In the original the dual form is used rather than the plural, and thus what is translated here as your Lord is the Lord of you two. The dual form is sometimes used in Arabic to give force to the meaning. If the dual is taken literally, the two classes addressed are the believers and the disbelievers or the strong and the weak, divisions which are of frequent occurrence in the Quran. Believers and disbelievers are specially referred to in the concluding words of the last chapter (54:47–55).

For the creation of jinn from fire see 7:12, 15:27 and footnotes there, where it is contrasted with the creation of man from earth.

The two Easts and the two Wests signify the different points of the horizon at which the sun rises and sets at the summer and winter solstice. In modern terminology, the two Easts are the Near or the Middle East and the Far East; the two Wests are Europe and America.

The two seas are mentioned in 25:53 and 35:12 as the sweet-water sea and the salt-water sea. See footnote on 25:53. In 35:12, as here, it is stated also that from both seas fresh flesh and ornaments are obtained; the significance being that useful men would continue to arise from among both believers and non-believers. Some understand that the Red and the Mediterranean Seas are meant. These seas were separated formerly, but are now united by the Suez Canal, and the verse is considered to contain a prophetical mention of this union.

The two armies here are the believers and the disbelievers, and Allah’s applying Himself to them signifies the judging of their case so that each should have its reward or punishment.

The jinn and the people of this verse are the great and the small opponents of the Holy Prophet or the foreigners and the Arabs. (Editor’s Note: The words “You cannot pass through but with authority” may also be rendered as: “You cannot escape from the kingdom (of Allah)”. This may be a reference to man’s flights into space, the meaning being that man cannot escape the laws and judgment of God whether on the earth or anywhere beyond it.)

This seems to be a reference to the terrible weapons of modern warfare. See also 73:17–18.

The reward of the righteous is spoken of here as two Gardens, i.e., a Garden in this life and a Garden in the Hereafter. The Garden of this life is the spiritual bliss which the righteous find here in the doing of good, of which gardens and rivers and fruits are symbols. There may also be a deeper reference here to the worldly conquests which the Muslims were promised.

So far as there is a description of the spiritual blessings of the Hereafter in these words, see 52:20 footnote. So far as it relates to this life, the chaste and modest wives of the faithful are meant.

The faithful are spoken of in the next chapter as belonging to two classes: the ordinary believers, or those on the right hand, and the foremost (56:8, 10); hence the two Gardens of this verse as compared with the two Gardens of v. 46; or, by the two Gardens of v. 46, are meant the Gardens of the Hereafter and by the two Gardens of this verse are meant the Gardens of this world.

See v. 58 footnote and 52:20 footnote.