The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 276
CH. 13 AR-RA'D PT. 13 وَهُوَ الَّذِي مَدَّ الْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ فِيهَا And He it is Who spread out. 4 رَوَاسِيَ وَأَنْهُرًا وَمِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ جَعَلَ mountains and rivers. And fruit b the earth and made therein of every kind He made therein night to cover the day. Therein, فِيهَا زَوْجَيْنِ اثْنَيْنِ يُغْشِ الَّيْلَ النَّهَارَ in two sexes. He causes the لَأَيْتٍ اِنَّ فِي ذلِكَ لايت لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ verily, are Signs for a people who reflect. 1615 "15:20; 16:16; 21:32. 36:37; 51:50. 7:55; 39:6. same divine law operates in the spiritual realm. When God desires to make a man succeed, He needs no material or visible means for it. He works in subtle ways that remain hidden from human gaze till the end is reached; and that which man in his ignorance regards as impossible becomes possible. The expression, Then He settled Himself on the Throne, means that just as God first created the celestial bodies without any visible support and then began to manifest His attributes in a perfect manner, similarly in the spiritual world He has brought to perfection the spiritual firmament through the Holy Prophet; and now through the perfect teaching given to him, God's attributes are going to find their complete manifestation. The word or Throne, for which see 7:55, is used in the Quran to express the bringing to perfection of spiritual or physical laws. The expression is analogous to the ways of worldly monarchs. The rulers and monarchs of this world make their important proclamations "from the throne. " To keep up the metaphor the clause, He settled Himself on the Throne, is intended to 1484 express the perfect manifestation of Divine attributes, meaning thereby that when a new spiritual heaven and a new earth have come into being, Divine attributes will necessarily find their requisite manifestation. See also 10:4. The words, pressed the sun and the moon into service, mean that God has not only caused the heavenly bodies to stand without the support of pillars, but has also subjected them to the service of man. Man's paid servants may, and indeed sometimes do, shirk their duty, but these heavenly bodies, in obedience to divine laws, serve us with perfect regularity and faithful- ness. What wonder then if God should have enforced the same inexorable law in favour of the Holy Prophet and should have subjected everything to his service? The expression, He regulates all affairs, is also intended to signify that God will make all things serve the cause of the Prophet. The whole universe will, as it were, become his servant. 1615. Commentary: This verse points to the law of nature that heaven and earth work in