The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 451
CH. 16 أَفَمَنْ يَخْلُقُ كَمَنْ لا يَخْلُقُ أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ PT. 14 AN-NAHL 18. Is He, then, Who creates like one who creates not? Will you not then take heed?1819 b وَ اِنْ تَعُدُّوا نِعْمَةَ اللهِ لَا تُحْصُوهَا And if you try to count the. 19 favours of Allah, you will not be able to number them. Surely, Allah is Most Merciful. 1820 Forgiving, "14:35. distance he has traversed in his journey towards his Eternal Abode and how much of it remains. On his way to the Eternal Abode the Prophets serve as guiding stars for him. Being guided and led by them he safely marches on to his spiritual goal. And, like the stars, the Prophets also are inter-related. Just as the knowledge of the position of one star enables the wayfarer to know the position of another, similarly one Prophet foretells the advent of the Prophet who is to come after him and so on. Thus belief in one Prophet helps man to know and recognize other Prophets and to advance in faith. Moses spoke of the Prophets who were to come after him and the latter foretold the advent of those who in turn were to follow them. Thus all the Prophets guided men to the Holy Prophet of Islam, the Sun and Centre of the spiritual firmament. This is why it is incumbent upon Muslims to believe in them all. 1819. Commentary: To a superficial observer the form of the question embodied in this verse would seem to be rather queer. If a اِنَّ اللهَ لَغَفُورٌ رَّحِيمُ comparison of the relative powers of God and the pseudo-gods was intended by the question, the natural form would have been "Is he who does not create like Him Who creates"? But the fact is that the question does not refer to the relative powers of the True God and the false gods. It only continues the theme of the preceding verses in the present verse, viz. the need for Divine revelation. The pseudo-gods have the power to bestow on man neither material nor spiritual blessings. They can reveal no guidance. But the True God Who creates and bestows all physical and spiritual blessings on man certainly cannot be like the false gods of the idolaters who are quite unable to give any spiritual guidance. Being Almighty the True God can and will continue to reveal guidance to man. This sense of the verse is corroborated by the next verse. This is the significance of the comparison contained in this verse 1659 1820. Commentary: The present verse continues the theme of the previous one and points out that when physical blessings