The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 487
PT. 14 AN-NAHL CH. 16 وَيَعْبُدُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللهِ مَا لَا يَمْلِكُ And they worship beside. 74 Allah such as have no power to لَهُمُ رِزْقًا مِّنَ السَّمَوتِ وَالْأَرْضِ شَيْئًا bestow on them any gift from وَلَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ the heavens or the earth, nor can they ever have such power. 1874 "10:19; 22:72; 29:18. a a perfection and that perfection demands that the creation of man must have a purpose, for purposeless creation suggests defective Creator. Again, if man were considered to have been created with a purpose, the fulfilment of that purpose would necessarily require an afterlife, for evidently such a purpose is incapable of being fulfilled in the brief span of man's terrestrial existence. Now the purpose which requires limitless and infinite life for its fulfilment must be highly noble and sublime and so the Law which is intended to accomplish it must also proceed from God Himself. Thus the subjects of the Unity of God and the need of revealed guidance have been mentioned in support of each other in different forms in these verses and just as in the physical world we see that things receive support from one another, similarly in the spiritual realm various parts of the spiritual edifice support one another in order to establish the one supreme truth of the Oneness of God and the Unity and uniformity of creation. The verse adduces another argument in support of the Unity of Godhead, viz. the human instinct of private possession. It was pointed out in the previous verse that the exclusive possession of wealth and power by certain individuals makes it necessary that there should be a revealed Law to maintain equality and justice between different classes. In this verse it is stated that the instinct of private possession prompts man to transmit his property to his natural heirs and not to strangers. How then can he, in fairness to God, dare set up 'partners' who should share Godhead with Him and thus set the seal on his ingratitude to Him? The way in which man displays his ingratitude to God is dealt with in the next verse. 1874. Commentary: This verse exposes the stupidity of the course followed by polytheists. It purports to say that while they cannot bear to see their property going into the possession of anyone save their own natural descendants, in the case of God they attribute His powers and authority to persons upon whom He has bestowed no such privilege. This course is all the more unjust because the property which they call their own is really not theirs but is entrusted to them by God. If in spite of the fact that they are not the real owners of the property which is in their possession, they consider themselves competent to bequeath it to anyone they like, why should it not 1695