The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 70
CH. 10 R. 8. YŪNUS PT. 11 وَاتْلُ عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَانُوحٍ إِذْ قَالَ لِقَوْمِهِ And recite unto them the. 72 story of Noah, when he said to يُقَوْمِ اِنْ كَانَ كَبُرَ عَلَيْكُمْ مَّقَامِ his people, “O my people, if وَتَذْكِيْرِي بِايْتِ اللَّهِ فَعَلَى اللَّهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ my station with God and my reminding you of your duty فَاجْمِعُوا أَمْرَكُمُ وَشُرَكَاءَكُمْ ثُمَّ لَا through the Signs of Allah offend you and in Allah do I a71:8. decay and death. The earth, the sun and the moon, for instance, have no issue because they are above the familiar law of death and decay; but animals and plants wither and die. Therefore they produce their substitutes which take their place when they are gone. Thus the existence of the progeny of a thing presupposes its mortality. The second argument is embodied in the words, He is Self-Sufficient, which mean that in His work of running the universe God does not need anybody's help. Progeny, besides saving a person from extinction, helps him to carry on his work. But God being Self-Sufficient needs no helper in that respect either. The third argument is contained in the sentence, To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth. Sometimes one can make or originate a thing but lacks the power or ability to keep it in his possession or under his control and therefore needs assistance. But God does not need anybody's help to keep the universe in His possession or under His control. the expression, You have no authority for this, which signifies that the doctrine of the plurality of gods is based on no sound or solid ground. Its whole basis lies in the fancy and caprice of men. This fact alone constitutes an argument against this foolish doctrine. All efforts to find some real evidence in support of shirk, do not go beyond mere indulgence in idle philosophical discussion, and no real basis has so far been found for it. The argument embodied in the words, Do you say against Allah what you know not?, is given in 13:34, in the words, Would you inform Him of what He does not know in the earth? The difference in the wording is due to the fact that in the verse under comment it is pointed out that shirk springs from the ignorance of man and is not based on any sound reasoning, while in 13:34 it is said that the doctrine of shirk involves the charge of ignorance on the part of God, for it means that He failed to know and make known the existence of gods and it was left to idolaters to disclose the godhead of their deities The fourth argument is implied in by the force of their own knowledge. 1278