Can you explain the expression “Then, do they not look at what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and earth?” taking place in the 9th ayah (verse) of the surah (chapter of the Holy Qur’an) Saba’?

Can you explain the expression “Then, do they not look at what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and earth?” taking place in the 9th ayah (verse) of the surah (chapter of the Holy Qur’an) Saba’?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Surah Saba’, the 9^th ayah: “Then, do they not look at what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and earth? If We should will, We could cause the earth to swallow them or [could] let fall upon them fragments from the sky. Indeed in that is a sign for every servant turning back [to Allah].”

The explanation of the ayah: Did those unbelievers not see the heavens and the earth surrounding them from all sides? Man sees the heaven and the earth wherever he turns and looks before and behind himself and on his right and left. They indicate the uniqueness of the Creator. By contemplating it, do they not comprehend that the One who has created the earth and the heavens can give life to men after their deaths?

After that, Almighty Allah has threatened them by His following word: If we wish, we cause the earth to swallow them as we had done to Croesus; or we let fragments fall upon them as we had done to the people of Madyan. Where will they escape, then?

Ibn Jawzi states the following: That is, wherever they are, my earth and heaven surround them. I have power over them. If I wish, I will cause the earth to swallow them or I will let fragments fall upon them. (Za’d al-masir, 6/435)

Doubtlessly, in the things from the work of arts manifesting Allah’s unity and power they see, there are evidences and examples for every person who repents and turns to Allah and who contemplates the things he sees.

Ibn Kathir says: Almighty Allah wishes this: The One who is able to create those high and huge heavens and long and wide places has power over changing the bodies to their former form and gathering the decayed bones. (Mukhtasar Ibn Kathir, 3/122)

(See Muhammad Ali As Sabuni, Safwat at- Tafasir, Ansar Publications: 5/124.)

In the ayah, the minds and consciences of the disbelievers are addressed.

“Did they not see what is before them and what is behind them of the heaven and earth (clear documents, proving evidences)?” 

Every being of the heaven and the earth, every system and every order that can be observed clearly denote the existence and the unity of the One who regulates and keeps everything in order. 

Man sees thousands of kinds of plants when he runs an eye over his surrounding, and he sees hundreds of systems when he lifts his head up and looks.

That seven tenths of the earth’s surface is covered with water, that the atmosphere layer has a certain ratio, that the earth spins around both itself and around the sun in a certain eclipse without any deviation, defect or mistake prove the existence of the One who has absolute power, absolute control over everything and who manages everything beyond perfection and that fact rejects every kinds of doubts and uncertainty.    

It cannot be asserted that that such orderly, harmonious, minute and rational mechanism and the system it is bound to came into existence by themselves.

However, if man does not see so much proof like a blind person and if he does not hear Allah’s call, which warns and addresses minds like a deaf person, surely he cannot see and comprehend the Divine Power and the art, and the dominical raising and collimation.

However, if he uses his mind, reason and conscience, and gets out of prejudice and considers the wisdom, the aim and the service of everything directed towards its aim, and also the plan and the law it is bound to and tries to come to a conclusion, then the Divine light of entering the right way rises in his heart and he believes that disclaiming Allah is meaningless; and as he believes, he gets closer to the truth and in the end he submits to Allah. ”     

The ayah in question reflects that wisdom. If the Divine Power keeping the order and the balance mentioned above wishes, in a split second, He makes a decision and causes the earth to swallow the ones going extreme in unbelief and fierceness or He sends a heavenly disaster upon them.

We should not forget that the proofs, the documents, the ayahs and the systems that they are bound to surrounding man from his four sides present advice and a lesson for the ones using their minds.

(See Celal Yıldırım, İlmin Işığında Kur’an Tefsiri, Anadolu Publication:  10/4923-4924.)

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