وَإِذا غَشِيَهُم مَوجٌ كَالظُّلَلِ دَعَوُا اللَّهَ مُخلِصينَ لَهُ الدّينَ فَلَمّا نَجّاهُم إِلَى البَرِّ فَمِنهُم مُقتَصِدٌ ۚ وَما يَجحَدُ بِآياتِنا إِلّا كُلُّ خَتّارٍ كَفورٍ
When waves cover them like awnings, they invoke Allah, putting exclusive faith in Him. But when He delivers them towards land, [only] some of them remain unswerving. And no one will impugn Our signs except an ungrateful traitor.
EXEGESIS
Al-ẓulal (awnings) is the plural of al-ẓullah. It refers to what towers over and shades another from everything, such as a canopy or an awning or an overhead covering. Here, it refers to ocean waves that rise and tower over a ship. Rāghib writes that al-ẓullah is a cloud that shades or overshadows, and that this word is mainly used with respect to what is found to be unwholesome, disagreeable, and disliked or ominous and foreboding such as its usage in 26:189 and 7:171. Hence it is used with a negative and ominous connotation.
Muqtaṣid (unswerving) is an active participle and refers to a person who aims towards a right and just destination, or aims to that which is right and just, one who pursues a right or direct course in an affair, one who keeps to the right path or pursues the straight path, which is the path of monotheism.
Khattār (traitor) is an intensive active participle denoting an intensive meaning, and is derived from the noun khatr. The latter means treachery, perfidy, rather the worst kind of treachery. So khattār is a person who is very treacherous and betraying of trust, very deceitful, one who repeatedly breaks his covenant or promise. Here, the trust or the covenant is the covenant of the original nature (fițrah) on which every child is born.
Kafūr (ungrateful) is an intensive active participle. It means a person who is intensely obstinate and exceedingly ungrateful of God’s blessings, a determined rejecter of God.
EXPOSITION
When believers and disbelievers embark on a ship they may be suddenly overtaken by gigantic, terrifying waves that roll over each other like dark clouds. When this happens they seek refuge with God as this verse states, When waves cover them like awnings, meaning when frightful waves cover the ship’s passengers like an awning above them, as if shading them like a towering mountain, or like dark, ominous clouds. Hence, when they are suddenly confronted by this calamity, the veil, caused by whims and blind imitation, which had veiled their original natures, the nature on which they had been created, gets removed due to the intense fear of perishing at sea that afflicts them, they recognise that there is no way out and no means of being saved but by resorting to God for only He has the power and ability to save the ship and its passengers rather than any other being that may have been worshipped. Furthermore, a storm at sea may be seen as a parable for every affliction that besets human beings in life. That is when one may see human beings earnestly orienting themselves to God by means of prayer and invocation, they invoke Allah, in a state where they place exclusive faith in Him, rendering their pleas and invocations, in such a state, sincerely for God, precluding the idols and whatever it was that they were worshipping apart from God (6:63).
However, when the frightening situation passes and they safely arrive on land, the passengers become two groups. The virtuous believer remains steadfast on the dictates of his original nature after disembarking, [only] some of them remain unswerving on the straight path. They remain true and faithful to their pleas and promises made to God while at sea, and to the faith in one God which they had demonstrated and acknowledged at sea (6:63-64). They pursue the right, just, and direct course in this matter, which is the path of monotheism, intent on pursuing it as they had so fervently promised and intended at sea. This is the opinion attributed to a number of prominent early Muslim commentators such as ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd, Hasan al-Baṣrī, Ibn Abbas, and quoted by Ṭabrisī. The expression fa minhum ([only] some of them) denotes their paucity and them being only a part of the whole, which means that when God saves those praying to Him with dedication and delivers them to land, only a few of them remain unswervingly on faith.
As for the disbeliever, he turns on his heels and denies the signs of God, reneging on the natural, original covenant which he had acknowledged while at sea. Such a person forgets what he had witnessed with his very eyes of God’s signs, and reverts to his previous state of disbelief. God describes him as an ungrateful traitor (khattārin kafūr). The significance of these two descriptions has been detailed in the Exegesis section, and refers to a person who is exceedingly ungrateful of God’s blessings, thereby proving to be a serial traitor. As previously pointed out, these two descriptions are contraries of the two descriptions with which verse 31 terminates, that is patience and gratefulness.
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
In the context of this verse, the following anecdote is related of how ʿIkramah, the son of Abū Jahl, converted to the Muslim faith. Abū Jahl was one of the arch-enemies of the Muslim faith, while ʿIkramah was one of four people whose blood the Prophet had allowed to be shed with impunity. Suddī narrates the following from Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd, from his father: ‘On the day when Mecca was conquered, the Messenger of God (s) guaranteed the safety of the lives of all people save four individuals. He said: “Kill them even if you find them hanging to the drapes of the Kaaba.” These were ʿIkramah ibn Abī Jahl, ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Akhṭal, Qays ibn Ṣabābah, and ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī al-Sarḥ. ʿIkramah boarded a ship [in order to flee], but the ship sailed into a terrible tempest, whereupon the passengers said: “Pray sincerely [to the one God], for your deities cannot help you here at all.” ʿIkramah said: “If nothing save sincere belief in one God can save me in the middle of the sea then nothing save the same can save me on land. O God, I make a covenant with You. If you save me from what I find myself in, I shall approach Muhammad so that I may place my hand in his. I shall surely find him forgiving and benevolent.” Consequently, he went to the Prophet and accepted the faith.’
[1] Kashif, 4/168; Tabrisi, 8/505; Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 584; Munyah, 21/149.
[2] Kashif, 4/168; Tabrisi, 8/505; Tibyan, 8/288; Munyah, 21/149; Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 584.
[3] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 584.
[4] Tibyan, 8/288; Kashif, 4/168.
[5] Cited in Mizan, 16/237.
[6] Lane, 2/2589.
[7] Lane, 2/2589.
[8] Lane, 2/2589; Munyah, 21/149; Mizan, 16/237.
[9] Penrice, A Dictionary and Glossary of the Koran, p. 118.
[10] Mizan, 16/237; Munyah, 21/149.
[11] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 254.
[12] Mizan, 16/238; Kashif, 4/168.
[13] Mizan, 16/238; Munyah, 21/149.
[14] Mizan, 16/238.
[15] Safi, 4/151; Munyah, 21/149.
[16] Tibyan, 8/288; Tabrisi, 8/505; Kashif, 4/168.
[17] Qummi, 2/167; Tibyan, 8/288; Safi, 4/151.
[18] Kashif, 4/169.
[19] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 812.
[20] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 812.
[21] Tabrisi, 8/507; Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 812; Safi, 4/151.
[22] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 812.
[23] Tibyan, 8/288; Tabrisi, 8/506; Safi, 4/151; Munyah, 21/151.
[24] Safi, 4/151; Munyah, 21/151.
[25] Tibyan, 8/288; Tabrisi, 8/506; Kashif, 4/169.
[26] Tibyan, 8/288; Tabrisi, 8/506.
[27] Qummi, 2/167; Safi, 4/151; Mizan, 16/237; Munyah, 21/151.
[28] Tabrisi, 8/506.
[29] Munyah, 21/151.
[30] Mizan, 16/237.
[31] Tabrisi, 8/506.
[32] Mizan, 16/237-238; Munyah, 21/151.
[33] Mizan, 16/238.
[34] Tibyan, 8/288; Safi, 4/151; Munyah, 21/151.
[35] Munyah, 21/151.
[36] Munyah, 21/151.
[37] Tabrisi, 8/506-507.