ما لَكُم لا تَرجونَ لِلَّهِ وَقارًا
What is the matter with you that you do not look upon Allah with veneration.
EXEGESIS
The particle mā in Arabic is used both as a negation particle (not) as well as an interrogative particle (what?). So the expression mā lakum can mean: you do not have (2:107, 7:59, 7:65, 9:116, 11:50, 29:25, 40:33, 42:47, 45:34), or the rhetorical question: what is (the matter) with you? (4:75, 6:119, 9:38, 10:35, 37:25, 37:92, 37:154, 57:8, 57:10, 68:36, 71:13). The latter is the case in this verse, which implies: What is wrong with you?, What reason do you have for this behaviour?, What excuse do you still have?, and so forth.
Tarjūna (you look upon) comes from rajā, which can mean both hope (amal) as well as its opposite, fear (khawf), depending on the context.
And waqār (from tawqīr) is to conduct oneself in a dignified manner, but also ‘to be in awe of’ with regards to God, and hence holds a synonymous meaning to taʿẓīm (veneration).
Lā tarjūna li-llāhi waqāra (you do not look upon Allah with veneration) has therefore been interpreted to mean: Why do you not fear Allah and stand in awe of His greatness?, as well as: Why do you not place your hope (rajāʾ) in Allah instead of others, and magnify and venerate Him instead of false gods?
EXPOSITION
The reason Prophet Noah (a) asks them to look upon Allah with veneration is that the lack of this veneration is why they disobeyed Him and were hopeless of His mercy. And this is perhaps why all the matters that Prophet Noah (a) mentions after this verse, until verse 20, highlight God’s attributes that are related to His actions (al-ṣifāt al-fiʿliyyah) rather than the attributes of His essence (al-ṣifāt al-dhātiyyah), to prove His mercy and love for His creation.
The idol worshippers may have sought to have a god whom they can behold and in whose presence they felt awe (waqār). Having lost the ability to see God with their hearts, they turned to physical forms and took gods from the angels, jinn, and even animals, that were majestic in their eyes. Even if they believed in one supreme being, he was simply the creator of the gods. But it was these gods, they insisted, that held the power to benefit or harm them: We only worship them so that they may bring us near to Allah (39:3).
So the arguments placed before them, in the next set of verses until verse 20, is as follows: What has led you to negate the lordship of Allah and not to look upon Him with veneration (verse 13), when you know He created you (verse 14), the earth (verse 19), the heavens (verse 15), the celestial bodies (verse 16), and so on, and that He regulates the affairs therein and He is your only sustainer and provider? In a sense, it is similar to the verse: O man! What has deceived you about your generous Lord, who created you and proportioned you, and gave you an upright nature? (82:6-7).
Prophet Noah (a) is seen as encouraging his people to introspectively observe their own creation (verses 14 and 17-18) as well as to look around and reflect on the creation of the world and how it functions (verses 15-16 and 19-20) and then think whether the idols that they hewed with their own hands could have brought all this into existence? They do not regard Allah with the regard due to Him (39:67).
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Suyūṭī says, What is the matter with you that you do not look upon Allah with veneration could also mean: What is the matter with you that you do not feel ashamed before Allah, because ʿAbd al-Razzāq in his al-Muṣannaf reports from Imam Ali (a) that the Prophet once saw a group of people bathing naked, without even a loincloth on them. So he stopped and called out at the top of his voice, (reciting this verse): ‘What is the matter with you that you do not look upon Allah with veneration [71:13]?’ And in a fourth interpretation, Suyūṭī also quotes Bayhaqī from Imam al-Hasan (a) concerning this verse, that he said (it means): ‘What is the matter with you that you do not recognise any right of Allah nor thank Him for any blessing.’
Ṭabrisī and Ālūsī have argued that since waqār (veneration) suggests majesty (ʿaẓamah), the use of rajāʾ (hope) in tarjūna here signifies the opposite, which is fear (khawf), and therefore the verse means to say: How is that you do not stand in fear before Allah’s majesty? Or: Why are you not in awe of Allah’s exaltedness, that He deserves, such that you would not associate with Him (anyone or anything) and you would obey Him? But others, like Rāzī, flatly reject this transposing of an opposite meaning, in this case khawf (fear) on the actual word used, tarjūna from rajāʾ (hope); and he, as do others, interpret the verse more literally, to read: How is it that you do not hope that Allah will honour you and magnify you (in this life, in the hereafter, or both) if you believe? Rāzī is, in fact, emphatic, arguing ‘such a transposition [of the word hope to its opposite meaning of fear] is unacceptable to me’ because it gives reports and traditions a preference over the apparent meaning of the verse. Which is strange of Rāzī because, later, when interpreting the verse: Indeed they did not hope for (yarjūna) any reckoning (78:27), he seems to agree with ‘many exegetes’ who say the words ‘they did not hope (la yarjūna)’ should be interpreted and understood as ‘they did not fear (yakhāfūna)’ because it refers to the faithless who would not be expected to hope for any reckoning. The same can be argued here – the faithless that Prophet Noah (a) is addressing would not hope from Allah. It would be more appropriate to assume that Prophet Noah (a) would be asking them: Why do you not fear … Or: not stand in awe of God. Rāzī, in fact, even references the verse under discussion as proof for his interpretation of 78:27.
Maybudī sees this verse as related to the next. In other words: What is with you that you do not hope for Allah with dignity? is to be interpreted in relation to: When He created you in stages (verse 14). He explains:
‘What has happened to you that you do not show gratitude for blessings and you do not recognise the rightful due of My nurturing, even though you know from what you were created and how you were created, state by state, and stage by stage [71:14]? First I brought a sperm-drop from weak loins into a weak womb. I kept it in that firm settledness [77:21] and fortified place. Look at how I painted it with the pen of power. I turned that drop of water into blood and turned that blood into flesh. Then I brought forth bones and joined them together. When the formed and determined frame was completed, I commanded the subtle spirit to go into the body, like a sultan to a castle or a phoenix to its nest, so that it might give a robe of honour to each bodily part: seeing to the eye, speaking to the tongue, hearing to the ear, taking to the hand, walking to the feet. O servant, I adorned you beautifully, in the most beautiful stature [95:4]. I refined your stature, I created you more beautiful than all the beings, and I sculpted you more lovely than all the existent things.
‘The wise Enactor, the generous Lord, added to the beauty of form and showed you the marvels of power in your own created disposition. He adorned your heart with tawḥīd, scouring away the rust of denial. What do you say about His wisdom and His mercy? Is it suitable that He burns what He Himself adorned and trimmed? No, of course not. When you ponder this state and reflect on the artisanry of the Creator, you will say with the tongue of thanksgiving,
‘“He sculpted me from a drop of sperm,
He appointed me to serve Him in His bounty
He lifted my head above all creatures –
thanks be to God for acting so beautifully toward me!”
‘Having reminded them of all the blessings and generosity of the Real, Noah heard no gratitude. It only increased them in unbelief and denial, so he turned his face away from them and said, “My Lord! Forgive me and my parents, and those who enter my house with faith, and the faithful men and women” (71:28).’
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
- Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
[1] Hans Wehr, w-q-r.
[2] Kashif, 7/428.
[3] Ṭabrisi, 10/543.
[4] Qummi, 2/387, and Nur, 5/425, from Imam al-Bāqir (a); Alusi, 15/82; Kashif, 7/428; Shawkani, 5/358.
[5] Andulusi, 5/374.
[6] Suyuti, 6/268.
[7] Suyuti, 6/268.
[8] Alusi, 15/82; Tabrisi, 1/543.
[9] Tabrisi, 1/543.
[10] Razi, 30/653; Qurtubi, 18/303; Zamakhshari, 4/617; Jalalayn, p. 574.
[11] Razi, 30/653.
[12] Razi, 31/18; Tabari, 30/11.
[13] Razi, 31/18.
[14] Maybudi, pp. 245-246.
[15] Job 13:11.
[16] Jeremiah 5:21-25.