يا أَيُّهَا الإِنسانُ ما غَرَّكَ بِرَبِّكَ الكَريمِ

O man! What has deceived you about your generous Lord?

EXEGESIS

Al-karīm can mean the generous, the kind, or the noble. The first definition is generally understood to be the meaning in this verse, although in verse 11 it is understood to mean noble. See also the Exegesis of 96:3 on the dual meaning of al-karīm.

EXPOSITION

O man! is a general address to the one who refuses to acknowledge God, and even to the one who does acknowledge Him but leads a sinful life, refusing to repent. And in particular, it refers to a faithless person who denies the Resurrection Day, or the sinner whose actions suggest he is not convinced of this day. This is because verse 9 continues to address this man, saying: No indeed! Rather you deny the retribution (verse 9), i.e. denial with words as is the practice of the faithless, or as implied by one’s actions as is done by the unrepentant sinner.

What has deceived you means: what has made you forget Him? The cause of man being distracted from God or denying Him is of course the love of the world, glamorised by Satan. We know this because of the usage of the term deceived you (gharraka), in this verse, and then in 31:33 where it is used to describe the love of the world and Satan: O mankind! … do not let the life of the world deceive you (taghurrannakum), nor let the Deceiver (al-gharūr) [i.e. Satan] deceive you concerning Allah. And also, the faithful will say to the hypocrites on Judgement Day: And [false] hopes [out of worldly greed] deceived you (gharratkum) until the edict of Allah arrived [i.e. death], and the Deceiver (al-gharūr) [i.e. Satan] deceived you (gharrakum) concerning Allah (57:14).

The faithful also err when they let their guard down from being God-wary and they experience brief spells of heedlessness, causing them to forget God and be deceived. But in their case, this may be due to their high expectations of God’s kindness and taking wrong advantage of His forbearance. And this is perhaps why the verse describes God as your generous Lord, to highlight the fact that man is often disrespectful and ungrateful to God and remains heedless of Him only because he takes his Lord’s generosity and kindness for granted. So, your generous Lord is both an expression of love to bring realisation in the disobedient servant who takes wrong advantage of God’s mercy, as well as a stern warning to the faithless, who mistakes His respite for weakness or absence.

INSIGHTS FROM HADITH

1. When the Prophet recited this verse, he said: ‘His [man’s] ignorance deceives him (gharrahu jahluhu).’^{‎[1]Tabrisi, 10/682; Thalabi, 10/146; Qurtubi, 20/245; Suyuti, 6/323; Zamakhshari, 4/715.}

Note: This does not contradict what was explained in the Exposition for this verse, that it is the love of the world and Satan that deceive man because these two matters are the apparent causes, whereas what the Prophet is referring to here is the root cause of man being deceived. In other words, man is deceived by the world or Satan only to the extent of his ignorance of his Lord, of the hereafter, of his true nature, and so on.

2. Imam Ali (a) in a sermon, and after reciting O man! What has deceived you about your generous Lord? said: ‘O man! What has emboldened you to [commit] sins? What has deceived you about Allah and satisfied you with the destruction of yourself? Is there no cure for your ailment or no awakening from your sleep? Do you not pity yourself as you pity others? … He is calling you to forgiveness and concealing your faults with His kindness, whilst you are fleeing away from Him towards others. Great is Allah, the all-powerful, who is so generous! And how humble and weak are you yet you are still so bold in disobeying Him, although you live in His protection and undergo changes of life in the expanse of His kindness. Yet He does not refuse you His kindness and does not remove His protection from you … whether it be a favour He conferred on you, a sin He concealed, or a calamity He warded off from you … Truthfully I say: this world has not deceived you but you have deceived yourself.’^{‎[2]Nahj, sermon 223.}
3. From Imam Ali (a): ‘How many there are who are [merely] being given respite through [divine] favours [but they think they are blessed], and [how many] who are deceived because [their sins] are veiled from them, and many are being tried by the praise showered on them! Allah does not try anyone so severely as He does one whom He allows respite!’^{‎[3]Nahj, saying 116.}
4. In a supplication of Imam al-Sajjād (a), he prayed: ‘My Lord, I did not disobey You when I disobeyed You as a denial of Your lordship, or because of trivialising Your command, or in indifference to Your punishment, or in scorn of Your warning. Rather, it was a mistake that presented itself and my soul overcame me and my desires overwhelmed me, with my misfortune aiding me, and I was deceived by Your veil that covered me.’^{‎[4]The supplication (duʿāʾ) taught to Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī.}

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

Many former exegetes have understood this verse as an expression of love, with God calling His servant back to Him. Thus Ṭabrisī defines the generous Lord as ‘the benefactor (al-munʿim) whose every act is a favour and a benefit’ or ‘He who gives one who deserves as well as one who does not, and does not expect anything in return’ or even ‘the one who accepts from others easily [their incomplete good deeds and their repentance for disobedience] and then rewards handsomely’. He adds: ‘One who is not simply satisfied with forgiving sins but insists on then transforming the sins of the repentant to good deeds.’^{‎[5]Tabrisi, 10/682.}

And the famous Sufi, Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, was asked: ‘If God, glorious and exalted, were to stand you before Him on the Day of Resurrection and say, What has deceived you about your generous Lord?, what will you say?’ He replied: ‘I will say: “I was deceived by Your abundant shielding [of my sins from people].”’ Similarly, Thaʿlabī, Zamakhsharī, Rāzī, and others, have quoted from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿādh, Muqātil, and others, as having said that God’s constant kindness in offering pardon and respite to man is what deceives man.^{‎[6]Thalabi, 10/146.} Thaʿlabī and Rāzī in fact tell us that God purposely describes Himself as your generous Lord to hint at the answer and to teach man to say: ‘I was deceived by Your generosity, and had it not been for Your generosity I would not have done what I did; but You saw me [sinning] yet hid [my sins], and gave me respite.’ This, Rāzī clarifies, is of course only a valid understanding of the verse if we assume the one intended by O man! is not the faithless, but rather the sinful believer.^{‎[7]Razi, 31/75.} Rāzī then goes on to prove his argument by reason and through what has been transmitted in traditions. As for reason, he says, we know that God’s generosity is without exception and He gives equally to the devotee and to the sinner; this naturally deceives the wrongdoer for he sees no benefit in obedience given that it does not affect the benefits he enjoys. And as for transmitted traditions, Rāzī quotes one in which Imam Ali (a) once called out to a slave of his and was not responded to. He looked and found the slave to be sitting by the door all the while. ‘Why did you not reply to me?’ Imam Ali (a) asked him. ‘Because of my confidence in your tolerance,’ replied the slave, ‘and my feeling safe from being chastised by you.’ So pleased was Imam Ali (a) with this reply that he set the man free.^{‎[8]Razi, 31/75.} Zamakhsharī also reports this, and comments that the behaviour of the slave with Imam Ali (a) is like that of the disobedient servant with his Lord, and: ‘It has also been said: “Amongst the signs of generosity is the tolerance of bad behaviour of one’s slaves.”’^{‎[9]Zamakhshari, 4/715.}

Zamakhsharī notes, however, that this is not a license to sin: ‘For the words of Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ were by way of [humility and] confessing to the fallibility in being deceived when veiled [from people’s knowledge of one’s sins].’^{‎[10]Zamakhshari, 4/715.}

But Rāzī is not entirely correct in saying that it is because God grants respite to the sinful and continues to favour them with generosity as He does the obedient servant, and hence due to this they see no reason to obey Him. Rather, if they see no reason to obey Him, it is because of their ignorance by which they mistake God’s punishment as bounties. By this we mean that God’s reward is what brings His servant closer to Him even if it be through the means of what man perceives as afflictions. And His chastisement is what drives a person away from Him even it is by what man regards as a blessing.

Those who have rejected this line of thought include Mughniyyah who denies any such association between God’s generosity and man’s neglect. He quotes Muhammad ʿAbduh’s opinion, that: ‘This [kind of interpretation] is playing with the meaning [of the Quran] and a misguidance to one referring to God’s book.’ And therefore, argues Mughniyyah, God as karīm (noble, generous) should be understood as His being so magnificent in His nobility that He will not leave His creatures aimlessly without questioning and retribution, and therefore a human being must not let the world and its adornments deceive him. Mughniyyah further quotes a sermon of Imam Ali (a) concerning this verse^{‎[11]Nahj, sermon 223.} and then concludes: ‘His generosity in this verse means His granting respite to His sinful servant and not taking him to task immediately; but the servant must hasten to repent and turn towards God and also not be deceived by the respite he is given.’^{‎[12]Kashif, 7/531.}

Makārim Shīrāzī also agrees and argues that: ‘The verse wishes to wake the human in slumber and remove his pride and heedlessness, and not, as some have suggested, to give him an excuse for being deceived. Such an interpretation would violate the purpose of the verse, which is to remove the veil that separates a human being from his Lord, and in fact it would add a veil to the veil!’^{‎[13]Nemuneh, 26/218.}

Furthermore, the word gharraka is also from ghurūr (pride) and the verse could be understood as: O man! What has made you turn away in pride from your generous Lord? This means the cause of heedlessness and turning away from God can also be pride, i.e. whatever gives man the illusion of being needless of God, such as excess of wealth, status, intelligence, etc., but not God’s generosity and compassion for man.

Tabatabai in fact believes the verse is rebuking and reprimanding man for his ungratefulness to God’s favours by denying the fact that He is the giver. God has ensured His message is clearly communicated through His prophets, and that there is no escape for the obstinate sinners from the wrath and punishment of God: And when your Lord proclaimed: ‘If you are grateful, I will surely enhance you [in blessing], but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is indeed severe’ (14:7); As for him who was rebellious and preferred the life of this world, his refuge will indeed be hell (79:37-39). If it sufficed for a sinful believer to say ‘Your kindness deceived me’, then on the same argument, even the obstinate disbeliever (kāfir) in God would have to be excused on Judgement Day. So there is no justification to argue that the description of the Lord as generous is to encourage man that he can escape from His wrath; and this is also a form of kindness. Indeed, what is being said in the verse is a warning and the message does not end until verses 14-16, which say: And indeed the vicious shall be in hell, entering it on the Day of Retribution, and they shall not be absent from it.^{‎[14]Mizan, 20/224.}

The difference of opinion concerning this matter is surprising given the unanimous acceptance amongst the exegetes of the opinion of the Prophet in this regard. When he recited this verse, he remarked: ‘His [i.e. man’s] ignorance (jahl) deceives him.’^{‎[15]Thalabi, 10/146; Qurtubi, 20/245; Tabrisi, 10/682; Suyuti, 6/323; Zamakhshari, 4/715, amongst others.} Furthermore, if we read this verse in relation to the same man being addressed in verses 9 and 14, then it becomes difficult to justify the cause of man’s deception as being God’s kindness, tolerance, and generosity.

It is true that Imam Ali (a) is reported to have said: ‘How many there are that are deceived by the concealment [of sins] over them and that are being taken to task by being favoured.’^{‎[16]Nahj, saying 116; Tabrisi, 10/682. Being taken to task by being favoured (al-istidrāj bil-iḥsān) is a known concept amongst Muslim scholars where God continues to give good to an unrepentant and disobedient servant until it gradually destroys his chance for salvation, i.e. he is punished for his persistence in sin by added worldly favours.} However, such traditions are meant to wake the heedless from slumber and not to point blame to God’s kindness in concealing His servants’ misdeeds.

[1] Tabrisi, 10/682; Thalabi, 10/146; Qurtubi, 20/245; Suyuti, 6/323; Zamakhshari, 4/715.
[2] Nahj, sermon 223.
[3] Nahj, saying 116.
[4] The supplication (duʿāʾ) taught to Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī.
[5] Tabrisi, 10/682.
[6] Thalabi, 10/146.
[7] Razi, 31/75.
[8] Razi, 31/75.
[9] Zamakhshari, 4/715.
[10] Zamakhshari, 4/715.
[11] Nahj, sermon 223.
[12] Kashif, 7/531.
[13] Nemuneh, 26/218.
[14] Mizan, 20/224.
[15] Thalabi, 10/146; Qurtubi, 20/245; Tabrisi, 10/682; Suyuti, 6/323; Zamakhshari, 4/715, amongst others.
[16] Nahj, saying 116; Tabrisi, 10/682. Being taken to task by being favoured (al-istidrāj bil-iḥsān) is a known concept amongst Muslim scholars where God continues to give good to an unrepentant and disobedient servant until it gradually destroys his chance for salvation, i.e. he is punished for his persistence in sin by added worldly favours.