وَأَذِنَت لِرَبِّها وَحُقَّت
And gives ear to its Lord as it should.
EXEGESIS
Adhinat (gives ear): the origin of the expression is from udhun, meaning ear, because – as in the English expression – when one ‘gives ear’ to someone they listen to their commands. From this root also comes idhn, meaning permission, and istiʾdhān, which means to seek permission.
From the same root also comes adhān, meaning a call to something, and īdhān, meaning an announcement that is heard with the ear (udhun). The call to prayer is called adhān, since it announces the arrival of prayer time.
Ḥuqqat (as it should) is from ḥaqqa meaning to be right and true. Here the passive construction ḥuqqat means ḥaqqa lahā ‘it is right for it to do so’.
EXPOSITION
The sky is split open in verse 1 may refer not just to some natural phenomenon, but an event that occurs by the decree of God. The whole of creation is submitted to His command, as it should be. Gives ear hence means that the sky obeys the command of God and does as it is told.
The Quran is filled with anthropomorphic descriptions of natural phenomenon. In Sūrat Fuṣṣilat we read of how God talks to the heaven and earth: Then He turned to the heaven, and it was smoke, and He said to it and to the earth: ‘Come! Willingly or unwillingly!’ They said: ‘We come heartily’ (41:11). Another similar example is in Sūrat al-Aḥzāb: Indeed We presented the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and were apprehensive of it; but man undertook it. Indeed he is most unfair and senseless (33:72).
None of the descriptions: gives ear, Willingly or unwillingly, We come heartily, or they refused to bear it, should be understood to mean that these things have some sort of collective conscience or intelligence in any form that we understand those terms, but rather such expressions emphasise both how God is keenly aware of His creation and what it is and is not capable of. The refusal to bear should not be understood that they were rebellious, but rather that they were incapable. It highlights the esteemed position of man and his immense potential, whereby he can bear things which even the heavens and earth and mountains cannot.
These terms also highlight how everything is submitted to Him, Do they, then, seek a religion other than Allah’s, while to Him submits whoever there is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him they will be brought back? (3:83). The natural order and state of all things is that it is in submission (islām) to God and returns to Him, as it should. This is also man’s natural state, yet some decide to rebel against this natural order and attempt to refuse servitude to God. The surah later emphasises that such a refusal is futile, because whatever action a person undertakes, takes him closer to that final meeting (verse 6). To attempt to rebel against this natural order is to fall prey to the ploy of Satan who wishes to deprive man of his joy and harmonious existence, as he admits: And I will lead them astray and give them [false] hopes, and prompt them to slit the ears of cattle, and I will prompt them to alter Allah’s creation (4:119). Altering God’s creation here intends to cause man to rebel against his natural state as a servant of God, an act which leaves man wandering and aimless like the cattle whose ears would be slit in pre-Islamic times, after which they could not be milked or ridden or used for work – an aimless existence for a being which God created and intended for us to use to our benefit (16:5-8).
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- ‘Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken.’
- Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? … Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, “Here we are”?’
[1] See also Tibyan, 10/307-307; Tabari, 30/72.
[2] Tibyan, 6/169.
[3] Thalabi, 5/9.
[4] Tabrisi, 20/699.
[5] Isaiah 1:2
[6] Job 38:33-35.