أَعَدَّ اللَّهُ لَهُم عَذابًا شَديدًا ۖ فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ يا أُولِي الأَلبابِ الَّذينَ آمَنوا ۚ قَد أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ إِلَيكُم ذِكرًا
Allah has prepared for them a severe punishment. So be wary of Allah, O you who possess intellect and have faith! Allah has already sent down to you a reminder.
EXEGESIS
Albāb (intellects) is the plural of lubb, which means the core of something, or the best and purest part of it, such as the part which is eaten and the rest of what is around is thrown away. Because of this it is used for pure intellect, as not every intelligence is lubb.
Although the translation reads you who possess intellect and have faith, it is literally saying: those from amongst the faithful that possess intellect. It is said that only they have been addressed, as they are the only ones who would actually be able to benefit from the reminder.
EXPOSITION
Rāzī has asked why are the possessors of albāb being commanded to God-wariness, since they are intelligent and should already have that quality. He then answers it by saying that there are different levels to God-wariness, and that the first level is to avoid ascribing partners to God (shirk), but the next step is to avoid sin, and that is what the possessors of intellect are being called to do here. What is more likely though, is that intellect on its own is not sufficient, but rather it should be accompanied by sincerity, good intentions, and moral guidelines in order to bring one to God-wariness. Not every intelligent person is a moral person. In effect, even though the call is in the plural, it is highly intimate, and this is also an excellent literary device. God is calling directly to the reader of the verse, reminding him that he has intellect given to him by God. He is the one reading the verse; he is the one who has the capability to ponder its truths; he should be able to learn from the mistakes of others, so that he can avoid the ruin that faced those people.
Now God turns our attention to the punishment of the hereafter. In effect we are told that ‘if you thought all that was mentioned was bad enough, know that the true punishment has been prepared and is lying in wait for them’. In addition to the worldly punishments mentioned in the previous verses, Allah has prepared for them a severe punishment of hell that awaits them in the hereafter.
The fact that punishment is mentioned here again is evidence that the previous punishment mentioned was about a worldly punishment.
The severe punishment should be cause for worry to anyone who has foresight and cares for his own self, therefore God exhorts his servants: So be wary of Allah, O you who possess intellect and have faith! Earlier, the surah had mentioned five benefits for being God-wary. We are now indirectly told of two other benefits to being God-wary, and that is the fact that it keeps away the ruin of God befalling us in this world, as well as the severe punishment of the hereafter.
An intelligent person understands what he has been told and takes heed of what he hears. The Muslims being addressed by the surah at the time of its revelation had witnessed many signs and proofs from God. Allah has already sent down to you a reminder. The reminder here is the Prophet. He is so described because he reminds people of God and His signs, and he calls people to the path of God and truth. The Muslims were in the presence of the Messenger of God, who was a living and speaking proof from God. If they possessed any intelligence and faith, they should have developed God-wariness.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- From Imam al-Riḍā (a), that he told the caliph Maʾmūn and a gathering of scholars: ‘We are the people of the reminder, about whom God – mighty and glorious – has said: ask the People of the Reminder if you do not know [16:43].’ The scholars then said: ‘Actually, God has meant the Jews and the Christians by that.’ So the Imam said: ‘Praise be to God! How can that be whilst they call us to their religion and say their faith is better than the religion of Islam?’ Maʾmūn said: ‘Do you have an explanation for that which differs from what they claim, O Abū al-Hasan?’ The Imam replied: ‘Yes; the reminder is the Messenger of God and we are its people. This is clear in the book of God – mighty and glorious – when He says in Sūrat al-Ṭalāq: So be wary of Allah, O you who possess intellect and have faith! Allah has already sent down to you a reminder, an apostle reciting to you the manifest signs of Allah. The reminder is the Messenger of God (s), and we are its people.’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
Anzala literally means sent down, however it is generally used in the Quran to describe the coming down of revelation. However, in many verses it also refers to the coming down of blessings, such as He has sent down for you eight mates of the cattle (39:6), or We sent down to them manna and quails (7:160). Here, too, as the reminder should mean the apostle mentioned in the next verse, then sending him down is a form of sending down a blessing to mankind. Tehrānī argues that sent down is used to describe the Prophet because he recites the revelation that has come down. Tabatabai on the other hand, argues that sent down means appointing the Prophet to the station of prophethood from the world of the unseen and making him known as a prophet to the people.
There is disagreement amongst the scholars as to what exactly the reminder (dhikr) is referring to. The debate is closely connected to the next verse which continues: An apostle reciting to you the manifest signs of Allah. There is a disagreement as to whether the reminder is the apostle, or if there is an omission here. Some, like Hasan al-Baṣrī and others, say that it refers to Prophet Muhammad (s). Related to this, Ṭūsī says, ask the People of the Reminder if you do not know (16:43) refers to the Prophet.
Others, such as what is reported from Suddī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd, and others, say reminder refers to the Quran, as in the verse, Indeed We have sent down the reminder, and indeed We will preserve it (15:9). For this opinion to make sense, we must assert that there is an omission here and the verse should be understood as: God has sent down a reminder and has sent an apostle.
Others still, such as what has been reported from Zajjāj, have said that the reminder is the Quran, but that the apostle (rasūl, lit. ‘messenger’) who brought it, refers to Gabriel. In this way, sent down would have a more immediately understood meaning, as Gabriel descends from the heavens, and he recites the verses of the Quran. This has been criticised for not making sense, as Gabriel never recited the Quran to the Muslims, whereas the next verse apparently describes the messenger as doing so. However, this criticism is not very convincing, as the expression to you (plural) can also be understood to mean Gabriel recites the verses to the Prophet of this nation, just as it may be said to a nation ‘we have sent you our demands’ even though it is one individual who may have received the list of demands. Regardless, this interpretation is not very convincing as it is quite difficult to think that Gabriel would be described as the reminder.
As can be seen, each opinion has its own proponents and arguments. However, the most correct seems to be the first one, as the term rasūl is most often used for Prophet Muhammad (s), and this reading requires us to assume no omission in the text.
Finally, we may note that it has been said that dhikr here is in the meaning of remembrance, like in the verse, and the remembrance (dhikr) of Allah is surely greater (29:45). To that effect, the Prophet would be described as remembrance because he is constantly in the state of remembering God, or because his presence invoked the remembrance of God in the hearts.
[1] Furqan, 16/85.
[2] Lisan, 1/729.
[3] Raghib, p. 733.
[4] Tibyan, 10/39.
[5] Razi, 30/566.
[6] Ulū al-albāb is plural in Arabic, and would literally translate as those who possess intellect.
[7] Tabrisi, 10/465.
[8] Mizan, 19/325.
[9] Uyun, 1/216; Wasail, 27/73.
[10] Furqan, 28/417.
[11] Mizan, 19/325.
[12] Tibyan, 10/38. This is also mentioned in the narration from Imam al-Riḍā (a) that we have mentioned. This opinion is adopted by Razi, 30/565; Mizan, 19/325; Alusi, 14/336.
[13] Tibyan, 10/38. This is also the opinion adopted in Tabrisi, 10/465; Tabari, 28/98; Thalabi, 9/324; Ibn Kathir, 8/177; Baghawi, 5/114; Nemuneh, 24/258.
[14] Tibyan, 10/38. This opinion is adopted by Zamakhshari, 4/560. There are also several other opinions mentioned, which are in reality some sort of variants of what was said; for some of these see Shawkani, 5/294-295. See also for example Mudarrisi, 16/86, who tries to combine the first two opinions by arguing that the reminder is the Quran and the Prophet together.
[15] Nemuneh, 24/257.
[16] Qaraati, 10/116.