Or, who is it that creates all life in the first instance, and then brings it forth anew? And who is it that provides you with sustenance out of heaven and earth? Could there be any deity alongside God?’ Say: “Produce your proof, if you are truthful.” (The Ants; Al-Naml: 27: 64)
Over the last few weeks we discussed a very powerful address that concludes with the verse we are looking at today. It is useful to remind ourselves of the full passage before commenting on its final verse. “Say: All praise be to God, and peace be upon His servants whom He has chosen. Who is more worthy: God or the false (deities) they associate with Him? Or, who is it that has created the heavens and the earth, and sends down for you water from the skies, with which We cause to grow gardens of delightful beauty? You could have never caused such trees to grow. Could there be any deity alongside God? Nay, they are people who swerve from justice. Or, who is it that made the earth a stable abode and caused rivers to run in its midst, and has set upon it firm mountains, and has placed a barrier between the two great bodies of water? Could there be any deity alongside God? Nay, most of them are devoid of knowledge. Or, who is it that responds to the one in distress when he calls out to Him, and who removes the ill, and makes you inherit the earth? Could there be any deity alongside God? Little do they reflect! Or, who is it that guides you in the midst of the deep darkness of land and sea, and sends forth the winds as heralds of His forthcoming grace? Could there be any deity alongside God? Sublimely exalted is God above anything they associate with Him.” (59-63)
The concluding question that follows is about their own creation, resurrection and the provisions they receive from heaven and on earth. All this is coupled with a challenge that cannot be met: “Or, who is it that creates all life in the first instance, and then brings it forth anew? And who is it that provides you with sustenance out of heaven and earth? Could there be any deity alongside God?’ Say: ‘Produce your proof, if you are truthful.”
That creation has a process of initiation is an indisputable fact, and no one can explain it in any way other than saying that it is the work of the One Creator. His existence must be acknowledged because of the existence of the universe. Every attempt to explain the existence of the universe in such an evidently planned and deliberate state without acknowledging God’s existence and oneness has proven logically unsustainable. Indeed what He has created proves His oneness. It tells of one system of creation, planning and absolute balance and harmony, which means that it is all subject to a single will that established a single sophisticated rule of existence.
It is the bringing back of creation that unbelievers have always disputed. Yet the acknowledgement of initial creation in such a planned and elaborate way inevitably leads to belief in a second creation so as to give people what they deserve for the actions that they do in this temporary stage of life. Although some reward for action is given in this life, it is by no means complete. The point is that we have clear balance and harmony in the elaborate creation of the universe. This necessitates its perfection through the achievement of balance and harmony between action and reward, which does not happen in life on earth. Therefore, it must take place in a second life. As to why such balance and reward are not accomplished in this life, we can only say that it is the prerogative of the Creator and His wisdom. We must not put such a question to Him, because He knows His creation best. He has chosen not to reveal the reason to us, keeping it as part of His own knowledge that He reveals to no one.
With the acknowledgement of God as the originator of creation and the One who brings the dead back to life, the surah asks the same question again: “Could there be any deity alongside God?”
Providing sustenance that comes from heaven and earth is closely related to first and second creation. Sustenance comes from the earth in a variety of ways, the most evident of which are plants, animals, water and air, all of which enable us to eat, drink and breathe. It also includes minerals that we take from the earth, sea treasures that provide food and adornment, different types of energy such as electricity and magnetism, as well as other powers known only to God. We are able to discover some of these and tap them every now and then.
Sustenance that comes from the heavens is also plentiful. In this life we get light, heat and rain as well as whatever powers and benefits God grants us. In the life to come, we receive the reward God will be pleased to give us. This is implied in the figurative sense of “heaven”, connoting elevation, which is often used in the Qur’an and the Hadith.
The provision of sustenance out of heaven and earth is mentioned after the initiation and resurrection of creation because both types of sustenance are closely related to the two cycles of creation. In the first stage of creation people live on the food and sustenance they get out of the earth. The way they deal with such sustenance in this life is an important factor in determining their reward in the hereafter. The same applies to sustenance provided from heaven: It is to sustain life initially and to provide reward ultimately. Here again we see an example of the accuracy and harmony in the Qur’anic style. Creation and resurrection are facts, as is sustenance provided out of the heavens and earth, but unbelievers are often oblivious to these facts. Hence the surah throws a forceful challenge to them: “Could there be any deity alongside God? Say: ‘Produce your proof, if you are truthful.’”
They will have no proof, and no one who tries to find a proof will ever be successful. Such is the Qur’anic method of argument about faith: It uses scenes from the universe around facts and us that we know within our own constitution, making them a framework for its powerful logic. It thus revives human nature so that it looks at facts in a simple and correct way. It addresses the human conscience through the facts it knows but has overlooked for long. In this simple and logical way, the Qur’an establishes the profound indisputable truths we know in the universe and within ourselves. It leaves no room for dialectic reasoning inherited from Greek sophistry, which has found its way to what is known in Islamic scholarship as the Kalam discipline, or theology.