In the Name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful
Have you not considered how God sends down water from the skies, and then causes it to travel through the earth to form springs? He then brings with it vegetation of different colors; and then it withers and you can see it turning yellow. In the end He causes it to crumble to dust. In all this there is indeed a reminder for those endowed with insight.
How about one whose heart God has opened to Islam, and thus receives light from his Lord? Woe, then, betide those whose hearts harden at the mention of God. These are most obviously in error. God has bestowed from on high the best of all teachings: a book that is consistent within itself, repeating its statements [of the truth] in manifold forms. It causes the skins of those who stand in awe of their Lord to shiver, but then their skins and hearts soften at the mention of God. Such is God’s guidance: He guides with it him that wills, whereas the one whom God lets go astray can never find any guide. (The Throngs; Al-Zumar: 39: 21-23)
That which follows such rainfall is described thus: God “causes it to travel through the earth to form springs.” (Verse 21) This applies to the rivers running on the surface of the earth as well as the rivers that run underneath its surface when water seeps underground. It then forms springs or wells. It is God’s hand that prevents it from going too far into the earth making it impossible to bring up again.
“He then brings with it vegetation of different colors.” The emergence of vegetation after rain is again a miraculous phenomenon that man can never emulate, no matter how hard he tries. Look at the young shoot as it splits the earth and removes the heavy layers above it, seeking space, light and fresh air, and growing slowly and gradually. Looking at it invites contemplation and fills our hearts with feelings of the greatness of God who “gives everything its distinctive nature and form, and further guides them.” (20: 50) Plants vary in color at the same spot, on the same plant, and indeed in just one such flower there is a great exhibition of marvelous creation. Man stands in front of this with great awe, aware that he cannot produce anything like it.
This growing, fresh plant that is full of life attains its full growth and completes its life cycle, “then it withers and you can see it turning yellow.” It has completed its life as ordained in the system of the universe. It is now ripe for harvest. “In the end He causes it to crumble to dust.” Its role in life is now completed as it was determined by the Giver of life. “In all this there is indeed a reminder for those endowed with insight.” These are the ones who reflect, making use of the insight God has granted them.
“How about one whose heart God has opened to Islam, and thus receives light from his Lord? Woe, then, betide those whose hearts harden at the mention of God. These are most obviously in error. God has bestowed from on high the best of all teachings: a book that is consistent within itself, repeating its statements [of the truth] in manifold forms. It causes the skins of those who stand in awe of their Lord to shiver, but then their skins and hearts soften at the mention of God. Such is God’s guidance: He guides with it him that wills, whereas the one whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.”
Just like He sends water from the skies to cause vegetation of various colors and forms to grow, God bestows from on high a reminder which is received by hearts that are alive, and that open up and react to such life. By contrast, hardened hearts receive it like a rock that cannot embrace life. God opens to Islam those hearts that He knows to be good. These hearts receive the light of Islam and they shine and radiate. The gulf between these hearts and the ones that are hardened is wide indeed: “Woe, then, betide those whose hearts harden at the mention of God. These are most obviously in error.”
This verse depicts the nature of the hearts that receive Islam and warm to it, becoming full of life. It describes how they blossom, becoming fresh and radiant. It also describes the other type of hearts which are hard, dark and lifeless. Needless to say, the hearts that open up to Islam, receive and reflect its light are totally different from those which are hardened at the mention of God’s name. The gap between the two is enormous.
The next verse describes how the believers receive the Qur’an, a book that is fully coherent in nature, direction, message and characteristics. Thus, it is ‘consistent within itself,’ and it ‘repeats its statements of the truth in manifold forms,’ giving consistent directives and varying the ways it presents its images and stories without causing any contradiction. They are repeated at different places for a purpose that can be best served through such repetition. Such repetition does not detract from the harmony and consistency of the basic truth stated throughout the Qur’an.
Those who stand in awe of God maintain an attitude that mixes fear of God with hope of His mercy. They are the ones who are very strongly influenced when they receive God’s word to the extent that their skins shiver. They later soften and their hearts find reassurance as they listen to God’s words. This is a very vivid image giving in words a description that is full of movement and action.
“Such is God’s guidance: He guides with it him that wills.” Hearts do not shiver in this way unless God’s guidance prompts them to respond. God knows the true feelings of these hearts and rewards them with either His guidance or by letting them go astray: “whereas the one whom God lets go astray can never find any guide.” He allows such people to go astray because He knows that they have gone so far into error that they will never respond to guidance.
