Surah 35 - Faatir - The Originator

From: http://www.quranexplained.co.uk/

[Author's note] This is the 35th Surah of the Qur'an. It has 45 verses. Allah is the Creator and the Originator of all things, meaning that He creates from nothing. He Initiates matter. With the Glorious Name of Allah, the Instant and Sustaining Source of all Mercy and Kindness.

35:1 All Praise is due to Allah, the Originator of all Highs and their Lows, Who appoints His angels as message-bearers having wings two, three and four. (Many of the angels, the physical laws in the Universe, have more than one function). He increases in creation what He Will. For, Allah is the Appointer of due measure of all things, and He is Able to do all things. 35:2 Whatever Grace Allah opens for mankind, none can withhold it. And whatever He withholds, none can release, for He is the Almighty, the Wise. (He uses His Might in Mercy and Wisdom). 35:3 O Mankind! Think of the blessings of Allah upon you. Is there any creator other than Allah who provides for you from the heaven and earth? There is no god but He. How could you wander in the wilderness of thought! 35:4 (O Messenger) if they deny you, Messengers before you were also denied. But all affairs ultimately end up in His Court. 35:5 O Mankind! Indeed Allah's Promise is true. (The Law of Requital is an inevitable reality). So let not the present life deceive you, nor let the Deceiver deceive you about Allah. (Deceiver = Satan = Selfish desire. Also misguided people and their propaganda). 35:6 Behold, Satan is a foe unto you; so treat him as a foe. He only calls his party to become companions of the Blazing Fire. 35:7 For those who are bent on rejecting the Truth, is a severe retribution. And for those who accept the Truth and work for the welfare of others, is the protection of forgiveness and a great reward. 35:8 Can you think of he whose persistence in evil blunts his sensitivity - so that his deeds seem fair to him? Verily, Allah lets go astray any who wants to go astray, just as He guides any who wants to be guided. Therefore, waste not yourself in sorrowing over them. Verily, Allah is Aware of all that they contrive. 35:9 And Allah it is Who sends the winds and they raise a cloud; then We lead it unto a dead land and revive the earth after it had been lifeless. Thus is the Resurrection (and revival of individuals and nations with Divine Guidance). 35:10 Whoever desires dignity should know that to Allah belongs all Dignity. Unto Him ascend all good words, and He exalts the works that help others. (That is how individuals and nations can ascend in honor). But those who plot imbalance in the lives of others, for them is severe punishment and their plotting, in the end, will come to naught. 35:11 (Recall your common humble origin.) Allah created you from dust, then from male and female gametes, and then He makes you pairs. And no female becomes pregnant, nor gives birth without His Knowledge (according to His Appointed Science, without exceptions). No one lives long, and no one lives short, but by His Law (3:144). Behold, all this is easy to Allah. ('Nutfah' = Gamete, male or female). 35:12 (Observe the diversity in Nature.) Thus the two seas (and subsoil waters) are not alike. One is fresh, good to drink, the other undrinkable, salty (25:53). Yet, from either of them you eat tender meat and extract ornament that you may wear. And you see ships sailing through the waves seeking His Bounty, so that you may have cause to be grateful. 35:13 He makes the night grow longer by shortening the day, and makes the day grow longer by shortening the night. And He has committed the sun and the moon to service, each running to an appointed term. Such is Allah, your Lord - unto Him belongs all Dominion. And those whom you call upon instead of Him, do not own so much as the husk of a date-stone. (4:53), (4:124). 35:14 When you call them (the dead 'saints'), they don't even hear your call, and even if they were to hear they won't be able to respond to you. On the Day of Resurrection they will disown your 'partnership'. And none can inform you like the One Who is Aware. 35:15 O Mankind! It is you who stand in need of Allah. And Allah! He is the Absolute, the Owner of Praise. 35:16 If He Will, He can do away with you and bring some new creation. 35:17 This is not at all difficult for Allah. 35:18 And no person, being already burdened with his own doings, will be made to carry the burden of another. And if a laden one calls for help with his load, none may carry part of it even if he is a close relative. Hence, you can warn only those who understand their Lord's Law of Requital knowing that even their actions done in secrecy have consequences. So, such people follow the Divine Commands closely. Whoever grows in virtue does so for the good of his "Self". And the destination of all is to Allah. 35:19 The blind of reason and the seeing are not equal. 35:20 Nor are the Darkness and the Light. 35:21 Nor the cooling shade and the scorching heat. 35:22 Nor are the living equal with the dead. Behold, Allah makes him hear who wants to hear. You cannot make hear the dead of heart like those who are in the graves. 35:23 You are but a Warner. 35:24 Verily, We have sent you with the Truth, as a bearer of glad news, and a Warner. And there is not a nation but a Warner has passed among them. 35:25 (O Prophet) if they deny you, those before them also denied. Their Messengers came to them with all evidence of the Truth, and with Books of Divine Wisdom, and the Scripture giving light. 35:26 Then My Law of Requital seized the rejecters of the Truth, and how intense was My rejection! 35:27 Have you not seen that Allah causes water to fall from the height. And from the same water We produce fruit and flower of different color, just as in the mountains are streaks of varying colors - white, red, and varying shades of black. 35:28 And of human beings, and other creatures, and the cattle have diverse colors. This is how it is: of all His servants only the ULAMA get some idea of the Glory of Allah (by examining the wonders in Nature. ULAMA = men and women of scientific knowledge. They understand that) Allah is Almighty, the Absolver of imperfections. 35:29 Verily those who read the Scripture of Allah (in Nature) and follow Allah's Commands, and spend on others the provision We have given them secretly and openly, are conducting business that will never perish. 35:30 He will pay their wages and give them yet more of His Bounty. He is Absolver of imperfections, Responsive to gratitude. 35:31 And (O Prophet) all that We have revealed in this Book to you is the very Truth, confirming the Divine Origin of the previous Scriptures. For, behold, of the needs of His servants Allah is fully Aware, all-Seeing. 35:32 And so, We have bestowed this Book (on you) as a heritage from Our servants whom We chose. And among people are those who (ignore it and thus) hurt themselves. Others will have a lukewarm attitude toward it, and some who, by Allah's leave, will be foremost in attaining all the good in it. That! Indeed that is, the Great Bounty. 35:33 Hence, the Gardens of Eden of eternal bliss will they enter, therein to be adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls, and therein to be dressed in garments of silk. (And right here in this world they will establish a society in which life will be pleasant and honorable 22:23). 35:34 And they will say, "All praise to Allah Who has put away grief from us. Verily, Our Lord is Absolver of imperfections, Responsive to gratitude. 35:35 Who, out of His Bounty, has settled us in the mansion of Eternity. Neither do we experience toil herein, nor any sense of weariness." (20:118). 35:36 But for those who reject the Truth, is fire of Hell. Therein they neither end up dying nor is the torment lightened for them. Thus We requite all those who remain ungrateful (for the Guidance). 35:37 And in that suffering they will cry, "Our Lord! Get us out of here. We will do right, not that we used to do." Did We not give you a life-long opportunity replete with reminders for whoever would bethink? And a Warner had come to you. Taste then the fruit of your transgressions, for there is no helper for the transgressors of Divine Laws. 35:38 Verily, Allah is the Knower of the Hidden realities of the heavens. Behold, He is Knower of what is in the hearts. 35:39 He it is Who has given you supremacy in the earth (2:30). So whoever denies this blessing, his denial is upon him. Their denial increases their deprivation according to the Laws of their Lord, and their denial only increases their own loss (causing them to be content with a subhuman existence). 35:40 Say, "Have you seen your 'partners' whom you call upon besides Allah? Show me what they created of the earth! Or have they any share in the heavens? Or have We given them a Scripture as evidence to prove their fallacies?" Nay, those who exploit the weak, support one another with delusions. 35:41 Verily, it is Allah Who upholds the celestial bodies and the earth, so they deviate not from their course. And if they were to deviate, there is none, no one whatsoever that can uphold them after He ceases to uphold them. Verily, He is Clement, Absolver of imperfections. 35:42 Thus it is, yet - they used to swear by Allah with their most solemn oaths that if a Warner came to them, they would follow his guidance better than any nation ever could. But now that a Warner has come unto them, it arouses in them nothing but aversion. 35:43 Their arrogance in the land and their evil schemes! Yet an evil scheme engulfs its designers. Are they waiting for anything but the way the ancients were dealt with? Yes! No change you will ever find in the Laws of Allah, and no deviation you will ever find in the Laws of Allah. 35:44 Have they not traveled in the land and seen what happened to those before them? And they were greater in might than these are. Allah is not such that anything in the heavens and the earth could foil His Authority, for He is Knower, Supreme Controller. 35:45 Now if Allah took mankind to task by that which they earn by their deeds, He would not leave a creature on its surface. However, He grants them Respite unto an appointed term. And when their term comes to an end, then, verily, they come to know that Allah is ever Seer of His servants. ('Not leave a creature' - Life on the planet earth exists for and manifests itself in the highest form as the humans (2:30), (35:39)).