Surah an-Naml (The Ant ) 27 : 64

Explanatory Note

These verses containing such powerful questioning conclude with a question about their own creation, resurrection and the provisions they receive from heaven. This is all coupled with a challenge that cannot be met.

To initiate creation 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, His own creation proves His oneness. It tells of one system of creation, planning, 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 their actions which 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 which 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 sūrah asks the same question again: “Could there be any deity alongside God?” (Verse 64)

Providing sustenance is closely related to our 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’ān and ĥadīth.

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’ānic 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 sūrah throws out a forceful challenge to them: “Could there be any deity alongside God? Say: ‘Produce your proof, if are truthful.” (Verse 64)

They will have no proof, and no one who tries to find proof will ever be successful. Such is the Qur’ānic method of argument about faith: it uses scenes from the universe around us and facts 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’ān establishes the profound indisputable truths we know in the universe and within ourselves. It leaves no room for dialectic reasoning that we have inherited from Greek sophistry, and which found its way into what is known in Islamic scholarship as the Kalām discipline, or theology.

The phrase أَإِلَـٰهٌ مَّعَ اللَّـهِ "A deity with Allah?" is repeated 5 times in this Surah. This phrase does not occur in any of the Surah of the Qur'an and is unique to Surah an-Naml.

أَمَّنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَأَنزَلَ لَكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَأَنبَتْنَا بِهِ حَدَائِقَ ذَاتَ بَهْجَةٍ مَّا كَانَ لَكُمْ أَن تُنبِتُوا شَجَرَهَا ۗ أَإِلَـٰهٌ مَّعَ اللَّـهِ ۚ بَلْ هُمْ قَوْمٌ يَعْدِلُونَ  "[More precisely], is He [not best] who created the heavens and the earth and sent down for you rain from the sky, causing to grow thereby gardens of joyful beauty which you could not [otherwise] have grown the trees thereof? Is there a deity with Allah? [No], but they are a people who ascribe equals [to Him]." (27:60)

أَمَّن جَعَلَ الْأَرْضَ قَرَارًا وَجَعَلَ خِلَالَهَا أَنْهَارًا وَجَعَلَ لَهَا رَوَاسِيَ وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَ الْبَحْرَيْنِ حَاجِزًا ۗ أَإِلَـٰهٌ مَّعَ اللَّـهِ ۚ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ "Is He [not best] who made the earth a stable ground and placed within it rivers and made for it firmly set mountains and placed between the two seas a barrier? Is there a deity with Allah? [No], but most of them do not know." (27:61)

أَمَّن يُجِيبُ الْمُضْطَرَّ إِذَا دَعَاهُ وَيَكْشِفُ السُّوءَ وَيَجْعَلُكُمْ خُلَفَاءَ الْأَرْضِ ۗ أَإِلَـٰهٌ مَّعَ اللَّـهِ ۚ قَلِيلًا مَّا تَذَكَّرُونَ "Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil and makes you inheritors of the earth? Is there a deity with Allah? Little do you remember." (27:62)

 أَمَّن يَهْدِيكُمْ فِي ظُلُمَاتِ الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَمَن يُرْسِلُ الرِّيَاحَ بُشْرًا بَيْنَ يَدَيْ رَحْمَتِهِ ۗ أَإِلَـٰهٌ مَّعَ اللَّـهِ ۚ تَعَالَى اللَّـهُ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ "Is He [not best] who guides you through the darknesses of the land and sea and who sends the winds as good tidings before His mercy? Is there a deity with Allah? High is Allah above whatever they associate with Him." (27:63)

أَمَّن يَبْدَأُ الْخَلْقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيدُهُ وَمَن يَرْزُقُكُم مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ أَإِلَـٰهٌ مَّعَ اللَّـهِ قُلْ هَاتُوا بُرْهَانَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ "Is He [not best] who begins creation and then repeats it and who provides for you from the heaven and earth? Is there a deity with Allah? Say, "Produce your proof, if you should be truthful." (27:64)