Sūrat al-Nās

سورۃ الناس

Sūrat al-Nās

When an infant is born, why does it open its mouth and turn its face this way and that? It is searching for someone — it has, concerning someone, the instinctive sense that there is One who arranges for it to be fed when it is hungry. This is an innate, natural drive (fiṭrī jazba); it is a natural impulse for which the question of who arranges its nourishment does not even consciously arise — and yet here every question comes to rest.

But in the end — whom is it seeking? Whom does it take as its Lord (rabb)? It comes to conceive its Lord as One who has the power to remove its distress: One who knows its pain, who sees its restlessness, who hears its weeping — that is, the All-Knowing (ʿalīm), the All-Seeing (baṣīr), the All-Hearing (samīʿ); the One who by His own will comes to its aid, who commands that what it needs be given, who provides for all its needs. Milk gathers in the mother’s breast, and she nurses it. What happens after that?

A little intelligence comes to it, and it begins to take the mother for its lord — her scent reaches it, the intellect awakens, and it thinks, "She is the one who nurtures me." Here the chain of error begins. A little more awareness comes, and it takes the father for its lord, thinking, "He is the one who brings the money and provides for me; she feeds me milk — but were it not for the father, where would the money come from?" Growing further, it begins to perceive that the father and mother receive their own livelihood from the realm of a king — it is the king, then, who is the real lord. Growing yet further, it looks beyond: the king himself depends on the elements — water, fire, air, earth — and on the trees, the rains, the harvests; so it begins to take these for its sustainer (rabb), imagining that nature itself is the lord.

Its understanding ripens further: it sees that the condition of these earthly things falls under the influence of the stars and planets, and so — as some ignorant people do — it begins to worship the sun, and some to worship the planets, Mercury (ʿAṭārid), Venus (Zuhra), Jupiter (Mushtarī), supposing the heavenly bodies to be the true sustainers. But here reason corrects the error: these heavenly bodies have no power of their own. Their influence is not intrinsic; the very light of the stars is borrowed; the moon takes its light from the sun, and even the sun — though heat and light pour out from it — gives nothing of its own essence; nothing truly originates from it. And what is the end of all this? After a span of time the sun will grow cold, darkness will fall, and the order of the world will come to ruin — so these bodies can never be the Lord. The forces that drive them are themselves but a few created powers; so the mind is driven to recognize that these powers too have a Lord.

Reflecting still further, one arrives at this: these things are not self-subsistent; their governing centre and source must be Some Being whose existence is by Its own essence (dhāt) — One who is All-Knowing of every world, present at every moment, possessed of all-seeing knowledge, of power, of will, whose command runs through all. Now observe: what the child, by its innate nature (fiṭra), groped toward and dimly understood, the Holy Prophet ﷺ confirmed as the established reality. In any case, the longing for God is present in the fiṭra of every human being by nature: the heart, in its very nature, seeks the One who exists by virtue of His own essence — al-wujūd bi’l-dhāt, the True Existent. The one whose intellect is sound finds Allah’s presence there. But the one whose heart is diseased, whose reason is deficient — his innate feelings do not rise to the truth. Some ignorant ones go so far as not even to acknowledge God — but that condition arises from a sickness of the intellect and heart, not from the fiṭra itself. There are some of deficient intellect (ʿaql nāqiṣ) who follow the philosophers and say there is no god but nature — and that lies outside the scope of our discussion altogether.

Lā ilāha illā Llāhu waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu, wa-mā fī l-samāwāti wa-mā fī l-arḍ — "There is no god but Allah alone, who has no partner; and to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth."

After this preamble, I now take up the tafsīr of Sūrat al-Nās — Rabb al-nās (the Lord of mankind), Malik al-nās (the King of mankind), Ilāh al-nās (the God of mankind) — showing how Allah understands the innate, natural dispositions of mankind, and how those fiṭrī longings arise.

Sūrat al-Nās — revealed in Makkah. It has six (6) āyāt.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Bismillāhi l-Raḥmāni l-Raḥīm.

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ

qul aʿūdhu bi-rabb al-nās.

"Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind." (al-Nās 114:1)

Al-Nās — the origin of the word is al-unās — the hamza at the beginning was dropped and people began to say al-nās — uns means "to feel at ease with someone" — al-insan — human being — people gather together by their nature. The human being is by nature sociable — he cannot live life alone. One person helps another and obtains cooperation — but the comparison between jinn and uns supports the primary meaning of uns — the material in which the jinn are hidden and concealed includes: jungle — garden — jannat-al-ghunā (garden) — desert — sea — majnūn — dhāl — jinnī — jannī — the child in the womb — jinnī — the one whose solitude is primary — they are a creature in whose interior the jinn dominates. There are among them unbelievers and Muslims too — among them some have obtained the honour of the companionship of the Sultan of the Prophets ﷺ — but the special characteristic of mankind is fanāʾ fī Allāh (annihilation in God) and walāya (sainthood) — jinn — not even the king of the jinn has a share in this — this is the crown of vicegerency (khilāfat) which they hold.

Here a world-encompassing observation of the people of discernment has emerged — that the things we do not know, we do not observe them, they do not exist — in every field there are a few experts — we cannot investigate them — we cannot say anything beyond that they are not established with us — so they simply do not exist — and using our simple village-foolishness we write interpretations of the Qur'ān and explain taʾwīl (allegorical interpretation) — they write books of Spiritism (Rūḥāniyyāt) and Pneumatism — those who hold the existence of jinn are as yet convinced — but such matters pertaining to jinn have not been uncovered — thousands of things like this have not been uncovered — if our predecessors (salaf) maintained convictions about them and investigated, their investigation was not verified — these are not present for us so they do not exist — if science keeps advancing, the advancement of knowledge will not remain blocked.

Bear in mind that for jinn the meaning of "if it sees" — also "saves" from some of the crimes for which it is necessary to give a severe blow — Shayṭān — from its meaning it has become known that it is: dhāma nashāʾ-a l-shayāṭīn — by shayāṭīn we mean the shayāṭīn of snakes and the devils of souls — pursuing and chasing them is a great and bad evil.

Translation: "Say — I seek refuge in the Lord of the people (the Provider of all) — He alone is the one who feeds and nourishes them."

مَلِكِ النَّاسِ

maliki l-nās.

"The King of mankind." (al-Nās 114:2)

Translation: "(Who) is the King of the people (the absolute Ruler)."

إِلَٰهِ النَّاسِ

ilāhi l-nās.

"The God of mankind." (al-Nās 114:3)

Translation: "The Worshipped of all people (the God of all)."

First there is the physical body's formation — these elements of equilibrium (iʿtidāl) produce a special condition — this is the requisite of the dignity of Rabb-hood. Then through nafs (self) and ʿāqila (intellect) a human being is made the governor of body and soul — this is the dignity of Malik al-nās and the absolute Kingship. Then the human being's attention is turned from material and tangible things towards the true Object of Worship — which is Ilāh al-nās — towards this attention must be paid. Thousands of obstacles come before the human being — external and internal both — among them are doubts, imaginings, the whisperings of the nafs — this is of great importance. From this seeking of refuge is necessary.

مِن شَرِّ الْوَسْوَاسِ الْخَنَّاسِ

min sharri l-waswāsi l-khannās.

"From the evil of the retreating whisperer." (al-Nās 114:4)

The investigation of Sūrat al-Falaq has been completed — the foundation (māda) is found in it — sharāra — the spark of fire that spreads and scatters — and disperses — al-waswās — the thought-instiller; the one that induces thoughts — from the word waswasa a restless, anxious movement is felt — it is al-khannās — the one that crouches behind, khansā — meaning retreating — al-khannās — retreating, that which creeps and hides in the nose (nāk ki nāk chhupatī hai).

Translation: "From the evil of the one who whispers and then retreats (hides)."

Most whispers are from those who are food-loving (achchā khāne pine wāle) and have the society of others — the Sufis say such thoughts are of four kinds — Shayṭānī — nafsānī — malakī — raḥmānī.

Khatra-e-Shayṭānī — disbelief, sin, ingratitude, lack of trust in God, impatience — this is the satanic thought.

Khatra-e-nafsānī — eating and drinking and gathering — because the nafs demands these naturally — for these thousands of plots the Shayṭān devises against the nafs to obtain unlawful means and purposes — to set it going — the nafs is a strange creature like an animal — it has a noble quality — but so that its purpose may be fulfilled — nafs is praiseworthy in some ways — what habit will be instilled — as a thing is given and the habit of that thing is established — then a few days performing namāz — then watch — when the time of namāz came and wuḍū was performed to read namāz — no nafs was ready — then

the time passed — the eyes opened and the water came — nafs was not ready — then the namāz was eventually prayed — so after being ready it was not a burden — nafs does not need preparation for the nafs — just as in this manner Shayṭān takes the human being by corruption — this is the satanic thought-inducing way — giving good advice like an angel — shayṭānī thoughts of evil direction are always busy.

Khatra-e-malakī — this thought is from the divine providences (taqādīr ilāhiyya) — the commands and benefits are manifested — contentment is produced — submissiveness (riḍāʾ) and acceptance become a habit — the khatra raḥmānī (divine mercy thought) comes within the heart as contentment — while the shayṭānī khatra (satanic thought) comes from within the heart — it is an indication towards that — dhikr Allāh alā bi-dhikri Llāhi taṭmaʾinnu l-qulūb — remembrance of Allah — by the remembrance of Allah hearts find tranquillity. Allah — to draw the heart close — Yāʾ-Fʿāl — Yā-Muṣawwir — Yaḥdhā — reading — (6) in yashāʾ yudhhib-kum wa-yaʾti bi-khalqin jadīdin wa-mā dhālika ʿalā Llāhi bi-ʿazīz — reading. (7) Changing the state of being — for instance standing, then sitting, then raising — (8) Often reading the thoughts (khayālāt) of the saints — his — one's whole life's summary (ijmālā) and the plan of action for the coming days — preparing a detailed plan with full heart (naṣīḥat) — (9) When the thought comes again in the mind, saying before it that it has already been purified — what benefit is there in that thought coming again? (9) Wherever the thought comes, one should think: this thought is desirable for me — I want to obtain it this way — and give me guidance in obtaining it — and in obtaining it, bestow guidance on me — as much as one thinks — the more one thinks, the worship of God (duʿāʾ al-ʿibāda) will be established in the mind — immediately the shayṭān thoughts will be cut off — and he will forget about his purposes — immediately the obstacles of Shayṭān will be removed from the purpose and the trivial wasted times and lives will be stopped — and it will be abandoned — and the other — looking at other things — the best way is the way of trust (tawakkul) — since Allah's teaching has given this verse and the verse says (10) istaʿādha (seeking refuge).

Istaʿādha is a duʿāʾ and it is the spirit (mughth al-ʿibāda) — it is a du'ā' — do not rely on your own strength — Lāḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā billāh — take refuge in your Master — He is the fully Answerer of supplications — He is the fully Accepter of supplications — from this rebellion (ṭughyān) — what is the power of it — whose mercy can protect you? Fa-firrū ilā Llāh — flee to Allah! and abandon His mercy — what is there for your legal reform? We are their assistants — Wa-lladhīna jāhadū fīnā la-nahdiyanna-hum subulanā.

الَّذِي يُوَسْوِسُ فِي صُدُورِ النَّاسِ

alladhī yuwaswisu fī ṣudūri l-nās.

"Who whispers in the breasts of mankind." (al-Nās 114:5)

Translation: "Who casts whispers into the chests of the people — he instils doubts into them — he is also among the jinn and also from among human beings."

Al-nās — lām refers to the people as originally intended (istiqlāl) and al-nās without lām — anas — those close by — insan — meaning people by their nature who are always with someone, breathing beside them — they are especially characteristic — among them the presence of ḥużūr of the saints (awliyāʾ) is special — the Shayṭān cannot leap upon them — their house (khāna) is empty, the Shayṭān has taken over — for this reason —

Jis ke man mein sāʾīn basa ho — wo jahā kon sāʾe (In whose heart the Master dwells — who can find shade there?)

[Poem by Ḥażrat Ṣiddīqī (may Allah have mercy on him)]

Remember the fire — in it from heat and cold and snow and ice there is khusbū (fragrance). In the same way, after evil the good (nekī) brings the coming of stillness and calm (jamūj). If water is poured on the ground's surface, the good and evil ones will be irrigated — among them there will be produced one big and one small (ek baṛā ek choṭā) — making the circle (dāʾire) grow and the strong dāʾire smaller, complete — in this way a very good person (bahut nekī ādmī) becomes an ordinary good person (maʿmūlī nekī ādmā) by great companionship — and a very ordinary bad person (bahut maʿmūlī burā ādmī) becomes a good person (achchhā ādmī) — the good of the companionship of a good person (nekī kī ṣoḥbat) is effective by nature — natural temperament (ṭabīʿat) separates from the base (ṭabīʿat yusriq min al-ṭabʿ) — whether the Shayṭān wishes or the satanic person wishes — Shayṭān from the human attribute of Shayṭān — and from the satanic people (shayāṭīn ṣifat insānon) — Iblīs — Adam weeps and laments:

Ay Iblīs ādam rowe hai — (O Iblis, Adam weeps!)

For example the immoral cinema (akhlaqi mukharab tāk), the gossip-house (khāna-e-bad-dostīyā) — a single child of theirs moans — his own rūpa (money) they spend — it shows — a few days and it becomes normal — it mixes in — the colour mixes in (rang mein mil jātā hai) — and 72 religions have made Islam into pieces — these wrongdoers (ẓālimūn) did what was to be done — some great personalities (mashāʾikh) have written like this — that the faqīr (fuqarā) should call the amīr (al-bāb ʿalā al-amīr daʿwat) to know the Sunnah — but amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-nahy ʿan al-munkar (enjoining good and forbidding evil) — but both the scholars and saints (ʿulamāʾ wa-mashāʾikh) are involved in them — what can they do! They make themselves the helpers of the wrongdoers — their speeches and their praise of the wicked (khubāthūn) with the guidance of Qur'ān and Ḥadīth — the interpretation of both of them legally supporting the ḥarāms — when the religious leaders become worldly and ignorant — the followers of idol worshippers — what is the condition of Islam, then? There is no religion, no purpose and no meaning — yes! It is necessary that it be the common sharing (mardumshāri) in their community — some ʿuhda-dār (functionaries) of Muslims make such remarks that being Muslim is quite sufficient for them — and if the decision against them is made under the legal court, then the obligation (farāʾiḍ) is the crime of a Muslim — my punishment is greater — this is indeed: min al-jinnati wa-l-nās — from all of these the seeking of refuge is necessary — because only by looking at their condition the heart becomes disturbed.

مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ

mina l-jinnati wa-l-nās.

"From among the jinn and mankind." (al-Nās 114:6)

Translation: "Who instils whispers into the chests — he is from the jinn as well as from human beings and also from the demons."

Closing Duʿāʾ and Colophon

اللّٰهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِّ نَفْسِي وَمِنْ شَرِّ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ — وَهَرِّ كُلِّي دَآبَّةً أَنْتَ آخِذٌ بِنَاصِيَتِهَا إِنَّ رَبِّي عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

Allāhumma innī aʿūdhu bika min sharri nafsī wa-min sharri l-shayṭāni l-rajīm — wa-harri kullī dābbatan anta ākhidhun bi-nāṣiyatihā inna rabbī ʿalā ṣirāṭin mustaqīm.

"O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the evil of my own self and from the evil of the accursed Satan — and every creature — You hold its forelock — verily my Lord is upon a straight path."

(الحمد لله تمت بالخیر) (Al-ḥamdu lillāh — completed in goodness.)

Dated: 01-06-2009