13.39
Abbas - Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs
(Allah effaceth what He will) from the scroll of the guardian angels which does not entail a reward or punishment, (and establisheth (what He will)) and leaves that which entails a reward or punishment, (and with Him is the source of ordinance) the source of the Book, i.e. the Preserved or Guarded Tablet, in which nothing is added or taken away.
Know that the highway of the Real's religion is three things: submission, the Sunnah, and selfpurification. In submission be fearful, in the Sunnah be hopeful, and in self-purification be a lover. Submission has no escape from fear, the Sunnah must have hope, and self-purification is nothing but the foundation of the lover.
To the fearful it is said, " Be afraid! " To the hopeful it is said, " Keep on seeking! " To the lover it is said, " Keep on burning! "
In the end the address will come to the fearful, " Fear not! [41:30]. Do not fear, for the days of fear have come to an end. " To the hopeful will be said, " Grieve not! [41:30]. Have no sorrow, for your hope has been reached and the tree of joy has grown. " To the lovers will be said, " Rejoice! [41:30]. Be happy, for the night of separation has ended and the morning of union has come. "
Each of these things has its own path of effacement and affirmation in the world. From the hearts of the fearful He erases eye-service and puts certainty, He erases stinginess and puts generosity, He erases avarice and puts contentment, He erases envy and puts tenderness, He erases innovation and puts the Sunnah, He erases fright and puts security.
From the hearts of the hopeful He erases free choice and deposits surrender, He erases dispersion and deposits togetherness, He erases perplexity and deposits the precedent light.
From the hearts of the lovers He erases the customs of human nature and deposits the marks bearing witness to the Haqiqah, He decreases the marks bearing witness to the servant and increases the marks bearing witness to Himself. Then, just as he was at first, so also he will be at last. The Pir of the Tariqah said, " O God, the majesty of Your exaltedness left no room for allusions. Your effacing and affirming took away the path of ascription-I lost all that I had in hand.
O God, Yours kept on increasing and mine decreasing until at last there remained only what there was at first. "
Tribulation lies only in the makeup of my water and clay.
What was before heart and clay? That is what I will be.
He effaces whatsoever He will, and He affirms. It has been said, " He effaces the recognizers by the unveiling of His majesty and He affirms them by the gentleness of His beauty. " 4 Through the unveiling of majesty, intellects are eclipsed and swept away, and through the gentleness of beauty, spirits rejoice and are put at ease.
First He drowns the servants with the waves of confoundedness in the ocean of unveiled majesty until, at the domination of intimacy with Him, they are freed from themselves through a state that the body cannot bear, the heart cannot understand, and discernment cannot view. Like drunkards, they turn to the valleys of confoundedness, in thirst and bewilderment, sometimes weeping, sometimes laughing. They have no leisure to search out their frightened heart, no helper to whom to recount their portion.
Isolated from friends in every land-
the greater the sought, the fewer the helpers.
They keep on saying with the tongue of brokenness in the attribute of poverty, " O God, today this burning of mine is mixed with pain-I have no capacity to bear it, no place to flee. O God, why is this blade so sharp?! There is no place for ease and no way to abstain. O Generous One, my home is so far away. The traveling companions have gone back, saying that this is the work of delusion. If my home is joy, this waiting is celebration, and this tribulation on top of tribulation is light upon light [24:35]. "
Then, with the gaze of gentleness, He looks into the servants' spirits. The servants come back from intoxication to sobriety, take ease in the gentle favors of solicitude, and light up with the light of contemplation. They are released from self, freed from this world and the next, and live in the breeze of intimacy, seeing the beginningless reminder, having found everlasting happiness. They
say, " O God, sometimes I spoke to You and sometimes I listened. In the midst of my offenses I thought of Your gentleness. I suffered what I suffered. All became sweet when I heard the voice of acceptance. "
God effaces of it the Book whatever He will and He fixes read yuthbit or yuthabbit therein whatever He will of rulings or other matters and with Him is the Mother of the Book its source of origin of which nothing is ever changed and which consists of what He inscribed in pre-eternity azal.
God effaces whatever He will, from the Tablets of particulars, which are the heavenly souls, of engravings that are fixed therein, so that these [effaced things] are given non-existence in terms of matter and are annihilated, and He fixes, whatever He will therein and brings [these] into existence, and with Him is the Mother of the Book, that is, the Tablet of Preceding Decree, which is the Intellect of the All, engraved with everything that has been and that will be, from pre-eternity to sempiternity in a universal way, above being subject to effacing and fixing. The Tablets are four: 1) the Tablet of Preceding Decree that is above being subject to effacing and fixing, which is the Tablet of the First Intellect; 2) the Tablet of Destiny, that is, the Tablet of the universal rational speaking soul wherein are differentiated the universals of the first Tablet and to which causes are attached, and this is the one referred to as the Preserved Tablet; 3) the Tablet of the particular heavenly souls, wherein is engraved all that is in this world in its [given] figure, structure and measure, and this is the one called the Heaven of this world and it is the equivalent of the imagination of the world, just as the first one is the equivalent of its spirit, the second its heart; then comes the Tablet of Primordial Matter that receives form in the world of the witnessing. But God knows best.
Allah says, `Just as We have sent you O Muhammad, a Prophet and a human, We sent the Messengers before you from among mankind, that eat food, walk in the markets, and We gave them wives and offspring.' Allah said to the most honorable and Final Messenger,
(As for me, I fast and break the fast, stand in prayer at night and sleep, eat meat and marry women; so whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not of mine.)
No Prophet can bring a Miracle except by Allah's Leave
(And it was not for a Messenger to bring a sign except by Allah's leave.) meaning, no Prophet could have brought a miracle to his people except by Allah's permission and will, for this matter is only decided by Allah the Exalted and Most Honored, not the Prophets; surely Allah does what He wills and decides what He wills.
لِكُلِّ أَجَلٍ كِتَابٌ
((For) every matter there is a decree (from Allah).) for every term appointed, there is a record (or decree) that keeps it, and everything has a specific due measure with Allah,
(Know you not that Allah knows all that is in the heaven and on the earth Verily, it is (all) in the Book. Verily, that is easy for Allah.)22:70
Meaning of Allah blotting out what He wills and confirming what He wills of the Book
Allah said,
يَمْحُو اللَّهُ مَا يَشَآءُ
(Allah blots out what He wills) of the divinely revealed Books,
وَيُثَبِّتْ
(and confirms), until the Qur'an, revealed from Allah to His Messenger peace be upon him, abrogated them all. Mujahid commented;
يَمْحُو اللَّهُ مَا يَشَآءُ وَيُثْبِتُ
(Allah blots out what He wills and confirms (what He wills).) "Except life and death, misery and happiness i.e., faith and disbelief, for they do not change.'' Mansur said that he asked Mujahid, "Some of us say in their supplication, `O Allah! If my name is with those who are happy (believers), affirm my name among them, and if my name is among the miserable ones (disbelievers), remove it from among them and place it among the happy ones.'' Mujahid said. "This supplication is good.'' I met him a year or more later and repeated the same question to him and he recited these Ayat,
إِنَّآ أَنزَلْنَـهُ فِى لَيْلَةٍ مُّبَـرَكَةٍ
(We sent it (this Qur'an) down on a blessed night.) Mujahid commented next, "During Laylatul-Qadr (Night of the Decrees), Allah decides what provisions and disasters will occur in the next year of. He then brings forward or back (or blots out) whatever He wills. As for the Book containing the records of the happy (believers) and the miserable (disbelievers), it does not change.'' Al-A`mash narrated that Abu Wa'il, Shaqiq bin Salamah said that he used to recite this supplication often, "O Allah, if You wrote us among the wretched ones, remove this status from us and write us among the blessed ones. If You wrote us among the blessed ones, please let us stay that way, for surely, You blot out and confirm what You will, and with You is the Mother of the Book.'' Ibn Jarir At-Tabari collected this. Similar statements were collected from `Umar bin Al-Khattab and `Abdullah bin Mas`ud, indicating that Allah blots out (or abrogates) and affirms what He wills in the Book of Records. What further supports this meaning is that Imam Ahmad recorded that Thawban said that the Messenger of Allah said,
(A man might be deprived of a provision (that was written for him) because of a sin that he commits; only supplication changes Al-Qadar (Predestination); and only Birr (righteousness) can increase the life span.'') An-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah collected this Hadith. There is also a Hadith recorded in the Sahih that affirms that maintaining the ties of the womb increases the life span. Al-`Awfi reported that Ibn `Abbas said about Allah's statement,
(Allah blots out what He wills and confirms (what He wills). And with Him is the Mother of the Book.) "A man might work in Allah's obedience for a while but he reverts to the disobedience of Him and then dies while misguided. This is what Allah blots out, while what He confirms is a man who works in His disobedience, but since goodness was destined for him, he dies after reverting to the obedience of Allah. This is what Allah confirms.'' It was also reported that Sa`id bin Jubayr said that this Ayah is in the meaning of another Ayah,
(Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills. And Allah is able to do all things.) 2:284
13.38-39
Maududi - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an
This is the answer to another objection. The disbelievers said that Ire could not be a Prophet of Allah because he had wives and children, for they argued that Prophets had nothing to do with carnal desires.
This is the answer to yet another objection: "Had he been a taste Prophet, he would have shown a Sign like the shining hand and the miraculous staff of Prophet Moses or he would have restored sight to the blind or cured lepers like Prophet Jesus, or brought a Sign like the she-camel of Prophet Salih". The answer is this: "None of the former Messengers had any power to show any Sign nor has this Prophet: Allah showed a Sign whenever and through whomsoever He considered it to be necessary and will show any Sign whenever He will consider it necessary, and that I have not claimed to possess any such power that such a demand might be made from me."
This is the answer to another objection raised against the Revelation of the Qur'an. The disbelievers said, "What was the need of this new Book, when there already existed the former revealed Books? You say that this need has arisen because the former Books have been tampered with; therefore Allah has abrogated them and commanded that this new Book should be followed. This position you have taken is wrong for how can any one tamper with the Book of Allah and how is it possible that any Book of Allah might be tampered with? Why did not Allah protect these Books from such things as these? You say that this Book has been revealed by the same Allah Who revealed the Torah and the Gospel. Haw is it then that your way is different from that of the Torah? You consider certain things lawful while they are unlawful according to the Torah, etc. etc." Detailed answers to these objections have been given in other Surahs but here only a brief and comprehensive answer has been given to them. The Arabic word ( (Umm-ul-Kitab) literally means "the Mother Book", that is, the Original Book which is the Source and Origin of all the revealed Books.
God erases whatever He will and He fixes whatever He will, and with Him is the Mother of the Book.He [Sahl] said:God erases what He wills in the realm of [secondary] causes (asbāb), and fixes what is decreed. And with Him is the Mother of the Book. It is the irrevocable decree (qaḍā) to which nothing may be added and from which nothing may be taken away. His words, Exalted is He:
