Quranic Progression

Year 1

Lesson 18 | 8-1-2019
Tafsīr Sūrat al-Ikhlās (Verse 1-4)
َ َ ‫ٱَّللُ أ‬
V1: ‫حد‬ ‫قُ ْل ُه َو ه‬, Say that He is Allah the One, continued
There is a narration which says the greatest name of Allah is contained in this surah.

Imam as saa’di said that from the overarching principles of the Quran is to establish
Tawheed. You find it throughout the Quran.

This is a similar to Ibn Qayyim’s statement in Maadarij As-Salikeen, which mentions

that every single verse in the Quran speaks about Tawheed, carries within it the
message ofTtawheed. Either it is a direct reference to 1.the Tawheed of Allah
(Names and Attributes, the knowledge of Tawheed) or 2. It is a call to the worship of
Allah alone (practical application of Tawheed) or 3. It is a commandment or
prohibition from Allah (once you accept Tawheed, obeying Him is the next logical
stage … it is from the rights of Tawheed) or 4. Allah is informing us of the rewards of
the people of tawheed, in this life and the next, or 5. The punishment of the people
who reject Tawheed (people of shirk, fire, punishment of grave). He says if you look
throughout the Quran if it is a verse that speaks about one of the creation of Allah
(seas, oceans, trees) then it is a verse that speaks about Allah indirectly, the
Tawheed of Allah. That Allah is the Lord and the creator. If it a verse that speaks
about marriage or divorce or some of the rulings of eating and drinking, then it’s a
command of Allah which is from the rights of Tawheed. When you accept that Allah
is your Lord and Creator, you must obey His commands and stay away from His
prohibitions in every single area of life.

All of the points mentioned by Ibn Qayyim are found throughout the Quran. The call
to Tawheed/ to worship Allah is found in Surah Dhariyat, 56: ‘And I did not create the
jinn and mankind except to worship Me.’ Or it’s the names and attributes of Allah like
Ayatul Kursi. Or the reward of the people of Jannah in surah Anfal, v29 and many
other verses. Or it’s the punishment of people who reject Tawheed like surah taha,
74. Or examples and parables concerned the Tawheed of Allah like In surah Zumar
29.

One of the names of this surah is tawheed.

V2:ُ َّ‫ص َمد ُ ٱّلل‬

َّ ‫ٱل‬
As Samad is a Name of Allah which can also be given to humans. When used to
refer to humans it means leadership and power. When it comes to this verse, At
Tabari and Ibn Abi Hatim in their tafseers

At tabari and Ibn Abi Hatim tafseer’s are 2 of the earliest, most well-known, full
collections of tafseer that we have. At Tabari passed away c. 310 Hijri and Ibn Abi
Hatim passed away c. 327 Hijri. Ibn Abi Hatim, is the son of Abu Hatim Ar Razi and
the nephew of Abu Zurah Ar Razi … these two scholars were from the
contemporaries of Imam Ahmad, and they were from the greatest scholars of hadith
at their time. Known as the two Razis. Ibn Abi Hatim studied with both his father and
his uncle, they would give him a lot of time and attention and he became one of the
greatest scholars of his time. Ibn abi hatim wrote a 10 volume tafseer, it is similar to
At tabari in the sense it is a tafsir of ma’thur, tafsir of narrations. It mentions many
narrations concerning the statements of the salaf, scholars and the companions
when it comes to the book of Allah. When it comes to the opinions or views of the
scholars, salaf and companions concerning the Name of Allah As Samad … you find
them in either Ibn Abi Hatim or At tabari for the most part.
Meanings of As Samad
 Abdullah ibn Masud and Ubay in Ka’b RA both said As Samad is the leader
who is perfect in all of his leadership skills …the complete and perfect leader.
Abdullah ibn Abbas RA and Ibrahim Nakhai (from the scholars of the tabi’een,
from the major students of Abdullah ibn Masud, passed away around 50 years
old and he is from famous scholars of Tafsir) said As Samad is the one that
people return to for their needs and turn to them for all of their issues.
 Mujahid (from the students of Ibn Abbas) said As Samad is the One who has
no jawf (in the Arabic language it is referred to as something inside … what’s
inside of you: your organs, your blood, the internal cavity of your body). The
Prophet s said ‘Allah created Adam and left him in Jannah as long as he willed,
before he blew into him from his spirit and Iblees came and saw this new
creation and began to walk around it and saw that it is Ajwaf (hollow) from
inside…’ Ajwaf meaning that is has something inside of it, it has organs and
things inside it that flow and can be used and manipulated. And when he saw
this he said this is a creation that is hollow from the inside and it’s something
that won’t have any self-control. Some of the salaf said As Samad is the One
who doesn’t have a jawf, meaning that he does not need to eat or drink. He
doesn’t have those internal organs. Because if you have blood, you can bleed.
If you have internal organs that require food or drink or oxygen, then you are
dependent upon those things. And Allah is not dependent on any of them. This
is a common Tafseer, the one who is As samad has no jawf. As Shabi
expanded on what this means … He is the One who requires no food, nor does
he require any drink.
 Hasan and Qatadah from the scholars of the salaf said As Samad is the One
who will remain, everlasting after His creation.
 Ibn Abi Hatim mentions statement of Ibn Abbas about the meaning of As
Samad … As Samad is the One who is the leader and He is perfect in
leadership and He is the One who is noble and He is perfect in His nobility and
He is the One who is all great and is perfect in His greatness, and He is the
One who is Haleem (forbearing) and He is perfect in His forbearance and He is
Aleem (the One who is All knowing) and perfect in His knowledge and Al
Hakeem perfect in His wisdom and He is the One who is perfect in all His traits
of nobility and leadership. And this is only befitting for Allah azza wa jal.
 When it’s for Allah we say As Samad (The) because the arabs used to call their
leaders Samad (meanings he’s a good leader), that person despite their
leadership qualities will always fall short. Allah is As Samad, perfect in His
leadership.
 Some of the scholars of tafseer said the meaning of As Samad is the One who
is perfect in all of His attributes. The translators choose ‘Eternal Refuge’
 because that’s what they are trying to say … Allah is perfect in every single
way, shape and form. He is perfect in all of His names and attributes.

Al Ahad and As Samad are only mentioned in surah ikhlas and not elsewhere in the
Quran in the context of it being a name of Allah. Allah is One, wahid can have
addition, whereas Ahad means unique and alone … nothing similar to Allah. Then
He mentions As Samad, Allah is not only alone and unique … but He is alone and
unique in all of His attributes. He is the One that we need, and He has no need of
anything else.

V3: ْ‫لَ ْم يَ ِلدْ َولَ ْم ي ُولَد‬

This verse is the third description Allah gives for Himself. Allah is alone and unique
(V1) and Allah is the One who is perfect in all His Names and Attributes, He is the
Eternal Refuge, the One that everyone else requires assistance from and He
requires nothing from anyone else and He has no similarity to anyone else, no
weakness, no dependence. This is the meaning of la jawfala, has nothing inside, no
need, He is not weak in terms of needing food or drink or oxygen or blood or
anything that we would consider to be a deficiency or weakness.

V3: He begets not, nor was He begotten. Begets not means He doesn’t have
children. Nor was He begotten means He was not given birth to. And both of the
Names refer to Allah being everlasting, that there was no beginning to Allah, nor is
there an end to Allah. If Allah was born that means He began at a point. And if He
gave birth to someone, this is usually associated with passing on the legacy, people
who are your successors. He has no beginning or end. The Arabs used to say the
angels are the daughters of Allah. Some of the Jews said Uzayr is the son of Allah.
Some of the Christians said Jesus is the son of Allah. Allah says that all of them are
incorrect and He said V3. He began not in the logical way, logical way would be ‘to
be born’ and then ‘to give birth’, Allah says the opposite. Allah did not give birth nor
was He given birth to. Allah begins with what is most common and therefore more
important to deal with (this is a principal of the Quran, where Allah begins with the
most important). Because this is what people claim, that Allah has children,
daughters, and sons and therefore Allah began with this. And it is mentioned by
Imam Razi in his Tafseer and others as well. Even though it is not mentioned
anywhere (/any religion) that someone said ‘Allah is born’. The scholars of tafseer
mention this point explicitly. In spite of this, Allah mentions this because if they said
Allah was born then it is in and of itself an inherent weakness. Why not worship the
parents if they are powerful and have that ability? Some of the scholars said the
reason why this is mentioned, is to give a complete and comprehensive answer.
Even though it is not something discussed, something which people believed …
Allah mentions it anyway, to give a complete eloquent and comprehensive answer.
This is something the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬would do when asked a question … he wouldn’t
necessarily just respond to the question, he would give a complete answer so you
wouldn’t need to come back to Him. The most famous example of this is the hadith
of ocean water. Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon
him, was asked about sea water and he said, “Its water is purifying (for ablution) and
its dead animals are lawful to eat.” The Prophet s gave a comprehensive answer
because it is a greater ruling and more eloquent and instead of the people coming
back and asking the same question, which probably would have come at some point,
the Prophet s answered both in a complete and succinct statement. Likewise that’s
why Allah answered both. He does It to make it even more a comprehensive answer.

Many times in the Quran Allah refers to Himself as not having any children or
offspring. Such as, Surah Baqarah 116-117: “They say, " Allaah has taken a son."
Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. All
are devoutly obedient to Him, Originator of the heavens and the earth. When He
decrees a matter, He only says to it, "Be," and it is.” The scholars said Allah is
showing throughout the Quran it is not befitting for Allah to have a child. A child is a
weakness in some way, you have a soft spot for your child. The child also has
favours that you give to them that you don’t give to others. Allah says everything in
the heavens and earth is subservient to Him, nothing has a favour over Allah. None
of the creation of Allah has a favour upon Allah. And likewise also, children normally
inherit from you, nothing inherits from Allah because the meaning of inheritance
usually refers to death and passing away. In Surah Ali Imran, 180: “and to Allah is
the inheritance of the heavens and the earth.”

َ َ ‫َولَ ْم يَكُن له ۥه ُ ُكفُ ًوا أ‬

V4:‫حد‬
Meaning “And there is nothing similar unto Him.”

Quf
There are three recitations of the word kufuw. In the recitation of Hafs it is ‘kufuwan’
and the recitation of yaqub, hamza, khalif al-ashir who say kuf-an and the remaining
quraa say qufu-an. Hafs is the only recitation that recites this word ‘waw’, everyone
else recites it with a hamza.

What does the word quf mean?

 Ubay ibn Ka’b said it means ‘there is nothing similar to Allah’.
 Mujahid said that it refers to Allah having no spouse or partner. Why does he
give this tafseer? Because the previous verse talks about Allah having neither
parents nor children. In this verse it says it refers to him having no spouse or
partner. You deny that Allah partners, from all 3 angles (up, down and
sideways).
 Qatadah and others said it refers to there is no one equivalent to Allah. What is
the difference between this and the first meaning: there is nothing similar to
Allaah. What is the difference betweem similar and equivalent? You can be like
something, but not equivalent. When they say that Allah is nothing similar … it
means from humans, from Prophets, angels … from other creations of Allah.
When you say Allah has no equivalent … it means there is not another god like
Allah also … with all of His perfection, all of His completeness, all of His Names,
all of His attributes and so on.
 Abu Hurayrah said He is the One who is free of all things and everything else is
in need of Him.
 Sa’id ibn Jubayr said He is the One who is perfect in all of His Names and
actions.
 Ar Rabi said He is the One who is not overcome by weakness. No deficiency or
weakness comes to Him. He doesn’t become tired, weak, pass away. None of
these weaknesses come to Him.
 Muqatil said He is the One who has no deficiency, weakness. Nothing which is
considered to be a defect.
 At tawus said He is the One whose descriptions are not given to anyone else. In
the manner in which He is described. When we describe Him, Al Aleem, Al
Hakeem and so on … the meanings of these Names as they befit Allah and His
majesty are not given to anyone else from His creation.
 Qatadah said He is the One who is everlasting
 Mujahid said He is the One who will never pass away.

There are 10 different statements from amongst the scholars of the meaning of this
verse.

Overall Comments about this Surah

Some of the scholar said that V1 is the one statement and the other 3 verses are a
tafsir of this statement. ‘Say that Allah is One’ (V1) and Allah is giving a tafseer
Himself of what it means to be the One. Allah is unique in every way. In Bukhari,
Abu Musa Ashaari said that the Prophet s said ‘There is no one more patient upon
harm that they hear than Allah, they ascribe to Allah children and Allah continues to
provide for them and He continues to pardon them.’ In another Bukhari hadith, on
the authority of Abu Hurayrah, the Prophet ‫ ﷺ‬said “Allah says the son of Adam
rebukes me or rejects me and it is not befitting for him to do so and he curses me
and it is not befitting for him to do so as for his rejection of me he says that ‘Allah
cannot return me to where I began’ (meaning that Allah cannot create me as He did
once before) and Allah says to return his creation is not more difficult than having
created him in the first place and as for his cursing of me Allah says that his claim
that I took a child, I am Al Ahad, As Samad, Al-lathee Lam yalid wa lam yoolad, Wa
lam yakul-lahu kufuwan ahad.” These are two hadith that also speak about V4.

Summary of what was said in the tafseer of Surah Ikhlas (by the sheik)
 It is equal to 1/3 of the Quran.
 It’s cause of revelation is that Quraysh came and asked about the lineage of
‘your Lord’ to the Prophet s. Allah revealed this surah in return. The other
narration is that it is not Quraysh but some of the Jews of Madina and this is why
we have a difference of opinion as to whether this surah is Makki or Madani. The
majority of scholars of tafsir said it is Makki
 V1: He is Allah, the One.