Trnanslation
[Consider the truth] when your Sustainer God brings forth the offspring of the children of Adam, from themselves, He makes them confirm the truth about themselves: “Am I not your Sustainer God?” They say: “Yes, we do confirm.” [Such is the truth], lest you say on the Day of Resurrection: “We were unaware of this,” or you complain: “It was our forefathers who invented polytheism, and we are but their descendants after them. Would You then make us face the consequence of their untrue conjectures?” This is how We [God] make the guidance explicit so that you may return [to the truth]. 385
Relate to them the affair of him to whom We give Our Guidance, but he walks away from it so that the Devil pursues him and makes him stray in irreversible errors. If We had willed, We could have made him prosper in it but he opted for the material life and pursued his vain desires. Such a person resembles a dog that, if you pursue him, he lolls out his tongue, and if you leave him undisturbed, he lolls his tongue the same way. Such is the condition of those deny Our messages. So retell the narrative, and perhaps they will reflect. Evil is the manifestation of those who deny Our [God’s] messages, and they oppress thereby none but their own souls. 386
Those whom God guides are indeed guided, but whom He allows to stray, he is indeed in a state of loss. Certainly many Jinns and human beings are destined for Hell—they were gifted with a heart, but they try not to understand with it; they were given eyes, but they try not to see with them; and they have ears, but they do not listen with them—they behave like cattle, or perhaps stray further. They are making no attempt to comprehend. 387
God has the best attributes, so aspire to imbibe those attributes and leave alone those who disregard such attributes. They will face the consequences of what they do. (Let there be) from among Our creations a group that guides (themselves and others) to truth and pursue justice thereby. 388
Interpretation
385 The essence of human awareness about God and His attributes is fundamentally a part of our makeup, a reflection of God’s breathing His essence into every human soul, a fact that constantly gets revisited in the Qur’an in the most vivid way, such as the above verse in which God affirms that every single human being is asked to confirm the Creator and we do so in the most certain way. In another verse (30:30), God says that He imparted the nature of God into the nature of each human being. Our ability to comprehend such awe-inspiring capabilities that each human being is innately endowed with and our intimate belief in the nature of the created universe are essential components for understanding ourselves, understanding God, and shaping our very existence on this planet. A testimony of such understanding is the statement of the Prophet Mohammad, who famously said: “He who knows himself, knows God.” Every human institution, every human center of knowledge, and every sphere of our social, political, and financial endeavors has to acknowledge this truth and recognize the beauty, the dignity, and the sanctity of every human presence, without which many of current tides of racism, oppression—both political and financial—injustices, gender biases, and loss of basic human rights and dignity will remain unattended and unsolved. Even on a basic level of fairness by the Creator to His creation, He wants to make sure that we have no basis to complain or deny that we knew this primordial essence of our creation and our connection with God.
386 Now comes the reality that if we deny such connection and lose sight of such profound basis of our creation, then we degrade ourselves to the level of an animal or even worse, where we not only not use our God-given faculties of thinking and comprehending, seeing, and hearing to aid in amplifying life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, but some of us actively oppose such human traits to create injustice, anarchy, and loss of human dignity in our social, religious, financial, and political conduct—a trait evident far too many times in our human history. This is a constant challenge for every generation and for every faith group as well as for people of conscience (even if they deny faith in God).
387 Now comes the call from God and an affirmation that there will always be individuals and groups within His creation who will strive to remain true to the nature of its creation, understand the attributes of God, and, by that pursuit, attain understanding of their own attributes and remain committed to truth and the cause of justice that such truth demands. All prophets of God and their followers throughout human history—the memories and teachings of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad are examples of such groups. The contrast of Abel and Cain, David and Goliath, British colonial rule versus the American founding fathers, slavery in American versus Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War versus Mohammad Ali, and apartheid in South Africa versus Nelson Mandela are examples of how inspired individuals and groups continue to demonstrate the best of human creation and being true to the nature in which God had created us.
388 The sublime attributes of God, as manifested in His ninety-nine names, adorn many Muslim homes but are absent from their hearts. We cannot achieve true faith and become infused with taqwa (a deep sense of personal responsibility and accountability) without subscribing the attributes of God with deep commitment and sincere devotion and morph into a community that, according to verse 7:181, lives and guides to the truth and establishes justify thereby.
REFLECTION
Here in this section God demonstrates in the most vivid way our connection with Him, cautions us about the danger of failing with our senses (heart, eyes, and ears, among others) to comprehend our own nature, reminds us of the consequences of evil and discord that come from being unfaithful to the very nature of our creation, exhorts us to reflect deeply on the attributes of God and hence on our own innate attributes, and, finally, calls us to action—there should always be individuals and groups who will rise up in every generation to keep the world on a straight course toward truth and justice.
ACTION
It would be utter folly on our part as individuals and as a community not to pay heed to such reality and such a call from the Creator Himself. What we need is not just to establish a factual understanding of our nature and the created world but to develop and nurture a deeper and intimate connection with God and the world we live in and make each and every day, each and every effort benefit our world—one person at a time, one family at a time, one institution at a time, one nation at a time, and one humanity at a time.