Chapter Seven

Negation of a Proposition Due to the Negation of its Reason From among these aydt are His statements, "Allah strikes a similitude of a (disbelieving) slave (under the possession of another), who has power over nothing, and (on the other hand) one (believer) on whom We have bestowed a good provision from Us, and he spend thereof secretly and openly. Are they equal? All Praise is for Allah! But most of them know not."20 21) al-Nap/ (16): 75 47 ----~--- - - ----·- - - ----- -------- .. And 1\llft h st rikcs (another) similitude of two men, om: of them dumb (clisbclicvc.:r), having power over nothing, and ht' is a burden on his owner; whichever way he directs him , he brings no good . Is he C<.Jual with one (hdicvcr) who enjoins justice and follows a straight path (of conduct)?'' 2 1 The two exa1nplcs (above) contain two analogies that arc o f the ' reve rse analogy' type, which is the negation of a propositio n due to the negation of its reason and hence its consc4ucncc. Analogies an: of rwo kind s: a type of analogy in which a pro position con ce rning a matter is established due to the existence of reason in it s o rigin - and another type of analogue where the fal sity of proposition of a matter is in1plied because of the fal sificatio n of the analogue: (itself). An example of the first is the one Allah has given o f Hin1sclf vi s-a-vis the ido ls (that) Allah is the Owner of everything in ex istence, He expends of it as He \Xlills on His slaves in secret and open, (<luring) night and day, His Right Hand is full of Bount y that is not diminished by His non-stop spending all nights and days - whih: on the other hand, idols arc owned and helpless and unable to do anything; so how is it that you assign t hcn1 as partners to i\ 1c (i.e. Allah) and wo rship thcn1 besides ~le despite the huge disparity and obvious difference 0)ctwcen All- --· -------- - - - - 11 al-lVtt(J/ (1(,): 7(, 48 .\ r-:_.ilif'11 o( ,1 Propnsitio11 /)11t lo !ht' 1\ '(Wtlirm ~l ill Rt1,1.r1m ' . - -- :tnd tht: ~o-callcd p~trtnc~). T'hi~ is the statc111cnt of ~-Iujahic.l and 0 th<.:~. Ibn ':\bbas (n1{if>:-llltih11 'a11h1111111) said, 'it is an cxarnplc that Allah h:1~ put forth co111paring the belicYer and the disbeliever: the cx- :unple o f the believer lies in the good that is with hin1, then He giY6 hin1 good sustenance fron1 ,vhich he spends on himself and other~ in secret and open, and the disbeliever is in the position of :111 O\\·ned helpless slave. inc:ipable of anything and without any good in him: do these t:\vo n1en rank equ~lly ir"l the tnind of any intelligent person?' And the first staten1ent (of ~1ujahid) bears closer rcsen1blance to the intended meaning and is more appar- ~nt in its refutation of associating (partners) with Allah, and is clear to the addressee and better in establishing proof, and is closer in relation to His statement, "And they worship beside Allah that which own no provision whatsoever for them from the heav<;ns or the earth; nor have they (whom they worship) any power. So put not similitudes for AIJah. Verily AIJah knows and you know not."22 Following which He says, "Allah shikes a sin1ili1t1de of a (disheliev· i,,:;J slare (1111der the possession of another), 1vho has p0111er over 110/hing... " and from among the necessary consequences of this exan1ple is o/..Vt1M. 73-74 49 ltn:, that the believer who affirms the unity (i.e. Ta111/Jid) of Allah be like the one whom Allah had provided good sustenance, and the polytheistic disbeliever is like an owned slave incapable of anything. This is what the example draws attention to and points towards. For that reason, Ibn <Abbas mentioned it and cared to emphasise the ability of humans because the stress in the ayah was on tt. Furthermore, it is worth contemplating upon this point as it is found a lot in the statements of Ibn <Abbas and other people from the Salaj, in which they express their understanding of the Qur'an, which makes many assume that the meaning of the qyah is limited to this understanding. so