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Thursday 18 March 2021

Man's Regrets: Would that I had not associated anyone with my Lord in His Divinity


In the series of posts on Man's Regret on the Day of Judgment, we share the 42nd verse from Surah Kahf (The Cave) which is part of parable of two men mentioned in verses 32-45.

When man has nothing, he always invokes Allah's many blessings so that he has more and can enjoy the fruits of Allah's blessings. But it is generally seen that when one is gifted many bounties from Allah, he starts to boast him and vert proudly and arrogantly attribute his wealth due to his very own efforts and even forget about his Creator Who helped him attain a status and raised him above many wen he was in rag tags. While intoxicated in the joys of his status and wealth, he completely forgets that the One Who blessed him many bounties, can also take these away if one is ungrateful. And when He does, one is left with nothing but remorse and regrets:

وَاُحِيۡطَ بِثَمَرِهٖ فَاَصۡبَحَ يُقَلِّبُ كَفَّيۡهِ عَلَىٰ مَاۤ اَنۡفَقَ فِيۡهَا وَهِىَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلٰى عُرُوۡشِهَا وَيَقُوۡلُ يٰلَيۡتَنِىۡ لَمۡ اُشۡرِكۡ بِرَبِّىۡۤ اَحَدًا‏ 
(18:42) Eventually all his produce was destroyed and he began to wring his hands in sorrow at the loss of what he had spent on it, and on seeing it fallen down upon its trellises, saying: "Would I had not associated anyone with my Lord in His Divinity."

Verses 32-45 of Surah Al Kahf (The Cave) explains the parable of two men both with beautiful gardens and land for cultivation.  Both gardens produced abundantly and there was a river between the two properties.  One man told the other that he was wealthier and had more followers then the other, and he walked into his garden saying that this will never end and the Last Hour will never come and even if it did God would reward him with something even better.  The other man asked, do you disbelieve in the One who created you, for I do not, and you should have said that all is as God willed and no one has power except Him.   Although I have less, God might give me something better and destroy what you have.  And so it was that the first man’s fertile property was destroyed and he wished he had not attributed his prosperity to himself rather than God.  Then he realized that the only real protection comes from God.

This in the above said verse, يَا لَيْتَنِي لَمْ أُشْرِكْ بِرَبِّي أَحَدًا- expresses extreme regret, The ungrateful man wished he was grateful. The word layta cannot be translated in English because there is no equivalent word. Eminent Muslim scholar and teacher Nouman from Bayyinah states that this word would amount to a deep sigh of regret in English. Layta, in easy terms, is to cry over spilled milk.

This parable has many lessons for those who ponder over the verses of Qur'an and learn the appropriate lessons. We must understand that all that we have has nothing to do with our hard work alone. Unless Allah's help and blessings is available, even our hard work will be fruitless. So while one does put his hard work, he must always be looking towards the Divine Help for without the Divine Help, we are as worthless as the man mentioned in above stated parable ended up with.

This parable also tells us that none other than One True God can help us. Those who associate others in His Unchallenged Lordship are utterly mislead and wronged. Those who turn to worldly deities are also doer of a great sin of Shirk - the sin of associating anyone at par with Allah or being sharer of Allah's position. Unfortunately such people are not few but many, even between the believers, beside many non believers. We must be crystal clear about Who is the True Ruler and Giver. Those who do not associate anyone in the Divinity of Allah are the true successful and blessed ones.
May Allah help us understand Qur'ān and help us to act upon the commandments of Allah contained therein. Aameen.

For more Selected Verses, please refer to our reference page: Selected Verses from the Qur'anYou may also refer to our Reference Pages for knowing more about Islam and Qur'ān.
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Reading the Qur'ān should be a daily obligation of a Muslim - Reading it with translation will make it meaningful. But reading its Exegesis / Tafsir will make you understand it fully.

An effort has been made to gather explanation / exegesis of the surahs of the Qur'ān from authentic sources and then present a least possible condensed explanation of the surah. In that:
  • The plain translation has been taken from the Qur'ān officially published by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. [1]
  • The exegesis of the chapters of the Quran is mainly based on the "Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an" by one of the most enlightened scholars of the Muslim World Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. [2]  
In order to augment and add more explanation as already provided by [2], additional input has been interjected from following sources: 
  • Towards Understanding the Quran
  • Tafsir Ibn Khatir
  • Muhammad Asad Translation
  • Al-Quran, Yusuf Ali Translation
  • Javed Ahmad Ghamidi / Al Mawrid
  • Verse by Verse Qur'an Study Circle
In addition the references of  other sources which have been explored have also been given above. Those desirous of detailed explanations and tafsir (exegesis), may refer to these sites.

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