Ala-Maududi
(7:54) Surely your Lord is none other than Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth in sixdays,[40] and then ascended His Throne;[41] Who causes the night to coverthe day and then the day swiftly pursues the night; Who created the sun and the moon and thestars making them all subservient to His command. Lo! His is the creation and His is thecommand.[42] Blessed is Allah,[43] the Lord of the universe.
40. The word ‘day’ in the above verse has been used either in the usual sense of the twenty-fourhour unit of time, or in a more general sense of ‘period’ of time such as in the followingverses of the Qur’an:
Verily a Day in the sight of your Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning (al-Hajj 22:47).
The angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him on a Day the measure of which is fifty thousand years(al-Ma’arij 70: 4). For further explanation see (Fussilat 41, nn. 12-15.)
41. It is quite difficult to appreciate fully the exact nature of the Qur’anic statement:‘(Allah) ascended the Throne.’ One possibility is that after the creation of the universe Godfocused His effulgence at a particular point in His Kingdom which is known as the Throne, fromwhere He showers the blessings of life and power, and governs the whole universe.
It is possible that the word ‘Throne’ stands for dominion and authority and that God’s ascendingthe Throne signifies His actual taking over the reins of the universe after having created it.Whatever the exact meaning of the expression (Allah) ascended the Throne’, the main thrust ofthe verse is that God is not just the creator of the universe, but is also its sovereign andruler; that after creating the universe He did not detach Himself from, nor become indifferentto, His creation. On the contrary, He effectively rules over the universe as a whole as well asevery part of it. All power and sovereignty rest with Him. Everything in the universe is fullyin His grip and is subservient to His will. Every atom is bound in obedience to Him. The fate ofeverything existent is in His Hands. Thus the Qur’an undermines the very basis of themisconception which leads man at times to polytheism, and at others to self-glorification and soto rebellion against God. This is the natural corollary of considering God divorced from theaffairs of the universe. In such cases, there are two possibilities. One, that beings other thanGod are considered to have the power to make or mar man’s destiny. Here, man is bound to turn tothose beings in devotion and subservience. The second possibility is for man to consider himselfas the master of his own destiny. Here, man considers himself independent of, and indifferentto, any higher being.
It is significant that the words and figures of speech employed by the Qur’an to denote therelationship between God and man are closely related to kingship, dominion, and sovereignty.This is too conspicuous a fact to be missed by any careful student of the Qur’an. It is strange,however, that it has led some superficial critics and persons of biased outlook to conclude thatthe Qur’an reflects the milieu in which man’s outlook was dominated by monarchical concepts, andthat therefore its ‘author’, who in their view was the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him),presented God as a sovereign ruler, an absolute monarch.
Quite contrary to this is the fundamental truth which the Qur’an emphatically affirms – God’ssovereignty over the heavens and the earth. It negates, with equal emphasis, that sovereigntybelongs to anyone else. Such a doctrine demolishes the very assumption on the basis of which theabove erroneous conclusion was derived. The Qur’anic concept of God’s sovereignty is in sharpcontrast to the idea that creatures of God may lay claim to sovereignty and kingship. Incontrast to the weak, mortal kings of the world, God is eternal and all-powerfuL This underminesthe very basis of the misconceived criticism that Islam has a monarchical basis since no hunianbeing can conform to the Islamic description of the sovereign. All sovereignty vests in the OneTrue God. Hence, all those who claim total or partial sovereignty either for any person or groupof people are merely cherishing an illusion. It is evident, therefore, that it is totallyinappropriate for man, who is a part of the universe created and governed by God, to adopt anyother attitude than that of acknowledging God as the only object of worship and as the onlysovereign in a societal and political sense.
42. This is an elaboration of the idea propounded in the note immediately above explaining themeaning of God’s ascension to the Throne. To reiterate, God is not merely the sole creator butalso the only One Who commands and governs. He has not detached Himself from His creation,leaving it to the care of others who might rule over it as they please. Nor has He grantedindependence to His creation or any part of it so that they might function as they, wish. On thecontrary, His grip over the entire universe is very firm. He rules over it according to Hissovereign will. If we find alternation taking place between day and night, it is a result ofGod’s command. God has full power both to hold that process in abeyance, or to alter the verysystem which causes the alternation. The heavenly bodies – the sun, the moon, and the stars –are all absolutely powerless. They are totally subservient to God’s overpowering will, and havebeen yoked to function according to His command.
43. The word barakah signifies growth and increase. The notions of elevation and greatness aswell as of permanence and stability are also an essential part of the word’s meaning. Besidesthese the word inalienably carries nuances of goodness and beneficence. To say that God is fullof barakah means that His goodness knows no bounds; that endless beneficence emanates from Him;that He is the Exalted One Whose loftiness knows no end; that His beneficence and loftiness arepermanent, and thus they will never vanish or suffer decline. (For further elaboration seeTafhim al-Qaradn, (al-Furqan 25: nn. 1 and 19.)