Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Surah An-Nahl
Surah 16 · An-Nahl · verse 35 of 128

Quran 16:35 · An-Nahl

وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ أَشۡرَكُواْ لَوۡ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ مَا عَبَدۡنَا مِن دُونِهِۦ مِن شَيۡءٖ نَّحۡنُ وَلَآ ءَابَآؤُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمۡنَا مِن دُونِهِۦ مِن شَيۡءٖۚ كَذَٰلِكَ فَعَلَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبۡلِهِمۡۚ فَهَلۡ عَلَى ٱلرُّسُلِ إِلَّا ٱلۡبَلَٰغُ ٱلۡمُبِينُ

And those who associate others with Allah say, "If Allah had willed, we would not have worshipped anything other than Him, neither we nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden anything through other than Him." Thus did those do before them. So is there upon the messengers except [the duty of] clear notification

Translation: Sahih International
Maulana’s commentary · Tazkirul Quran

An unheeding person justifies his departure from the truth in various ways and one such way is to maintain that everything in this world happens according to the will and pleasure of God. In view of this, his present behaviour can be treated as a result of the will of God. He maintains that he would not have been able to do wrong if his misdeeds had not been backed by the will of God. He says that if his actions were not to God’s liking, He would not have allowed him to continue those actions. In other words, it should have been the rule that whenever he did something against the will of God, He should have prevented him from doing it. Man talks in this way because he is not serious about truth and untruth. Had he been serious, he would have immediately understood that the liberty of action pertains to the creation plan of God according to which man is being tested in this world. It has nothing to do with God’s approval.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Tazkirul Quran

In the lectures

Maulana does not cite this verse in the lectures indexed so far. The verses of this surah Maulana does cite →