سورة الزمر

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): The verse وَ ما قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ [And they have not honored Allah with the honor that is due to Him] was revealed concerning the Kharijites.

Imam al-Hadi (peace be upon him): Yaqtin said: I asked Imam al-Hadi (peace be upon him) about the statement of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمِیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ [and the whole earth shall be in His grip on the day of resurrection and the heavens rolled up in His right hand]. He said: "Allah the Blessed and Exalted, by this expression, has reproached those who likened Him to His creation. Do you not see that at the beginning of this very verse He said: وَ ما قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ [And they have not honored Allah with the honor that is due to Him]; and what He said, وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمینِهِ سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالی عَمَّا یُشْرِکُونَ, is like that other case where He said: 'They did not know Allah properly when they said: Allah has not sent down anything upon any human being!' (Al-An'am/91). And at the end of the verse Allah the Great has declared Himself pure and free from being tainted with these improper attributions [of grasping and possessing a hand], and said: سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالی عَمَّا یُشْرِکُونَ [glory be to Him, and may He be exalted above what they associate (with Him)]." [And these two clauses must be understood as: they did not know Allah as befits Him and said that the heavens are in His grip, or they said that Allah has not sent down anything — Allah is pure, free and exempt from these things they say.]

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Sulayman ibn Mihran said: I asked Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) about the statement of Allah the Mighty and Majestic: وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمِیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ [and the whole earth shall be in His grip on the day of resurrection]. He said: "It means His kingdom and dominion, in which no one is a partner with Him." ... I said: "Then what does His saying وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ [and the heavens rolled up in His right hand] mean?" He said: "al-Yamin (the right hand) is a metaphor for the hand, and the hand is a metaphor for power, strength and ability. Allah the Mighty and Majestic says وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ, meaning: through His power and ability, the heavens are rolled up. Allah is pure and above what they set up as His equal."

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Allah the Mighty and Majestic is an existent independent and self-subsisting in Himself, and for His existence He has no need of tools, means or intermediaries. Yet He Himself declares that no one can know Him as He deserves to be known. And in order to declare Himself pure and free from the speech and imaginings of His disbelieving servants who have set up partners for Him, and from the imaginings of those who, by their own reckoning, have compared Allah with other beings and confined Him within limits and measures, He has said: وَ ما قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمِیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالی عَمَّا یُشْرِکُونَ [And they have not honored Allah with the honor that is due to Him; and the whole earth shall be in His grip on the day of resurrection and the heavens rolled up in His right hand; glory be to Him, and may He be exalted above what they associate (with Him)]. In order to reach greater recognition between yourself and Allah, accept and follow every attribute that the Quran tells you about Allah, and make use of the light of the Quran's guidance, for the Quran is both a blessing and a wisdom, both of which have been given to you. So accept whatever it gives you [and whatever the Quran says], and be among the grateful.

Ali ibn Ibrahim: In the verse وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمِیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ وَ السَّماوَاتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ [And the whole earth shall be in His grip on the Day of Resurrection and the heavens rolled up in His right hand], what is meant by "the right hand" is power and might.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Truly, woe to you, O human! Certainly every one of you will draw near to the time of the reckoning [of your deeds]; and the command of your Lord shall arrive and the angels shall stand present, rank upon rank (Fajr/22), and they shall be asked about all their deeds, letter by letter. They shall be brought naked [and defenceless to the gathering] with their eyes cast down, the reckoning before them and behind them the flame of Hell whose roar they hear and whose blaze they see. (There) they shall find no helper and no friend to give them refuge from this humiliation. They shall run swiftly to the stations of the gathering and be driven this way and that; on that day when We roll up the heavens as a scroll is rolled up for writings, [then] just as We began the first creation, We shall bring it back — a promise (binding) upon Us; indeed We shall do it. (Anbiya/104)

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Whoever equates our Lord with anything has set up a peer and partner for Him, and the one who sets up a peer for Him is a disbeliever in what the firm verses of His Book have been revealed with and what the witnesses of His clear proofs have declared. For He is Allah, whom intellects cannot reach, and the aspirations of souls are limited and quickly turn back from their path. He is the One who brings forth the varieties of things without any need for reflection, without an innate faculty on which He relies, without a hidden intuition within Him, without experience gained and acquired from the passing of the events of ages, and without a partner who assists Him in originating the wondrous matters. He is the One whom, when those who turned away from the truth likened Him to created beings whose states and attributes are limited and varied — beings that have bounds, sides and directions in their conditions and ranks — He is, by His own essence, existent, not existent through proofs of signs or through the mediation of marks. And in order to declare Himself pure and far from the supposition of the participation of equals, and above the analogy and measuring of the disbelieving servants who tried to measure Him by limits, He, the Mighty and Majestic, said: وَ ما قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمِیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالی عَمَّا یُشْرِکُونَ [And they have not honored Allah with the honor that is due to Him; and the whole earth shall be in His grip on the day of resurrection and the heavens rolled up in His right hand; glory be to Him, and may He be exalted above what they associate with Him]. So follow those attributes of Allah to which the verses of the Quran guide you, so that you may reach the reality of Allah; take them as your guide and seek light from the light of His guidance, for that is a blessing and a wisdom that have been given to you. So take what you have been given and be among the grateful. And whatever Satan casts to you, for which you find no command in the Quran and no trace of it in the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and the Imams of guidance (peace be upon them), entrust its knowledge to Allah the Mighty and Majestic, for this is the utmost of the right Allah has upon you.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Salman al-Farsi (may Allah have mercy on him) — in a long hadith in which he mentions the arrival of the Jathaliq (the Christian scholar) along with a hundred Christians in Madinah, that the Jathaliq asked Abu Bakr questions and Abu Bakr was unable to answer, and after that the Jathaliq was directed and guided to the Commander of the Faithful Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him), and he asked the Imam several questions and the Imam answered — [in that hadith it is stated:] Among the questions the Jathaliq asked was this, that he said: 'Inform me about the meaning of this verse: وَ ما قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَ الْأَرْضُ جَمِیعاً قَبْضَتُهُ یَوْمَ الْقِیامَةِ وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ سُبْحانَهُ وَ تَعالی عَمَّا یُشْرِکُونَ [And they have not honored Allah with the honor that is due to Him; and the whole earth shall be in His grip on the day of resurrection and the heavens rolled up in His right hand; glory be to Him, and may He be exalted above what they associate (with Him)]; for if the heavens are rolled up and the earth is seized [so that there will be neither heaven nor earth], where will Paradise and Hell — which are located in the heavens and the earth — be? [According to the claim of this verse, with the removal of the heavens and the earth, Paradise and Hell would also be destroyed.]' The Imam called for a paper and a pen, and on that paper he wrote the names of Paradise and Hell, then folded the paper and handed it to the Christian, then said: 'Have I not folded this paper?' He said: 'Yes.' Then he said: 'Open the paper.' The Christian opened the paper. The Imam said: 'Do you see any trace of the word Hell and Paradise in it, or has the paper [and its being folded] wiped them out?' The Christian said: 'No.' The Imam said: 'So likewise, in the power and might of Allah, when the heavens are rolled up and the earth is seized, Paradise and Hell are not made null, just as the folding of this paper did not destroy the writings of Paradise and Hell.'

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): A Jewish man came to the Noble Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) and said: 'O Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), I ask you, so answer me ... consider this verse: On the day when this earth shall be changed into a different earth. (Ibrahim/48). وَ السَّماواتُ مَطْوِیَّاتٌ بِیَمِینِهِ [and the heavens rolled up in His right hand]. Where will the people be at that time?' He said: 'They will be in a darkness other than the Gathering-place (Mahshar).'

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): The Essence of Allah cannot be described, and how can He be described when He Himself says in His Book: وَ ما قَدَرُوا اللهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ [And they have not honored Allah with the honor that is due to Him]. The Essence of Allah is not compared with any limit or definition except that Allah is loftier and greater than that.