Tafseer of The Beneficent · Ar-Rahmaan · 55:13
So which of the favors of your Lord would you deny?
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ "Then which of the favors of your Lord will you both deny?" (55:13)
The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, means by His saying فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ : Which of the favors of your Lord, O assembly of jinn and humankind, of these favors, will you both then deny?
As Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sahl al-Sarrāj related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ : Which of the favors of your Lord will you both deny?
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ — he said: none of them, O Lord.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā and ʿAmr ibn Mālik al-Naḍrī related to us, both of them saying: Yaḥyā ibn Sulaymān al-Ṭāʾifī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Umayya, on the authority of Nāfiʿ, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited Surah al-Raḥmān, or it was recited in his presence, and he said: "How is it that I hear the jinn giving a better response to their Lord than you?" They said: What was that, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "Whenever I reached the saying of Allah فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ , the jinn would say: 'Not a single one of the favors of our Lord do we deny.'"
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ — he says: which of the favors of Allah will you both then deny?
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ — He says to the jinn and humankind: which of the favors of Allah will you both then deny?
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of al-Aʿmash and others, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that when he recited فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ , he would say: none of them, our Lord.
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ — he said: the ālāʾ (favors) are power; by which of His favors do you deny that He created you in such and such a manner? By which power of Allah will you both then deny, O two weighty hosts (al-thaqalān), the jinn and humankind?
And if a questioner were to say to us: How is it said فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ , where He addresses two, while at the beginning of the words He mentioned only one, namely humankind? Then it is answered: He returned, with the address in His saying فَبِأَيِّ آلاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ , to humankind and the jinn-kind, and what indicates that this is so is what follows after these words, namely His saying خَلَقَ الإنْسَانَ مِنْ صَلْصَالٍ كَالْفَخَّارِ * وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِنْ مَارِجٍ مِنْ نَارٍ "He created humankind from sounding clay like pottery * and He created the jinn from a smokeless flame of fire". And it has been said: the words were made an address to two only, while the report had begun concerning one, because of that which belongs to the custom of the Arabs to do thus, namely that they address a single person with the dual verb form, and so they say: "Let her loose (khalliyā-hā), O boy", and the like thereof, of that which we have expounded in more than one place in this our book.
