There is a reason Allah teaches us Tawhid. As believers, we must constantly ask ourselves why Allah goes to such lengths; repeated lengths; to teach us this truth.
Not only does Allah mention the skies and the earth constantly, but He does so in detail; in them is a concerted effort to recognise His Oneness.
بَلْ هُمُ ٱلْيَوْمَ مُسْتَسْلِمُونَ ٢٦
“In fact, on that Day they will be fully submissive.” (37:26)
The focus of this Ayah is to bring us to surrender to Allah. Allah does not want this surrender to only realise on the Day of Qiyamah, but it must do so while we are in this world and allowed time to obey Him.
In the opening of this Surah, Allah took an oath by the angels. As the Surah continues, Allah says that the angels will be ordered to gather the souls, to speak to them, and guide those who disbelieved to punishment. The people doubted the angels, and this is Allah’s response to that misguidance.
So why does Allah take an oath by the angels?
This is aimed towards the particular type of Shirk of people at the time who had claimed the angels were daughters of Allah.
When looking at the entirety of the words Allah uses, it entices surrender to Him and our development of this surrendering.
Allah is free of need. He is independent. Yet He takes an oath, because His compassion towards His servants pushed them towards accepting Him. Allah’s high rank requires none of this. But His hope and compassion in us is so great that throughout the Qur’an, Allah goes to these lengths to take oaths in His creation.
Allah does not have the desire that we are punished. So He goes to every extent to make sure we are saved from this punishment. The oaths Allah takes are with intention, and this is because of His compassion for us and our weaknesses as human beings. It is an understanding of our difficulties, challenges, and inabilities that we ourselves are not even aware of.
Because of our logic and our thinking ability, we are different from other creations of Allah. By bringing these claims in the Qur’an, Allah uses logical reason and explanations of scientific means for us, because He knows and understands the ways in which we see things. Allah appeals to that logic to get through to our hearts.
Allah is making sure we are able to solidify our faith, and to get rid of doubt. His statements are of certainty for this reason.
وَٱلسَّمَآءِ وَمَا بَنَىٰهَا ٥
“And by the heaven and the One Who built it,” (91:5)
وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا طَحَىٰهَا ٦
“and the earth and the One Who spread it!” (91:6)
وَنَفْسٍۢ وَمَا سَوَّىٰهَا ٧
“And by the soul and the One Who fashioned it,” (91:7)
There is no entity or creation greater than Allah.
Here, Allah attributes these creations all to Himself. Everything reverts to Him. He diverts our attention to the fact that He is the ultimate source of all creation.
As believers, we have to draw hope and compassion from the Qur’an; from the immense care we are given from our Rabb. A Rabb Who looks after us. Here, we are seeing how Allah looks after our weaknesses and inabilities. This allows us to connect and come back to Him through these oaths.
Not everyone’s needs are the same, yet Allah knows and recognises every need. And the greatest need we have is the need of Allah.
