Al-Tafsīr al-Qayyim - Ibn al-Qayyim - (237)

Al-Tafsīr al-QayyimIbn al-Qayyim

As for completion, it applies to faith and abstract realities. Allah’s blessings encompass concrete things, attributes, and abstract realities.

His religion, meanwhile, is His revealed law, which comprises His commands, prohibitions, and all that He loves. It was therefore more fitting to associate perfection with religion and completion with blessing, just as it was more fitting to ascribe the religion to them and the blessing to Him.

The point is that this blessing is the absolute blessing, which belongs exclusively to the believers. If it is said that Allah has bestowed no blessing upon the unbeliever in this sense, that is correct. The second kind is qualified blessing, such as health, wealth, bodily well-being, great prestige, many children, a good wife, and the like. Such blessings are shared by the righteous and the wicked, the believer and the unbeliever. If it is said that Allah has bestowed blessings upon the unbeliever in this sense, that too is true.

An unqualified denial or affirmation is therefore not valid, except in one respect: since qualified blessings serve to draw the unbeliever gradually towards ruin, ultimately leading to punishment and misery, it is as though they were never blessings at all, but rather a trial—as Allah Himself calls them in His Book. He, the Exalted, says (89:15, 16):

“As for man, when his Lord tests him by honouring him and granting him blessings, he says, ‘My Lord has honoured me.’ But when He tests him by restricting his provision, he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me.’ No!”

That is: Not everyone whom I honour in this world and grant a life of ease has thereby received My blessing; rather, this is a trial and a test from Me. Nor does My restricting someone’s provision to what meets his needs, with a measured surplus, necessarily mean that I have humiliated him. Rather, I test My servant with blessings just as I test him with calamities.

If it is asked: How can this meaning be reconciled with His words, “honouring him,” which affirm that He honoured him, when He then rejects the man’s statement, “My Lord has honoured me,” saying, “No!”—meaning: This is not an honour from Me, but a trial? It thus seems that He both affirms and denies having honoured him.

It has been said in reply: The honour affirmed is different from the honour denied, and both are analogous to blessings

وأما الإتمام فيكون في الإيمان والمعاني، ونعم الله أعيان وأوصاف ومعان. وأما دينه فهو شرعه المتضمن لأمره ونهيه ومحابه. فكانت نسبة الكمال إلى الدين والتمام إلى النعمة أحسن، كما كانت إضافة الدين إليهم والنعمة إليه أحسن. والمقصود: أن هذه النعمة هي النعمة المطلقة، وهي التي اختصت بالمؤمنين. وإذا قيل: ليس لله على الكافر نعمة بهذا الاعتبار فهو صحيح، والنعمة الثانية: النعمة المقيدة كنعمة الصحة والغنى وعافية الجسد وبسطة الجاه، وكثرة الولد والزوجة الحسنة، وأمثال هذه. فهذه النعمة مشتركة بين البر والفاجر، والمؤمن والكافر وإذا قيل: لله على الكافر نعمة بهذا الاعتبار، فهو حق. فلا يصح إطلاق السلب والإيجاب إلا على وجه واحد، وهو أن النعمة المقيدة لما كانت استدراجا للكافر، ومآلها إلى العذاب والشقاء، فكأنها لم تكن نعمة، وإنما كانت بلية، كما سماها الله تعالى في كتابه كذلك. فقال تعالى: ٨٩: ١٥، ١٦ فَأَمَّا الْإِنْسانُ إِذا مَا ابْتَلاهُ رَبُّهُ، فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعَّمَهُ، فَيَقُولُ: رَبِّي أَكْرَمَنِ. وَأَمَّا إِذا مَا ابْتَلاهُ فَقَدَرَ عَلَيْهِ رِزْقَهُ، فَيَقُولُ: رَبِّي أَهانَنِ. كَلَّا أي ليس كل من أكرمته في الدنيا ونعمته فيها فقد أنعمت عليه، وإنما كان ذلك ابتلاء مني له واختبار، ولا كل من قدرت عليه رزقه فجعلته بقدر حاجته بقدر فضلة أكون قد أهنته، بل أبتلي عبدي بالنعم كما أبتليه بالمصائب. فإن قيل: كيف يلتئم هذا المعنى ويتفق مع قوله «فأكرمه» فأثبت له الإكرام، ثم أنكر عليه قوله «ربي أكرمن» وقال «كلا» أي ليس ذلك إكراما مني هو ابتلاء، فكأنه أثبت له الإكرام ونفاه. وقيل: الإكرام المثبت غير الإكرام المنفي، وهما من جنس النعمة