“When adversity touches you at sea, all those whom you invoke vanish except Him. Then, when He delivers you safely to land, you turn away. Man is ever ungrateful. * Do you then feel secure that He will not cause the land beneath you to cave in or send against you a storm of stones, after which you will find no guardian? * Or do you feel secure that He will not return you to sea once more and send against you a violent gale, drowning you because of your disbelief? Then you will find no one to pursue a claim against Us on your behalf.”
One manifestation of His mercy—which shows that He alone is worthy of worship to the exclusion of all else—is that when adversity touches them at sea and the mounting waves make them fear for their lives, all the living and the dead whom they used to invoke besides Allah in times of ease vanish from their minds. It is as though they had never invoked them at any time, for they know that they are weak and powerless to remove adversity. They therefore cry out in supplication to the Originator of the heavens and earth, to whom all creatures appeal for help in times of distress, and in that situation they devote their prayers and humble entreaties exclusively to Him.
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But when Allah removes their adversity and delivers them safely to land, they forget the supplications they had previously made to Him, associate with Him those who can neither benefit nor harm, neither give nor withhold, and turn away from devoting worship exclusively to their Lord and Sovereign. This stems from man’s ignorance and ingratitude, for man is ungrateful for blessings—except those whom Allah guides, favors with sound reason, and leads to the straight path. Such a person knows that the One who relieves distress and delivers from terrors is the One who deserves to be worshipped alone and to whom every act of worship must be devoted exclusively, in hardship and ease, prosperity and adversity.
As for one who is forsaken and left to his feeble reason, during hardship he considers nothing beyond his immediate interest and his deliverance at that moment.
Once he has been delivered and the hardship has passed, he ignorantly imagines that he has escaped Allah’s power. No thought of worldly consequences even crosses his mind, let alone matters of the Hereafter.
Allah therefore reminds them, saying: “Do you then feel secure that He will not cause the land beneath you to cave in or send against you a storm of stones?” That is, He has power over all things. If He wills, He can send punishment upon you from beneath by causing the earth to cave in, or from above through a storm that pelts you with stones and leaves you destroyed. So do not imagine that destruction can occur only at sea.
If you think that, do you then feel safe (1) from His “returning you to sea once more and sending against you a violent gale”—that is, an exceedingly fierce wind that shatters everything in its path?
“Drowning you because of your disbelief? Then you will find no one to pursue a claim against Us on your behalf.” That is, there will be no liability or claim against Him, for Allah has not wronged you by so much as an atom’s weight.