“I am convinced about the veracity of my opinions, but I do consider it likely that they may turn out to be incorrect.Likewise, I am convinced about the incorrectness of the views different from mine,but I do concede the possibility that they may turn out to be correct. — Imam Shafa’i

I have selected a portion of the ayah as the index ayah to focus on the subject for discussion today. The entire ayah runs as this:^[3]  “AND WHENEVER thy Sustainer brings forth their offspring from the loins of the children of Adam, He [thus] calls upon them to bear witness about themselves: “Am I not your Sustainer?” – to which they answer: “Yea, indeed, we do bear witness thereto!” [Of this We remind you,] lest you say on the Day of Resurrection, “Verily, we were unaware of this” To complete the message discussed in this ayah, I need to include in our discussion the two ayahs following the index ayah in the Quran^[4] “or lest you say, “Verily, it was but our forefathers who, in times gone by, began to ascribe divinity to other beings beside God; and we were but their late offspring: wilt Thou, then, destroy us for the doings of those inventors of falsehoods?” And “And thus clearly do We spell out these messages; and [We do it] so that they [who have sinned] might return [unto Us].” This ayah is very difficult to comprehend by a critical mind in the modern age. It speaks of a covenant between God Almighty and the entire humanity—from Prophet Adam till Doomsday— predating the ushering of life on the planet. Mufti Mohammed Shafi calls it the heavenly covenant of  “Alust” (أَلَستُ) which the Creator, Allah, made with all His created being even before they took the form of their existence. There is a dialogue between the two. Allah Ta’aala Subhaanahoo asks humans “Am I not your Sustainer?” to which they answer: “Yea, indeed, we do bear witness thereto”. We humans are expected to recall this conversation/covenant to guide us on the right path during our life time. Puzzling? I agree. I am not conscious of any such covenant even now. I therefore selected this ayah to learn about it, sharing with you all. I will discuss and analyse the opinions of a few expert scholars to help us define our views on this issue. As a PPK Muslims I am unable to contribute on this complex subject. The eminent scholar Sayyed Qutb has this to say in his great tafseer “Fi Dhilal-il-Quran; “In this short passage we have the central issue of faith and human nature portrayed in a uniquely vivid scene that shows the generations of the faraway future, as they are still in the loins of human beings, before they make their appearance in this visible world. All of them are gathered in front of their Creator who asks them: “Am I not your Lord?” They all acknowledge His Lordship, admit their position as obedient servants and His status as the only Lord. They are no bigger than small atoms held in the hand of the great Creator” “This verse is in many ways the cornerstone of Islamic sacred history and anthropology and establishes that the fundamental relationship between God and all human beings is premised upon the simple, unmediated recognition of His Lordship at the moment of their pretemporal creation. The event recounted in this verse is widely referred to as a pretemporal covenant (mīthāq) or pact (ʿahd)—although these terms do not appear in the verse itself—made by God with all of humanity prior to their earthly existence. It is connected by commentators with a pretemporal covenant between God and the prophets and considered by some to be subsequent to it” state Nasr, Seyyed Hossein et al in their modern tafseer “The Study Quran”. They add further that “The Quran mentions covenants or pacts between God and the believers generally as well as covenants with Abraham, the Israelites, the Christians and the People of the Book collectively.  But the making of the covenant described in the present verse is unmediated and universal—contracted directly between God and all humanity—and can thus be interpreted as the basis of all later and specific covenants mediated by the prophets.” As reported by Companion Abdullah ibn Abbas through authentic sources by Imam Ahmad and Nasa’i  the covenant was taken at the time when Adam  was sent down from heavens to the earth. The place was the valley of Nauman known as the plain of ‘Arafat (Near Makkah). All the future progeny of Adam were gathered, and were endowed with both existence and consciousness in order to bear witness to God’s lordship. They were imbued by knowledge and reason enough to make them capable of recognizing their Lord, the Nourisher. Allah made them appear with body and soul in a small size with all the physical functions needed by a perfect human being. Reason and understanding being the most significant functions must have been included.  A statement by, Ubayy b. Ka’b reported in Ahmad b. Hanbal, Musnad, narrates the full story: “God gathered all human beings, divided them into different groups, granted them human form and the faculty of speech, made them enter into a covenant, and then making them witnesses against themselves He asked them: “Am I not your Lord?” They replied: “Assuredly you are Our Lord.” Then God told them: “I call upon the sky and the earth and your own progenitor, Adam, to be witness against you lest you should say on the Day of Judgement that you were ignorant of this. Know well that no one other than Me deserves to he worshipped and no one other than Me is your Lord. So do not ascribe any partner to Me. I shall send to you My Messengers who will remind you of this covenant which you made with Me. I shall send down to you My Books.” In reply all said: ‘We witness that You are Our Lord and our Deity. We have no lord or deity other than You.”   Maulana Maudoodi narrates: “In our own view the event did take place. God caused all human beings whom He intended to create until the Last Day to come into existence. He endowed upon them life, consciousness and the faculty of speech, and brought home to them that there is no god or lord besides Him, and that Islam alone is the right way to serve Him.” At this point Mufti Mohammed Shafi raises and answers a question: “Another question which remains unsettled is as to what value can be attached to a covenant occurring prior to the actual creation of human beings, and which is not remembered by them after they take their actual existence on the earth? The answer to this question, therefore, is that there are many things or acts which are effective in their very nature without any regard to their being remembered or understood by others. They imprint the effect on others quite naturally.”  The Holy Prophet has said: “Every baby is born on Fitrah (فطرت) then he is converted by his parents to their religion. On another occasion, The Holy Prophet has said in a Tradition that Allah Almighty has said, “I have created my servants as Hanif, that is, having faith in Allah, the one, then they were led astray by Satanic influences.”  Here is the Big Question: is this ayah to be taken literally or metaphorically. I have no qualms about the power of God Almighty to execute all that is described in the ayah. I think it is relevant to quote Mufti Mohammed Shafi here “Allah is the creator of all the worlds, the heavens, the earth and whatever exists between them. His infinite wisdom and all-encompassing knowledge has designed and manufactured this universe with as much perfection as leaves no room for any doubt or question. He has created everything with a wise set of rules and regulations. Following these laws ensures people of eternal success and ever-lasting peace and comfort while deviation from these principles makes one liable to punishments prescribed by Allah.” However I wonder if any human can or has actual recollection of this episode to guide him on his way. Is this ayah alluding to the person of the individual or to the innate human nature?   To track down this answer is my main focus in the present exercise. Dr. Mohammed Asad, the eminent scholar answers this question in a graceful, concise and clear pattern in his tafseer “The Message of the Quran”: “According to the Qur’an, the ability to perceive the existence of the Supreme Power is inborn in human nature (فطرت); and it is this instinctive cognition – which may or may not be subsequently blurred by self-indulgence or adverse environmental influences – that makes every sane human being “bear witness about himself” before God. As so often in the Qur’an, God’s “speaking” and man’s “answering” is a metonym for the creative act of God and of man’s existential response to it.” Maulana Maudoodi, as per his personality is very assertive: “This event has also been interpreted by some commentators in a purely allegorical sense. They are of the opinion that the purpose of the Qur’an is merely to emphasize that the acceptance of God’s lordship is innate in human nature. However, this was narrated in such a way as to suggest that the event did actually take place. We do not subscribe to this allegorical interpretation of the primordial covenant of man with God. For both the Qur’an and Hadith recount it not only as an actual happening, but also affirm that the covenant would be adduced as an argument against man on the Day of Judgement. There remains, therefore, no ground whatsoever to interpret the event in terms of mere allegory.” Imam Amin Ahsan Ilahi, the mentor of the research scholar and mentor Javed Ahmed Ghamdi has stressed a point in his valuable tafseer “Tadabbur-ul-Quran”. He asserts that HIS Lordship (ربوبیت) as a notion is part of this covenant. Hence folks will be questioned about it on the day of Judgement even if they have not received any prophet. Imam Ilahi has also tried to unfold and clarify the doubts and objections about this primordial covenant. He states that the Quran has described this covenant as a matter of fact, an event, an occurrence. Man will be questioned on its basis. He then himself poses the question: Does or can an individual recall the memory of an event that occurred in the unseen world (عالم غیب). If not, then how can it be ascertained that man in fact has made such a covenant and therefore be liable for questioning on it? He then proceeds to answer thus: This covenant is mentioned by the Qur’an as an event and its importance is stated that as far as the Lordship (ربوبیت) of God is concerned, every single person under this covenant will be accountable to God. Due to its importance, the question arises as to whether the memory of any of the events of the unseen world mentioned here is preserved in the human mind. If this is not the case, then how can it be believed that man has in fact made such a confession and on the basis of it he is responsible to Allah in the matter of Tawheed. The answer to this question is that as far as this confession is concerned, it is present in the innate nature (فطرت) of every human being. As regards, its date, occasion and place, if it is not remembered, the authenticity of the self-confession is not compromised. At most one can say that I remember the confession but I do not remember its place and occasion. So Allaah revealed to him its place and occasion, that this confession had been taken from him by Allaah in the world of the unseen even before he came into existence, and that only Allaah could have revealed this, because He alone has the knowledge of the unseen. The memory of this confession at the primordial covenant is enough to pass a judgement or conviction on a person.” Nasr Sayyid Hussain et al have this to say in their modern tafseer The Study Quran “Some commentators indicate that the progeny were drawn forth in the form of “particles” or “seeds”, suggesting the physically unformed state of the children of Adam during this encounter. But some questioned how it was possible for the progeny as “particles” to hear and respond to God’s question; and because the intellect was not considered to manifest itself in human beings until years after birth; they also questioned how these “particles” knew what they were saying or could be held accountable for it. Given these issues, some commentators consider this verse a symbolic description of an innate covenant or a symbolic description of the temporal process by which human beings realize Divine Oneness—arguing that as individuals grow in intellect and contemplate the world around them, the existence of a single God becomes innately clear to them, and they witness to this truth inwardly, since they bear this knowledge already in their primordial nature. Others, however, reject this interpretation as against the plain meaning of the text and argue that God temporarily bestowed faculties of intellect, hearing, and speech on the “particles,” or human “seed,” just as He did when He caused the heavens and the earth to respond to Him; see also 41:21, where God endows bodily organs and faculties with the ability to testify.” He further explains “The verse ends by explaining that the purpose of this questioning and witnessing was so that human beings could not come on the Day of Resurrection claiming to have been unaware of God’s Lordship or their duty to worship Him. One may question how one can be responsible, during earthly life, for a testimony one cannot remember having made prior to coming into this world. Some commentators have argued that it is precisely this human inability to remember the event described in this verse that points to its symbolic nature and thus reject the idea that a pretemporal covenant, of which most human beings are not conscious and that they cannot recall, could be the basis of a responsibility that is binding upon them. When this verse is read in the wider Quranic context and juxtaposed with Quranic prophetic history, however, this pretemporal recognition of God’s Lordship can be understood as creating an innate disposition in human beings toward recognizing and worshipping God during earthly life and toward accepting the prophets and the messages they bring as “reminders” of what human beings already know inwardly, but have merely forgotten.” They add further “Given the great importance in Islamic thought of this verse and the event it describes……..”  The eminent scholar Sayyid Qutb has solved the main difficulty in the interpretation of this ayah. He deems that this primordial covenant is between “human nature” and God Almighty. He declares  “Now the sūrah moves on to deal with the central issue of God’s oneness from a different angle, which refers particularly to human nature as created by God. It speaks of a firm pledge with far-reaching implications for human nature and its constitution. Indeed, acknowledging God as the only Lord in the universe is ingrained in human nature, which admits to it by its very existence and by what it feels deeply at heart. Divine messengers bring reminders and warnings to those who deviate from their essential nature. Believing in God’s oneness is the basic issue of a covenant between human nature and the Creator of human beings. Therefore, they have no justification for breaking this covenant, even if God did not send them any messenger to remind and warn them.” To put in a language familiar to the modern mind, it can be said that human nature is biologically programmed to accept and appreciate the oneness of God and HIS Lordship. God Almighty has established in their genome—human nature— a tendency to acknowledge His Lordship as the only God in the universe. “Today, biological science tells us that genes keep a record for every human being, showing his or her qualities or characteristics when they are still in the loins of their ancestors. These genes, which keep the records of no less than three thousand million human beings, may be pooled together in a space not exceeding one cubic centimeter.” How did this event take place? How did God take the offspring of Adam’s children from their loins to make them testify? How did He ask them, “Am I not your Lord?” And how did they reply, “Yes, indeed.” For an answer to all these questions, we have to fall back on our Eemaan. HE is omnipotent, all Powerful and “Verily, over all things Thou hast power” (إِنَّكَ عَلىٰ كُلِّ شَيءٍ قَديرٌ). We cannot perceive HIS personality nor HIS modus operandi. Perception of “how” is subsequent to perceiving the nature of the one who does it; and to perceive HIM we are just incapable of. All philosophers who tried to describe how God acts could do no more than come up with theories of endless confusion. In his commentary on the Qur’ān, Ibn Kathīr reports that many scholars are of the view that this testimony from the offspring of Adam’s children refers to the fact that in their very nature, they have a tendency to accept God’s oneness. This is why the Qur’ānic statement says, “Your Lord brought forth their offspring from the loins of the children of Adam”, rather than saying, “from the loins of Adam himself or from his loins.” And the statement speaks of “their offspring”, to indicate the succession of their generations, one after another.  Let us look into the hadith literature. Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim relate in their authentic collections, the Şahīh, a ĥadīth narrated by Abū Hurayrah who quotes the Prophet as saying: “Every human being is born with upright nature. [One version puts the statement as: every human being is born believing in this faith.] His parents then make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian.” A ĥadīth related by Muslim quotes the Prophet as saying: “God says I have created My servants following the pure faith. Satans then assaulted them and removed them from their faith, forbidding them what I have made lawful. Al-Aswad ibn Sarī, one of the Prophet’s companions who belonged to the Saa’d clan reports: “I joined God’s Messenger in four expeditions. Once, when our people had killed enemy fighters, they also attacked their children. On hearing this, the Prophet was very angry and rebuked them, saying: “How is it that some people attack children?” One man said: “Messenger of God, are they not the children of unbelievers?” He said: “The best among you have been born to unbelievers. Let it be known that every human being is born following the right faith. He will continue to do so until he is able to express himself. His parents then make of him a Jew or a Christian.” The outstanding scholar Sayyid Qutb has dealt in length about this ayah in his classical tafseer “Fi Dhilalil Quran”. He concludes that the literal meaning of the ayah is operative and definitely feasible. But he adds that human nature believes in oneness of God and has pledged to HIM about it. Listen to him: “For our part, we do not exclude the possibility that the event related in this Qur’ānic verse took place as is described, i.e. literally: “Your Lord brought forth their offspring from the loins of the children of Adam, and called them to bear witness about themselves.” We believe that it could easily happen as God has described, because there is nothing to stop it happening when God wills. But at the same time we do not exclude the interpretation outlined by Ibn Kathīr and approved by other scholars. At any rate, we can conclude that there is a pledge made by human nature to God Himself, declaring that human nature believes in His oneness and will continue to do so. This means that the essence of God’s oneness is well established in human nature, and every human child is born with this clear tendency. It deviates from it only when an external factor corrupts its nature by the manipulation of the dual susceptibility of human beings to follow right guidance or to deviate from it. This is a latent susceptibility which can be influenced by external factors and circumstances.” He further adds “This law is a covenant that has been made between human nature and its Creator. It is established in every single living cell from the moment it comes into existence. It predates God’s messages and messengers. According to this covenant every cell testifies to the Lordship of the one God who has a consistent will that has established a single law to govern the whole universe as well as its own actions and reactions.”  God Almighty is aware of human weakness and its susceptibility to the pressures of satans, whether human or jinn. Therefore, HE in HIS grace has decided not to hold humanity accountable only on the basis of this covenant and the faculty of reason endowed in him. HE decided on sending them a line prophets who conveyed to humans revelations and made HIS signs clear. Hence the last ayah quoted here reads “Thus We make plain Our revelations so that they may return [to the right path].” I feel, I have now a clear picture on this issue that explains and satisfies both my heart and my mind. Do you also feel assuaged? There is no need or reason to refuse the literal meaning of the ayah. That, it is within the powers of God Almighty is part of my Eemaan. As part of this primordial covenant—Alast (أَلَستُ)—humans have been biologically programmed via their DNA about Monotheism and HIS Lordship (ربوبیت). These are now part of the innate nature (فطرت) of every human being. Hence the early human beings kept on searching and finding God through out history, as explained by Imam Amin Ahsan Ilahi. The secular mind, he asserts has been falsely attributing this quest for God in humans to their fear and fright. ……..and Allah knows best.  May Allah Ta’aala bless us with true understanding–“fahm”–of our Deen, Aameen. Dr. Khalid Mitha