He Commanded Them to Obey Him

Next he speaks about Allah's command. He says:

Article 23. Wa amarahum bi-ṭāʿatihi wa nahāhum ʿan maʿṣiyatihi: He commanded them to obey Him, and proscribed them from disobeying Him.

Prohibited them from disobeying Him. After all of that, He created the human being, and then He gives them some orders. When He commanded them to obey Him, He also — and this is His generosity and His benevolence — promised rewards. And He prohibited them, or proscribed them, from disobeying Him, and at the same time He warned them of punishment.

Wa kullu shayʾin yajrī bi-taqdīrihi wa mashīʾatihi, wa mashīʾatuhu tanfudh: All things are in accordance with His determination and will, and His will is fulfilled.

So everything that is happening in the universe — not just the creation of things, but even the movement of things: the leaf that drops from a tree.

Wa mā tasquṭu min waraqatin illā yaʿlamuhā. Ibn Kathīr — it seems to be Ibn Kathīr — relates a story, which some readers may have come across before. There is the account of an individual who was sitting down in some woods, in a forest area, when he saw a scorpion rushing somewhere. It was a very amusing scene, and he decided to follow it. The scorpion was just running, as if in a marathon or something like that. He followed it, and saw that it was coming to the bank of a stream; and if it fell in there, it was going to perish. So he watched it, and it just kept going, and it jumped into the water. Just at that moment, a leaf fell from a tree on the bank, floated down, and landed right in the place where the scorpion landed on it. It was just such a coordinated action; it was just amazing. And the leaf floated to the other side, and the scorpion got up and just continued running. That was a very strange occurrence.

And then he saw that a particular individual was lying below a tree, sleeping, and he thought that the snake^* was going to attack him. But he saw that the snake was headed slightly to the other side. That is when he saw that the snake went up the tree, rather than go and attack the person — up the tree. And that is when he noticed that there was a snake about to attack the man who was lying down underneath. The scorpion attacked the snake, the snake fell down on the other side, and the man woke up and was saved. That is the coordination in nature, of the leaf and the scorpion. And that is Allah (swt), who knows why that leaf is falling, and what benefit it is going to provide. He knows when the rain will fall, and what will be produced from it, and how much benefit will be provided from it.