Mankind Admonished for Being Ungrateful

TEHRAN (IQNA) – Mankind is the best being created by God. But he is sometimes reprimanded in some verses of the Quran for different reasons, including for being ungrateful and forgetting God’s blessings.

Surah Al-Adiyat is the 100^th chapter of the Quran that has 11 verses and is in the 30^th Juz. There are different views among scholars on whether it is Makki or Madani. It is the 14^th Surah revealed to the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

Adiyat refers to fast-running horses that make sounds when running. In the first verse, God swears by Adiat and hence the name of the Surah: “(I swear) by the snorting chargers (of the warriors), whose hoofs strike against the rocks.”

The themes of the Surah include: 1-Honoring those who struggle on the path of God, 2- portraying the victory of Islam’s army, 3- mankind being ungrateful and miserly, and 4- the dead returning to life on the Resurrection Day.

The Surah highlights the efforts of those struggling on the path of God and depicts the battlefield where believers fight unbelievers. It also refers to mankind’s ungratefulness and his stinginess due to his love of wealth. It then reminds everyone of the Resurrection Day.

The Surah admonishes man for being ungrateful to God: “Indeed, the human is ungrateful to his Lord.” (Verse 6)

In other verses of the Quran too mankind has been admonished for different reasons such as being greedy, impatient, unjust, ignorant, etc. In some other verses, God honors mankind and considered superior to other creatures. This is because there are two forces at work and two means for making decisions in human beings: the intellect and instinct. If they are used on the path of serving God and moving on the divine path, they help the person move toward perfection but if they are used on the path of desires and whims, one will get distanced from the main purpose of life.

One of the reasons why man gets away from that purpose is his love for wealth and worldly things.  “And indeed he is ardent for the love of good (wealth, becoming greedy).” (Verse 8)

In this verse, worldly wealth is described as ‘good’ in order to teach mankind that if wealth is gained through the right path and is used for good purposes in the right path, it would be good.

Allameh Tabatabaei believes that ‘good’ in this verse does not refer to wealth only but refers to all good. He says that because mankind loves good things naturally, he is attracted to them and that causes him to forget being grateful to God.