Surah Al-An'am Verse 1

834 'Adala has various meanings: (1) to hold something as equal to something else, as here; to balance nicely; (2) to deal justly, as between one party and another, 42:15; (3) to give compensation or reparation, or something as equivalent to something else, 6:70; (4) to turn the balance the right way, to give a right disposition, to give a just bias or proportion, 82:7; (5) to turn the balance the wrong way, to swerve, to show bias, 4:135. 835 The argument is threefold: (1) Allah created everything you see and know: how can you then set up any of His own creatures as equal to Him? (2) He is your own Guardian-Lord; He cherishes and loves you, how can you be so ungrateful as to run after something else? (3) Darkness and Light are to help you to distinguish between the true from the false: how then can you confound the true God with your false ideas and superstitions? There may also be a repudiation of the Duality of old Persian theology; Light and Darkness are not conflicting Powers; they are both creatures of Allah (Cf. 6:150).