Surah Ar-Rahman: Part 9

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Dispense of Grace

Part 9

يسءله من فى السموت و الارض كل يوم هو فى شان

فباى آلاء ربكما تكذبن

سنفرغلكم آيه الثقلن

فباى آلاء ربكما تكذبن

بمعسكر الجن و الانس ان استطعتم ان تنفذوا من أقطار السموت و الارض فانفذوا لا تنفذون الا بسلطن

فباى آلاء ربكما تكذبن

يرسل عليكم شواظ من نار و نحاس فلا تنتصرن

فباى آلاء ربكما تكذبن

Asks Him whoever is in the skies/heavens and the earth.  Everyday, He is in (attending to) a matter.
Then which of the favours of your (dual) Lord will you deny

Soon We will attend to you (all), oh you two classes

Then which of the favours of your (dual) Lord will you deny

O assembly of Jinns and Man, if you are able to pass beyond the realms of the skies/heaven and the earth, then pass.  You cannot pass it except with authority.

Then which of the favours of your (dual) Lord will you deny

Will be sent against you (all) a flame of fire and smoke, but you will not be able to defend yourselves.

Then which of the favours of your (dual) Lord will you deny

In Part 8, we talked about our dependencies on God.  Here God explicit states it - Nouman Ali Khan mentioned that يسءله does not just mean 'Asks Him' but also connotes dependency.  That everything depends on Him, in whichever realm there is.  Nouman Ali Khan also commented that شان denotes a matter to which only the person can do.  So not only is everything dependent on Him and asks Him (for which He answers the call of those who asks), but He is also busy attending to matters that only He has the capability of doing every single day.  Like maintaining the sun, moon, stars.  Like growing the fruits and vegetation.  Like letting the oceans meet and maintaining the barriers.  Like creating human beings and Jinns anew (each day there are so many being birthed).  Like keeping the ships afloat.  In our little minds, we think that God can't possibly be paying attention to us if He is so busy.  But then God says "Soon We will attend to you..." implying that He has been paying attention after all.  When the Hour is here, He will free Himself and attend to us and the Jinn.  

The next verse is where the explanations of some contemporary commentators were not quite convincing.  They said it predicted that men could only get out of Earth's atmosphere with power because they translated the word Sultan as power.

In actuality, if we consider the narative of the whole Surah, this verse is meant to be sarcastic.  With the Hour now here and God has "freed" Himself, where can either Jinns or men really run to escape.  Especially with fires raining down from above and hitting the ground.  On this day, will we still be denying God's favours all this while (which included the temporary respite He gave us)?  Should we not be grateful for this reminder while we are still in the respite phase?