Allah Does Not Compare to His Creation!
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌۖ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
(in plain English):
“There is nothing like unto Him —
He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.”
Read it here: ReciteQuran.com/42:11
TAWHID: Allah is totally unique — not like His creation in essence, attributes, or actions.
How can Quran say in Arabic — 'His shin is exposed'?
(Yukshafu 'an Saqin): An Arabic idiom for extreme distress, a horrific event, stark reveling of truth, impossible to escape.
This is an 'idiom' — meaning: Extreme difficulty!
"While believers prostrate in awe (of Allah), the disbelievers can't prostrate, due to their disbelief, they refused to bow in this life."
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An “idiom” is a phrase whose meaning isn’t obvious from the literal words, but it is understood as a figure of speech, by speakers of the language.
Figurative meaning: Overall meaning, different from the words.
Cultural/Linguistic specific: Unique to the language, difficult to translate directly.
Examples from English:
“raining cats and dogs” — (hard rain) “peace of cake” — (real easy); “Bite the bullet” — (put up with hard times); “spill the beans” — (reveal a secret); “under the weather” — (not feeling well).
The non-literal phrases are common in all languages. Idioms add color and cultural context — but, they give translators a hard time.
Especially translations of the Quran (Recitation).
For example, there’s a verse in Quran, chapter Al Qalam (the Pen), verse 42 — if you translate it exactly by words, it might be: “when the shin is exposed”.
However, the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, knew it was an idiom. According to the Arabic idiom, kashf-i-saq implies an affliction.
Abdullah bin Abbas has also given this same meaning of this and has supported it by evidence from Arabic poetry.
According to Ibn Abbas and Rabi bin Anas: kashf-i-saq "uncovering facts and truths", as:
1) "The Day when all truths shall be bared and the people’s deeds shall be exposed and manifest."
2) “The 'horrible day' when people who didn’t bow down to Allah in this life, are not be able to bow down to Allah.”
3) "On the Day when the 'dreadful calamity' will unfold, people will be ordered to prostrate (to Allah), and they will be unable to prostrate."
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