فباي الاء ربكما تكذبان

فَبِأَىِّ ءَالَآءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ

So, Allah jalla wa 'ala says in al-Nahl, 2:
 
"There is no god but Me, so beware of Me."

If you were to ask the general Muslim which Surah they think mentions blessings/favours the most, I reckon the majority would say Surah al-Rahman. It certainly makes a strong case for itself when it keeps repeating every second ayah, "Which, then, of your Lord's blessings do you deny?" after reminding us of blessing after blessing after blessing.

However, our current Surah al-Nahl has a stronger shout. Many scholars called it the "Surah of Blessings" because of the many favours of our Lord that are mentioned therein - a simple glance shows at least 50 (and frankly triple that if you *really* dive deep into it) such as rain, livestock, heat, industry, vegetation, meat, light, darkness, travel, beautification, scenery, animals, fruit, children, shelter, health etc etc which is more than what is in Surah al-Rahman. And there is no other Surah in the Qur'an that contains the word نِعْمَة in all its forms more than in Surah al-Nahl.

So it truly is a special chapter of the Great Book and it should really humble us just how fortunate we are, however tough our circumstances might seem. But sometimes we get so blinded by either our ignorance or actual difficult times and negativity, and so we forget these huge favours upon us. Even the very little things we take for granted, are so incredibly important for life as we know it so that we can enjoy and benefit from so much today.

If I had more guts, I'd even go as far as to say that this Surah was named al-Nahl (The Bee) not because verse 68 and 69 talk about them per se, but because of the very nature of the bees themselves. I feel kind of cautious projecting too much of my own subjective experiences on issues such as this, but I've always myself (and believe the majority of the public) found bees slightly "scary" because they fall into that convenient creepy-crawly bracket and have a painful sting etc (even though we know they're nowhere near as scary as we make them out to be), and I'm from the lazy majority who are always "surprised to learn" about just how vital bees are to our lives - did you know some scientists believe they sustain up to HALF of our entire global food supply - and as a result we're always shocked: "Seriously? Wow! I never realised that!"

I can therefore summarise my beliefs on what I just said about bees as: (a) I keep myself far away from them, out of sight out of mind attitude, but enjoy their benefits, and (b) but when I do realise its true nature and right upon us, then WOW.

So hey, isn't this how *all* of us unfortunately deal with Allah's infinite blessings upon us in our lives? How many blessings do we (a) either ignore, or don't think about, out of sight out of mind for whatever the reason may be, but if we actually (b) just paused in our hedonistic rollercoaster of a life that we live then we would realise just how incredible and beautiful these blessings actually are. And that we should be a million times more grateful for them as well!

Basically, our (or, at least my!) lazy attitude to bees is our attitude to our Lord's blessings. We are so ungrateful for what we've been given! And hence the bee would be an awesome analogy how certainly I experience blessings, and perhaps even the majority of people do the same.

But it's a good thing I don't have the guts to put forward personal theories like that. So we'll just stick to "it's because this Surah has a beautiful focus on the magic of bees." Safe and sound alhamdulillah.

As usual though, we haven't even spoken about the verse we've chosen from this Surah. So here goes:

The fascinating thing about Surah al-Nahl *and* Surah al-Rahman is that they both list for us a huge amount of blessings from this dunya that we can all understand and relate to, one after the other after the other. But in BOTH chapters, you find that the lists are preceded by the biggest favour of all right at the beginning of each Surah.

In al-Rahman, Allah literally precedes all the blessings by telling us that it is the Qur'an itself which is the greatest favour out of *everything* that you're about to read. "It is the Merciful who taught the Qur'an." (55:1-2)

I don't think any sane person can dispute that.

And here in al-Nahl, Allah precedes all the blessings with the very greatest of them all: to know that our Lord is One and worship Him as a result of it. "There is no god but Me, so beware of Me." (16:2)

I don't think any sane person can dispute that either.

This is why I regularly say to students whenever they're learning about *any* subject, "Never lose sight of the wood for the trees." In literally *every* apsect of our lives, we are guilty of this mistake, focusing on/enjoying too much the individual parts/aspects and forgetting the overall true reality. But those mistakes are minor compared to the one who does this with LIFE itself, where they enjoy and benefit from the Creator's blessings so much, that they actually forget Him and even worse, turn away from Him and give His right to others whom they worship instead, whether that is the dollar, or their rolemodels, or their statues, or indeed nothing at all and claiming it all came from nowhere as some random accident.

That is why the great Imam Sufyan b. 'Uyaynah (d. 198h) said: "Allah never blessed mankind with any greater blessing than teaching them La ilaha illallah - indeed that nothing is worthy of worship except Allah."

Don't forget your blessings, but especially don't forget this most greatest blessing of all.

He sends down the angels with revelation by His command to whoever He wills of His servants, ˹stating:˺ “Warn ˹humanity˺ that there is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Me, so be mindful of Me ˹alone˺.”

Abu Eesa's Reflection on Surah An-Nahl:2

Jâbir narrates: The Messenger of Allah (saws) came out to his companions and recited Surah ar-Rahmân from its beginning to its end, and they stayed silent. He said; “I had recited to the jinn on the ‘Night of the Jinn,’ and their response was better than yours! Every time I reached the statement: ‘Then which of your Lord’s favours will you both deny?’ they said: ‘We do not deny a single one of your favors, our Lord! To you belongs all praise!’” 
[Sound: Narrated by at-Tirmidhi (3291), and al-Hâkim (2/473)]
#hadith #jinn #quran #connection #humility #blessings #generosity