Surah Al-An’am, Verse 125: [“When God desires to guide someone, He opens his breast to Islam; and whoever He wills to let go astray, He causes his breast to be constricted as if he had to climb up to the skies. That is how God heaps ignominy upon those who refuse to believe.”] This verse is giving a comparison between someone who is guided by Allah (SWT) and one who is not. The parable, or example, is a very vivid and clear one. When Allah (SWT) wants to guide someone, what does he do? Before we talk about that, when does Allah (SWT) want to guide someone, and who does he want to guide? Allah (SWT) will guide anyone who approaches Allah (SWT) through the means of guidance. The means to be guided are mentioned throughout the Qur’an. Anyone who approaches Allah (SWT) by those means will get guidance. Allah (SWT) will want to guide them. He does not distinguish between one type of person or another based on their ethnicity, background or knowledge, and obviously, irrespective of his social and financial status. When Allah (SWT) decides to guide someone, (the word used in this verse, literally, means to split something open, similar to the word for anatomy in Arabic), he opens, or expands one’s chest. Now, focus on the chest; this word is specifically used because our chest has the physical ability to expand and contract. When we inhale, the entire ribcage expands, and when we exhale, the entire ribcage contracts. So, imagine someone being able to breathe easily; this is an important part of this example. All of a sudden, it becomes easy to breathe. In the same way, Islam becomes easy for them to understand. Those things that were inhibiting or confusing them begin to dissipate away, and just like a person steps out and breathes fresh air and they are healthy, that’s what Islam begins to feel like. Every time you step into Islam, it feels like another fresh breath of air that energizes you and increases your vitality. Comfort, ease, energy and strength; all of this comes with breathing easily.
When Allah (SWT) decides to lead someone away him, who is he going to lead away? The answer to this is someone who does not approach Allah (SWT) through the means of guidance that Allah (SWT) has given to mankind and does not avail to those opportunities; in fact, a person who constantly rejects the opportunities to be guided, Allah (SWT) refuses to guide. They might have the means to be guided, but they are not using them in the ways that Allah (SWT) has ordained, and when the opportunity comes for them to actually get close to Allah (SWT), instead of moving closer to Allah (SWT), they use that opportunity for something else, even if that opportunity happens to be the Qur’an itself. In the case of some people, they have access to the Qur’an and they read the Qur’an, but it actually takes them further away from Allah (SWT) because they are not approaching it with the intention of being guided, but approaching it with a set of objections. They might be approaching it with the intention of trying to make the Qur’an fit into their mindset or make the Qur’an satisfy their particular view. The Qur’an is not for that, so Allah (SWT) says that, through his book, he may lead people away from him because of their way of using the Qur’an. So, when Allah (SWT) decides to take someone away from him, he makes his chest tight and constricted. The words used here mean inconvenienced, or even pain. Allah (SWT) makes their chest tight, constricted and painful. This is the example of someone who has difficulty breathing. Anyone who has asthma knows this feeling of having all of the oxygen around you but the inability to pull it in. In fact, the more you breathe, the more constricted your chest becomes, it becomes painful, and you’re gasping for breath. This is the example of somebody shifting away from Allah (SWT). Why is that? Because the world starts becoming more and more complicated and difficult to understand. A person is unable to figure out their own problems or others’ and are unable to find solutions to their problems or others’. The world, all of a sudden, seems like a very dismal place. It becomes difficult to find your place in that world, and to find meaning in it. Imagine how difficult it must be spending a person’s entire life not knowing what they were here for.
Now, the next part of this verse is, you could say, one the places where the Qur’an highlights wonders that exist within nature. Some people may refer to scientific miracles in the Qur’an. That person’s chest is getting constricted, tight and painful, as if they are trying to ascend the levels of the sky. Now, traditional tafsirs explain this that, just like it would be very difficult for someone to ascend into the sky, and if someone were forced to do so, how that would make a person very uncomfortable, just like that a person becomes uncomfortable. What we know today about altitude and atmospheric pressure and what happens to oxygen as you go up, it gives us another perspective also of this verse, that is, as a person ascends into higher altitudes, atmospheric pressure drops, which is related to the molecules of air becoming more and more spaced out, therefore resulting in a lack of oxygen. What happens to a person when they are going up? If they do not have a controlled environment or a supply of oxygen, as a person ascends upwards, because they are not able to access that oxygen, their chest would become very constricted, tight and painful, and they would be struggling to find air. The same thing happens to mountain climbers, who go to extreme heights; they need to have a supply of oxygen because they are not able to get the oxygen they need up there. The example of hidayah, or finding one’s way in deen, is like being able to breathe easily. It feels normal and natural, and it revitalizes you. Similarly, the example of moving away from deen is like moving out of oxygen. Imagine going up in an airplane or helicopter and not having a controlled oxygen supply while you are going up – imagine how terrible that would be, and what would happen to the lungs in that scenario. Through this, Allah (SWT) explains the process of hidayah and the process of going astray. A person will never find themselves at true ease while moving away from Allah (SWT). There will always be discomfort in that. Contrarily, a person will always find ease and comfort moving towards Allah (SWT). May Allah (SWT) expand our chests for Islam and for his guidance and enable us to continue to move closer to him, and may Allah (SWT) keep us from going astray and ever going away from him.
