T h e   S e c o n d   A s p e c t : Man is excessively preoccupied with his sustenance. So lest he is deluded into making his winning it a pretext for neglecting worship, or making it an excuse, the verse says: “You were created for worship. The result of your creation is worship. Winning sustenance is worship of a sort, from the point of view of its  being a divine command. I have undertaken to provide your sustenance and that of your families and animals, my creatures; it pertains to me; you were not created to procure food and sustenance, for I am the Provider. I provide the sustenance of my servants, your dependants. So do not make it an excuse and give up worship!”

If its meaning is not this, it becomes a statement of the obvious, for to provide

Almighty  God  with  food  and  sustenance  is  self-evidently  impossible.  It  is  an established rule of rhetoric that if the meaning of a sentence is clear and obvious, it is not that meaning which is intended, but a meaning necessitated by it and dependent on it. For example, if you say to someone: “You are a hafiz,” it is stating the obvious. The intended  meaning  is  “I know  that  you  are a hafiz.”  You  are informing him because he did not know that you knew.

Thus,  in  consequence  of  this  rule,  the  meaning  of  the  verse,  in  which  the prohibition of giving food to Almighty God is a metaphor, is this: “You were not created in order to produce food for My creatures, which are Mine and the providing of whose  sustenance I have undertaken. Your fundamental duty is worship. But to strive  to  procure  sustenance  in accordance with  My commands  is  also  a  sort of worship.”

T h e  T h i r d  A s p e c t : In Sura al-Ikhlas the apparent meaning of,

He begets not, nor is He begotten(112:3)

is self-evident and obvious, hence another meaning is intended which is necessitated by it.  That  is to say, Almighty God states extremely clearly and self-evidently “He begets not, nor  is He begotten,” meaning: “Anyone who  has a father and mother cannot be a god,” and,  “pre-eternal and post-eternal,” to deny the divinity of Jesus (UWP), and of Uzayr, and the angels, and stars, and other false gods. It is just the same  with  our  example,  the  verse,  “The  All-Glorious  Provider,  your  object  of worship, does not require sustenance for  Himself, you were not created to provide Him with  food”  means: “Things  with  the  ability  to  receive  sustenance  and  food cannot  be  gods  and  objects  of  worship,”  meaning:  “Beings  that  are  in  need  of sustenance and being provided for are not worthy of worship.”

S a i d   N u r s i