| Answer:
Whether the Qur’ān contains guidance on everything or not is another
issue. However this much is certain that this verse cannot be presented in
support of this popular view. The context of the verse shows that the verse has
a specific connotation. I’ll try to explain it to you briefly.
6:37 says that the disbelievers demand that they be shown
some sign that they profess belief. It is evident from later verses that the
word ‘sign’ actually refers to the punishment the disbelievers were threatened
with by the Prophet (sws) if they rejected him.
Say: ‘What do you think, if there
come upon you the punishment of God, or the Hour [that you dread], would
you then call upon other than God? -- [Reply] if you are truthful! ‘Nay, -- On
Him would you call, and if it be His Will, He would remove [the distress] which
occasioned your call upon Him, and you would forget [the false gods] which you
join with Him!’ (6:40-41)
Consequently, the disbelievers have been quoted by the
Qur’ān at many instances saying that they would like to see the punishment
they are being threatened with in order to see whether Muhammad (sws) was a true
messenger of God. At all such places, they are answered that if this sign is
shown to them, then they would not be given any further respite -- they would be
destroyed. So it is better that instead of demanding this ultimate sign, they
pay heed to the numerous other signs found in abundance around them and within
their own being.
This is precisely what has been stated in 6:37 and in the
earlier part of 6:38:
They say: ‘Why is not a Sign
sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say: ‘God has certainly power to send down a
Sign: but most of them understand not. There is not an animal [that lives] on
the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but [forms part of] communities
like you. (6:37-8)
The disbelievers are told that God has all the power to send
down such a sign, but most of them do not know its implications. For when such a
sign is sent, it destroys the people. So instead of demanding such a sign, they
should look around and they will find plenty of signs. If they contemplate even
on the animals around them and on the birds above them they will find many
lessons. They will find in the individual and collective lives of these species
the manifestations of the Almighty’s mercy, power, providence and wisdom. These
manifestations show that this world has been made for a specific purpose by the
Almighty.
In other words the expression: ‘We did not leave anything out
of this book’ if taken in context means that as far as signs to profess belief
are concerned, this Book has plenty and that nothing has been left out of it.
The verse does not imply that the Qur’ān contains guidance on everything.
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