Ahum yaqsimoona rahmata rabbika nahnu qasamna baynahum maAAeeshatahum fee alhayati addunya warafaAAna (surah Zukhruf: 32)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(43:32) Is it they who distribute the Mercy of your Lord? It is We Who have distributed their livelihood among them in the life of this world, and have raised some above others in rank that some of them may harness others to their service. *31 Your Lord's Mercy is better than all the treasures that they hoard. *32

Ahum yaqsimoona rahmata Rabbik; Nahnu qasamnaa bainahum ma`eeshatahum fil hayaatid dunyaa wa rafa`naa ba`dahum fawqa ba`din darajaatil liyattakhiza ba`duhum ba`dan sukhriyyaa; wa rahmatu Rabbika khairum mimmaa yajma`oon

*31) This is the answer to their objection, which briefly mentions many important things: First, it asks: "Since when Dave these people become responsible for distributing the mercy of your Lord ? Is it for them to decide whom Allah should favour with His mercy and whom He should not ? (Here, by Allah's mercy is implied His general mercy from which everyone has a share).
Second, Allah says: 'Prophethood is a great blessing: We have even kept the distribution of the common means of life in the world in Our own hand, and have not entrusted it to anyone else. We create someone beautiful and another ugly, someone with a sweet voice and another with a harsh voice, someone robust and strong and another weak and frail, someone intelligent and another dull, someone with a strong memory and another forgetful, some with healthy limbs and another a cripple, or blind or deaf and dumb, someone in a rich family and another among the poor, someone in an advanced country and another in a backward community. No one can do anything about this destiny concerning birth. One is compelled to be what We have made him. And it is in no one's power to avert the impact one's circumstances of birth have on one's destiny. Then it is We our self Who arc distributing provisions, power, honor, fame, wealth, government, etc. among men. No one can degrade the one whom We have blessed with good fortune, and no one can save from ruin the one whom We have afflicted with misfortune. All plans and schemes of man become ineffective against Our decrees. In this universal Divine System, therefore, how can these people decide as to whom should the Master of the unive rse make His Prophet and whom He should not?
Thirdly, "An abiding principle that We have kept in view in this Divine System is that everything should not be given to one and the same person, or everything should not be given to everybody. If you look around carefully, you will see that great differences exist between the people in every respect. We have given one thing to one person but deprived him of another, and given the same to another one. This is based on the wisdom that no human being should become independent of others, but everyone should remain dependent on the other in one way or the other. Now if would be foolish on your part to think that We should have given the Prophet hood also to the same person whom We had blessed with wealth and nobility. Likewise, will you also say that wisdom, knowledge, wealth, beauty, power, authority and alI other excellences should be assembled in one and the same person, and the one who has not been given one thing, should not be given anything else?"
*32) "Your Lord's mercy": the Prophet hood. It means: "Your leaders and chiefs whom you regard as big people because of their wealth and dignity and chief ship, arc not worthy of this wealth, which has been given to Muhammad bin 'Abdullah (upon whom be Allah's peace). This wealth is far superior to that and for this the criterion is different. If you think that every noble and rich man is worthy of becoming a prophet, it would only show your own thinking. Why do you expect Allah to be so ignorant and simple?"