ذُرِّيَّة

Important Words:

ذریة (offspring) is derived from ذر or ذرأ. The verb ذر means, he sprinkled or scattered. They say ذرالحب فی الارض i.e. he scattered the seed in the soil. ذرالنبات means the vegetation sprouted forth from the ground. Similarly ذرأ means, he increased a thing, etc.; or He (God) created. ذرة of which the plural is ذر means, small ant; motes or dust particles that float about in the air. ذریة means, children, offspring or progeny; human or other race descended from a common ancestor (Aqrab & Taj).

Commentary:

By means of the similitude contained in this verse, a believer is reminded that if he spends his property for show or follows up his charity with taunts and injury, all that he has spent will be wasted, and on the Day of Judgement he will find nothing good in store for him. His case will be as wretched as that of an old man with little children and large property which, as the result of an accident, is suddenly destroyed, leaving him not only without means of sustenance for himself but also without provision for his children. When a man cannot bear to see himself and his little children go unprovided for in this life, which is after all a very short period, how can he bear that his work for the cause of Allah—a provision for his everlasting life in the next world—should be undone by his own action?

6:88; 19:59.

Commentary:

The word ذریة (a race) has been put in the verse not as مبتدا but as حال. The verse must, therefore, be considered a part of the preceding one and would literally mean, "while these were or are a race correlated with one another", the inference being that the individuals and families mentioned in the preceding verse were chosen by God because they all belonged to the same stock, the stock of good and righteous people.

19:6, 7; 21: 90, 91.

Commentary:

Deeply touched by the little girl’s reply, Zachariah was moved there and then to pray to God to be blessed with a pious child like Mary. The prayer was probably repeated over a length of period as it is mentioned in varying words in different parts of the Quran (3:39; 19:5-7; 21:90). This finds further support in the fact that whereas the first prayer was offered when Mary was yet a child, the birth of a son to Zachariah actually took place when Mary had grown up to womanhood, Jesus and John (Yahya) being nearly of the same age. Or what is equally probable, the prayer of Zachariah was accepted at the very beginning and God gave him the promise of a child at the very first prayer offered; but, after the manner of pious men, he still continued to pray for the bestowal of the promised gift.

Commentary:

The verse contains a strong and highly forceful appeal in favour of orphans. Those to whom the guardianship of orphans is entrusted are told to imagine just how they would feel if they knew that they were to die leaving behind little children and no one to take care of them. The implication is that they should treat their wards as kindly as they would like their own little children to be treated in case of their own death.

6:148; 18:59.

4:134; 14:20; 35:17.

Commentary:

The Divine attribute of الغنی (Self-Sufficient) means, "one able to do without others" (see 2:264). As God is Self-Sufficient, He can punish rejecters as and when He desires; but He is also full of mercy; therefore, He delays the hour of punishment.

The words مایشاء (what He pleases) have been used in preference to من یشاء (whom He pleases) in order to combine the idea of "any other people" with that of "in any other state or condition."

7:39.

Commentary:

The appearance of a Prophet also debars the people of his time from urging the plea mentioned in the present verse, for then the truth is made manifest from falsehood and idolatry stands publicly condemned.

28:5.

Commentary:

It appears from this verse that all the Israelites had not believed in Moses. Only a part of them had really believed in him. The rest followed him from only political or national considerations. The pronoun "his" in the clause, from among his people, may also refer to Pharaoh. In that case the clause would mean that some youths of the people of Pharaoh also believed in Moses. But the former interpretation seems to be more correct and is therefore preferable.

This verse also brings to light the fact that not unoften an appreciable number of the people to whom a Prophet of God preaches his Message become convinced of his truth, but they dare not profess their faith openly for fear of their leaders and chiefs. The pronoun "their" in the words "their chiefs" may refer either to the Israelites or to the people of Pharaoh. Preferably it refers to the people of Pharaoh. The chiefs of the people of Pharaoh have been called the chiefs of the Israelites because the latter were a subject people. But the pronoun need not necessarily be taken as referring to any particular people. The great men of a country are regarded as chiefs not merely because they belong to any particular community but also because, being members of the government, they possess influence and authority. Hence the high officials of the State, whether they belonged to the people of Pharaoh or the Israelites might rightly be called the chiefs of the Israelites and it was through both that Pharaoh tyrannized over the Israelites.

The words, Pharaoh was a tyrant in the land, show that Pharaoh was not a wise and sagacious monarch. He had embarked upon a policy of open repression and persecution which was calculated to incite the people to rebellion. This policy eventually led to the downfall of the dynasty.

14:12; 40:79.

Commentary:

Disbelievers objected that the Holy Prophet had come without any worldly resources. The verse under comment replies to this objection by stating that earlier Prophets were also without any worldly resources. They, like him, had their physical needs and requirements. They, too, had wives and children whom they had to support and look after and had their duties to perform. Yet in spite of all the impediments and obstacles in their way and in spite of their physical needs and requirements and of the absence of material resources, they succeeded and triumphed. So shall the Holy Prophet.

The verse also makes it clear that signs of punishment are certainly shown to disbelievers but not at the time and in the form in which they demand them. The form and time of signs are determined by God alone, for they are shown only "by the command of Allah."

It may be asked here what, if God raised Messengers for the reformation of man, prevented Him from delegating to these Messengers the power of punishment, particularly when He knew that Signs would be demanded of them by their opponents and also when even earthly governments invest their officials with certain magisterial powers? Again, if God had invested His Prophets with the power to punish the people, it would have at least this advantage that the people would have feared and respected them and dared not oppose them. The Quran answers this question in the words, For every term there is a divine decree, which means that, as it is God Who determines the nature and form of each punishment and the time of its occurrence and He alone, being All-Knowing, knows in what form and at what time the sending down of a certain punishment will prove beneficial to the people, the power of punishing cannot be delegated to any other person. For if that delegation can at all be fair and useful, it must be accompanied by the delegation of many other divine powers, which is simply unthinkable. The infliction of punishment, therefore, could not be entrusted to the Prophets or to anybody else.

19:59; 23:28.

Commentary:

The verse is taken by some commentators to refer to the followers of the Holy Prophet, but primarily it refers to the followers of Moses, as the context shows. It reminds the Israelites that they should have profited by the noble example of Noah who with his followers was savedfrom the Deluge and was grateful to God for that great favour. They, too, were saved from drowning in the sea and should have been grateful to God for that favour but they were not. The verse may also be taken as constituting a forewarning to Muslims who are told that when, by the grace of God, they emerge safe from the storm of opposition and persecution that was raging over their heads, they should be grateful to Him.

1:7; 4:70; 5:21; 57:20.

17:108,110; 32:16.

Commentary:

This verse explains two things:(1) The Prophets whose names have been mentioned in it were righteous and holy men. But in spite of the very exalted position they held they were ordinary mortals. Jesus, like them, too, was a Prophet of God and like them a mere mortal. There was nothing in him that could entitle him to some special position. (2) These righteous and holy men were Divine Prophets and as such sinless. The Jews in the Old Testament (Gen. 9:21-23; 19:31-38; 20:2; Exod. 32:1-4); and Christians in the New Testament (John 10:8) hurled at these paragons of piety and righteousness very filthy charges, the former in order to screen their own crimes and the latter in order to establish the exclusive sinlessness of Jesus. Special stress has been laid on their holiness in the verse under comment and it is in order to clear them completely of the charges attributed to them and also to demolish the wrong notion of the exclusive sinlessness of Jesus that the words "whom We guided and chose" have been used about them.

Some commentators of the Quran think that the words 'of the posterity of Adam' refer to Idris, and whom we carried in the Ark with Noah to Abraham, and the words, of the posterity of Abraham, refer to Ishmael, Isaac and Jacob, and the words, of the posterity of, understood before the word Israel, to Moses, Aaron, Zachariah, Yahya and Jesus, all of whom have been mentioned in the preceding verses of the present Surah.