لَعِب

8:42, 43.

8:27.

Important Words:

عبرة (lesson) is the noun-infinitive from عبر. They say عبرہ i.e. he crossed it, or he passed over it from one side to the other. اعتبر means, he took warning; he took what he saw as an indication of what was concealed. عبرة therefore means: (1) an admonition or exhortation; (2) an admonition or exhortation by which one takes warning; (3) a thing by the state or condition of which one is admonished, reminded, directed or guided (Aqrab & Lane).

Commentary:

This verse refers to the Battle of Badr in which 313 ill-equipped and ill-armed Muslims inflicted a crushing defeat on a well-equipped and well-armed Meccan force, 1,000 strong. This fulfilled two prophecies—one contained in an earlier revelation of the Quran and the other in the Bible. The Quranic revelation said: Do they say, ‘We are a victorious host?’Nay, the hosts will be routed and will show their backs… The day when they will be dragged into the Fire on their faces (and it will be said to them), ‘taste ye the touch of burning’ (54:45-49). And the Biblical prophecy said: "In the forest of Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled. For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail; and the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it" (Isa. 21:13-17).

In accordance with this prophecy, about a year after the flight of the Holy Prophet from Mecca, the power of Kedar (the progenitor of the Meccan tribes) was broken at Badr and their glory departed. The Quranic prophecy was also literally fulfilled; for, after the Meccan host was routed at Badr, the ringleaders of the Quraish who fell in the battle were actually dragged along the ground and cast into a well for burial. It was on this occasion that, addressing their dead bodies the Holy Prophet said, "God has made true the promise He had made to us. Have you also found to be true that which was promised to you?" (Bukhari). The Quran describes the Day of Badr as the day of "Discrimination" (8:42), because on that day a great prophecy, accompanied by great results, was fulfilled in extremely unfavourable circumstances. The defeat of the infidels was as unexpected and complete as was the victory of the Muslims. Truly has the Battle of Badr been reckoned among the greatest battles in history. It virtually decided the fate of the Meccans and of the whole of Arabia. The power of the Quraish was broken forever and the new Faith rose high and powerful in the land; and all this came about exactly as it had been prophesied.

The clause, whom they saw to be twice as many as themselves, points out that the Meccan army appeared to the Muslims to be less than their actual strength, i.e. only twice instead of thrice the number of the Muslims, as was actually the case. This was quite in harmony with Divine will which designed that the encounter should take place and the few weak and ill-equipped Muslims, seeing the full strength of the enemy, should not become discouraged (8:45). What happened was that one-third of the Meccan army was behind a rising piece of land and the Muslims could see only two-thirds of them, i.e. 600 or twice as many as their own number. The Muslims were thus naturally heartened by seeing the Meccan army only twice their own number because they knew that in fulfilment of His promise (8:67-68) God would surely vouchsafe to them victory over an enemy double their number.

The words, actually with their eyes, have been added to point out that it was not in a vision or a dream that the Muslims saw the disbelievers to be less than their actual number but in a state of actual wakefulness, which naturally proved more heartening than would have been the case if they had seen them so only in a dream or vision, which very often has an interpretation other than what actually appears.

3:29, 119; 4:145; 5:52; 60:10.

6:71; 7:52.

Commentary:

This verse further explains the previous verses about the principle underlying the befriending of disbelievers. Muslims are not allowed to have friendly relations with people who scoff at their religion and mock at their Prophet. It would kill a Muslim’s self-respect if he were to do so, and who can be more jealous and more self-respecting than a true Muslim? In 5:52, Muslims are forbidden to make friends with disbelievers because of their hostile and belligerent attitude towards them; in the present verse they are forbidden to do so because they scoff at their religion. This, however, does not mean that they are prevented from having dealings of any kind with disbelievers or from doing good to them and treating them kindly. In this connection see also 60:9, 10.

The word کفار (disbelievers) when used in contrast to the People of the Book means, "disbelievers from among idolaters"; but when used generally, it is applied both to the People of the Book and the idolaters. Here it refers to idolaters.

Commentary:

The verse cites an instance of how the People of the Book and idolaters made a jest of the religion of Islam.

29:65; 47:37; 57:21.

7:170; 12:110.

Important Words:

لعب (sport). The verb form لعب means he played, sported or jested; or he did an act with the object of amusement or recreation or by way of jesting. It is often the opposite of جد which means, he was serious or in earnest. So لعب means, play, sport or jest; amusement or recreation (Aqrab & Lane).

لـھو (pastime) is derived from لـھا. They say لـھا عنه i.e. he became diverted from it so as to forget it. لـھت الـمراة الی حدیث الرجلmeans, the woman became cheered with, and was diverted by, the discourse of the man.

So لـھو means, diversion, pastime or sport; what occupies a man so as to divert him from that which would render him sad or serious; relief of the mind by such means as wisdom does not require (Lane & Lisan).

Commentary:

The words, And worldly life is nothing but a sport and a pastime, do not mean that life on this earth is only a sport. What is meant is that worldly life, i.e. life engrossed in the things of this world and passed in neglect of the Hereafter is nothing but a sport. Elsewhere (21:17, 18), the Quran says that God has not created this world as لعب (sport) or لـھو (pastime). Both announcements are equally correct. The words, And worldly life is nothing but a sport and a pastime, may also mean that the environments of this world are such that, unless one is particularly watchful, one is liable to become negligent about the next world, just as sports and pastimes often make man negligent of his duties on earth.

5:58; 7:52; 8:36.

10:5.

Important Words:

تبسل (be consigned to perdition) is derived from بسل i.e. he prevented or prohibited or debarred. ابسل besides giving the above-mentioned meaning, also means, he gave in pledge; or gave in exchange. ابسله also means, he gave him up to or he delivered him over to or he consigned him to destruction or perdition or punishment (Lane & Aqrab).

شراب (drink) is derived from شرب i.e. he drank. شراب means, a drink or beverage; any liquid which is drunk and not eaten or chewed. This is the original significance. Post-classical writers, however, sometimes use the word in the sense of خمر (wine) also (Lane).

حمیم (boiling water) is derived from حم i.e. it (water, etc.) became hot or very hot. The word is also used transitively, meaning, he heated water, etc. or he heated it fully. حم الشحمة means, he melted the fat. حمه means, he washed him with hot water or, conversely, with cold water. حمیم means, hot water or, conversely, cold water; sweat or perspiration. The word also means a friend or a beloved person (Lane). The last significance is probably based on warmth of feeling.

Commentary:

The context and the sense of the passage required the use of the words "thy religion," but the Quran uses the words "their religion" instead of "thy religion". This is to point out that it was for their own good that the religion of Islam had been sent and that they were injuring themselves by rejecting it.

The words, admonish people thereby, signify that if disbelievers are in a state of excitement and it is found that admonition will provoke them all the more, then one should "let them alone"; but if there is no fear of their being provoked, then one should first admonish them and then quit their company. The pronoun in به (thereby) refers to the Quran.

The verse also contains an exhortation to believers not to get enraged at the scornful remarks of disbelievers. As it is the duty of believers to admonish and warn disbelievers, therefore the former should patiently endure the taunts of the latter.

As shown under Important Words, the word تبسل (consigned to perdition) may also mean, "be given up or surrendered." Taking the word in the latter sense, the sentence would mean, "Admonish the people lest a soul be surrendered to what it has wrought," i.e. admonish them lest they be given over to the evil works they are now engaged in, viz. lest they continue in their evil condition. See also 2:16. Taking the word in the former sense, i.e. as rendered in the text, the sentence would mean, "Admonish them lest they be consigned to destruction or punishment on account of the evil deeds which they have wrought."

The verse is addressed to believers and points out to them the urgent need of preaching the truth to disbelievers. It calls upon believers to picture to themselves the dire consequences of their failure to preach the truth to disbelieving people. If they do not show disbelievers the right path, the result will be that the latter will continue in their error and will be delivered over to destruction on account of their sins, being reduced to a condition when they will have no helper and no intercessor and when no compensation or ransom will be accepted from them.

The "boiling water" mentioned in the verse will serve as a medicine to bring about a cure, while the "grievous punishment" will be in the nature of an operation.

5:58; 6:71.

45:35.

Commentary:

This verse qualifies the word "disbelievers" occurring in the preceding verse. The disbelievers spoken of at the end of that verse were convinced in their hearts of the truth of Islam but, as they took their religion as a pastime, they refused to listen to the dictates of reason and the voice of their conscience. So God forgot them even as they had forgotten the meeting of their Lord.

23:22.

Important Words:

سائغا (pleasant) is derived from ساغ. They say ساغ فی الحلق i.e. it (beverage) was easy and agreeable to swallow or it passed the faeces easily and agreeably. ساغ له ما فعل means, what he did was allowable to him. ساغت به الارض means, the ground or earth sank with him; or sank with him and swallowed him up or enclosed him. سائغ applied to beverage or wine and food, means, descending easily and agreeably down the throat or easy and agreeable to swallow; not choking (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The word انعام translated as "cattle" includes the camel, the cow, the goat, the sheep, etc. All these are very useful animals. Their flesh and milk form the principal articles of man’s food. They are also used as means of conveyance and for carrying loads. In short they are of great use to man in many ways.

While drawing attention to the great and manifold benefits that man derives from these animals, the verse uses the word عبرة which means, 'an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge'. The word seems to allude to some subtle process taking place inside the bellies of some of these animals by pondering over which one is led 'to pass from ignorance to knowledge'. The subtle process is something like this. The cattle eat grass, herbage, leaves of trees, etc. Of this faecal matter is formed in their intestines in the course of digestion. Part of that faecal matter becomes converted into blood which supplies the nutrients to form sweet and wholesome milk. Intelligent and reverential study of this conversion of grass or leaves of trees into milk in the bellies of the animals leads to the inevitable conclusion that the natural propensities and inclinations of man cannot lead him to the right path unless they are controlled and regulated by some heavenly machine which is Divine revelation.

This verse affords one more evidence of the Divine origin of the Quran. The process the Quran has described of the formation of milk from faeces and blood was not known to man until very recent times. It was not known to the old commentators of the Quran. They have, therefore, greatly stumbled and erred in explaining this verse. For example, Zamakhshari, the well-known author of Al-Kashshaf, says that when food goes into the belly of an animal its lower portion forms the faeces, the middle portion milk and the upper part becomes turned into blood. The verse under comment, however, clearly, states that the matter of which milk is made passes through the forms of faeces and blood before it assumes the form of milk. This fact has been discovered by scientists only in recent times.

The verse does not mean that man cannot produce milk synthetically. What is here meant is that he cannot produce it in such quantity that it may become an article of food. This is only possible in the way mentioned in this verse. Synthetically prepared milk can no more be a substitute for natural milk than artificial showers of rain are for natural rain.

The verse also suggests that just as man can only corrupt food but cannot convert it into milk, even so can he only corrupt Divine teaching but it is not in his power to convert the defective laws devised by himself into eternal spiritual truths.

6:143; 16:6; 36:72-73; 40:80-81.

Important Words:

عبرة (lesson) is derived from عبر and means, admonition or exhortation; or an admonition or exhortation by which one takes warning or example; a thing by which one is admonished; an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge of what is not seen from the knowledge of what is seen (Lane & Arab). See also 4:44.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that man derives great benefits from the cattle. They are living machines which produce for him such a wholesome and nutritious food as milk, from fodder, grain herbage and leaves of trees, etc. which they eat. Man has so far failed to devise a machine which like these divinely devised machines could produce milk from these things. The word عبرة which as given under "Important Words" above, means an indication or evidence whereby one passes from ignorance to knowledge seems to allude to the subtle process which takes place in the bellies of some of the animals and which turns grass or herbage eaten by them into pure and wholesome milk and by pondering over which one is led to acquire an insight into God’s great power and into the subtle ways through which divine laws work. By this simile of grass and milk we are led to think that just as fodder, grain and grass, without passing through the wonderful machine created by God in the bellies of animals, cannot produce milk, similarly human reason which is like grass and grain, cannot produce, without the aid and assistance of Divine revelation, a teaching which like milk is very useful for man’s moral and spiritual development.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the spiritual development of man referred to in the preceding verse is not always uniform and uninterrupted. Sometimes it is very rapid, at another time it is slow and yet some other time it comes to a dead stop. This ebb and flow in the spiritual development of man is called قبض (contraction) and بسط (expansion) or the alternation of night and day in spiritual termin-ology. Everything in the world is subject to the law of acceleration and retardation and so is the spiritual evolution of man.

6:33; 47:37; 57:21.

Important Words:

حیوان (life) is infinitive-noun from حیی which means, he or it lived or was or became in the state termed حیاة. They say حیت النار (hayyat) i.e. the fire was or became alive or burning حیی الطریق (hayiya) means, the road was or became apparent or distinct. حیاة means, life; faculty of growth, the faculty of sensation, and the faculty of intellect; freedom from grief or sorrow. حیوان is synonymous with حیاة but with an intensive signification and means, everlasting life or life which will not be followed by death; much or full life; real life (Lane).

Commentary:

The verse means to say that life without hardships and privations borne for a noble cause, and without sacrifices undergone for the sake of God, is "but an amusement and a sport," a useless and purposeless existence. The purposeful life is that which is spent in the quest of a sublime object, in preparation for everlasting life for which God has created man.