بَصَر

11:124; 18:27; 35:39.

7:188; 54:51.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that as disbelievers have stood in the way of the Holy Prophet whom God has chosen for the bestowal of His favours, they will be visited with sudden and terrible punishment. This prophecy will certainly be fulfilled because it has been made by God Who has power over all things.

It is interesting to note how the verse anticipates future critics of Islam who say that the unprecedented success which attended the Holy Prophet and Muslims was due only to natural causes. The verse forestalls this objection by saying that it is God, the Almighty and Knower of all secrets, Who is speaking of the imminent destruction of disbelievers. The fulfilment of this prophecy will not be a chance occurrence but one that will be brought about by the Almighty God. This prophecy was made towards the end of the Prophet’s stay in Mecca. And it is well-known that shortly after the power of the idolatrous Arabs was broken, it was followed by the overthrow of the Persian and Roman Empires, the two great military powers of the time. All this was foretold at a time when the Prophet and his followers were being persecuted in Mecca. Who can say that all this was only the inevitable result of natural causes and was not due to a special decree of the All-Powerful God?

The words, the twinkling of an eye, mean, "within a short time". The prophecy implied in the words, "the matter of the Promised Hour," met its remarkable fulfilment in the Battle of Badr and finally in the conquest of Mecca.

11:47.

24:25; 36:66; 41:21-23.

Commentary:

This verse cuts at the root of all sources of suspicion. These sources in their natural order are "the ear", "the eye" and "the heart". "The ear" is the first avenue through which most suspicions enter man’s mind. As a rule suspicions are caused by ill-founded reports which one hears about another person. Next to hearing comes the source of sight. A person sees another doing a certain act and interprets it wrongly and is led to suspect the latter’s motives and intentions. The last and most degraded kind of suspicion is that which a person entertains about another not as the result of a bad report which he might have heard about him nor in consequence of a bad act or deed which he might have seen him doing but which is purely the figment of his own diseased mind. Muslims are enjoined to steer clear of all these forms of suspicion. They are the enemy of all cordial social relations.

The verse draws attention to the fact that it is not only human life and property (to which a reference has already been made in the preceding verse) which are sacred and inviolable; human honour also is sacrosanct and an attack upon it also will have to be accounted for.

A person will be called to account for having listened to anything about another person which he had no right to do. Similarly, he will be brought to book for having seen something which he should not have seen. And so will he be punished for harbouring in his mind evil thoughts about other people. We are told that our impressions and opinions should not be based on mere hearsay and surmise but on sure knowledge. Mere evidence of the ear, the eye or the heart is not sufficient to condemn a person or form an adverse opinion about him but sure knowledge based on thorough enquiry. Mark the high moral tone of these teachings!

25:44.

2:8; 6:47; 16:109.

Commentary:

The verse develops the theme of the preceding verse and purports to say that as man has been created to serve a sublime object and has been endowed with great powers and faculties for the fulfilment of that object, and as the whole universe has been pressed into service for him in order to help him in its achievement, so, if, instead of making a proper use of his God-given powers he worships gods of his own fancy or imagination, he works out his spiritual ruin with his own hands.

Important Words:

بصر (eye) means, eye; the light whereby the organ of sight perceives the things; knowledge; discernment; intelligence (Lane & Aqrab).

حدید (sharp) is derived from حد which means, he turned away or averted a person from a thing. حد شیئا عن غیرہ means, he distinguished or separated by some mark a thing from another. حد السکین means, he sharpened the knife. حد بصرہ الیه means, he looked sharply or attentively at him. رجل حدید means, a man sharp of intellect or understanding (Lane).

Commentary:

The verse means that in the next world the veil will be lifted from the eyes of man and his vision and mental perception will become clearer and sharper. He will see the consequences of his actions in an embodied form which were hidden from his eyes in this world and will realize that which he used to regard merely as an illusion, was a hard and stark reality.

Commentary:

The verse sheds a flood of light on the bedrock of certainty and invincible faith on which the Holy Prophet stood.

7:188; 16:78.

Commentary:

The defeat of the Meccans at the battlefield of Badr came like a bolt from the blue, so sudden and swift it was and so complete and destructive. The glory of Kedar departed, as if in the twinkling of an eye.

65:13; 67:4; 71:16.

Important Words:

طباقاً (in grades) is derived from طبق. They say أطبق الثوب i.e. he folded together the piece of cloth. طبق means, a thing that is the equal of another thing in its measure so that it covers the whole extent of the latter like the lid; a layer of the earth; a fold; a generation; any of the stages of heaven. السماوات طباق means, the heavens are composed of stages, one above another (Lane & Aqrab).

تفاوت (incongruity) is derived from فات . They say تفاوت الشیئان i.e. the two things were distinct or were different. تفاوت means, defect, fault, or imperfection; incongruity or discordance (Lane & Aqrab).

فطور (flaw) is derived from فطر. They say فطرہ i.e. God created it or brought it into existence for the first time, it not having existed before. انفطر means, it became split, rent or cleft. فطور means, cleft; flaw; disorder (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

Wonderful indeed is God’s creation. The solar system of which our earth is but a small member is vast, varied and orderly and yet this system is but one of hundreds of millions of systems, some of which are incalculably larger than it, yet the countless millions of suns and stars are so arranged and distributed in relation to one another as to produce everywhere harmony and beauty. The order that covers and pervades the universe is obvious to the ordinary naked eye, and is spread far beyond the range of disciplined vision, assisted by all the instruments and appliances which science and art have been able to invent (Flint).

Important Words:

خاسئا (confused) is derived from خسأ which means, he was or became vile, despised and hated. خاسأ الرجل الکلب means, the man drove away the dog. خسأ البصر means, the eyesight became dazzled or confused and dim. خاسیء when applied to a dog or a swine means, driven away and repelled, and when applied to a man means, contemptible, despicable, vile or confused; and when applied to the eyesight means, dazzled or confused and dim (Lane).

Important Words:

برق (is dazzled) means, he feared so that he was astonished or amazed or stupefied at seeing the gleam of lightning; he was frightened, or he became perplexed or unable to see his right course. برق بصرہ means, his eye became dazzled or it became weak. برقت قدماہ means, his feet became weak (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The metaphor "when the eye is dazzled," signifies, "when the opponents of truth are completely confused and baffled".