نَادٰی

Commentary:

Commentators differ as to whether the person referred to in this verse as Noah’s son was his real son or only a near relative. According to some, he was his stepson. Ibn Mas‘ud, Ibn ‘Abbas, ‘Ikrimah, Ad-Dahhak, Ibn Jubair and many other commentators, however, are inclined to view that he was Noah’s own son. But discussion of this subject seems to be super-fluous and unnecessary.

Christian annotators have question-ed the authenticity of this incident on the ground that it does not agree with the Biblical account. But the authenticity of the Bible itself as a historical record is open to doubt and it is unreasonable to accept or reject an incident on its authority alone.

Commentary:

This verse beautifully illustrates how the Prophets maintain a highly respectful attitude to God even under very hard trials. Noah had, by an error of judgement, thought that all the members of his family would be saved from the flood, but when he saw that his son was going to be drowned, he made his supplication to God in a most respectful way, appealing to Him in the name of His promise about the safety of his family. He was, however, careful to add that if his son was drowned, he would not think that God’s promise was false but that he himself had misunderstood the Divine Words, for God’s promise was ever true and His judgement always just.

3:39; 21:90.

Important Words:

نادی (called upon): نادی الرجلmeans, he called the man aloud. نادی بسرہ means, he disclosed his secret. نادی فلاناً means, he consulted him (Aqrab).

Commentary:

The words, when he called upon his Lord, crying in secret, signify that Zachariah had kept concealed in the inmost recesses of his heart a long cherished desire. When he heard Mary’s innocent reply to his query (3:38), he was deeply touched and he laid bare his heart before his Lord and Creator and his long-suppressed desire assumed the form of prayer that a good and righteous son like Mary might be born unto him to continue prophethood in the Israelite line. Zachariah had understood from Biblical prophecies and heavenly warnings that were administered to the Jews for their repeated rejection of God’s Prophets that prophethood was soon to be transferred from the House of Isaac to that of Ishmael. So he gave vent to his feelings in the form of prayer for the birth of a righteous son.

26:118-120; 37:76-77; 54:11.

Commentary:

It is worthy of note that this Surah makes a special mention of the trials and tribulations through which almost all the Prophets of God had to pass in their time and of the way in which God helped them and delivered them from their afflictions, the implication being that like those Prophets the Holy Prophet of Islam too will have to suffer hardships and privations and like them he too will come out of his ordeal with flying colours. Particular reference to Noah here signifies that if the Law were a curse as Christians say, then what would they say about Noah who came with a Law and among whose followers a great Prophet like Abraham appeared (37:84)? It may be said in passing that Prophet Noah was the first Law-bearing Prophet. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said about himاول نبی شرعت علی لسانه الشرائعi.e. he was the first Prophet to whom the Law was revealed. The Law first began to be revealed to Noah because in his time human mind had attained to such a stage of development as to have been able to understand and comprehend Divine attributes, and the evils which are the inevitable result of a civilized society had also begun to make their appearance in his time.

38:42.

Commentary:

Job is mentioned in the Bible as having lived in the land of ‘Uz. According to some authorities Mesopotamia was his native place. It appears, however, that ‘Uz was situated somewhere in the north of Arabia, between Syria and the Gulf of ‘Akaba. It is said that Job lived there before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. According to some Jewish writers he lived about 200 years before Moses. According to some other authorities, however, he was a compatriot of Moses, but he was not an Israelite Prophet, having descended from Esau, the elder brother of Israel. Of all the books of the Old Testament, the Book of Job is unique in this respect that with the exception of the word Jehovah, which is the Jewish name for God, the whole history of the Mosaic Law and that of the Jews is conspicuous by its absence in it. See also 6:85.

The story of Job is said to bear a close resemblance with Harish Chander, a Hindu saint and a rich man. The language of the Book of Job which is Hebrew with various Armaisms and with a faint Arabic tinge is the language which was spoken by the Jews between the 9th and 4th centuries B.C. and that is the time (6th century B.C.) when some Israelite tribes after the Great Dispersion were banished to Afghanistan and Kashmir by Nebuchadnezzar and other Babylonian kings. There they came in contact with the Hindus, and studied their history, mythology and folklore. Whether or not the author of the Book of Job while writing this book borrowed from Hindu popular literature it is difficult to say. But Muslim commentators of the Quran extensively borrowed from the Book of Job, and drawing upon their own imagination added most fantastic and unbelievable details to Job’s account in their commentaries and ended by making the whole account a veritable fairy tale.

The Quran has confined itself to mentioning a few relevant facts about Job in the present and the next verse. It tells us that Job was a holy man of God, that he had to suffer great hardships and privations as a result of which he became separated from his family and followers who subsequently were made to join him, his followers having increased manifold in the meantime.

Job has also been mentioned in vv. 4:164; 6:85 & 38:42 and everywhere he has been mentioned along with the Prophets David and Solomon. This shows that like these two great Prophets he was a man of influence and affluence and like them he had to pass through trials and tribulations which he bore with exemplary patience and fortitude. The courage and fortitude displayed by Job under very severe affliction and distress has become proverbial. See also Jew. Enc., under "Job" and Enc. of Islam under "Ayyub" and explanatory notes under 6:85 & 38:42.

37:140-141; 68:49.

37:144.

Important Words:

ظالمین (wrongdoers) is the plural of ظالم which is derived from ظلم which means, he put a thing in the wrong place or in a place not its own; he made one suffer loss; he committed a wrong; it became dark. ظلمه means, he imposed upon him a thing which was beyond his power or ability. ظلمات is plural of ظلمة which means, darkness; error or ignorance; affliction, hardship, distress or danger. ظلم which means transgression or wrong is said to be of three kinds i.e. between God and man; between man and man, and between man and his own self. Every one of these three kinds of ظلم constitutes a wrong done to oneself (Lane, Aqrab, Raghib & Taj). See also 2:18. The word ظلم and its derivatives, as used in five daily Prayers, commonly fall under the third category. Thus when a supplicant uses the word with regard to himself in Prayer, he only means that he has done something which has brought trouble or distress upon him or which has exposed him to danger; it does not necessarily mean that he has committed a sin. It is in this sense that this word has been used in the verse under comment and it is in this sense that Moses used the expression انی ظلمت نفسی i.e. I have wronged my soul (28:17).

Commentary:

ذوالنون (Dhun-Nun) literally meaning "the man of the fish" is the name of the Prophet Jonah or as he is called Yunus in the Quran (10:99). He has also been called صاحب الحوت (Companion of the Fish) in the Quran (68:49).

The verse does not specify the cause of Jonah’s anger. It must be the obstinate refusal of his people to accept his message because for a prophet to become angry with God is inconceivable. The Elect of God do not even speak nor do they act until God commands them to do so (21:28). Most of the English translators of the Quran have translated the words لن نقدر علیه as "We had no power over him. "Of this rendering the author of the Lisan says: "none will interpret it in this way except one who is ignorant of the Arabic language and the meanings of its words. "According to this lexicon the expression means: 'We will not straiten him' or 'We will not decree against him any distress.' Lane also agrees with Lisan in this respect. The word قدر has also been used in this sense elsewhere in the Quran. See 17:31; 28:83; & 65:8. For a fuller account of the Prophet Jonah see 10:99.

3:39; 19:3-7.

Commentary:

For a somewhat detailed account of Zachariah see the first 12 verses of chapter 19 of the Quran.

20:25; 79:17-18.

Commentary:

The account of the seven great Prophets mentioned in the Surah begins with the story of Moses, the greatest of all the Israelite Prophets and the like of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. As many as fifty eight verses have been devoted to him.

21:84.

Important Words:

نصب (toil) is derived from نصب (nasaba). They say نصبه المرض i.e. the disease pained him or tired him. نصب (nasiba) means, he was tired and fatigued. نصب فی الامر means, he exerted himself and laboured regarding the affair. نصب (nusbun) means, fatigue, toil, weariness, affliction, difficulty, distress, trouble, disease, misfortune, etc. (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

In the present and the next three verses the language used is as fittingly metaphorical as that used in the preceding several verses. It seems that the Prophet Job lived in a country of which the ruler was, as the word الشیطان (the leader of mischief) shows, a cruel and tyrannical idol-worshipper, who opposed the monotheistic teaching of Job and severely persecuted him. Job had to leave his native land and take refuge in another country and as a result of this migration he was separated from his family and followers.

If the word الشیطان as some authorities hold, should signify شیطان الفلاة (satan of the desert) i.e. thirst, the verse would mean that Job in his long and tiresome journey had suffered from thirst and fatigue. According to some other authorities the reference in the word "Satan has afflicted me with toil and torment" is to a skin disease from which Prophet Job is said to have temporarily suffered and which left him very much exhausted.