ROOT ش م ل

Commentary:

Note the network of seductions created by Satan. But the great truth still stands and shalt ever stand: As to My servants, thou (Satan) shalt certainly have no power over them (17:66). The refuge certainly lies in God only, the Lord of man and the Lord of Satan and indeed the Lord of the worlds.

Commentary:

In this verse disbelievers are told to consider and reflect that everything is subject to decline. Nations rise and fall. Flourishing cities and prosperous towns fall into ruin. Governments change and powerful countries fall victim to decay and decline. The poor become rich and the wealthy are reduced to poverty. So does the shadow of everything after reaching a certain stage become contracted, signifying that its power, influence and glory are about to depart and that it is about to be reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. When such is the eternal law of nature, why then do the disbelievers not take a lesson from this natural phenomenon and realize that their shadow is decreasing and why do they not give up conceit and pride and accept the Prophet of God?

In the preceding verses reference was made to the various forms of Divine punishment. In this verse, however, disbelievers are told to think and ponder why their power is declining and that of the Holy Prophet increasing. Nothing in this world can go against the will of the Creator. Natural objects have long shadows when the sun is at their backs. From this natural phenomenon it is easily understandable that the shadows of those who have God at their back must also become long, hinting that their power and influence must grow. But just as shadows have no independent existence of their own and depend on the sun for their increase or decrease, similarly success and prosperity depend only on the sun of the grace of God. When God withdraws His grace from a people, their progress and prosperity depart. Disbelievers are warned that punishments mentioned above will result in the complete obliteration of their shadows while the shadow of the Holy Prophet will continue to expand and lengthen until it will spread and reach to Mecca. Such is the eternal law of God which is embodied in the present verse and which they have been invited to study and profit by.

It may be objected that it is to the East or to the West that shadows are shifted and not to the right or to the left as mentioned in this verse. The reason for this description lies in the fact that it is with reference to the Holy Prophet and the Meccans that the directions have been mentioned in this verse. In fact, the verse implies a reference to the Hijrah. The Prophet was to go to Medina, which lies in the North, and the Meccans were in Mecca, which is in the South. If a person standing at a place where the boundaries of Mecca and Medina meet should face the East, Mecca will be on his right and Medina on his left. 'The right', thus refers to Mecca and 'the left' to Medina. The use of the word الیمین (the right) in the singular and الشمائل (the left) in the plural signifies that the shadow of disbelievers, being limited, will decline and decrease and the Holy Prophet who will migrate to a town situated to the left will have many shadows i.e. his cause will advance and progress from many sides.

7:179; 17:98; 39:37-38.

Important Words:

تزاور (move away) is in reality تتزاور which is derived from تزاور (tazawara) which again is derived from زار. They say زارہi.e. he visited him. ازورعنه (izwarra) or تزاورعنه (tazawara) means, he declined or turned aside from it (Lane & Aqrab).

تقرض (turn away) is derived from قرض . They say قرضه i.e. he cut it. قرضت الوادی means, I passed through or across the valley.قرض المکان means, he turned aside or away from the place. The Quranic expression واذا غربت تقرضھم ذات الشمال means, when it set to leave them behind on the left; to pass by and beyond them leaving them on its left; to turn aside or away from them on the left (Lane & Aqrab).

فجوة (spacious hollow) is derived from فجا. They say فجا الباب i.e. he opened the door. فجا رجلیه means, he parted his legs wide or straddled to make water. فجوة means, an opening or intervening space or an intermediate wide space between two things; a wide tract or a wide or depressed tract of land; the court or yard of a house; the part between the two sides of the solid hoof (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse describes the position of the Cave. It appears that the people referred to above lived in very high regions in the north, and the Cave was so situated that it faced north-west, for the sun passes a place which has its face to the north from right to left.

The word فجوة (spacious hollow) shows that the Cave covered a vast area. The catacombs at Rome which still exist confirm this view. They enclose a vast area, which has been estimated variously as extending over as many as 870 miles. It also appeals that the catacombs admitted very little light. The Cave was made in such a way as to serve as a hiding place. St. Jerome who visited the catacombs in the 4th century says, "It is all so dark that the language of the Prophet (Ps. 55.15) seems to be fulfilled, 'let them go down quick into Hell'. Only occasionally is light let in to mitigate the horror of the gloom, and then not so much through a window as through a hole" (Enc. Brit., 11th edition, vol. 5, p. 491).

By pointing to the position of the Cave which faced northward, God intended to warn Muslims that they had an enemy in northern regions about whom they should particularly be on their guard. Muslims disregarded this timely warning and fell easy victims to the machinations of their enemy. Instead of presenting a united front they fell out among themselves and facilitated his task. The intrigues of the Abbasids of Baghdad and their unseemly approaches to the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople for help on the one hand and the intrigues of the Moors in Spain with the Vatican on the other, led to their progressive decline and ultimate destruction. The solidarity of Islam suffered a fatal blow from these internal dissensions.

Important Words:

ایقاظا (awake) is the plural of یقظ (yaqizun) which is derived fromیقظ (yaqiza) which means, he awoke; he did not sleep. (yaqizun) means, a man waking; a man vigilant, wary, cautious, or in a state of preparation; having his attention roused and possessing knowledge and much intelligence (Lane & Aqrab).

رقود (asleep) is the plural of راقد which is derived from رقد which means, he slept. They say رقد عن الامر i.e. he abstained or held back from the affair; he neglected it. رقدت السوق means, the market became stagnant or dull (Lane & Aqrab).

وصید (threshold) is derived from وصد. They say وصد بالمکان i.e. he remained in the house. اوصد الباب means, he closed the door. وصید means, a court or open space in front of a house; a threshold of a door or entrance; a door or entrance; a fold for sheep or goats; a house of stones made in the mountains for flocks or herds (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse does not refer to the Dwellers of the Cave in the early days of Christianity but to Christian nations in the Holy Prophet’s own time. Muslims of that time were warned that Christian nations in northern regions were then lying in a state of dormancy but they would soon rise from their deep sleep of centuries and would spread all over the world and hold it under their sway. Before that time Muslims should make effective preparation to protect themselves against their devastating onslaughts. Muslims threw this timely Divine warning to the winds. After Caliph Uthman, internecine dissensions rent them. They became heedless of the danger that existed in the shape of the Byzantine Empire by their side. If they then had attacked and conquered it, for which they had quite legitimate reasons as the Romans had first attacked them, the political map of the world would now be quite different from what it is.

The words, their dog stretching out his forelegs on the threshold, refer to the great fondness of Christian peoples for their dogs. The words may also be taken as referring to the Byzantine Empire which then kept guard over Europe on both sides of the Sea of Marmora. This sea looks like a dog keeping watch with his forelegs stretched forth on both sides. The Turks conquered this country in the 15th century but it was too late. By then a great political awakening had taken place among the Christian nations of the northern regions. If in the day of their power and glory the Moors and the Abbasids had made common cause to subdue and crush these nations, Islam would have spread to these parts and mankind would have been spared much misery and bloodshed.

The expression, If thou had had a look at them, thou wouldst surely have turned away from them in fright, refers to the time when Christian nations will have acquired great political power. Till very recently the nationals of all western countries were treated with great respect and fear all over the East. It constitutes a proof positive of the Divine source of the Quran that it foretold this fact hundreds of years ago when Christian nations were yet sunk in a deep sleep of centuries and the wildest stretch of imagination could not have foreseen the power and glory to which they subsequently rose.

16:113.

Commentary:

The preceding verses having made a mention of the blessings and favours which God had bestowed upon the Israelites and which found their fullest expression in the highly prosperous reigns of David and Solomon, the present verse proceeds to refer to another very prosperous and happy people of their time—the people of Saba’. Saba’, as is mentioned under 27:23, was a city of Yemen situated about three days’ journey from San‘a’, also called Ma’arib.

"This town finds frequent reference in the Old Testament and in Greek, Roman and Arabic literature, especially in the South Arabian inscriptions. The Sabaeans were a highly civilized and prosperous people. The finds made in the country itself are in harmony with the various classical literary sources, which agree in showing that the Sabaeans attained the greatest importance of all Arab peoples of the pre-Muhammadan period, in particular of the four leading peoples of South Arabia who were known even to the Greeks. . .these still extant monuments of the once highly developed civilization, to which Sabaea mainly owed its historical importance...Agatharchides’s re-marks on the splendid buildings of the kings and private individuals in Saba’ and the descriptions of Sabaean castles by the Arabs are confirmed by the testimony of the inscriptions, which to a great extent commemorate the building of houses (palaces) and fortifications. Of public works built to assist agriculture like barriers and dams, the most celebrated was the dam of Ma’arib" (Enc. of Islam. vol. 4. p. 16).

Tirmidhi quotes a tradition on the authority of Farwah bin Malik that when asked whether Saba’ was the name of a land or of a woman, the Holy Prophet is reported to have said, 'It is neither the name of a land nor that of a woman but the name of a man in Yemen who had ten sons. Six of them remained in Yemen while four of them went to Syria. As for those who made Syria their home, they were Joham, Ghassan and Amila; and as for those who stayed back in Yemen they were Ash‘ariyyun, Himyar, Kandah, Madhpih and ‘Ammar. On being asked who were Ammar, the Prophet replied "Of them are Khath‘am and Bajilah"' (Taj).

The whole tenor of the verse shows that the Sabaeans were a highly prosperous and cultured people whom God had blessed in great abundance with all the comforts and amenities of life. The whole country seems to have been rendered very fertile by dams and other irrigation works and was full of gardens and streams.

According to Muir there were 70 stages or stops from Hadramaut to Aila on the road from Yemen to Syria. These stages even exist today. It was a very frequented and safe route, flanked on both sides by shady trees.

Important Words:

یتلقی (will record) is derived from لقی. They say تلقی الشیء منه i.e. he received or got the thing; he learned it from him, hencepreserved or recorded it (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

According to some commentators the angel sitting on man’s right records his good actions and that on his left, his bad actions; the words 'on the right' standing for his good actions and 'on the left' for his bad actions. Every deed or spoken word leaves its impress in the atmosphere and thus is preserved. Elsewhere in the Quran it is stated that the limbs of man—his hands, feet and tongue—will bear witness against him on the Judgement Day. Thus different parts of a man’s body may also be the recorders referred to in the present verse as the two recording angels. See also 24:25; 36:66.

69:26; 84:11; 90:20.

Commentary:

اصحاب الشمال is another name for اصحاب المشئمة—those on the left hand.

56:42-43; 84:11-13.

Commentary:

To be given one’s record in one’s left hand, in Quranic terminology represents failure in a test. Elsewhere in the Quran (56:42) the guilty have been described as "fellows of the left hand."

Commentary:

This and the preceding verse give a prophetic description of the coming triumph of Islam when the pagan tribes of Arabia, from every part of the country, hastened to wait in deputations upon the Holy Prophet, begging to be taken into the fold of Islam. Or the verses may refer to the highly alluring offers made by the leaders of the Quraish to the Holy Prophet, if only he should give up preaching against their idols. By some authorities, however, the verses have been taken to refer to the dangerous attacks that were made on the Holy Prophet in different forms by his opponents.