ROOT و ر د

Important Words:

اوردھم (bring them down). The word اورد as well as الورد (watering-place) and المورود (arrived at) are all derived from ورد. They say وردہ i.e. he (a man or a camel, etc.) came to it, or arrived at it, namely water, whether he entered it or not. ورد علیھا means, he came to or arrived at it (water, town, etc.). اوردہ means, he brought him to the watering-place or he simply brought him or made him come or be present at a certain place. اوردہ الماء means, he made him come or he brought him to the water. اوردہ واصدرہ means, he brought it and (then) took it away. ورد (wird) means, coming to or arriving at water, etc.; water to which one comes to drink; the time or turn of coming to water; a company of men or a number of camels or birds coming to or arriving at water; a portion or share of water; the day or turn of a fever when it attacks the patient intermittently or periodically; a portion of the night in which a man has to pray; a section or division of the Quran portioned out for recitation at a certain time. مورود is the passive participle from ورد (warada) and means a place or person arrived at or visited. وارد which is the active participle means, he who comes or arrives at a place (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse means to say that all that Pharaoh did for his people was to bring them to the verge of Hell and cause them to fall into it. As shown under Important Words, the word اورد (will bring down) is generally used with reference to water but here it has been used in connection with fire in order to point out that instead of obtaining water, which is the source of physical and spiritual life (21:31), these people will land in fire, which is the killer of life. Thus their own efforts which were employed to destroy rather than get spiritual life will appear to them in an embodied form.

The expression may also contain an allusion to the fact that the descent of the people of Pharaoh into Hell will be like the repairing of a thirsty man to a place of water, i.e. corrupt as they are, it will prove the means of satisfying their peculiar thirst. The fire will purify them of their sins and thus, through it, they will at last succeed in satisfying their spiritual thirst.

Commentary:

It is noteworthy how God takes care of His faithful servants. Joseph’s brothers cast him into a deep well in the wilderness but God so arranged that immediately afterwards a caravan arrived there. A man sent to fetch water from a well happened to go to the very well into which Joseph had been cast and this led to his being taken out alive.

The words, And they concealed him as a piece of merchandise, show that the members of the caravan looked upon Joseph as treasure and saw in him a youth of promise.

21:99.

Commentary:

The word کم (you) in منکم is not of general application. It applies, as the context shows, only to the disbelievers and to those who doubt the existence of the life after death. All these categories of men have been mentioned in the preceding verses. According to Ibn ‘Abbas and ‘Ikrimah, another reading of منکم (of you) is منھم (of them) and the former used to say that the expression منکم is addressed to disbelievers (Qurtubi). So it is to these people i.e. disbelievers mentioned in vv. 67-69 above that the pronoun کم (you) clearly refers. On the other hand the Quran quite clearly and emphatically supports the view that the righteous believers will not go to Hell; they will bask in the sunshine of God’s love and mercy (27:90; 39:62; 43:69; etc.) and will be far removed from the fire of Hell and will not hear even its faintest sound (21:102-103). But if the pronoun (you) be taken to include both the believers and the disbelievers, then in the case of disbelievers the verse would mean that all of them will go to Hell and in the case of believers the fire of Hell referred to in the verse would mean the fire of trials and tribulations through which they have to pass in the present life and which they endure with patience and fortitude and out of which eventually they are taken to be brought into the haven of divine bliss and peace as the next verse shows. This reference is supported by several sayings of the Holy Prophet in which he has likened fever to the fire of Hell. He is reported to have said: The fever is a believer’s share of the Hellfire (Qurtubi as quoted by Tabari).

The Holy Prophet himself has explained the meaning of this verse. His wife Hafsah is reported to have said: "On one occasion when the Prophet said that none of those of his Companions who had taken part in the battle of Badr or Uhud will go to Hell, I drew his attention to the present verse, upon which he slightly reprimanded me for having misunderstood its meaning and directed me to read the next verse" (Muslim as quoted by Jami‘ul-Bayan). The fact that the Holy Prophet referred Hafsah to the next verse (v. 73) shows that he also understood the word ثم occurring in that verse to mean "and", and had taken the next verse as an independent and separate clause, otherwise he could not have reprimanded Hafsah for having misunderstood the meaning of the verse under comment.

39:72.

Important Words:

ورداً (a herd of thirsty camels) means, coming to or arriving at water; water to which one comes to drink; turn of coming to water; a number of camels or a herd of thirsty camels; birds arriving at water. See also 11:99.

نسوق (We shall drive) is derived from ساق. They say ساق الابل i.e. he drove the camels. ساق الحدیث means, he continued the talk endlessly; he went on relating the narrative. سائق means, a driver; or one who drives from behind while قائد is one who guides—a general or a leader. The expression نسوق المجرمین الی جھنم ورداً means, We will drive the sinners like beasts who come to water to slake their thirst (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

Here the word نسوق (We shall drive) has been used about the sinners and means that they will be driven to Hell against their wish. But this word has also been used in the Quran about the righteous believers (39:74). But in that verse the word has been used in the sense of being conducted or carried. If, however, in 39:74 the word were taken to have been used in the sense of driving, then it would apply to the beasts which the righteous will be riding to go to Paradise and thus the meaning would be that the beasts which the righteous will be riding will be driven to Paradise.

19:72.

Important Words:

حصب (fuel) is noun-infinitive from حصب (hasaba). They say حصبه i.e. he threw at him, or pelted him with pebbles. حصب به النارmeans, he threw it into the fire. حصب means, stones, pebbles, firewood or firewood prepared for fuel (Lane).

Commentary:

Compare this verse with 18:101:"And on that day We shall present Hell, face to face, to the disbelievers."

The words that which you worship refer both to the idols which the idolaters worship beside God (2:24) and to those persons who allow themselves to be worshipped as God (2:167, 168).

Important Words:

تذودان (keeping back) is formed from ذاد which means, he drove; drove away, and he repelled. ذاد الابل عن الماء means, he kept back or debarred the camels from the water, or prevented them from coming to it. They say ذاد عن عرضه i.e. he defended his honour (Lane & Aqrab).

یصدر (take back) is from صدر which means, he returned, went back or turned away from water. صدر الیه means, he went to it (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The girls seem to be jealous of the honour of their father and therefore in order to disabuse Moses’ mind of any possible misconception that their father was an indolent and easy-going man for having sent his young daughters to the well and keeping himself at home they say that their father is an old man and therefore could not himself come to water his flock.

The general opinion among the commentators of the Quran is that Shu‘aib was Moses’ father-in-law. In the Bible he is called Jethro (Exod. 3:1).

86:5.

Commentary:

Wonderful is God’s creation of the universe, but much more wonderful is the creation of man. The fact that man is master of his conduct and is responsible for his decisions is here put forward as another argument to support the inevitability of the Resurrection. In fact man’s life on Earth is "the seedbed of an eternal future".

69:17; 84:2.

Commentary:

What a graphic picture of the threatened punishment!