See 1:1.

Commentary:

See 1:1.

Commentary:

By "the believers" in this verse are meant believers of a very high spiritual caliber whose characteristics and special marks have been mentioned in the following verses. The verse says that the believers will achieve فلاح i.e. success, and not that they will get نجاة i.e. salvation, because the achievement of فلاح (success), which is the object of one’s life, is a much higher stage than the attainment of salvation or نجاة which only signifies getting rid of hardships and privations.

Important Words:

خاشعون is the plural of خاشع which is act. part. from خشع which means, he was or became lowly, humble or submissive. They say خشعت الشمس i.e. the sun was about to set. خشع فی صلاته means, he was humble in his prayer. خشوع which is infinitive noun from خشعgenerally signifies humility which is expressed by the movements of the body while تضرع generally signifies humility of the heart. But these words are also used synonymously (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

With this verse begins a description of the conditions or prerequisites which a believer must fulfil before he aspires to attain success in life and achieve the supreme and sublime object for which God has created him. These conditions may be regarded as so many stages in the spiritual development and journey of man. The first stage or milestone in this journey of the soul is that a believer turns to God in all humility, overawed with Divine majesty, and with a penitent heart and humbled soul.

See 25:73.

Important Words:

اللغو (that which is vain) is derived from لغا and signifies a vain, foolish, worthless or careless talk or speech or that which one utters without seriously meaning it; vain act or an act done carelessly or unthinkingly; deviation from the right path; foolish joking. It covers all vain and foolish thoughts. It is also used for the chirping of sparrows and the sound of other birds (Lane, Aqrab & Muhit). See also 2:226.

Commentary:

The second stage in the spiritual journey of man consists in the avoidance of all vain talk and thoughts and also of idle, vain and futile actions. A true believer not only prays to God in the utmost humility of the heart but takes life very seriously. Life is a grim and serious fact and he takes it as such. He employs every moment of it usefully and shuns all vain and useless pursuits which are incapable of doing any good either to his own person or to his community or country. Incidentally, the avoidance of vain pursuits is the natural and inevitable result of humility in prayer as is evident from another verse of the Quran, viz. "Surely Prayer restrains one from indecency and manifest evil" (29:46).

5:56; 9:71.

Commentary:

This verse refers to the third rung of the spiritual ladder. The true believers not only turn to God with utmost humility of the heart and avoid all sorts of vanities and trivialities but actually engage themselves in pursuits that purify them, such as the spending of their valuable time and hard-earned money and employing all the natural capacities and abilities with which God has endowed them, in the cause of truth. They are prepared to undergo all manner of sacrifice. In v. 4 above, the believers are mentioned as avoiding vain and useless things which is at best a negative virtue, and a negative virtue or good is not of a very high order. The present verse, however, points to a positive virtue which consists in the doing of good that should purify oneself and also benefit others and consists in giving money, which one has earned with the sweat of one’s brow, in the way of God. This indeed is a great positive virtue. In fact, Islam regards the share of the poor in the wealth of the rich as the inalienable right of the former and when a rich man discharges the debt that he owes to the poor by paying the Zakah, he does no favour to anybody. He only gives what is due from him. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said: "Let no one imagine that his wealth or standing or power is the result merely of his own efforts or enterprise. That is not so. Your power and your position and your wealth are all earned through the poor" (Tirmidhi, Abwabuz-Zuhd).

The object of Zakah is not only to provide means for the relief of the distressed or for the promotion of the welfare of the economically less favoured sections of the community, but it is also to discourage the hoarding of money and commodities and, thus to ensure a brisk circulation of both, resulting in healthy economic adjustments.

70:30.

Important Words:

فروجھم (their chastity) is the plural of فرج (farjun) which is derived from فرج (faraja). فرج الشیء means, he opened the thing so as to make a gap or breach. فرج means, the pudendum or pudenda; the part or parts of a person which it is indecent to expose; or the external portion of the organs of generation of a man or a woman; an open, wide space; the part between the two sides of a valley, i.e. entrance; a frontier of access to a country (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

This verse refers to the fourth stage in the spiritual development of man. It indeed marks a very high stage. The lesson is writ large on the pages of history that many a nation has gone to rack and ruin because they abandoned themselves to immoral practices. Sexual morality plays a very important part in the building up of the national character of a people. Islam is very keen on this point. It regards the guarding of sexual chastity as one of the most sacred duties of a believer. It has closed the door to all those avenues which lead to moral laxity. The word فرج signifies those avenues through which evil thoughts find access to the human heart. It covers all parts and organs of the body, i.e. eyes, ears, tongue, hands, feet etc. Islam looks with extreme disfavour upon all those practices which are calculated to excite human passions and which are so popular in the west or among people enamoured of western ways of life.

The verse marks a still higher stage in the spiritual development of man than the one mentioned in v. 5 above. It seems much easier to spend one’s money and property in the way of God, to which reference has been made in the preceding verse, than to overcome one’s carnal passions when they once get excited. Man has suffered more from the gratification of his sensual appetites than perhaps from any other evil. The curbing of carnal desires requires a greater mental discipline than the spending of wealth in good causes.

70:31.

Important Words:

ما ملکت أیمانھم (what their right hands possess). أیمان is the plural of یمین which is derived from یمن یمین. They say یمن الرجل i.e. he came from the right hand of the man. یمن اللّٰه فلاناً means, God blessed such a one.

یمین means, good luck; the right hand; power and strength; a covenant confirmed by an oath; a good position. They say فلان عندنا بالیمین i.e. such a one possesses high position with us. An Arab would say ھذا ملک یمینی i.e. he or it is in the possession of my right hand, meaning, he or it is in my possession (Lisan & Aqrab). The expression ما ملکت ایمانھم generally signifies prisoners of war whether men or women, who are in the custody and control of their Muslim captors because they had taken part in a war which was waged to destroy Islam. The term has been used in the Quran in preference to عباد and اماء (slaves and bondwomen) to point to a just and rightful possession. It includes both slaves and bondwomen, but it is only the context which determines what the expression signifies in a particular place. See also 4:25.

Commentary:

Much misunderstanding prevails as to what the expression "their right hands possess" signifies, and what are the rights and status of the persons to whom it applies.

It should be clearly understood that Islam has condemned slavery in unequivocal terms. According to it, it is a mortal sin to deprive a person of his liberty by kidnapping him, i.e. to make him a slave, unless, of course, he renders himself liable to deprivation of it by taking part in a war waged to destroy Islam or an Islamic state. It is also a grievous sin to buy or sell slaves. All human beings as such are equal in the sight of God and enjoy equal human rights. Islamic teaching on this point is quite clear, unequivocal and emphatic. According to it a person who makes another person his slave commits a grave sin against God and man (Bukhari, Kitabul-Bai’ & Abu Dawud as quoted by Fathul-Bari). It is also worthy of note that when Islam came into the world slavery was a part and parcel of the human social system and there existed large number of slaves in every country. It was therefore not feasible, nor even wise, to abolish with a stroke of the pen, an institution which had become so inextricably interwoven into the whole texture of human society, without doing serious injury to its moral tone. Islam, therefore, sought to abolish it gradually but effectively and surely. The Quran has laid down the following very sound principles for the speedy and complete abolition of slavery:

(1) Prisoners of war (i.e. ما ملکت أیمانھم) can only be taken after a regular battle.

(2) They cannot be retained after the war is over.

(3) They are to be set free either as a mark of favour or by exchange of prisoners.

The Quran says:

And when you meet in regular battle those who disbelieve, smite their necks; and when you have overcome them; bind fast the fetters—then afterwards either release them as a favour or by taking ransom—until the war lays down its arms. That is the ordinance (47:5).

Those unfortunate persons however, who, may fail to gain their freedom through any of these means, or should choose to remain with their Muslim masters can purchase it by entering into a contract called mukatabat (24:34). Now if a woman is taken prisoner in a war of the nature mentioned above and thus loses her liberty and becomes ملک یمین and she fails to get her release by exchange of prisoners of war, and the exigencies of government also do not justify her immediate release as a mark of favour, nor do her own people or government get her ransomed and she does not even seek to buy her freedom by entering into mukatabat and her master, in the interest of morality marries her, whether she likes it or not, in what way, it may be asked, can this arrangement be regarded as objectionable and the great hue and cry raised over it as justified or justifiable?

Let it be clearly understood that as regards establishing sexual relations with a female prisoner of war or a slave-wife, which is the real significance of the expression ما ملکت أیمانھم used in the present verse, without first marrying her, neither this nor any other verse of the Quran lends any support whatsoever. Not only does the Quran not give any sanction for the treatment of female prisoners of war as wives without first taking them into proper wedlock, but there are clear and positive injunctions to the effect that these prisoners of war, like free women, should be married if they are to be treated as wives, the only difference between the two being a difference of social status inasmuch as prior consent of prisoners of war to their marriage is not considered necessary as in the case of free women. The fact that the expression ما ملکت أیمانھم signifies female prisoners lends no support whatsoever to the untenable view that Islam has upheld and encouraged concubinage. Besides the present verse, at least in as many as four other verses of the Quran, the injunction has been laid down in clear and unambiguous terms that female prisoners of war should not remain unmarried. These verses are as follows:

1. And marry widows from among you and your male-slaves and female-slaves who are fit for marriage (24:33).

2. And those of you who cannot afford to marry free believing women, let them marry what your right hands possess, namely your believing handmaids—so marry them with the leave of their masters and give them their dowries according to what is fair (4:26).

3. And if you fear that you will not be fair in dealing with the orphans, then marry of women as may be agreeable to you, two or three or four; and if you fear you will not deal justly, then marry only one or (if you cannot afford to marry even one free wife then marry) what your right hands possess (4:4).

The verse may also be rendered as "then marry of women as may be agreeable to you two or three or four or what your right hands possess;" the words "and if you fear you will not deal justly, then marry only one," forming a parenthetical clause. According to this rendering also slave-girls are to be married before they are treated as wives.

4. And marry not idolatrous women until they believe; even a believing bondwoman is better than an idolatrous woman, although she may highly please you (2:222).

The sense being that a believing slave wife should be preferred to a non-believing free wife. The Holy Prophet is also very explicit on this point. He is reported to have said, "He who has a slave girl, and gives her proper education and brings her up in a becoming manner and then frees and marries her, for him is double reward" (Bukhari, Kitabul-‘Ilm). This hadith implies that if a Muslim wishes to have a slave girl as wife, he should first set her free and then marry her. The Holy Prophet’s own practice was quite in harmony with his precept. Two of the Holy Prophet’s wives, Juwairiyyah and Safiyyah, came to him as prisoners of war. They were his ملک یمین. But he married them according to Islamic Law. Mariyah was sent to him by the King of Egypt. He also married her and she enjoyed the status of a free wife like his other wives. She observed "purdah" and was included among "the Mothers of the Faithful."

Another verse of the Quran, viz. O Prophet We have made lawful to thee thy wives whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesses from among those whom Allah has given thee as gains of war, and the daughters of thy paternal uncle, and the daughters of thy paternal aunts, and the daughters of thy maternal uncle, and the daughters of thy maternal aunts who have migrated with thee (33:51), points to the fact that the commandment regarding marriage applies to ما ملکت أیمانکم (whom your right hands possess) as much as it does to daughters of the Holy Prophet’s paternal and maternal uncles and aunts. Both are to be legally wedded before they are treated as wives. All the three categories mentioned above were made lawful to the Holy Prophet through marriage.

The verse 4:25 viz. And forbidden to you are married women, except such as your right hands possess, seems to present some difficulty. But in reality there is no such difficulty. The verse along with its predecessor deals with women whom it is unlawful for a man to marry and among these are included married women. But it makes one exception. Those married women who are taken prisoner in a religious war and then choose to remain with Muslims, can be married to their masters. The fact that they choose not to go to their former husbands is considered as tantamount to the annulment of their former marriage.

It may also be noted in passing that it is not permitted to take in marriage such female relations of a slave as correspond to the relations of a free woman within the prohibited degree. For instance, the mothers, sisters, daughters etc., of a slave wife cannot be taken in marriage. This also shows that the Quranic commandments with regard to marriage and in-laws apply as much to bondwomen as they apply to free women.

It may further be stated here that in view of circumstances obtaining at the time of its revelation the Quran had to make a distinction between the social status of two classes of women. That distinction was expressed by the word زوج (a free woman taken in marriage) and ملک یمین (bondwoman taken in marriage). The former word connotes a sense of equality between husband and wife while the latter implies an inferior status of the wife. The Quran and the Holy Prophet, however, desired and encouraged that bondwomen should first be given full freedom and full status and then married as the Holy Prophet himself did.

Besides, Islam does not allow women taken prisoner in ordinary wars to be treated as wives. This exceptional injunction comes into operation only when a hostile nation wages a religious war against Islam in order to extirpate it and to compel Muslims to abandon their religion at the point of the sword and then treats their prisoners—men and women, as slaves, as was done in the time of the Holy Prophet. At that time the enemy took away Muslim women as prisoners and treated them as bondwomen. The Islamic injunction was thus only a retaliatory measure and served also the additional purpose of protecting the morals of captive women. Those conditions have ceased to exist now. There are no religious wars now and hence no prisoners of war to be treated as slaves and bondwomen. For a fuller note on slavery see 24:34.

70:32.

70:33.

Important Words:

راعون (watchful) is derived from رعی. They say رعی النجوم i.e. he watched the stars. رعی الامر means, he looked after the affair (Aqrab & Lane). See also 2:105.

Commentary:

This verse points to a yet higher stage in the spiritual development of man than the one described in v. 6 above. It means to say that the truly righteous men have full regard for the obligations they owe to God and man. They do not do good deeds cursorily or haphazardly but look to their minutest details with extreme caution and are careful not to overlook different aspects of their actions. They have a punctilious regard for the discharge of their responsibilities and duties. They do not relax in an endeavour to remain true to their trusts and are scrupulously true to the covenants and treaties they make with other people. This is what is signified by the word راعون. Compared to this stage of spiritual evolution the fourth stage at which a believer has complete control over his carnal passions is but a negative virtue. At that stage he only abstains from indulging in vice but in this, the fifth stage, he is always on the lookout to discover the most delicate facets of virtue and tries to act upon them. This is evidently a much higher stage than the one preceding it.

6:93; 70:35.

Commentary:

This verse marks the last and the highest stage of spiritual development. Arriving at this stage the spiritual wayfarer almost becomes immune from the possibility of estrangement from his Creator. He basks, as it were, in the sun of God’s love and his soul continues to derive sustenance from the fountainhead of His grace and mercy. He achieves his goal and all fear of faltering or falling disappears. At this stage the worship and remembrance of God becomes a second nature with him, a part and parcel of his being, the solace of his soul. He needs no reminding or exhortation on this account. He feels irresistibly attracted towards his Maker and Creator. At this stage the believer takes particular care about acts of collective worship which implies that national instinct becomes very strong in him and he also tries to rouse and encourage in others love for his community and country and subordinates individual interest to communal and national good. This is the significance of the words والذین ھم علی صلواتھم یحافظون. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said, الصلوة معراج المؤمن i.e. Prayer constitutes the highest stage of the spiritual development of a believer (Ibn ‘Asakir). In the fifth stage mentioned in v. 9 above the spiritual wayfarer was true to his trusts and responsibilities for virtue’s sake. At this, the last stage of his spiritual development, he is true to them for love of God which is manifestly a higher stage. It is when a believer attains to this stage that God descends upon his heart and he becomes at one with Him.

It is significant that the word صلوات (Prayers) has been used in the plural form. It shows that the believers not only are strict in the observance of Prayers themselves but urge their near and dear ones, their dependents and relatives also to be regardful of them. The word یحافظون signifies that they say their Prayers with all the rules and conditions attached to them, viz. (1) they say them regularly and at their appointed hours; (2) they say them in congregation; (3) they say them in a true spirit and with the utmost humility of the heart, not allowing wandering thoughts to spoil them and fully understanding the meanings of the words they utter and (4) they not only say their five daily Prayers but also supererogatory Prayers, particularly the Prayer in the latter part of the night (تھجد).

18:108; 70:36.

Important Words:

فردوس may be said to have been derived from فردوسة which means width; amplitude. فردوس means, a garden; or a garden comprising everything that is in the gardens; an ample, beautiful garden; a garden comprising grapevines and palm-trees; a valley abounding in herbage like a garden, or a valley or valleys producing various sorts of plants or herbage; الفردوس means, Paradise or a walled-garden or a garden of trees; or it means, the highest stage of الجنة or its middle or highest part (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

As believers mentioned in the foregoing verses combine in themselves all kinds of virtues, therefore, they will be made to reside in gardens which comprise everything that is found in any garden. As they brought death over their desires, so in return God will give them everlasting life and they will have everything they wish (50:36). This stage is the inevitable result of the strict spiritual discipline to which a believer subjects himself.

32:8-9.

Important Words:

سلالة (extract) is derived from سل (salla). They say سل الشیء i.e. he drew out the thing or he drew it out from another thing gently. سلالة means, what is or becomes drawn forth from a thing. سلالة الشیء means, an extract of a thing; the clear or pure part or the choice, the best or most excellent part of a thing; the sperma genitalis of a man; the water that is drawn from the back; progeny (Lane & Aqrab).

طین (clay) is derived from طان. They say طانه i.e. he plastered it with clay or mud. طانه اللّٰه علی الخیر means, God created him with a good natural disposition. طین means, clay, mud, earth, mould, soil (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

With this verse begins a description of the process of creation of the noblest handiwork of God—man, from the earliest stage when he lies dormant in the form of dust. The inorganic constituents of the earth through a subtle process of change become converted into the germ of life by way of food which a human being eats.

See 22:6.

Important Words:

قرار مکین (a safe depository). قرار is inf. noun from قر. They say قر بالمکان i.e. he or it settled or established, was at rest or rested or resided, in the place. قرار means, a state of settledness, rest, permanence or continuance. It also means, a resting place or a place or time of rest, etc. (Lane & Aqrab). See also 2:37 & 6:99.

مکین (safe or firmly fixed) is derived from مکن (makuna). They say مکن عند الامیر i.e. he became of high position with the prince. مکنه من الشیء (makkana) means, he made him to have mastery or authority and power over the thing. مکین means, possessed of power or authority and ascendancy, therefore well or firmly established in his place (Lane & Aqrab). See also 6:136.

Commentary:

After having mentioned in the first ten verses of the Surah the different stages of spiritual evolution of man the Quran proceeds to describe in this and the next few verses the different stages of his physical development and thus establishes a remarkable parallelism between his physical and spiritual birth and growth. Leaving out biological technicalities the Surah gives the description in a clear and easily understandable language. Biology has not discovered anything which may be said to be opposed to the Quranic description. The present verse refers to the foetal stage. The sperm is deposited in the ovum and there it finds a safe repository and begins to grow.

Important Words:

For علقة، نطفة and مضغة see 22:6.

Commentary:

نطفة i.e. the impregnated ovum on its arrival in the cavity of the womb chooses by mutual attraction a place for its abode in the inner wall of the womb, and there it becomes attached to it and does not flow out with discharges. After that it makes erosion into this spot, and produces bleeding, thus making its way into the layers of the decidua. Then it becomes increasingly covered up with maternal blood, forming within the ovum a connection with it. At this stage it looks like a mass of congealed blood and therefore the Quran calls it علقة which not only means congealed blood but also signifies an attachment or connection with something else. Thus a brief single word describes this stage of the ovum, i.e. its attractions, connections and the formation of the blood-vessels in it. In the next stage the ovum becomes a blastoderm, which is called مضغة in the Quran. This blastoderm has three layers from which all the organs of the foetus are developed. The Quran then describes the transformation of the layers of the blastoderm by the words, Then We fashioned bones out of this shapeless lump, which means that out of the مضغة (lump) God creates bones. After this God covers the bones with flesh and skin and other organs and then He perfects its creation internally. At this stage the body in the womb develops a soul from within itself. The Quran has described this remarkable change in the words, Then We developed it into another creation. These words show that the soul is not imported into the human body from outside, but grows in the body as it develops in the womb. It is an essence which is distilled from the body in the course of a long process, as beer is distilled from barley. It has at first no separate existence from the body but the processes through which the body passes during its development in the womb distils from the body a delicate essence which is called the soul. As soon as the relationship between the soul and the body becomes completely adjusted, the heart begins to function. The soul then has a distinct existence of its own apart from the body which henceforth serves it as a shell.

As referred to above there exists a remarkable parallelism between the spiritual development of man as described in the first ten verses of the Surah and the physical development of the embryo mentioned in this and the preceding verse.

The initial stage of spiritual advancement of man is described in the words, "who humble themselves in their Prayers" (v. 3 above), i.e. who assume an attitude of humility and submission while offering their prayers and supplications to God. The stage of physical development corresponding to this initial stage of spiritual progress is the stage of نطفة, or the impregnated ovum which is a seed that combines in itself, in a miniature form, all the different faculties, properties, external and internal organs, and all other features that become prominent in the later stages of physical development. The نطفة however, remains much more exposed to danger than the embryo in its later advanced stages. It is only like a seed which has just been cast into the ground and which has as yet formed no connection with its environments. The attraction of the womb has not yet given it a proper place of development. It is therefore liable to flow out and become destroyed in the passages of the organs of generation like a seed that falls on rocky ground.

What is true of نطفة which forms the first stage in the physical development of man is equally true of man in the first stage of his spiritual progress. This first stage is that condition of humility in which the believer prays to God. It is like a mere seed which is cast in the soul of man, and comprises in an undeveloped form all the faculties and features which reveal themselves in a most attractive form in the last stages of his spiritual advancement. But just as the نطفة continues to remain in a precarious state until it forms a connection with the womb, similarly humility in Prayers is exposed to constant risk until man forms some spiritual connection with his Creator. Without this connection humility in Prayers is but a slippery stage where the spiritual wayfarer is at every step liable to fall.

The next stage in the physical development of man is that of نطفة (a clot) when the sperm forms blood connection with the womb. It assumes the form of congealed blood and becomes safe from being destroyed.

Corresponding to this stage of علقة i.e. a clot, which is the second stage in the development of the foetus is that spiritual condition which has been described in the words, who shun all that which is vain. At this second stage the connection which man establishes with God is like the connection which the ovum establishes with the uterus on reaching the second stage. Just as it is not possible completely to get rid of vain desires and useless pursuits until one reaches the second stage of spiritual advancement,––mere humility and lowliness being liable to fail; similarly the ovum may come to nought before it becomes علقة.

But the connection which a person has formed with God in the second stage and which enables him to give up vain things and fruitless pursuits is at best a temporary and weak one, for his mind is not yet completely free from the love of material comforts and desires of the flesh. This stage is thus compared to which is still tainted with the impurity of blood.

The third stage in the physical development of man is described in the words, Then We fashioned the clot into a lump of flesh. At this stage the physical frame of man is very much freed from the taint of impurity and becomes purer and firmer in substance. Similarly, in the third stage of his spiritual advancement which is referred to in the words, And who are active in paying the Zakah, a true believer not only shuns vain things but in order to cleanse himself of the impurity of miserliness, spends a part of his property in the way of God. The stage of physical development that corresponds to this spiritual stage has been called مضغة (blastoderm) in the Quran.

The مضغة stage, like its corresponding spiritual stage is superior to the earlier two stages of نطفة and علقة because it is more advanced and is more strongly attached to the uterus and is marked by greater density and solidity. The third spiritual stage described in v. 5 is marked by three characteristics which correspond to the three characteristics of the مضغة stage. At this stage, a believer voluntarily spends a portion of his property in the way of God and gives to others what he has earned with the sweat of his brow and thus spiritually he is more advanced than one who merely keeps aloof from fruitless pursuits. Moreover, his connection with God becomes more firm inasmuch as it involves a greater sacrifice to part with his hard earned money than merely to abandon vain things. Lastly, a greater sacrifice is followed by greater firmness and solidity in faith.

The words, then We fashioned bones out of this shapeless lump, refer to the fourth stage of embryonic development. At this stage there is greater solidity in the bones than in the مضغة which is like a lump of flesh. The bones also become firmer and stronger. This fourth stage of physical growth of man corresponds to the fourth stage of spiritual advancement referred to in v.6 above. Just as the bone is the hardest and most lasting part of the body, similarly the faith which gives a believer the power to hold his own against the violent storm of carnal passions must be exceptionally strong and enduring.

The words, Then We clothed the bones with flesh, refer to the fifth stage in the embryonic development which corresponds to the fifth stage of spiritual advancement referred to in v. 9. Just as righteousness adds to the spiritual beauty of a person, similarly the covering of the bones with flesh makes the skeleton of bones look beautiful. There is a peculiar resemblance between these two stages. God speaks of righteousness as لباس (garment). Similarly the expression used in describing the corresponding stage of embryonic development is کسونا (We clothed). Thus the flesh which covers the bones is described as and serves the purpose of, a garment just as righteousness or piety is like a garment adding to the spiritual beauty of a person. But even this fifth stage of physical development is far from perfect because the body has not yet been endowed with the soul and a soulless or lifeless body is but a useless thing. Similarly, in the fifth stage of spiritual advancement, though the spiritual wayfarer has traversed a long distance towards his celestial goal he is yet far away from it. He tries faithfully to discharge his duties and obligations to God, yet he lacks something without which his spiritual development remains incomplete.

The sixth and last stage in the physical development of man in the womb is described in the words, then We developed it into another creation. At this stage the body is endowed with the soul. The words, "another creation" imply that this new creation is beyond human comprehension. Man has so far been quite at a loss to understand what soul is. According to the Quran the body itself is the mother of the soul. As mentioned above the soul does not come from anywhere outside the body but is a light that lies hidden in the seed itself and grows with the growth of the body. This last stage of embryonic development corresponds to the sixth and highest stage of spiritual development referred to in v.10 above. At this stage a heavenly light descends upon the heart of a believer and Divine love consumes his whole being, illuminating and animating it. At this stage prayer and remembrance of God becomes, as it were, part and parcel of his being without which he cannot live. He receives a new spiritual life and becomes wholly lost in God.

Such is the beautiful parallelism described by the Quran which exists between the physical and spiritual development of man. When one comes to have a complete comprehension and realization of it he spontaneously exclaims, "Blessed be Allah, the Best of creators." Thus God created man and perfected him in six stages and six stages also has He ordained for his spiritual development. For a fuller and more exhaustive treatment of this subject see Barahin-e-Ahmadiyyah vol. 5, by Ahmad, the Promised Messiah, Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement.

39:31.

Commentary:

After man has attained full development, there sets in a process of decay which ends in death. It is an immutable law of nature that all life must end in decay, dissolution and death. God alone is Ever-Living.

39:32.

Commentary:

After death man again will be restored to life in order that he might continue to make spiritual progress in the life to come. If there had been no life after death, man’s creation would have been in vain, and all spiritual progress he might have made in this life would have been to no purpose. But man’s life serves a grand and noble aim. He has not been created in vain (75:37-41). On the contrary he has been created for spiritual progress that knows no end. The progress he makes in the present life constitutes only a preparatory stage. Here he is like a child in the mother’s womb. After death he is born into a new and fuller life which is the beginning of a never-ending progress.

78:13.

Important Words:

طرائق (stages of heaven) is the plural of طریقة which means, a way, course, rule, mode or manner of acting or conduct; the way or course of an event; a line; streak or stripe in a thing; stage of heaven; a web; or a tall palm-tree. طرائق means, stages of heaven, so called because they lie one above another. طرائق الدھر means, the vicissitudes of times or fortune. According to Raghib اطباق السماء (stages of heaven) are called طرائق (Lane & Aqrab). See also 20:64.

Commentary:

The six stages of spiritual progress described in the first twelve verses of this Surah become seven if "Paradise" (v. 12) be counted as the last stage of spiritual development when man attains the object of his creation. Similarly, if the preparatory stage previous to the formation of the sperm (referred to in v. 13) be added to the six stages of the embryonic development, this number also becomes seven. Thus the seven stages to which reference has been made in this verse correspond to the seven stages of the physical development of man mentioned in vv. 13-15. It is through these seven stages that man has to pass in order to achieve the highest point of spiritual development. These seven spiritual stages are as follows:

1. The first stage may be called the stage of lack of spiritual perception or that of spiritual feelinglessness. At this stage, like inanimate things, a person is completely devoid of all capacity to distinguish between right or wrong or good or evil. He is devoid of any high aims and his whole life seems to consist in providing for and meeting his physical needs. This stage of spiritual lifelessness is described by the Quran in the words "Then your hearts became hardened after that till they were like stones or harder still" (2:75).

2. The second stage may be likened to vegetable life when, like vegetables, man comes to develop some capacity and power to grow and make spiritual progress, but spiritually he is yet too weak adequately to defend himself against the onslaughts of evil beings and spirits. This stage is described in the Quranic words:

"And if you invite them to guidance, they hear not. And thou seest them looking towards thee, but they see not" (7:199).

3. The third stage may be called the animal stage when spiritually a person is no better than animals, when on being called he hears the voice of the caller but does not understand the significance or meaning of the call. The Quran beautifully describes the spiritual condition of such people in the words: "They have hearts but they comprehend not therewith, and they have eyes but they see not therewith, and they have ears but they hear not therewith. They are like cattle; nay, they are even more astray" (7:180).

4. The fourth stage is reached when the believer happens to develop greater love for God and greater righteousness and comes to realize the significance of his actions and to distinguish between good and evil. At this stage he acquires the power to resist satanic promptings in large measure but occasionally he falters and falls but then speedily comes to his own. This stage is described in the Quranic words: "And those who are righteous, when a suggestion from Satan assails them, they remember God: and behold! They begin to see things rightly" (7:202).

5. The fifth is a still higher stage of spiritual progress when the God-fearing man attains such degree of Divine realization that submission to God’s commandments and resignation to His decrees becomes, as it were, a part of his being and like angels he carries out fully and completely all Divine commandments. This stage is portrayed in the words: "And they do what they are commanded" (16:51).

6. The sixth stage is a much higher stage. At this stage the spiritual way-farer drinks so deep at the fountain of God’s love that he entrusts all his affairs fully into God’s safe keeping and becomes, as it were, a lifeless instrument in God’s hands which He uses as He chooses, and all his actions and movements are in perfect unison with God’s will. The Quran gives a graphic description of the believers who have attained this high stage of spiritual progress in the words: "Nay, whoever submits himself completely to Allah, and he is the doer of good, shall have his reward with his Lord. No fear shall come upon such, neither shall they grieve" (2:113).

7. The final and most developed stage of spiritual perfection is described in the Quranic words: "Then we perfect it into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the Best of creators" (23:15). At this stage the God-intoxicated believer is a totally changed being, a quite new creation. In the sixth stage he had completely subordinated his will to the will of God so much so that God’s will had become his will; at this stage, however, his will becomes, as it were, the will of his Creator and Lord and he attains to such high degree of spiritual perfection that Divine attributes become increasingly reflected in the mirror of his heart and he becomes a manifestation of God’s beauty and majesty. His hands and feet become, so to say, God’s own hands and feet and he speaks with God’s own tongue. "He does not speak out of his own desire. It is nothing but pure revelation that has been revealed by God," says the Quran (53:4).

The words "We are not neglectful of the creation" signify that God has not neglected to make full provision for man’s both physical and spiritual developments. From the next verse the Surah proceeds to mention some of those things on which man’s physical as well as his spiritual life depends.

15:23.

Commentary:

This verse gives the first illustration of how God supplies the physical and spiritual needs of man. All life, it says, depends on water which descends from heaven, in the form of rain, snow or hail. Similarly, spiritual water descends from heaven in the form of Divine revelation without which no spiritual life can exist. The verse purports to say that if men out of their perversity and ingratitude reject the Divine Message and the heavenly water which God has sent down, they will become deprived of it. The parallelism in the physical and spiritual life of man with which this Surah has opened, is further developed in the present and the next few verses.

The words, And surely it is We Who determine its taking away, refer to a well-known law of nature. The verse means to say that God sends down rain but rain-water does not stay in the earth permanently. It disappears by evaporation or flows into the sea through streams and rivers. The earth again becomes dry and then fresh rain is needed to make it fertile. The same is the case with Divine teaching. It powerfully influences the lives of men and brings about a great change in them for a certain period. Then it begins to be neglected, ignored and misinterpreted and so a fresh revelation is needed. This law of God came into operation with the life of man on this planet and it will remain in operation till the end of time.

The verse also embodies an implied reference to a prophecy of the Holy Prophet about his second advent in the person of the Promised Messiah and about the spread of irreligious and spiritual darkness in the centuries before the latter’s advent, when there was to remain nothing of Islam but its name and nothing of the Quran but its written words (Mishkat, Kitabul-‘Ilm) and belief would have gone up to the Pleiades (Bukhari, Kitabut-Tafsir).

16:12, 68; 36:35.

Commentary:

In this verse God gives another illustration of the various boons and favours which He has bestowed on man. It also contains a subtle illusion to the fact that the garden of Islam will, forever, remain full of fruit-bearing trees of various kinds which will yield fresh fruits in plenty in every season.

Commentary:

The verse embodies yet another instance of God’s bountiful provision for the physical needs of man. The words 'Mount Sinai', however, draw attention to the fact that if God has made provision for man’s physical needs, He has not neglected to make similar provision for his spiritual needs and He has been doing so from time immemorial. The verse reminds us of the great prophecy of the Bible which is to the effect: "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them" (Deut. 33:2). The prophecy refers to the advent of Moses, the appearance of Jesus from Seir and to the coming of the Holy Prophet of Islam with a fiery Law. The Holy Prophet actually had ten thousand Companions with him when he entered Mecca as a conqueror. As to the identity of Paran see 2:130.

About the tree referred to in the verse which springs from Mount Sinai and produces oil the following extract may be read with interest:

The well lying to the east of the Church, and traditionally that from which Moses drew up for the daughters of Jethro, was sufficient to supply the domestic needs of the monks and their guests; the water of the other, led by channels in the rock and carefully disposed pipes down through the sloping garden, made that a fertile and pleasant place, with grass and vegetable plots, rows of salad herbs, and the shade of many fruit trees—apple and pear, grapevines, oranges, figs and almonds, as well as so great a number of olive trees that, together with those in a more distant garden, they produced enough oil for the culinary use of the monastery, and for the multitude of lamps which hung in their Church. ("Once To Sinai" by H. F. M. Prescott).

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.

16:8-9; 36:42-43; 43:13.

Commentary:

The cattle are very useful animals. We eat their flesh, drink their milk and use them also as mounts and as beasts of burden, etc. Similarly, ships are extremely useful things. Reference has been made in this and the preceding few verses to several of the things which are highly beneficial to man for his material needs and upon which to a very large extent his very existence depends. It is quite obvious that God Who has made such vast provision for the physical needs of man could not have failed to make similar provision for his moral and spiritual needs. This is the meaning and purport of this verse.