بَعِيدٍ

17:106.

Commentary:

The estrangement of the disbelievers from the truth and their long association with falsehood have made them callous and incapable of knowing and accepting the Quranic revelation. Just as a sick person sometimes loses his faculty of taste and consequently declines to partake of delicious things, similarly these people, owing to their lack of contact with truth for a long time, have become inclined to reject the word of God. They prefer small worldly gains to the great spiritual and material advantages that would certainly have accrued to them, if they had accepted the truth. The words فی شقاق بعید i.e. "gone far in enmity" signify that there has come to exist a wide gulf between these people on the one hand and the truth on the other.

51:35.

Commentary:

The words, marked for them, mean that it had been decreed from eternity that these stones should become the cause for the destruction of Lot’s people.

The latter portion of the verse points out that the account of the destruction of the people of Lot has not been given here as a story but is intended to give a warning that a similar destructive punishment would overtake the disbelieving people of the Holy Prophet’s time if they persisted in rejecting him.

It may also be noted here that there are some serious differences in the accounts about Lot as given in the Quran and the Bible: (1) The Bible represents Lot as a quarrelsome and jealous person, while the Quran says that he was a righteous servant of God. (2) The Bible says that the three visitors partook of the food presented to them by Abraham, declaring at

the same time that one of them was God Himself, the other two being angels. The Quran denies all this. (3) According to the Bible, Lot offered his daughters for fornication, while the Quran declares that they were merely offered as hostages. (4) The Bible says that Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt but the Quran rejects all such puerile stories. Any sensible person can see which of the two accounts is more sensible and correct.

Commentary:

This verse shows that Shu‘aib came after Noah, Hud, Salih and Lot (and for that matter after Abraham also), but lived before the time of Moses, for he does not here speak of the people of Moses, although Moses lived with his people in the very territory of the people of Shu‘aib. See also note on v. 85 above.

16:108.

3:100; 7:46; 11:20.

Important Words:

عوجا (crooked) is the noun-infinitive from عوج (‘awija) which means, it was or became crooked, curved, bent, winding, distorted or uneven. They say عوج العود i.e. the wood was or became crooked, curved, bent or distorted. عوج الامر means, the affair was or became difficult, arduous or troublesome. عوج (‘iwajun) means, crookedness or curvity; unevenness; corruption or deviation from rectitude; evilness of natural disposition (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse means that those who forsake the way of the Mighty and Praiseworthy God can never hope to attain power and praise. Such people become lost in error and not only deprive themselves of divine favours but also seek to deprive others by preventing them from accepting truth. The words, seek to make it crooked, mean that, whereas outwardly they profess to seek true guidance, inwardly they are bent upon crookedness and refuse to give up the evil ways of their forefathers. The inevitable result of such an attitude is that, in order to satisfy their uneasy conscience, they call their self-devised practices the religion of God. This false satisfaction deprives them and their followers of true guidance.

Commentary:

This verse also supports the interpretation we have placed on the preceding verse. There is absolutely no warrant for such a baseless story as some ignorant commentators have taken into their heads to forge in connection with it, i.e. the preceding verse. The verse under comment means to say that satanic people seek to place all sorts of obstacles in the way of the mission of a Prophet, so that the progress of the faith may be retarded and "those in whose hearts is a disease" may be misled. But God removes all such obstacles and after initial and temporary setbacks truth marches on its course of uniform progress. Thus the Prophets of God are faced with trials and tribulations so that sincere believers may be differentiated and separated from insincere hypocrites.

The words, "in whose hearts is a disease," refer to the hypocrites, who always stand on an edge, as it were, between truth and falsehood (22:12). They are always on the lookout to join the party whose cause they see triumphing. The words, "those whose hearts are hardened," refer to those inveterate disbelievers whose hearts become hardened on account of persistent denial of truth.

11:107; 21:101; 67:8.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the punishment which the disbelievers will receive will be overwhelming and all-embracing and in order to add to the bitterness of their pain and sense of humiliation and to make it complete and thorough all their organs will be made to feel it. In the present verse two organs—that of sight and hearing are mentioned.

Commentary:

It appears from this verse that "Hudhud" was sent on an important State mission and he brought for Solomon an important piece of news. A rising seemed to have taken place in that region and Solomon marched with his army to quell it and he sent "Hudhud" in advance to collect all necessary information with regard to the real state of affairs obtaining there.

Saba’ may be identified with Sheba of the Bible (1 Kings 10). It was a city in Yemen situated at about three days’ journey from the city of San‘a and was the seat of Government of the Queen of Sheba. Moreover, Saba’ is a well-known branch of the Qahtani tribes.

Commentary:

The words "from a position so far-off" may mean "after death." In this sense the verse would mean that disbelievers will surely realize after death that they were in the wrong.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that disbelievers are making foolish conjectures about the failure of the Prophet’s mission. These conjectures being far removed from the source of "the unseen" or from reality, reason and truth are quite foolish and baseless.

16:104; 26:196; 46:13.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that all the teachings of the Quran have been explained in most lucid, expressive and meaningful language, but it matters little to those who have closed their hearts and ears to it, and whose eyes have been sealed up.

The expression, they are being called to from a far-off place signifies that on the Day of Judgement the disbelievers will not be allowed to approach the Throne of God, but will be called from a far-off place to render an account of their evil deeds. It may also mean that disbelievers have shut their ears to the Quran, and they refuse to ponder over it, so it remains as unintelligible to them as an indistinct and confused voice that a person hears from a far-off place.