يَحْشُرُ

5:117, 118.

Important Words:

یستنکف (will disdain) is derived from استنکف which is derived from نکف. They say نکف عنه i.e. he disdained it and turned away from it. استنکف الرجل means, the man was or became proud and vain, disdaining others. استنکف من کذا means, he kept back or turned away from it, or he disdained it by way of pride, vanity or haughtiness (Aqrab).

7:39-40; 10:29; 34:32.

Important Words:

معشر (company) is derived from عشر. They say عشر المال i.e. he took one-tenth of the property. عشرھم means, he took one from among them, they being ten. عشرة and عشر mean, ten. معشر means, a company; a collective body; a community; a family. It is so called because a company or community consists of many individuals, the word عشرة (ten) being that large and perfect number after which there is no number but what is composed of the units comprised in it (Lane).

الجن (jinn) is derived from جن (janna). They say جنه i.e. he veiled, concealed, hid, covered or protected him or it. That is the primary significance which is retained in all the derivations of the word. Thus a garden is known as جنة (jannat) because its trees cover or conceal the ground. A child in its mother’s womb is known as جنن because it lies concealed in the womb. The heart is known as جنان because it lies concealed in the bosom. A grave is known as جنن because it conceals the dead body. The piece of cloth worn by a woman is known as جنة (junnah) because it covers her head and bosom. A shield is known مجنة as because it covers and protects the fighter. Madness or insanity is known as جنون because it obscures and, as it were, veils the faculty of reason. A serpent is known as جان because it generally lies concealed in holes or dark corners. Similarly, جن (jinn) are so called because they are considered to be invisible bodies concealed from human sight. جن also means the prime or first part of a thing, probably because it covers or conceals the main body that follows (Lisan & Taj). For a fuller discussion of the word and an explanation of the jinn see note on 15:28. See also 6:101.

استکثرتم (you sought to make subservient to yourselves a great many) is derived from کثر which means, it was or became much or abundant or many or numerous. استکثر من الشیء means, he desired or wished much of the thing; or he reckoned it much, abundant or many (Lane). استکثرتم منھم signifies, you have misled many of them; or you have made many of them follow you; or you have made them subservient to yourselves (Kashshaf).

مثوی (abode) is derived from ثوی. They say ثوی بالمکان i.e. he remained, stayed, or abode in the place; or he stayed or dwelt long in it; he settled in the place; he alighted at the place. So مثوی means, a place where one remains, stays, dwells or abides; an abode or a dwelling; a place of alighting (Lane).

Commentary:

The verse definitely proves that at least here the Quran does not use the word jinn to signify a species other than mankind. The very words and the only possible signification of the verse contradict that sense. The word as used in this verse, which thus holds a sort of key position, cannot but mean great and powerful men as opposed to the weak and poor classes. The word جن as shown under Important Words is derived from a root which means to hide or conceal. As the beings properly known as jinn are hidden from the eyes of men, therefore, they have been called جن. The great men have also been called jinn because they very rarely mix with the general public and remain, as it were, hidden from them.

The sentence قد استکثرتم من الانس (you have sought to make subservient to yourselves a great many from among men) has two meanings: (1) you have taken to yourselves many from among the masses, i.e. you have won them over to your side and made them follow you and have thus misled them; (2) you have reckoned the masses to be many (as against God), i.e. you have attached more importance to the masses than to God; you did not accept the truth out of fear of the masses, lest they should desert you and cease to hold you in honour. It is indeed strange that just as the weak do not sometimes accept the truth out of fear of the great, lest they should inflict loss or pain on them, similarly the great are sometimes afraid of their humbler followers and do not accept the truth, fearing lest the latter should turn away from them and desert them. Heraclius, for instance, was convinced of the truth of the Holy Prophet but did not openly acknowledge it out of the fear of his subjects who, he thought, were bitterly opposed to Islam and would rebel against him, if he declared his faith (Bukhari).

The words, we profited from one another, imply that the friendships of disbelievers are also transitory and that they will fall out among themselves on the Day of Judgement. The poor will say: "We led lives of humiliation in subjection to the big ones who derived profit from us. So, o Lord, inflict upon them a double punishment." This also shows that the word jinn, here, does not refer to any creatures separate from human beings but to a special class of men; for if taken in that sense the above-quoted words cannot apply to them, for human beings do not profit from the genii nor the genii from human beings. It is only one class of man that profits by the other, i.e. the great profit by the poor and vice versa.

The words, The Fire is your abode, are addressed to the humble class of people who pleaded that they were merely tools in the hands of the great. They are told that no pleading can do them any good now, and that they must enter the Fire and remain there until God is pleased to deliver them therefrom. Both the big and the poor are alike guilty.

30:56; 46:36.

6:32; 30:9; 32:11.

Commentary:

Disbelievers have been several times spoken of in the Quran as having stayed in the world only for an hour of a day. In all such verses it is not the actual time of their staying in the world that is meant. It is only their being engrossed in worldly affairs and idle pursuits that is implied. The day is primarily meant for work and, inasmuch as disbelievers spend most of their time in earning the paltry goods of the world or pass their time in hunting after enjoyment and do not make any effort to win the pleasure of God, it may be rightly said of them that they have lived in the world only for a day, even though they may have actually lived for thousands of years, for they do not benefit by their lives and do not put their days to the right use for which they are meant. If it had been meant to give the actual period of time for which disbelievers stayed on earth, there was no need of specifying the time of the day, for time can be measured by night also.

The words, who deny the meeting with Allah, supply the reason why disbelievers pass their life in negligence. It was due to their lack of faith in meeting with God, which indeed is a great incentive to good works. Both those who obey through fear and those who obey from motives of love are prompted to do good works because they know that one day they will stand before God when they will have to render an account of their deeds. When this faith is wanting, negligence is the natural consequence.

6:129; 25:18; 34:41.

Commentary:

The word حشر (gathering together) used in this verse signifies the post-mortal Resurrection when all generations of men will be assembled together. It is also used to signify the bringing together of men by a Prophet of God. A Prophet rescues the people to whom he is sent from the differences which separate them and links them all in one bond of common brotherhood. The verse under comment refers to both the former and the latter assemblages. It thus consoles the Holy Prophet and his few early Companions with the assurance that, although his countrymen were now bitterly opposed to him, a time would come when they would all gather under his banner.

The words, He is Wise, are intended to hint that the assembling together of the Arabs under the banner of Islam would be brought about not immediately and all at once but slowly and gradually. Immediate and speedy conversion could only be effected by God’s direct intervention amounting to compulsion, but that would deprive men of the merit of such conversion. Moreover, in the event of such Divine intervention it would become impossible to distinguish between people of different spiritual capacities as evinced by the difference in their attitudes towards the heavenly Messenger. If all men had been made to accept Islam by the direct intervention of God, all would have become Muslims on the first day of the announcement by the Holy Prophet of his claim, and all distinction between men of different spiritual capacities and aptitudes, such as between Abu Bakr and Abu Jahl or even between Abu Bakr and later converts, would have altogether disappeared.

The word, All-Knowing, suggests that even if the final triumph of the truth is delayed through Divine dispensation, there is no occasion for the Faithful to lose hope; for God, to Whom all secrets of the future are known, assures them that all Arabia would soon be gathered under the banner of Islam.

Taking the word حشر (gathering together) in the sense of post-mortal Resurrection, the verse would signify that on the Day of Judgement all generations of men, past and future, would be assembled before God and would be rewarded according to their deeds. Muslims, therefore, should not mind if in the early days of the struggle they are meeting with hardships and difficulties, and should not look upon those who have died before the final triumph of Islam as having died in vain, because the real Day of Reckoning is to come after death.

10:29; 15:26; 34:41.

Commentary:

In contrast to the boons and blessings that the believers will enjoy, the disbelievers will be called to account for their polytheistic beliefs and evil practices. Even the false gods of disbelievers will have to explain how far the responsibility for the idolatrous beliefs of their so-called followers lay on them.

6:129; 10:29; 17:98; 19:69.