إِنسَٰنُ

Commentary:

The reason why the Law is revealed is that man is by nature weak and cannot himself find out the ways of spiritual advancement. So God has taken this burden from him. It was far from God to entrust man with a work which he could not discharge.

The verse also constitutes refutation of the Christian doctrine of Atone-ment which rejects the Law (Shari‘ah) on the ground of human weakness. As a matter of fact, Islam declares human weakness to be the very reason for the revelation of the Law, so that it may help man to fulfil his high destiny. The Law is not, therefore, a curse but a help and a blessing.

10:12.

Commentary:

This verse corroborates and explains the interpretation put upon the previous verse. It makes no mention of the Day of Judgement. The verses that follow also continue the same theme.

The expression ویدع الانسان بالشر دعاءہ بالخیر (And man asks for evil as he should ask for good), does not mean that there lives a man so foolish as to pray to God to send him evil. It only means that such is the condition of man that while by his words of mouth he prays to God to grant him good, by his actual bad deeds he invites the displeasure and punishment of God. Thus his actions belie his words.

The expression may also be interpreted as, "And man calls for evil as he should call for good." According to both renderings the verse signifies that when nations or individuals attain material wealth and rise to power and influence, they tend to neglect their duties and responsibilities and thus in the very hour of their power and glory they lay the foundations of their decay and death. At a time when they should have established peace and justice on earth by the help of the great resources placed at their disposal, they give themselves up to enjoyment and self-aggrandizement. The time of their power and glory is their testing time when they should particularly be on their guard. But such is the tragedy of human affairs that power and prosperity make man arrogant, defiant and heedless. The verse may also mean that man invites evil to himself with the same zeal and vehemence as God invites him to good. That is to say while God wishes man to inherit His blessings by doing good, he earns His displeasure by doing evil and thus invites his own ruin and destruction. In this case the action of دعاء (inviting to good) will be taken as referring to God.

The words, and man is hasty, signify that if man were to pause and consider before embarking upon any venture he would be spared many a fall. In fact, haste is at the root of most of man’s failures.

10:13; 11:10-11; 23:65; 30:34; 39:9; 41:50-52; 70:21-22.

Commentary:

Such is the nature of man that when he is in distress, he becomes humble and prays to God and promises and vows to lead a virtuous life if he were to regain his lost peace of mind. But when the danger is over, he is as arrogant and boastful as ever. The verse, in fact, embodies a warning for Muslims that they should not forget God in their days of prosperity so that He may not forget them in their time of adversity.

Commentary:

This verse reverts to the subject of the human soul dealt with in v. 86 and purports to say that the treasures of Divine knowledge which lie hidden in the word of God know no end or limit while the knowledge that is acquired by so-called spiritualists by their occult practices is very limited. This is why the Elect of God diffuse Divine knowledge freely while so-called spiritualists are very parsimonious in acquainting even their closest disciples with the knowledge they claim to acquire by their unnatural practices. The truth is that the powers of God are limitless and so are the great treasures of Divine knowledge which He vouchsafes to His Elect. They diffuse and expend it freely without fear of its becoming exhausted so that God’s creatures may become acquainted with all the innumerable stages of His nearness and that they may realize Him and become at one with Him.

17:42, 90.

16:5; 36:78.

Commentary:

The expression کان الانسان اکثر شیء جدلا (of all things man is most contentious) may have two explanations: (1) Of all God’s creation man has been endowed with reason and great intellectual faculties so that by making proper use of them he may develop and advance morally and spiritually and may know and realize his Creator. But he employs these faculties to reject truth and for other evil purposes and instead of making spiritual progress he descends to a yet lower state of morality. (2) Man is a victim of chronic misgivings and doubts which seldom find satisfaction. He is a confirmed sceptic and seeks to discover loopholes even in most convincing arguments.

The word الناس in the verse refers to mankind in general while الانسان refers to such men as have been mentioned in the foregoing verses. The verse means to say that the Quran has explained in different forms fully and completely all those matters which concern man’s moral and spiritual development but the people to whom reference has been made in the preceding verses refuse to benefit by these teachings.

23:38; 36:79.

Commentary:

الانسان (man) does not here mean man in general but a particular class of men, viz. those who doubt the existence of the life after death. In fact, there are very few people in the world who totally deny the existence of the Hereafter. It is not by their words of mouth but by their actual actions and deeds—their entire engrossment in material pursuits, that they express their doubt or denial of the life beyond the grave. The interrogative form of the words used in the verse shows that such people suffer merely from a lack of certainty with regard to life after death and not that they totally deny it. As the Surah deals with Christian dogmas and doctrines, so the present and the following several verses deal also with the doubts of Christians about life after death.

19:10; 76:2.

Commentary:

The word شیئاً here signifies شیئاً مذکوراً i.e. anything worth mentioning or having any significance or importance. This meaning is supported by 76:2.

Important Words:

The clause خلق الانسان من عجل means that haste forms a part of man’s being and is so prominent a trait of his character and he is so hasty by nature that he can be said to have been created, as it were, out of haste i.e. he has been given a hasty disposition. The words "but ask me not to hasten," support this meaning. At another place in the Quran, we have خلقکم من ضعف (30:55) which also means that man by nature is very weak. Similarly, the verse خلقتنی من نار و خلقته من طین means, that Satan by nature is a fire-eater and man is by nature submissive (7:13). When the Arabs have to express a prominent natural characteristic of a person they say خلق منه i.e. he has been created of it. An Arab would say خلقت من لعب i.e. thou hast been created of sport i.e. "you love and indulge very much in sport" (Lisan).

Commentary:

The verse means to say that disbelievers treat the Holy Prophet with contempt because of the delay that has occurred in the Divine punishment overtaking them. They are warned that this delay should not mislead them into believing that they will go scot-free and that they should not reject the Message of Islam in haste and that the time was fast approaching when the prophecies made by the Prophet about the triumph and victory of Islam will be fulfilled and the punishment of God will descend on them swift and hard.

Important Words:

حملھا (bore it). حمله means, he bore or carried it, or carried it off or away; he gave him a beast upon which to ride. حمل بدینmeans, he bore or took upon himself the responsibility for the payment of debt. حمل الامانة means, he took upon himself or accepted the trust, or he betrayed the trust, he proved false to it (Lane & Aqrab). See also 7:177.

ظلوما (unjust) is the intensive form of ظالم which is active participle from ظلم which means, he did wrong or acted unjustly, wrongfully or tyrannically; he put the thing in a wrong place or in a place not its own. ظلمه means, he imposed upon him a thing that was beyond his power or ability (Lane & Aqrab). See also 2:36 & 17:60.

جھولا (neglectful) is the intensive form of جاھل which is active participle from جھل (jahila) which means, he was ignorant. جھل علیه means, he acted towards him in a silly and foolish manner and wrongly. جھل الحق means, he neglected or ignored the truth. جاھل means, ignorant, neglectful; foolish or silly and wrong in conduct (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

This verse has presented commentators of the Quran with some difficulty. In view of different significations of the words used, the verse seems to be susceptible of the following interpretations:

(1) Taking the word حمل as meaning to accept, and امانة as signifying the trust of man’s love of God, the verse would mean that a great spiritual destiny awaited man. He was made God’s vicegerent on earth (2:31). He was gifted with the great capacities and powers to assimilate and manifest in his person Divine attributes and to become the image of his Creator. This was indeed a great trust which man, alone of all the universe, was found capable of discharging, other beings and things—the angels, the heavens, the earth and the mountains—being quite unequal to the task. They refused, as it were, to bear it. Man accepted this responsibility because he alone could discharge it, as he had been endowed with great natural qualities. He was capable of being ظلوم (unjust to himself) and جھول (neglectful of himself) i.e. he could be unjust to himself in the sense that he could bear any hardship and undergo any sacrifice for the sake of his Creator, and he was capable of being neglectful in the sense that in the discharge of his great and sacred trust he could be neglectful of his own interest and desire for a life of ease and comfort.

(2) Taking امانة (trust), however, in the sense of the Law of the Quran and الانسان signifying the perfect man, i.e. the Holy Prophet, the verse would mean that of all the denizens of the heavens, and earth, and of all great men, and leaders of thought, the Holy Prophet alone was found to be capable of being entrusted with the revelation of the most perfect and final Law—the Quran, because no other man, or being was endowed with those great qualities which were indispensable for the full and adequate discharge of this great responsibility.

(3) Taking حمل in the sense of betraying or proving false to a trust, the verse would mean that the trust of the divine law was imposed upon man and other terrestrial and celestial beings. All of them with the exception of man refused to betray this trust, i.e. they carried out fully and faithfully all the laws to which they were made subject. The whole nature was true to its laws and the angels also carried out their duties loyally and faithfully (16:51). It is man alone who having been endowed with discretion and volition defies and violates Divine commandments because he is unjust and neglects and ignores his duties and responsibilities. This meaning of the verse is supported by 41:12 wherein it is stated that the heavens and earth were commanded to carry out the laws that were imposed on them and they gave their willing and unconditional obedience to them.

18:38; 22:6; 23:14; 35:12; 40:68.

Commentary:

Continuing the theme of the preceding verse, the present verse may be taken as saying to the Holy Prophet that he has no cause to grieve over his rejection by disbelievers when they, forgetting their insignificant origin, have the hardihood even to doubt and dispute God’s own Almightiness. This is one meaning of the verse. But this and the next two verses may also constitute an answer to those disbelievers who doubt the possibility of a spiritually dead people rising to a new and vigorous life. Or these verses may point to the inevitability of Resurrection, saying that when God can raise a dead people like the Arabs to new life through the Holy Prophet, He does certainly possess the power to give new life to dead and decayed bones.