رُّسُلِ

See 2:54.

5:47; 57:28.

2:254; 3:185; 5:111; 43:64.

16:103.

Important Words:

قفینا (We caused to follow) is derived from قفا which means, the back of the neck. Hence قفا أثره means, he followed him. قفی(qaffa) means, he made a person or thing follow or come after another (Aqrab).

بینات (manifest Signs) is derived from بین meaning, he explained a thing so as to make it clear or manifest. So بینات means, such signs and arguments as make a thing manifest and clearly establish the truth of a claimant (Mufradat & Aqrab).

روح القدس (Spirit of Holiness) is a compound word made up of روح and القدس. The first-mentioned word, i.e. روح means, a spirit, an angel, a word of God; and قدس means, sanctity, holiness. روح القدس would thus mean, the holy or blessed word of God; the spirit or angel of holiness (Aqrab & Lane). It is generally taken to signify the angel Gabriel.

Commentary:

In this verse, the Israelites are told that they had opposed all the Prophets of God, beginning from Moses and ending with Jesus, for no other reason than that some of the teachings of these Prophets were at variance with their cherished desires.

The verse, while speaking generally of the Prophets who came after Moses, makes a special mention of Jesus. The reason for this lies in the fact that somehow or other, the Jews accepted all those Prophets who appeared prior to Jesus, but they stubbornly refused to accept him. It was, therefore, in the fitness of things that particular mention should have been made of Jesus, and it should have been declared that he was as good and as holy a Prophet as so many others who had gone before him and in whom the Jews had believed, inasmuch as he possessed, in common with them, that characteristic Spirit of Holiness which distinguished God’s Prophets from other men of the world. The most powerful proof of the truth of the claims of Jesus as a Prophet was his being favoured with Signs and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and this is the very proof on the basis of which the Jews had believed in the previous Prophets. The بینات(manifest Signs) and روح القدس (the Spirit of Holiness) have been mentioned here not because they were the unique characteristics of Jesus, but because both these evidences, which must accompany every true Prophet, were denied him by the Jews. From Matt. 12:38-40, it is apparent that the Jews denied that Jesus showed any Sign, while from Luke 11:15 and Matt. 10:25 we learn that, according to the Jews, Jesus, far from being favoured with the Holy Spirit, was influenced by the Evil Spirit and was (God forbid!) himself a devil.

That بینات (manifest Signs) and روح القدس (the Spirit of Holiness) are the common characteristics of all the Prophets of God and not an exclusive distinction of Jesus is apparent from other verses of the Quran as well. Says the Quran: That was because their Messengers came to them with بینات (manifest Signs) but they disbelieved; so Allah seized them. Surely, He is strong and severe in chastising (40:23). Also see 2:100. And elsewhere the Quran says about the Holy Prophet, Say, theروح القدس (Spirit of Holiness) has brought it (the Quran) down from thy Lord with truth that He may strengthen those who believe and as a guidance and glad tidings for Muslims (16:103). The Quran goes still further and declares that the Spirit of Holiness descends not only on Prophets but also on true believers (58:23).

In this connection we have also the testimony of the Holy Prophet who is reported to have said to the poet Hassan, "Reply, O Hassan (to the disbelievers), on behalf of the Prophet of God, and O God, help Thou Hassan with روح القدس i.e. the Spirit of Holiness" (Bukhari & Muslim).

Hassan also declares in a couplet of his that روح القدس i.e. the Holy Spirit was always with the Muslims. Says he:

و جبریل رسول الله فینا

و روح القدس لیس له كفاء

"And Gabriel, the Messenger of God, is among us and the Spirit of Holiness has no match" (Muslim).

From the above it is clear that البینات (manifest Signs) and روح القدس (the Spirit of Holiness) are not the exclusive privileges of Jesus but were vouchsafed to all the Prophets of God. Even holy men other than Prophets have received the Spirit of Holiness from God. The specific mention of "manifest Signs" and "the Spirit of Holiness" in this verse is thus meant only to bring home to the Jews that the rejection of Jesus was entirely unjustified.

It is commonly believed that روح القدس is another name of the angel Gabriel (Jarir & Kathir). As explained under 2:31, out of His infinite wisdom, God has appointed different angels to execute His will and manifest His attributes in the universe; and the angel to whom the work of bringing about purification in the world and of reflecting God’s attribute of holiness has been assigned is called, روح القدس. The expression "Holy Spirit" is also met with in the Old Testament (Ps. 51:11). Some commentators have also interpreted روح القدس as a special manifestation of God’s اسم اعظم i.e. His chief attribute of Holiness (Kathir).

See 2:137.

3:148, 194; 60:6.

Important Words:

غفرانك (Thy forgiveness). غفران is the noun-infinitive from غفر for which see 2:59 and 2:200. غفران on the part of God signifies, covering man with mercy and forgiveness and saving him from the punishment of sins. It is used in the infinitive form for the sake of emphasis, words like "I or we implore" being understood before it.

Commentary:

The mention of the believers along with the Prophet has a special significance in the verse; the purifying influence of the Holy Prophet has brought into existence a class of men who have become purified both in belief and in deeds, thus fulfilling the object for which the Prophet for whom Abraham had prayed was to make his appearance.

Good deeds are indeed the principal means for the attainment of purification, but they have their origin in the purity of the heart, which can be attained only by holding true beliefs. Hence, the verse details the fundamental points of belief which the Holy Prophet taught his followers, i.e. belief in God and His angels and His Books and His Messengers, mentioned in their natural order.

Among the points of belief detailed here, one is that true believers say, We make no distinction between any of His Messengers. This means that true believers should accept all the Messengers of God, without exception, and should make no distinction between them by accepting some and rejecting others. There is in this, food for thought for those Muslims who reject the Promised Messiah, Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, whom God raised in fulfilment of the prophecies of the Holy Prophet and who came to demonstrate the truth of Islam, by cogent reasons and powerful signs.

Another very important means of attaining purification is prayer. The verse represents true believers as offering prayer to God in the ennobling words, We hear and we obey. We implore Thy forgiveness, O our Lord, and to Thee is the returning. This prayer contains four basic elements of purification: (1) man should ever be prepared to listen to God’s commandments; (2) he should be ever ready to obey His commandments, whatever the circumstances; (3) he should always be asking for God’s forgiveness for his sins and shortcomings; and (4) he should never forget that he will one day return to, and stand before, his Maker and will render an account of his works.

8:38; 29:3-4.

72:27-28.

Important Words:

لیطلعکم (would reveal to you). یطلع is derived from طلع, which means, he appeared; he rose; he ascended. اطلعه علیه means, he revealed it to him or he made him acquainted with it; or lifted him high up so that he might have a clear view of it. The expression لیطلعکم علی الغیب therefore, would mean, that He should cause you to ascend the unseen; or lift you high up to have a clear view of the unseen, i.e. cause you to obtain mastery of the unseen; or in other words, reveal to you the secrets of the unseen in abundance. Elsewhere the Quran says لایظھر علی غیبه احدا God discloses not the unseen to anyone in abundance (72:27). Here, too, the word used, i.e. یظھر points to mastery of a thing or having a thing in abundance.

Commentary:

The sentence, Allah would not leave the believers as you are, signifies that the trials and tribulations through which Muslims have so far passed would not soon end. There are yet many more in store for them, and they will continue to come till true believers are distinguished from hypocrites and those weak of faith.

The expression, Allah chooses of His Messengers whom He pleases, does not mean that some of the Messengers are chosen and others not, but that of the persons whom He has ordained to be sent as His Messengers, He chooses the one suited for the particular age in which he is sent. Or the particle من (of) may be taken to give the sense of intensification or emphasis without restricting the sense to a specified section of the class. In that case the sentence will read as, Allah does choose as His Messengers whom He pleases. It must be remembered that all Messengers are raised under a special divine decree.

When it was stated that God intended to separate the wicked from the good by revealing His will to His Messengers, the question was asked by disbelievers, why did not God reveal Himself to them? To this question God has given the answer that He reveals His will only to His Messengers and the Elect. All are not pure or ennobled enough to receive His revelation.

2:214; 6:49; 17:106; 18:57.

Commentary:

The words, bearers of glad tidings and warners, point to two essential functions of God’s Messengers. They are bearers of glad tidings for those who accept them, promising them prosperity in this world and blissful felicity in the life to come, and they are warners of impending misery and afflictions for those who reject them. When the people of the world are sunk deep in iniquity, God raises among them a Messenger who warns them of the impending punishment and calls upon them to repent because "We never punish until We have sent a Messenger" (17:16).

God sends His Messengers so that the people, on being punished, might have no excuse to say that no warner was sent to them to point out to them their evil deeds and warn them of the impending visitation—an excuse depicted in the words: Our Lord, wherefore didst Thou not send to us a Messenger that we might have followed Thy commandments (20:135).

5:16.

Important Words:

فترة (interval) is the noun-infinitive from فتر. They say فترالشیء i.e. the thing remitted or became allayed or abated or still after vehemence; or it became gentle after violence. They say فترعن عمله i.e. he flagged or became remiss or languid in his work. فترالحر means, the heat abated or flagged after being intense and vehement. فترة means, languor or remissness; weakness or feebleness; an interval of time between two things; an interval of time between two Prophets during which there is a cessation of prophetic revelation (Aqrab & Lane).

Commentary:

As generally believed, no Prophet appeared among Jews and Christians after Jesus. According to some historians, however, three Prophets did appear after Jesus, and according to Kalbi, Jesus was followed by four Prophets, one of them, Khalid bin Salam, appearing in Arabia. It was with regard to Khalid bin Salam that the Holy Prophet is reported to have said, "He was a Prophet to whose message his people paid no heed" (Muhit). Whatever the truth, the Holy Prophet was preceded by a period of فترة or cessation of Prophethood, no Prophet of God having appeared immediately before him.

The expression, lest you say, there has come to us no bearer of glad tidings and no warner, points to the important truth that God never visits a people with punishment unless He first sends a Messenger to them (17:16), because if punishment overtakes men without the appearance of a Messenger, they can justifiably say that they are being punished without being told what their offence is and without being given the opportunity to repent and mend their ways. In the present age too the world has been visited with calamities of diverse kinds on an extraordinary scale. A Messenger, therefore, must have come. He has indeed come in the fulness of the time in the person of Ahmad, the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement.

25:33.

Commentary:

This verse clearly proves that the accounts of the previous Prophets have not been narrated in the Quran merely as simple facts of history, but contain prophetic allusions to similar incidents that were to occur in the life of the Holy Prophet. If it had not been so, how could these accounts be said to bring satisfaction to his mind and "make his heart firm." It was only when these accounts were to be taken as future incidents of his own life, that they could bring satisfaction to the Holy Prophet. In these accounts he saw how his enemies were to behave towards him, how they were to be discomfited and how his cause was to triumph in the end. As he was the representative of all previous Prophets, therefore, more or less, he was to pass through all the experiences through which his predecessors in the prophetic office had passed.

6:149; 43:21.

5:93,100; 24:55; 29:19; 36:18.

Commentary:

In this verse a very common but very foolish objection of disbelievers has been mentioned, viz. if God had disapproved of their beliefs and actions, He should have weaned them by force from their idolatrous doctrines and deeds. Since He has not done so, it shows that He does not disapprove of them. Before proceeding to give a detailed answer in the next verse to this manifestly absurd contention, the Quran gives a general answer in this verse. The verse purports to say that if it had been the will of God to use force, His Prophets would have forced disbelievers to give up their idolatrous beliefs and evil practices. But not a single instance is on

record of a Prophet having employed force for the propagation of his religion and for compelling people to believe in him.

33:63; 35:44; 48:24.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that it is invariably God’s way with His Messengers that whenever anyone of them is expelled from his native land by his people with indignity and dishonour, that people is visited with Divine punishment. A striking illustration of this divine law is to be found in the case of the tribe of Thamud and the Jews. The former sought to put obstacles in the way of the Prophet Salih’s missionary expedition by killing his she-camel and the latter put Jesus on the cross. The Thamud met with the destruction of their bodies and souls while the Jews suffered only moral and political death. But the Meccans were spared this punishment because the Holy Prophet left Mecca in pursuance of God’s own command and was not expelled from it by his people.

13:7; 53:33.

Commentary:

The verse seeks to comfort the Holy Prophet by telling him that all the Divine Messengers who passed before him were also subjected to the objections that are being levelled against him.

21:26.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that study of the lives of all Divine Messengers reveals the fact that they all taught and preached Unity of God and directed all their efforts to its establishment in the world. There is not to be found in their teachings the faintest support of polytheism or remotest reference to it.