ظَنُّ

2:64.

Important Words:

نتقنا (We shook) is formed from نتق. They say نتقه i.e. (1) he shook it; (2) he raised it; or (3) he spread it. An Arab would say نتق الله فوقھم الجبل i.e. God raised the mountain shaking above them (Aqrab).

ظلة (covering). See 2:211.

Commentary:

Owing to the violent shaking, the Mount looked like being suspended over the heads of the Israelites as though it were a covering. See also 2:64, 94 & 4:155.

9:106.

Commentary:

The reference here is to Ka‘b bin Malik, Hilal bin Umayya and Murarah bin Rabi‘a already referred to in 9:106. These were sincere Muslims but failed to join the expedition to Tabuk, and therefore the Holy Prophet, on his return to Medina, ordered their complete social ostracism. They continued under this interdiction for no less than fifty days, when on their sincere repentance, and after they had come out of this severe ordeal successfully, they were granted pardon, as mentioned in this verse. One of these three men, Ka‘b bin Malik, relates his own story, which may be summed up as follows "Hitherto it had been a custom with the Holy Prophet to conceal the object of an intended expedition to the very last. But the journey now to be undertaken was so distant and the heat of the season so excessive and the enemy against whom he was called upon to march so powerful that he thought it necessary to give his followers a timely warning so that they might be able to make the necessary preparation.

"I went to the market everyday to make the needful purchases, but came back without doing anything, thinking that I would do the necessary preparation next day, for I was well able to do so. In this way I went on postponing from day to day until the army started from Medina. Even then I thought I would be able to make the necessary arrangements next day and join the army on the way. But the next day also I did nothing and put off till the day following. The result of this procrastination was that the army had travelled such a long distance from Medina that I had to give up the idea of making any attempt to join it from behind.

"When I heard that the Holy Prophet was coming back to Medina, grief seized me. On his return to Medina, those who had remained behind came to him and offered false excuses for their absence. He accepted their excuses, pardoned them, and left their cases in the hand of God. I also went to him and saluted him and he smiled with the smile of one who is angry and asked me the reason of my absence. I replied, 'By God, if there had been another person in your place, O Prophet of God, I think I might have escaped his anger by offering an excuse, for I am clever in argument. But, by God, I know that if I tell you a false story, you will be pleased with me, but in that case the All-Knowing God will bring about circumstances which will make you angry with me; and if I speak to you the truth, you may feel angry, but I hope God will pardon me. 'By God, I have no pretext to offer for my absence; I was never stronger and never better off than I was at the time when I stayed behind.' The Holy Prophet said, 'As for this man, he has spoken the truth.' Then he said to me 'Go away, until God gives His decision about you.' On enquiry I learnt that the Holy Prophet had said the same thing to two other persons, Murarah bin Rabi‘a and Hilal bin Umayya. He laid all the three of us under an interdict, forbidding the Faithful to hold any intercourse with us. My two companions, who were old and weak, did not leave their homes. I was strong and healthy and went about from place to place but no one spoke to me. Everybody shunned me or regarded me with an altered mien. I sought the Mosque, sat down near the Prophet, and saluted him, but my salutation was not returned. While I was in this predicament, there came to me a messenger with an epistle from the King of the Banu Ghassan, expressing his sympathy with me in my present plight and inviting me to his court, where he promised to treat me with respect and honour. 'This is another trial', said I to myself, and repairing to a burning oven, I cast the King’s letter into the fire, saying to the messenger, 'This is my reply to the letter.'

"On the forty-first day came the further command that we should separate even from our wives, whereupon I sent away my wife to her parents, and was left all alone to undergo in its severest rigour the punishment meted out to us. My heart was dying away and the whole world appeared to grow narrow to me. My other companions also were in a pitiable condition. They kept weeping day and night in their homes. At last, on the fifty-first day, the Prophet of God received a revelation bringing the welcome news that God had turned to us with mercy and had accepted our repentance. A friend on horseback came galloping to me to be the first to convey to me the happy news, but another friend forestalled him by ascending the nearest hill and crying therefrom at the top of his voice; 'Rejoice, O Ka‘b bin Malik.' I concluded that I was pardoned and hastened to the Holy Prophet and found him in the Mosque. He received me with a radiant countenance and said 'Rejoice, O Ka‘b, for this is the happiest day that has ever dawned upon you since you were born.' My soul was lifted up from the depths of despondency and in the transports of gratitude, I offered my whole wealth in atonement of my error. 'Nay,' said the Holy Prophet, 'Keep a part of your wealth and give away the rest to be spent in the cause of God.' I also said to the Holy Prophet, 'It is through my speaking the truth that God has done me this favour. So I make a solemn promise that I will never speak but the truth so long as I live.' And by God, I have strictly adhered to this promise to the present day and hope God will help me to observe this promise in future as well" (Bukhari, ch. on Maghazi).

The above narration forcefully leads one to the conclusion that:

(1) The Holy Prophet kept strict discipline among his followers but this discipline was tempered with mercy;

(2) In spite of this discipline the Holy Prophet was loved and revered by his followers to an extraordinary degree;

(3) His true followers always strove their best to set an unparalleled example of sacrifice, devotion and piety.

17:67; 29:66; 31:33.

Important Words:

عاصف (violent) is the active participle from عصف. They say عصفت الریح i.e. the wind blew violently or vehemently. عصفت الناقة براکبھا means, the she-camel went quickly with her rider, as if she were the wind. عصف الدھربھم means, the time destroyed them. عصف الزرع means, he cut the corn before its attaining maturity. ریح عاصف means, wind blowing violently or vehemently. یوم عاصف means, a day violent in respect of wind and storm (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that on the part of God the system of punishing and showing mercy goes hand in hand, as does on the part of disbelievers the habit of acting wickedly in time of ease and repenting temporarily when punishment overtakes them. But disbelievers always ignore the fact that, just as a pleasant breeze sometimes develops into a violent gale and causes widespread destruction, similarly, the remission that is granted to them may prove the prelude to their destruction. To bring home to disbelievers this patent truth, their attention is drawn to the comforts and perils of a sea-voyage.

It is worthy of note that whereas the verse uses the pronoun "you" in the second person in the first two clauses, it suddenly changes to a pronoun of the third person (them, they) in the third and the following clauses. This is not without purpose. The first two clauses referred to both believers and disbelievers, for it is both for believers and disbelievers that God has provided the means of travel by land and sea. Hence the pronoun "you" has been used in the first two clauses. But as in the following clauses it has been pointed out that a section of the people become ungrateful, therefore here the second person has been changed into the third person, in order to show that it is only disbelievers that become ungrateful.

27:74; 40:62.

Important Words:

یوم القیامة (of the Day of Resurrection). In this expression the particle فی (of or about) is understood before the word یوم (Day).

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that no man can forge lies against God, if he has any faith left in Him. So matters like eatables should not be treated lightly. In fact, forging lies against God in such matters is, as the verse hints, a sign of loss of faith in the Day of Resurrection. People dismiss such matters as of no importance, because they have no faith in God-sent guidance and prefer their own conjectures to revealed teachings.

The verse may be interpreted as containing another argument of the fact that the religion of disbelievers is based on no sound reason. That argument lies in their denial of the Day of Resurrection. The verse points out that the very thought that on a certain day sinners will have to render an account of their deeds sends a shudder through them, and so they deny the very existence of such a day. But the denial of a thing cannot disprove its existence. It is foolish to deny the infliction of punishment on the basis of fear. Moreover, the Day of Resurrection is meant to serve as an incentive to spiritual progress, and not to frighten men. It is just like an examination, the object of which is not that students should fail but that they should work hard and make themselves deserving of promotion and prizes. But those who do not work hard must fail.

2:215.

Important Words:

کذبوا (they had been told a lie) is the passive plural from کذب (kadhaba) which means, he lied; or he uttered a falsehood; or he said what was untrue whether intentionally or unintentionally; he found his hopes to be false or vain. کذبه الحدیث means, he gave him a false account of the thing and said what was untrue. They say کذب الرأی i.e. he imagined the thing contrary to its real state. An Arab would say کذبتك عینك i.e. thine eye showed thee that which had no reality i.e. thou wast deceived in the vision. They say کذبته نفسه i.e. his soul made him desire things and conceive hopes that did not come to pass. کذب الرجل(kudhiba) means, the man was told a lie or a falsehood or an untruth (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

Like the preceding verse, the verse under comment speaks of both the Prophets and their opponents. The first sentence speaks of the Prophets of God, and the second of their enemies. The verse purports to say that the enemies of Prophets so continue to increase in wickedness and opposition to them that a stage is reached when the Prophets begin to think that those who were destined to believe had already believed and they despair of the rest. Their opponents, on the other hand, owing to the delay in the coming of Divine punishment, begin to feel secure in the thought that they will never be visited with any punishment and that the prophecies of the Prophets about their own final success and about the discomfiture of their enemies were so many pieces of falsehood. When matters come to such a pass, God’s help comes to the Prophets and the leaders of disbelief are destroyed.

This is exactly what happens at the advent of every Prophet. The hour of final reckoning is delayed so long that disbelievers begin to have a false sense of security. Then God comes to the succour of His Prophets and makes their cause prevail.

The words, when the Messengers despaired, cannot be taken to mean that the Prophet despair of the help of God. This inference is obviously wrong and is belied by v. 88 of this very Surah wherein we have, none despairs of Allah’s mercy save the unbelieving people. As a matter of fact, Prophets never despair of God’s help. They only sometimes despair of their people believing in them, and this happens when the latter continue turning a deaf ear to their preaching.

Similarly, the words, they thought that they had been told a lie, do not mean that the Prophets thought so. The words only mean that their enemies thought so. The Prophets cannot entertain any doubt about the truth of their prophecies and of the promises of ultimate success made to them by God. Their faith in God is invincible; it stands on the firm rock of certitude. The pronoun "they" thus refers, not to the Prophets, but to their opponents mentioned in the previous verse. According to Arabic idiom it is allowable to use in the same sentence pronouns referring to different antecedents when the nouns to which they refer are clear from the context. But if the pronoun "they" be taken to refer to the Prophets, the sentence, they thought that they had been told a lie, would mean that wishful thinking and overconfidence in the help of God had made the Prophets interpret the Word of God containing promises of success in such a way as to believe in the very early triumph of their cause which, however, was not so ordained by God. Thus their own minds, as it were, lied to them or held out to them false hopes, by placing on the Word of God an interpretation which it did not bear.

The words, they thought that they had been told a lie, may also mean that the hopes that the Prophets had entertained about the repentance of their opponents turned out to be false. When at a certain stage the hostility of their opponents temporarily slackened, the Prophets began to entertain the hope that they would repent of their past misdeeds and would accept the truth, but that hope turned out to be a delusion. Taken in this sense, these words also serve as an explanation of the words "the Messengers despaired." See the different meanings of the word کذبوا under Important Words.

21:40; 38:60; 52:14.

Commentary:

The word نار signifies war (5:65) and the verse means that the disbelieving nations of the West will see a most destructive war approaching. They will try all possible means to avoid it but all their plans and efforts to this end will prove futile. The west has already passed through the ordeal of two most destructive wars which have almost destroyed its political domination and prestige in the world and have shaken its civilization to its foundations. Now a third world-war is staring it in the face.

7:134.

Commentary:

In these words Abraham rebukes his people for having such a poor conception of God, the Lord of all the worlds as to prefer worship of false gods to His worship.

21:17; 44:39.

14:3; 19:38; 51:61.

Commentary:

With this verse the Surah reverts to its original theme dealt with in the opening verses. It purports to say that the heavens and the earth and all that is between them have not been created in vain. They serve a mighty purpose and point to the existence of an Infallible mind, an Almighty Being Who has created them. Divine Prophets come into the world to call men to their Creator and when they come, those to whom they address their Message become divided into two groups—believers and disbelievers.

40:75.

Important Words:

مـحیص (place of escape) is derived from حاص. They say حاص عن الحق i.e. he deviated from the truth. حاص عن الشیء means, he turned away from the thing and became safe from it. مـحیص means, a place from which one turns away or aside; to which one flees; a place of refuge. ماعنه مـحیص means, there is no refuge from it (Lane & Aqrab).