عِلْمَ

Important Words:

سبحانك (Holy art Thou). The word سبحان is the infinitive of سبح for which see 2:31. The infinitive form is used to intensify the meaning.

Commentary:

As the angels were conscious of their nature and limitations, they frankly confessed that they were unable to reflect God’s attributes as man could do, i.e. they could reflect only such of His attributes as He, in His eternal wisdom, had given them the power of reflecting. Man was a fuller image of God than the angels, or, for that matter, any other created being. Says God: We have created man in the best of constitutions (95:5).

7:7; 28:66.

Commentary:

The words, We have no knowledge; it is only Thou Who art the Knower of hidden things, constitute both a sort of veiled recommendation and a glorification of God. The Prophets will, in effect, say, "The people did indeed reject us; but Thou art the Knower of secrets. We do not know what was in their minds and whether they rejected us from their hearts or only expressed disbelief out of the fear of others. It is, therefore, for Thee to decide what their real attitude was and what treatment should be meted out to them." This recom­mendation seems to run counter to 4:42, which shows that the Prophets will bear witness against their people. The study of the relevant verses, however, shows that the occasions are different. The above-mentioned reply of the Prophets will be made when in the beginning God will question them in a general way; whereas the tendering of evidence will come at a later stage when God will call upon them definitely to come forward and give the required evidence about those who rejected them. There is, thus, no real conflict between the two verses.

The answer given by the Prophets is also in harmony with the dignity of God and constitutes an act of His glorification on the part of the Prophets. God perfectly knows what reply the people made to the Prophets, but, in spite of this, He will ask the Prophets to say what answer they were given by the people, as if He Himself was not aware of that answer. The Prophets, therefore, will very appropriately remove this apparent implication of ignorance on the part of God, by attributing all knowledge to Him.

The answer of the Prophets also implies that the object of God’s question was not to elicit information from them or to supplement His own knowledge, for He knew what answer they were given. In fact, there was some other purpose behind His question which was that they should give their testimony against the disbelievers, as is clear from 4:42, and thus carry out the Divine command referred to in the latter verse.

28:63, 75.

Commentary:

Sometimes man suffers material loss or a calamity afflicts him but that loss or calamity does not bring disgrace or humiliation to him. At another time he suffers disgrace and humiliation but no loss. The verse means to say that when punishment overtakes the opponents of the Holy Prophet they would suffer both disgrace and the loss of their material possessions.

19:59; 32:16; 38:25.

Commentary:

The words, those to whom knowledge has been given before it, refer to Muslims who had believed in the Quran before this verse was revealed. They may also refer to the "People of the Book", who have been principally addressed in this chapter.

The words, fall down prostrate on their faces, symbolize the humblest form of devotion and prayer to God and incidentally represent a Muslim showing his uttermost humility and devotion in Prayer.

13:20; 34:7; 35:32; 47:3; 56:96.

Commentary:

This verse also supports our interpretation of v. 53 above. It means to say that Satan puts obstacles in the way of a Prophet so that Allah may make it "a trial for those in whose hearts is a disease and those whose hearts are hardened," and "that those to whom knowledge has been given may know that it is the truth from the Lord, so that they believe therein." These are the two objects which the satanic activities of the enemies of truth become the means of serving.

Commentary:

The words, "We had been given knowledge before this," signify that the Queen had already become conversant with the great power and resources of Solomon and had made up her mind to give her allegiance to him.

Commentary:

While the preceding verse referred to external evidence in support of the Quran being the revealed Word of God, the present one furnishes an internal evidence, which is that from the hearts of those who have been endowed with knowledge of the Quran gush forth fountains of divine light. The fact that the Quran brought about a most wholesome transformation in the lives of a whole people who had sunk deep in the quagmire of moral turpitude and spiritual decadence and gave light to them who were helplessly groping in utter darkness, indeed constitutes a very strong internal evidence that it has proceeded from the Source of all light. The divine light of which the Quran is the repository irrefutably shows that it has been revealed by God and that it was beyond the power of man to produce it.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that when disbelievers will have realized to their discomfiture that the time of their prosperity and progress was very short, they will be told by true believers that according to divine decree they (disbelievers) were left alone to indulge in vice and sin up to the Day of Resurrection i.e. till the advent of a Divine Prophet, when all their prosperity and grandeur was to have come to an end. Thus the words "Day of Resurrection" do not refer to Resurrection after death but to the rise and fall of nations in this world.

The disbelievers or Christian nations of the West are here warned that their final destruction will take place after the renaissance of Islam in the Latter Days and not, as they misunderstand, in the time of its first phenomenal rise and spread.

13:20; 22: 55; 35:32; 47:3; 56:96.