نَذِيرًا

5:20; 6:49; 17:106; 33:46.

Commentary:

As to the disbelievers’ demand for a Sign of punishment, the Quran says that punishment is bound to visit those who refuse to believe in the Holy Prophet, because, like all other Prophets, he was the bearer of glad tidings for believers, and a warner for his opponents. Every student of history knows how clearly this prophecy was fulfilled. The world witnessed the ruin of the Holy Prophet’s adversaries in a manner which has no parallel in history, although worldly conditions and circumstances were all in favour of the disbelievers and against the Holy Prophet.

The last-mentioned words of the verse, i.e. thou wilt not be questioned about the inmates of Hell, are a sort of consolation for the Holy Prophet who, owing to his great solicitude for the people who disbelieved in him, was ever anxious about their fate. Elsewhere the Quran says, It may be thou wilt grieve thyself to death, because they believe not (26:4).

4:106; 5:49; 39:3.

Commentary:

This verse signifies that the prophecies made in the previous verse would certainly be fulfilled. These prophecies related to the two disasters that befell the followers of Moses and by implication related also to the two great national disasters that were to overtake the followers of the Holy Prophet. The words, We have sent thee only as a bearer of good tidings and a Warner, imply a prophecy about the ultimate destruction of the enemies of Islam and the triumph of its followers.

The verse also embodies a refutation of the foolish notion that Satan can sometimes interfere with the revelation of the Quran. It unmistakably declares that Quranic revelation has ever remained absolutely immune from any such interference.

Commentary:

The word تبارک means, highly exalted, far removed from every defect, impurity, imperfection, or from everything derogatory, and possessing abundant good (6:156 & 24:36). This attribute has been very appropriately used in connection with the revelation of the Quran as it possesses all the qualities and attributes implicit in this word. The Quran is not only completely free from every defect and imperfection but possesses all the conceivable excellent qualities that the last Divine Law for the whole of mankind must possess and it possesses these qualities in an abundant measure.

The word فرقان (Discrimination) is applied to something which differentiates between what is true and what is false. It also means an argument, a proof, or evidence, because an argument or a proof also serves to discriminate between right and wrong. The word also means, morning or dawn, because dawn distinguishes the day from night. It also means, aid or support, because a person who receives help and support from another person becomes marked from him against whom help is sought to be given. See also 2:54. The Quran has been called "The Discrimination" in the verse under comment because it possesses all the various qualities and attributes which flow from the root فرق from which the word فرقان has been derived. Among the multifarious and multitudinous beauties and excellences that distinguish the Quran from other revealed books and which establish its superiority over them all, two stand out most marked, viz. it makes no statement or claim in support of which it does not bring forward sound and solid proofs and arguments, and it makes truth so distinguishable from falsehood as day is from night. The Quran has been called فرقان in the verse under comment while, in the preceding chapter, Divine revelation had been compared to نور (light) because the functions of both فرقان and نور are the same. Both mark out truth from falsehood. The Quran is both نور (Light) and فرقان (Discrimination) because it possesses this quality in an abundant measure and among all Divinely revealed Scriptures it stands unique in making this claim and such a claim is also quite natural on its part as it is humanity’s sole guide till the end of time.

In understanding the subject of لیکون, it may be either God or the Holy Prophet or the Quran, and thus the expression لیکون للعالمین نذیرا may mean that God or the Holy Prophet or the Quran may be a Warner to all the worlds.

11:13; 15:8; 17:93.

Commentary:

This and the next verse contain another objection of disbelievers against the Holy Prophet, which the verses following them proceed to answer. The objection is: "The Holy Prophet is but an ordinary man. He eats and walks in the streets. If he was a Messenger of God, he should have been followed by an entourage of angels who would have borne testimony to his truth and should have warned his rejecters and deniers of the punishment that was in store for them."

2:120; 5:20; 11:3; 35:25.

25:57; 35:25; 48:9.

Commentary:

In this and the next verse five prominent qualities of the Holy Prophet have been mentioned to show that he possesses all the necessary qualifications which a spiritual leader who is entrusted with the divine mission "to bring men out of darkness into light," should possess; (1) he is a witness i.e. a promulgator of the Law and a model; (2) he is a bearer of glad tidings, i.e. God has not lost interest in men and continues to send His Messengers and Prophets to reclaim lost humanity when there is need for one; (3) he is a Warner telling men that if they did not benefit from his teaching and persisted in their evil ways, they will come to grief; (4) he is a Summoner unto Allah by His command, i.e. he is not a self-appointed Reformer but a Divinely-commissioned teacher; and (5) he is a Lamp that gives light, i.e. now, he alone is "the light and the way."

21:108.

Commentary:

The Holy Prophet has been repeatedly declared in the Quran as having been sent as a Messenger to all mankind till the end of time. See also 21:108 & 25:2. The Message of Islam is a universal message and the Quran is the last revealed Book for all mankind. No other revealed Book or religion has ever laid claim to finality.

2:120; 5:20; 11:89; 11:3; 25:57; 48:9.

10:48; 13:8; 16:37.

Commentary

After mentioning that the Holy Prophet has been sent "as a Bearer of glad tidings and as a Warner" the verse proceeds to unfold a great truth which had remained unknown to the world till the Quran revealed it. It says that it is not the Holy Prophet Muhammad alone who has been sent as a Divine Messenger to call men to God but there had been sent to every people in the past a Divine Messenger who preached to them the same message of truth and righteousness. This great and noble principle leads to the belief in the Divine origin of all religions, and in their Founders as Divine Messengers, and thus it becomes an article of faith with a Muslim to believe in and equally respect and revere all of them. By giving to the world this sublime truth, Islam has sought to create an atmosphere of amity and goodwill among different creeds, and to remove and banish that rancour and bitterness which has embittered relations between the followers of these creeds all over the world. See also 10:48.

5:20; 25:27; 35:25; 48:9.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the most distinctive feature of this most perspicuous of all Divine Books is that it gives a message of hope and good cheer to those who accept and follow it and warns disbelievers that they would meet with a sad fate, if they persisted in disbelief.

25:57; 33:46; 35:25.

Commentary:

The verse refers to three attributes of the Holy Prophet. He was شاھد i.e. his whole life constituted a standing testimony to the existence of the Almighty God Who gave him success against very heavy odds. He was مبشر because he gave believers the glad tidings of bliss and benediction in this life as well as in the life to come, and he was نذیر (Warner) for those who rejected his Message.