ٱسْتَكْبَرُ

3:58; 16:97; 39:11.

7:158; 64:9.

2:40; 5:11, 87; 6:50; 7:41; 22:58.

Commentary:

This verse serves as a particular warning for Muslims that they should not make light of the Messengers who would appear among them and should not reject them. The Law has indeed been made perfect in the Quran; but that does not mean that later Messengers of God may be rejected with impunity.

7:37.

Important Words:

الجمل (camel) is the noun-infinitive from جمل. They say جمل الشیء i.e. he collected the thing. جمل الشھم means, he melted the fat. جمل (jamila) or جمل (jamula) with different vowel points at the central root letter, means, he was or became beautiful, goodly or pleasing in person or behaviour. جمل means, a he-camel; a full grown he-camel; a camel; palm-trees as being likened to the he-camel in respect of their tallness and bigness; a large sea fish or whale (Lane.) It also means a cable or a ship’s rope (Aqrab).

Commentary:

With this verse begins a description of the life after death, a brief reference to which was made in the three preceding verses.

Heaven is the lofty abode of true believers. The Holy Prophet used to say that it is the souls of the righteous that shall reside in the garden of Heaven, while those of the wicked shall descend into the pit of Hell.

The words, the gates of the spiritual firmament will not be opened for them, signify that rejecters of God’s signs are never vouchsafed the spiritual knowledge and the nearness of God granted to believers.

Though in the translation the word جمل has been rendered as 'camel' following a parallel expression in the New Testament (Matt. 19:24), yet the Arabic sentence may be better explained by using the word 'rope', for a rope rather than a camel bears a resemblance to the thread which is passed through the eye of a needle. The expression, until a camel (or a rope) goes through the eye of a needle, signifies that it will be impossible for rejecters of God’s Signs to enter Heaven.

Important Words:

الملاء (chief men). See 2:247.

Commentary:

When the so-called leaders of his tribe found, to their mortification, that Salih stood firm as a rock in his convictions and no amount of persuasion could make him swerve from his purpose, they began to harass his followers, but these too they found bold and firm.

Commentary:

The words, Verily, we do disbelieve in that in which you believe, in popular parlance signify a typical form of arrogant but veiled threat generally held out by rich and powerful people to the weaker and poorer section of society. The words may be interpreted as: "How dare you, weak and poor as you are, accept a teaching which we, your betters and superiors, have thought fit to reject?"

14:14.

Commentary:

Disbelievers, complacently conscious of their power and wealth, listen to no request however reasonable, and in the words of the opponents of Shu‘aib always say: "There is no need for anyone to judge between us. We ourselves can judge and our verdict is that, only he who follows our religion will be allowed to live with us." On the other hand, the followers of every Prophet, like the followers of Shu‘aib, have always made a pathetic, though unavailing, appeal to their persecutors in the words: "Will you compel us to adopt your religion, even if it offends our reason and goes against our conscience?" The concluding words of the verse also show that throughout history good and intelligent men have always believed that force should not be used in matters relating to conscience.

17:102; 43:49.

Important Words:

القمل (lice) is derived from قمل. They say قمل رأسه i.e. his head became infected with lice or the lice abounded in his head. قمل القوم means, the people multiplied and increased in number (like unto lice). قمل فلان means, such a one became corpulent and big-bellied. So القمل (al-qaml) means, lice, etc., that infect the head or body of a person as a result of uncleanliness and filth. القمل (al-qummal) means, small ants; small insects like flies or mosquitoes having small wings and infesting vegetation and animals and men; the word has also been taken to mean lice, etc. (Aqrab & Lisan).

مفصلات (clear) also mean, separate, distinct, etc.

Commentary:

This verse explains the two kinds of punishment mentioned in 7:131 above. Locusts and storms bring about famine, whereas lice and frogs and blood may cause disease resulting in loss of life.

The Bible mentions 10 signs, besides the signs of the rod and of the white hand:

(1) the turning of the water of the river into blood; (2) frogs; (3) lice; (4) swarms of flies; (5) the murrain of beasts; (6) the plague of boils and blains; (7) the plague of hail; (8) locusts; (9) the plague of darkness; and (10) the death of the firstborn (Exod. Chaps. 7–11). All these signs are included in the signs mentioned in the verse under comment. Thus the word طوفان (storm) comprises the plague of hail and the plague of darkness; جراد (locusts) expresses the plague of locusts; قمل (lice) comprises lice, the swarms of flies, the murrain of beasts and the death of the firstborn, because all these may be caused by infection carried through lice, flies, mosquitoes, etc. The sign of الدم (the blood) comprises the turning of the water of the river into blood as well as boils and blains. The sign of blood may also comprise the death of the firstborn. The turning of the water of the river into blood may also mean that the water of the river became vitiated so that it spoiled the blood of those who drank of it. That the river was actually turned into blood is negated by the Bible itself, for we read there that the water only became blood when it was sprinkled on the land (Exod.4:9). This only means that the water of the river became unfit for drinking purpose and it vitiated the blood of those who drank it. Similarly, the storms raised dust which in turn gave rise to lice. These signs seem to have been greatly exaggerated in the Bible.

7:104.

Commentary:

A Prophet of God is rejected for two reasons. Either the people to whom he preaches his Message look upon his claim as too big, thinking that God cannot speak to a man; or, behaving arrogantly, they think it to be beneath their dignity to follow his lead. This happened with Moses. Some of those to whom he delivered his Message rejected his claim because they thought it impossible that God should have condescended to speak to a mortal; others thought it incompatible with their dignity to obey a man of no consequence like Moses.

The clause, they were a sinful people, may have two meanings: (1) They were already a sinful people and therefore they rejected Moses. Taken in this sense, the words furnish the reason why they behaved with arrogance and paid no heed to the truth. (2) They became sinful in consequence of their rejection of Moses. Both interpretations explain why people reject the truth. Evil is born of evil and also leads to it; and therefore those who lead a sinful life cannot accept the truth. Again, the goodness and godliness of a person sometimes make him proud and prompt him to reject the truth. The rejection of truth is therefore no light matter, and one should think a thousand times before one rejects a claimant to prophethood.

6:129; 7:39, 40; 28:64; 33:68,69; 34:32, 33; 40:48, 49.

Important Words:

برزوا (they shall appear) is derived from برز which means, he came out in the open country; he appeared before men after being hidden. ابرزالکتاب means, he made the book public; he published it. بارز العدو means, he came out (of his camp etc.) and fought the enemy. تبرز means, he went into the open country to answer the call of nature (Aqrab).

Commentary:

The words, They shall all appear before Allah, embody a great truth about the decline and Fall of nations. It is not so much the actual weaknesses and misdeeds of a people that bring about their downfall as the exposure of their weaknesses. With their weaknesses having become exposed, their prestige and reputation, which more than their achievements are the mainstay of their success, suffer a mortal blow, lowering them in the estimation of rival communities and bringing in their wake decline and decadence. The words quoted above thus mean that God will lift the veil from the iniquities of the sinful and will expose them to public view, because from Him nothing is hidden.

The verse also sheds some light on another important principle about the rise and fall of nations. A people who are destined to perish give way to despair and become readily resigned to their low state, as hinted at in the words, it is now equal for us whether we show impatience or remain patient: there is no way of escape for us. On the contrary, a people for whom a bright future waits continue to make ceaseless efforts to improve their condition till all signs of decline and degeneration disappear and their feet are set firmly on the road to success and prosperity.