Topic: Favours On

2649

Commentary:

The verse continues the theme of its predecessor. The words "exalted is He" signify that the disbelievers’ idea of what a Divine Prophet should be like, is far removed from reality and betrays their ignorance of the very object and purpose for which Prophets are raised. The Prophets are raised to lead men out of the darkness of doubt and disbelief into the light of certainty and spiritual bliss. The disbelievers want to see the Holy Prophet rolling and revelling in wealth. But such an idea is inconsistent with, and casts a reflection on, the Holiness of God.

The verse further signifies that although the self-devised criterion of disbelievers, namely, that to prove the truth of his mission the Holy Prophet must possess wealth, rank, gardens and palaces, has no weight or substance, yet in order to bring home to them the falsity of their position God will give the Holy Prophet and his followers more wealth and bigger and better gardens and palaces than those of the disbelievers’ demand. And was not this demand fully and completely fulfilled? Did not the camel-drivers of Arabia become the owners of the palaces and treasures of the Caesars and the Chosroes and of the fertile plains and gardens of Syria and Iraq? The verse possesses a spiritual significance also. It means to say that worldly gardens wither and dry up for want of water and proper care, and treasures of wealth are used up and come to end, but the treasures of spiritual wealth which will be bestowed upon the Holy Prophet and his followers and the gardens of eternal bliss which will be given into their possession will be everlasting. The Garden of Islam itself will ever remain green. Heavenly Reformers will continue to arise from among Muslims who will make them understand and realise the great object for which man has been created. See next verse.

3818

Important Words:

لیغفر (that He may cover up). They say غفر المتاع i.e. he put the goods into the bag and covered and protected them. غفرانand مغفرة both infinitive nouns mean, protection and preservation. مغفر means, helmet and غفارة means, cloth worn beneath the veil to keep it clean (Lane, Mufradat & Aqrab). See also 2:59; 14:42 & 40:56.

ذنبک (thy shortcomings).ذنبه means, he followed his trail, not quitting his track. ذنب therefore, signifies such natural failings or frailties as adhere to human nature. أذنب means, he committed a sin, a crime, a misdemeanour, fault, etc. According to Imam Raghib ذنب means, such errors and mistakes as bring about a harmful result. It differs from اثم in being either intentional or committed through inadvertence while اثم is peculiarly intentional (Lane). See also 3:17.

Commentary:

The verse has been deliberately misrepresented, or, through lack of knowledge of Arabic idiom and phrase, misinterpreted, by Christian missionaries as signifying that the Holy Prophet was guilty of some moral lapses. But it bears no such construction. It is an article of faith with Muslims, as enjoined by the Quran that God’s Prophets are born sinless and they remain sinless throughout their lives. They are incapable of saying or doing anything contrary to Divine commandments (21:28). As they are commissioned by God to purge men of sins, they cannot themselves commit sins. And of Divine Messengers the Holy Prophet was the noblest and the purest. The Quran abounds in verses which speak in glowing terms of the purity and spotlessness of his life. Here are a few of them:

(a) Say, if you love Allah, follow me; then will Allah love you (3:32). (b) Verily, Allah has conferred a favour on the believers by raising among them a Messenger from among themselves, who recites to them His signs, and purifies them and teaches them the Book and wisdom (3:165). (c) Say, my Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds (6:163). (d) Those who follow the Messenger, the Prophet, the Immaculate (sinless) One…(7:158). (e) O ye who believe! respond to Allah, and the Messenger when he (the Messenger) calls you that he may give you life (8:25). (f) Verily, you have in the Prophet of Allah an excellent model (33:22). (g) Verily, those who swear allegiance to thee, indeed, swear allegiance to Allah (48:11). (h) Your Companion has neither erred, nor has he gone astray, nor does he speak out of his own desire (53:3-4). (i) And thou dost surely possess very high moral excellences (68:5). (j) A noble Messenger, possessor of power, established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne, one who should be obeyed and who is faithful to his trust (81:20-22).

A man of such high moral stature, as the Holy Prophet, who raised a whole people sunk into the lowest depths of moral turpitude to the highest pinnacles of spiritual eminence, could not possibly be guilty of such moral lapses as his detractors seek to impute to him.

A quite simple and harmless word— ذنب —is taken advantage of to malign him. The word, among other things, signifies such frailties as adhere to human nature, and errors as are calculated to bring about harmful results. In this sense of the word the verse signifies that God would protect the Holy Prophet from the harmful results that would follow in the wake of the promised victory referred to in the preceding verse, inasmuch as, large masses of people would enter the fold of Islam, and naturally their moral and spiritual training and upbringing would not be of the desired standard. That is why wherever in the Quran success and victories are promised to the Holy Prophet, he is enjoined to seek protection of God from his ذنب i.e. human weakness which might stand in the way of the realization of his great mission which is the spread and expansion of Islam and the creation of a disciplined community of high morals. The fact that of the four words جناح and جرم and اثم and ذنب, which possess almost similar connotations, the first three have not been used in the Quran with regard to Prophets of God, shows that ذنب does not possess the sinister meaning which the other three words possess. Besides, according to the Quranic idiom, the expression ذنبک, if at all ذنبbe taken to signify a sin or crime, would mean "the sins attributed to thee or alleged to have been committed by thee or the sins committed against thee." Elsewhere in the Quran (5:30) a similar expression اثمی (my sin) means, the sin committed against me. Thus the verse under comment means that as a result of the great victory, i.e. the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah, all the sins and crimes and faults which his enemies imputed to the Holy Prophet, viz. that he was a cheat, an impostor or forger of lies against God and man, etc., would prove to be false, inasmuch as all sorts of people by coming into contact with Muslims would find out the truth about him. Moreover, the context also supports this meaning because grant of a clear victory and the completion of Divine favour upon the Holy Prophet, referred to in this and the preceding verse do not seem to possess any relevance to the forgiveness of sins, if ذنب be taken to mean a sin. And theexpression لک may also mean "for thy sake".

The words "past and present" signify that the charges that have been levelled against the Holy Prophet in the past by the Quraish and those that will be levelled against him in future by his enemies, will all be dispelled and he will stand completely vindicated. The words seem to embody a great prophecy that in some future time the Holy Prophet will be misrepresented and misunderstood but that all misunderstandings will eventually be dissipated and Islam will shine forth in full glory, and its superiority will be established over all rival Faiths.

4764

Important Words:

قلـیٰ (has forsaken). They say قلی الرجل i.e. he hated the man and disliked him so much that he forsook him (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

Every day and night of the Holy Prophet; his great successes and temporary setbacks; his joys and tribulations; his devotions at night and activities in the day, all bear out that God was with him.

4765

Commentary:

The verse means that every succeeding moment of the Holy Prophet’s life is better than the one that precedes. To mention a few landmarks in his career, one may observe that he left Mecca with a single Companion, a price having been put on his head. He entered the same town after a brief period of eight years at the head of ten thousand devoted followers. At Badr there were only 313 Muslims with him and at Uhud more than double that number, and in the Battle of the Ditch the number grew to several thousand, till at the last Pilgrimage more than one hundred thousand believers marched under his banner. The successes of the Holy Prophet continued after his death. Islam went from strength to strength till it spread, within a few decades, over a large part of the then known world.

The reference in the verse may also be to the latter days when the renaissance of Islam was to take place. The verse may also mean that Divine Reformers will continue to appear among Muslims during periods of decline to impart to the Faith a new life and a new vigour.

4765A

Commentary:

The Surah being one of the earliest revelations received at a time when those who had responded to the Call of the Holy Prophet could be counted on one’s fingers, the verse under comment contains a message of hope and good cheer wherein the Prophet is told that the time is fast approaching when his cause will triumph and he will be blessed with Divine favours—in this life and the Hereafter—to his heart’s content.

4766

Important Words:

یتیم (orphan) is derived from یتم (yatama) which means, he became fatherless, an orphan; was or became unique; incomparable; (Aqrab).

Commentary:

The Holy Prophet was an orphan in fact, as well as figuratively. His orphanhood was of the extreme kind. His father died before he was born, leaving no property. His mother died when he was hardly six years old and his grandfather ‘Abdul-Muttalib, who took charge of him after his mother’s death, died two years later, leaving him under the care of his uncle, a man of scanty means. Thus the Prophet was deprived of parental care and love in his early childhood. Yet he received love and affection from his juniors and seniors, his Companions and compatriots in a large measure such that no woman-born had ever received the like of it before or after him or is likely to receive in future.

4767

Important Words:

ضال (wandering) is derived from ضل which means, he erred or went astray; he was perplexed and was unable to see the right course; he was entirely engrossed or was lost in the love of a thing; he wandered in search of a thing and persevered in the search. ضل الماء فی اللبن means, the water became hidden in the milk, etc. (Lane, Aqrab & Mufradat).

Commentary:

In view of different meanings of the word ضل given above under Important Words, the verse may be interpreted thus: (1) The Holy Prophet wandered in search of the ways and means to attain to God, and God revealed to him the law which guided him to the desired goal. (2) He was perplexed and did not know how to find the path that led to the attainment of his quest and God guided him to it (42:53). (3) He was entirely lost in the love of God and did not know how to find Him but God led him to Himself (12:9). (4) He was hidden from the eyes of the world. God discovered him and chose him for the task of leading people to Him. Thus the word ضال has not been used in disapprobation but in praise of the Holy Prophet. The word in the sense of 'gone astray' does not and cannot apply to the Holy Prophet since according to another Quranic verse (53:3) he was immune to error or going astray. Moreover, the six concluding verses of the Surah reveal a certain sequence—vv. 7, 8 & 9 standing in close relationship and corresponding to vv. 10, 11 & 12 respectively; the ضال of verse 8 being substituted by سائل of verse 11, explains the significance of the former word which is, "one who sought God’s help to be guided to Him."

The verse may also be interpreted as: And He found thee lost in thy love for thy people, and provided thee with guidance for them.

4768

Important Words:

عائل (one in want) is derived from عال . They say عال الرجل i.e. the man had a large family to support; he became poor. عال عیاله means, he fed, nourished or supported his family. عال الشیء فلانا means, the thing oppressed or distressed such a one (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The Holy Prophet started life as a poor orphan but ended by being the undisputed master of the whole of Arabia.

4770

Important Words:

شرح (opened). شرح المسألة means, he explained the question. شرح الکلام means, he understood the talk. شرح الشیء means, he guarded the thing, he preserved it شرح صدرہ للشیء means, he was pleased with the thing. The breast symbolically being the seat of knowledge and feelings, its expansion (in the present context) signifies its illumination with wisdom, divine light and peace and its vastness for the reception of what was to be revealed to the Holy Prophet (Lane, Aqrab & Muhit).

Commentary:

In view of different meanings of the word شرح, the verse may have one or all of the following interpretations: (1) God had protected the heart of the Holy Prophet from all harmful influences. It was impossible for evil to enter it. (2) God was the Prophet’s own Preceptor and Teacher and besides temporal knowledge He had opened his breast to comprehend the divine mysteries. (3) The Prophet never suffered from straitness of the heart and was endowed with patience and fortitude to such a degree that even the hardest tribulation could not disturb his peace of mind.

4771

Commentary:

The Holy Prophet had been saddled with such a nerve-racking and back-breaking task as had never been entrusted to a human being, i.e. first to raise a degenerate people from the depths of moral turpitude to the peaks of spiritual excellence and, then through them to cleanse and purify the whole of mankind of the dross of iniquity, ignorance and superstition. This was indeed a very heavy responsibility which had almost crushed the Prophet under its weight, but God lightened his burden in that He gave him devoted and sincere Companions who shared his burden and helped him in the discharge of his manifold and hard duties.

4772

Commentary:

The Surah was revealed in the second or third year of the Call, at a time when the Prophet was hardly known outside his immediate neighbourhood, but very soon he rose to be the best known and most respected and successful of all religious teachers. No leader, religious or temporal, has so commanded the love and respect of his followers as has the Holy Prophet.

4773

Commentary:

The verse holds a message of hope and good cheer for the Holy Prophet. He is comforted with the assurance that whenever Islam would be in difficulty, God would raise a Reformer from among his followers who would restore to it its former glory and greatness. Pointing out the fact that one has to face difficulties and hardships in this life, the Prophet is assured that his tribulation would prove to be of short duration and would soon be followed by increasing ease, success and prosperity.

4774

Commentary:

Repetition of the words, "Surely, there is ease after hardship," signifies that Islam will have to pass through very hard times but on two occasions it will have to face a challenge to its very existence, first at its birth and then in the latter days,––and on both these occasions it will emerge from the ordeal with renewed strength. These verses also indicate that the hardships with which the Holy Prophet and Muslims are faced are temporary, but his successes would be permanent and ever-expanding.

4855

Important Words:

الکوثر (abundance of good) is derived from کثر which means, it was or became much, copious, abundant, many, numerous, great in number or quantity; it multiplied or accumulated. کوثر means, abundance of good; a lord or master abounding in good; a man possessing good or much good, and one who gives much and often. According to some of the sayings of the Holy Prophet it is a certain river in Paradise, from which flow all other rivers. It is whiter than milk and sweeter than honey and has its margin composed of pavilions of hallowed pearls (Lane, Aqrab, Mufradat and Jarir).

Commentary:

The Surah refers to the Holy Prophet as one on whom abundant good has been bestowed. It was revealed at a time when the Prophet had nothing to give. He was living the life of a poor man and his claim to prophethood was looked upon with contempt and as unworthy of serious consideration. For years after the Surah had been revealed he was mocked and jeered at, opposed and persecuted and at last had to leave his native town as a fugitive, a price having been laid on his head. For several years at Medina, too, his life was in constant peril and Islam was eagerly expected (and humanly speaking justifiably) by its enemies to come to an early and tragic end. Then towards the end of his life an abundance of good in every shape and form began to pour down upon him like a cataract, and the promise contained in the Surah was literally fulfilled. The "outlaw" of Mecca became the arbiter of the destinies of the whole of Arabia, and the unlettered son of the desert proved to be the living Teacher of all mankind. God gave him a Book which is humanity’s infallible guide for all time to come. He imbibed and manifested in his person Divine attributes and rose to such high degree of nearness to his Creator as is possible for any human being to attain. He was blessed with a company of devoted followers whose loyalty and devotion has never been equalled, and when the call came to him from his Creator to leave the world he was satisfied that he had fully discharged the sacred task entrusted to him. In short, all kinds of good, material and moral, were bestowed upon the Holy Prophet in full measure. He, therefore, eminently deserved the title, "the most successful of all Prophets" (Enc. Brit.).

The word کوثر also signifies, a man possessing much good and one who gives much and often (Lane). The Holy Prophetwas given الکوثر in this sense also, because God raised among his followers a galaxy of Divinely inspired Reformers who successfully defended him and Islam in every age and guided and led the erring Muslims to the right path. Hadrat MirzaGhulam Ahmad, Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, was the most distinguished of these Reformers. He distributed most lavishly the treasures of divine wealth given to him by God, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the Holy Prophet about the Promised Messiah and Mahdi, viz. یفیض المال حتی لا یقبله أحد (Bukhari) i.e. he will spend spiritual wealth so lavishly that there will be none left to accept it. So the Promised Messiah may be الکوثر referred to in this verse.

4856

Commentary:

The verse enjoins the Holy Prophet to turn to God with utmost devotion and be prepared to undergo all manner of sacrifice for the achievement of his great goal—the attainment of الکوثر.

4857

Important Words:

الابتر (one without issue) is derived from بتر which means, he cut off or cut off utterly or entirely. أبترہ means, he cut off his tail. أبتر means, any beast having the tail cut off; a short-tailed serpent; one in want or poor; defective, deficient, imperfect; suffering loss; from whom all good or prosperity is cut off; having no offspring or no male issue (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

It is very significant that in this verse enemies of the Holy Prophet have been emphatically referred to as ابتر i.e., having no male issue; while the historical fact is that all the sons of the Holy Prophet himself born before and after the revelation of this Surah died and he left no male issue after him. This shows that "ابتر" mentioned in the verse only means, one deprived of spiritual issues and not of sons commonly so called. In fact, it was God’s own design that the Holy Prophetshould leave no male issue as he was destined to be the spiritual father of a multitude of sons in all ages to the end of time, sons who were to be far more faithful, obedient and loving than the sons of any father. He was not only the spiritual father of the Faithful but in a sense the father also of all the Prophets of God before and after him. This is the significance of the verse ما کان محمد أبا احد من رجالکم ولکن رسول الله و خاتم النبین i.e. Muhammad is not (and will not be) the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets; (33:41). And this also seems to be the significance of the verse النبی أولی بالمومنین من أنفسھم و أزواجه أمھاتھم i.e. the Prophet is nearer to the believers than their ownselves and his wives are as mothers to them (33:7). Thus, it was not the Holy Prophet but his enemies who died issueless, since by joining the fold of Islam their sons became the spiritual issues of the Holy Prophet, who felt a sense of shame and humiliation at their pedigree being attributed to their own fathers.

The verse may also signify: "Surely, it is thy enemy who is cut off from all good or prosperity."