أَيْدِيَهُمْ

33:15.

9:5.

Important Words:

ارکسوا (fall headlong) is in the passive voice and the right translation of it would be, "are made to fall headlong", or "are overthrown" etc. but for the sake of clearness the word has been translated here in the active voice. ارکسوا is formed from رکس. They say رکس الشیء i.e. he turned the thing over or upside down. ارکس الشیء means, he turned the thing to its former state; he turned or threw it over upon its head; he reversed it or turned it back; he made the first part of it to be the last. أرکس الله عدوك means, may God turn thine enemy upon his head; or may He overthrow him or change or reverse his condition (Lane & Aqrab).

الفتنة (hostility) generally meaning, (1) persecution, (2) mischief, (3) discord and dissension, (4) civil war, etc., also means war, i.e. hostility (Lane). See also 2:192.

سلطان (authority) is the noun-infinitive from سلط which means, he or it overcame, prevailed or predominated; he became firm or established in superior power; he possessed power or dominion or sovereignty; he was or became sharp; it was or became hard or strong; he was or became chaste or perspicuous in speech, or eloquent and sharp in tongue. They say قد جعلت لك سلطانا علی اخذ حقی من فلان i.e. I have given you the power or authority to take my dues from such a one. سلطان means, strength, might, force or power; predominance; power or authority; the sovereign or ruling power; king or ruler; sharpness; hardness; proof or argument; evidence; plea (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The reference in this verse is to those people who had no alliance with Muslims or any tribe having an alliance with them. They were time-servers who awaited their opportunity. The difference between these people and those mentioned in the previous verse is that the latter had some sort of alliance with this or that party though they did not

possess the strength to assert themselves, while the former only sought security by deceitful means and hastened to make common cause with the enemies of Islam whenever invited to do so. Fighting was enjoined against this class of people, unless they entered into a treaty of peace with Muslims and loyally observed its terms.

5:111.

Commentary:

The verse is considered by some commentators to refer to an incident which took place when the Holy Prophet was returning from Tabuk. It is said that on this occasion six hypocrites lay in ambush to kill him, but God saved him by disclosing the plot to him. The verse may, however, not necessarily be applied to any particular incident. It may be taken to refer generally to the protection which God vouchsafed to Muslims from the aggressive attacks of their enemies. By "a people" is here primarily meant the disbelievers of Mecca, who spared no pains to extirpate Islam and the Muslims, but the word is also general in its application.

59:20.

Important Words:

المنافقون (the hypocrites) is derived from نافق which is derived from نفق. They say نفق الشیء i.e. the thing became diminished; or it became spent up and perished. نفقت السلعة means, the merchandise was in much demand. نفقت السوق means, the market became brisk, its goods selling quickly. نفق الرجل means, the man expired. نفق الیربوع means, the rat came out of its hole in the earth. انفق ماله mean, he spent freely and constantly so as to reduce or exhaust his wealth. نافق فی المحبة means, he acted hypocritically in respect of love. نافق الرجل فی الدین means, the man concealed disbelief in the heart and expressed belief with his tongue. نافق الیربوع means, the rat known as yarbu‘ betook itself to its hole. النافقاء means, a hole in the earth having two open ends which the rat enters concealing one end and leaving the other exposed, so that in time of danger it may avail itself of the concealed end and escape through it. النفق means, a hole or passage through earth leading up to some place through an opening at the other end. النفاق means, entering faith through one door and leaving it through another; acting hypocritically. المنافق means, one who conceals disbelief in his heart and expresses belief with his tongue; a hypocrite (Aqrab, Taj & Mufradat). Though hypocrites have been mentioned in the Quran as early as in 2:9, the word منافق(hypocrite) has been first used in 4:62.

نسیھم (He has neglected them). نسیان generally meaning "forgetfulness", does not always signify the act of forgetting. Truly speaking, نسیان means, one’s ceasing to think of a person or a thing either owing to loss of memory or owing to negligence. The Quran says لا تنسوا الفضل بینکم i.e. do not cease (lit. do not forget) to do good to one another. In fact, when the word نسیان is used about God, it never means "forgetting" but simply cutting off connection by way of punishment or ceasing to think of a person with feelings of love and affection (Mufradat).

Commentary:

This verse mentions some of the signs by which hypocrites can be distinguished from true believers. These signs are: (1) that the hypocrites form a sort of inner society among themselves, shunning true believers and being inter-connected with one another; (2) that they enjoin evil; (3) that they forbid good; (4) that they do not spend in the cause of God, keeping their hands closed; (5) that they neglect Allah and His commandments; (6) that, as a consequence, God too neglects them and they do not enjoy Divine help in their works; and (7) that they are disobedient to God, always seeking to evade His behests.

51:28-29.

Important Words:

لوط (Lot) may etymologically be taken to have been derived from لاط. They sayلاط الشیء i.e. he concealed the thing. لاط بهmeans, it (the thing) stuck or adhered to it. لوطه بالطیب (lawwata-hu) means, he smeared him or it with much perfume. The Prophet Lot, who was the contemporary of Prophet Abraham, was the ancestor of the Palestinian peoples, Moab and Ammon. As the son of Haran and the grandson of Terah, he was Abraham’s nephew. He joined Abraham in the land of Canaan and in the time of famine went with him to Egypt. He preached to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah but they refused to listen to him and ridiculed and persecuted him; and though Abraham, to whom Lot was a junior and subordinate Prophet prayed for these wicked people and interceded with God on their behalf, they were destroyed on account of their iniquities and transgression (Lane, Enc. Bri. & Jew. Enc.).

Commentary:

Abraham at first took the "messengers" to be ordinary way-farers, but when they refrained from eating of the roasted calf he had placed before them (see the preceding verse), he realized that they were on some special mission which he had failed to understand. He knew that as ordinary wayfarers they could not refuse his hospitality, for wayfarers in that arid land entirely depended on the hospitality of the inhabitants for their food.

The words, conceived a fear of them, do not mean that Abraham was afraid of the strangers but that, when they did not partake of the food, he feared that he might have done something against the etiquette of hospitality and thus had displeased them. He did not, however, express his fear, for such an expression would have implied that he perhaps took them to be mean and greedy. The guests, it appears, read Abraham’s perturbed state of mind from the uneasy expression of his face, so they at once removed his anxiety by telling him that they were in no way displeased and that the reason why they did not partake of food was that their dreadful mission had made them disinclined to eat.

This answer of the visitors also shows that they were not angels; for had they been angels, they would have said that being not human they could not partake of the food.

9:70; 40:32; 50:13-15.

Important Words:

نبأ (tidings) is the noun-infinitive, from نبأ (naba’a). They say انباہ ایاہ i.e. he informed him of it. نبأ means, information or a piece of information; an announcement; news or tidings; an account; a narrative or story; an announcement of great utility, from which results either great knowledge or predominance of opinion; news which fills the heart of a person with horror and makes it tremble (Lane, Aqrab & Kulliyat).

ایدیھم (their hands). ایدی is the plural of ید which among other things means, the arm from the shoulder-joint to the extremities of the fingers; palm of the hand; honour; dignity; power; predominance or mastery; good or favour done to a person (Aqrab & Lane). See also 5:65; 9:29.

Commentary:

The words, and those after them. None knows them now save Allah, clearly indicate that Prophets were also raised among nations other than the progeny of Abraham, for, as the verse makes clear, the tribes of ‘Ad and Thamud were followed by some about whom None knows now save Allah, whereas the Prophets that appeared among the progeny of Abraham have been mentioned both in the Quran and the Bible. So the words, None knows them now save Allah, evidently refer to Prophets other than those that appeared among the descendants of Abraham. The words signify that the Prophets referred to have not been mentioned in any of the revealed Books which have remained partially or wholly intact.

The words, they turned their hands to their mouths, have been taken by some commentators to mean that disbelievers turned their hands to their own mouths in amazement at the high-sounding claims of the Prophets. To express wonder in this way is really a form of derision. In this sense the expression would mean that disbelievers treated the Prophets of God with contempt. The words may, however, also mean that disbelievers put their hands on their mouths in a way so as to wish the Prophets to be silent and cease talking about their claims. It is a general practice that when a person desires another person to keep silent, he sometimes puts his hand or occasionally one of his fingers on his own mouth as a sign for the other person to keep silent.

Taking the word ید in the sense of favour or gift, the expression would mean that disbelievers threw the favours of the Prophet in their faces, telling them to keep their teachings to themselves as they (the disbelievers) did not want them. The words that follow support this meaning.

Commentary:

The words "after He had given you victory over them," may signify that in view of the circumstances in which the Muslims were then placed and of the far-reaching results it produced, the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah was tantamount to a great victory. The words may also refer to the victories that God had granted to Muslims before they came to Hudaibiyyah—the victory at Badr, the safe return of Muslims and the Holy Prophet to Medina from Uhud after they had been placed in a very dangerous and delicate situation, and the complete frustration of the Meccans in their evil designs to destroy Islam in the Battle of the Ditch when they were repulsed with severe loss, etc. In a sense these were all victories of believers over disbelievers.

Important Words:

یثقفو کم (get the upper hand of you) is derived from ثقف and ثقفه means, he perceived it or attained it by deed or by knowledge; he reached him; he found him; he overtook him; he gained mastery over him; be overcame him and got possession of him (Lane).

Commentary:

The verse indicates how bitter the feelings of disbelievers are towards Muslims. They would use all means, their hands and tongues, etc. and would spare no effort to harm Muslims, and the greatest desire of their hearts is to see them revert to disbelief.