أُوتِىَ

3:85.

2:286; 3:85; 4:153.

Important Words:

اسباط (children) is derived from سبط. They say سبط الشعر i.e. the hair was or became loose and hanging. سبط المطر means, the rain was copious and extensive. سبط signifies the idea of length and extensiveness. شعر سبط means, hair that is long and not curly. سبط الکفین means, a generous man, literally one possessing long and open hands, because his helping hand extends to every needy person. A grandson is also called سبط (sibt) because his birth signifies increase of progeny. In a still wider sense, the word might signify progeny generally. The expression here refers to the twelve tribes of Israel named after the twelve sons of Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher (Gen. 35:23-26; 49:28).

Commentary:

The verse is addressed to Muslims who are enjoined to reply to Jews and Christians by saying that the central point in religion is belief in, and submission to, God; and so everything that comes from God must be accepted and it is simply foolish to say that a people believing in some Prophets of God need not believe in others. All Messengers of God and all revelations coming from Him must be accepted and no distinction is to be made between this Prophet and that or between this revelation and that, so far as belief in them is concerned. One Prophet may be higher in status than another and one revelation may be more important than another; but all of them must be accepted without discrimination. The words, to Him we submit ourselves, have been used as an argument in support of the above assertion. When we submit to God, everything coming from Him must be accepted.

It indeed redounds to the great credit of Islam that it is the only religion which recognizes the Prophets of all countries and all nations, whereas other faiths limit prophethood only to their own respective spheres. Naturally the Quran mentions only the names of those Prophets who were known to the Arabs to whom the message of Islam was first given; but it makes a general remark to the effect that, there is no people to whom a warner has not been sent (35:25).

As already pointed out, this verse should not be understood to mean that the Quran regards all Prophets to be equal in rank. In fact, the Quran clearly states that different Prophets possess different ranks, some of them being spiritually higher than others (2:254). The sentence, We make no difference between any of them, thus only means that a Muslim makes no distinction between the different Prophets in respect of their prophethood.

Some Christian critics have objected to the verse under comment and have demanded proof of the prophethood of Ishmael. But what proof is there, it may be asked, of the prophethood of Isaac? If the Bible testifies to the prophethood of Isaac, the Quran testifies to the prophethood of Ishmael. If the testimony of the Quran cannot be accepted as a proof for the prophethood of Ishmael, there is no earthly reason why the testimony of the Bible be accepted as a proof for Isaac’s prophethood. And even the Bible is not without evidence of the fact that God made a number of promises to Abraham about the future greatness of Ishmael and his progeny (see note on 2:130).

17:40.

Commentary:

The verse points out that the injunction regarding spending wealth in charity, which is the secret of national advancement, is based on wisdom. The word حکمة (wisdom) also alludes to the fulfilment of the prayer which Abraham had offered to God for the raising of a Prophet among the Meccans, who should teach them the Book and Wisdom (2:130).

The people who receive wisdom receive "an abundant good" and are thus sure to thrive and prosper if they act on it.

2:137; 2:286

Commentary:

The Jews refused to believe in non-Israelite Prophets as the words, obey none but him who follows your religion (3:74) show. In the present verse, the charge has been pressed home to Jews that whereas they rejected all but the Israelite Prophets, Islam requires its followers to believe in all the Prophets of God, irrespective of the country or the race or the community to which they belonged or of the time in which they lived. Again, Islam requires them not only to believe in the Prophets that have passed away but also in any that may appear in future. A great contrast indeed, between the catholicity of Islam and the narrow-mindedness of Judaism!

The words, We make no distinction between any of them, should not be understood to mean that Islam considers all Prophets to be of equal spiritual rank. This view is contrary to 2:254 in which some Prophets have been declared to possess a higher spiritual rank than others.

So the words refer only to discrimination as regards believing in them and not as regards their rank.

28:49.

Commentary:

The verse embodies the last argument or the last excuse of disbelievers in the present discussion. They say, "We will never believe in Divine revelation until we also receive revelation like unto the revelation of the Messengers of God. If God speaks to them, let Him speak to us also."

God answers this foolish objection by saying: "It is not to every man that God speaks; He speaks only to him whom He finds worthy of it and whom He selects for the purpose." As for those who make themselves deserving of humiliation and abasement, they cannot be honoured with messages from God. Their doom is only "humiliation and a severe punishment."

69:20; 84:8, 9.

Commentary:

The word امام (Leader) here means a spiritual Leader or a Prophet. On the Day of Judgement every people will be summoned along with their Prophet, for he will have to render an account of how he discharged his divine mission and how his people received and treated his Message (4:42; 16:85, 90; Bukhari, Kitabut-Tafsir).

According to Islam the right hand is a symbol of blessing while the left is a symbol of punishment. In the human body the right side enjoys a certain superiority over the left since the tissues of the right side generally are stronger than those of the left. The giving of the record of one’s deeds in one’s right hand as mentioned in this verse signifies that it will be a good and favourable record.

A certain preference for the right hand is a trait common among all races. Medical science has established the fact that the right hand of man is comparatively stronger than the left. Various explanations for this phenomenon have been offered by scientists, some of which are based on psycho-physics and others on social habits. At any rate among normal men the percentage of left-handed persons has been found to vary from 4 to 8, while among the mentally defective the percentage is much higher (Enc. Brit., 14th Edition, under Handedness).

It may well be concluded from these facts that the right hand is better suited for the performance of work than the left. So it is quite reasonable to regard the right arm as the symbol of strength. The receiving by believers of the records of works in their right hands may therefore be understood to point to the fact that they were industrious, diligent and self-sacrificing, while the receiving by disbelievers of their records in their left hands would signify that they were slow, lazy and selfish, the left hand being symbolic of weakness.

Moreover, the right hand is reserved for doing works which are generally regarded as clean while the left hand is reserved for unclean works. Thus the holding by believers of their records in their right hands would signify that their works were good and pure and the works of disbelievers were unclean and dirty as they would hold their records in their left hands.

According to some commentators of the Quran the word یمین (right hand) also signifies strength and power (69:46). According to this sense of the word the holding by believers of their records in their right hands would signify that they had taken hold of virtue with strength and resolution while the holding by disbelievers of their records in their left hands would signify that they did not strive after virtue with requisite strength and zeal.

The word یمین (right hand) also means a blessed thing as in the hadith کلتا یدی ربی یمین i.e. both the hands of my Lord are full of blessings. (Bihar, vol. 2, p. 503). In this sense the words, "whoso shall be given his book in his right hand" would symbolize that the believers’ record would be a blessed one.

The words, such will read their book, only point to a common habit of man. The possessor of a good record naturally reads it again and again while he whose record is bad conceals it and avoids reading it. See also v. 15 above. For the word فتیلا (a whit) see 4:50.

6:125.

Commentary:

It is customary with disbelievers in the time of every Prophet that they demand from him signs and miracles which had been shown by a previous Prophet, while the disbelievers of that very Prophet had also rejected him in spite of the fact that he had shown the same miracles which disbelievers in the time of the later Prophet demanded. The verse exposes the absurdity of this worn out demand of disbelievers and purports to say that they demand from the Holy Prophet the same teachings which were given to Moses while the spiritual needs and requirements of the Holy Prophet’s time are different from those of Moses and, therefore, their demand is foolish. Yet when they are told that prophecies which were made by Moses have been fulfilled in the person of the Holy Prophet and that the teachings of the Quran in many respects support and corroborate the teachings of Torah, they say that both the Quran and the Torah are two pieces of magic that support each other.

17:72; 45:30; 84:8-9.

Commentary:

Elsewhere in the Quran (56:28) the righteous are called "fellows or companions of the right hand." To be given one’s record in one’s right hand is a Quranic metaphor for having passed the test successfully.

56:42-43; 84:11-13.

Commentary:

To be given one’s record in one’s left hand, in Quranic terminology represents failure in a test. Elsewhere in the Quran (56:42) the guilty have been described as "fellows of the left hand."

17:72; 56:28; 69:20.

Commentary:

"The right hand" being a metaphor for power and strength, the verse means that those fortunate people who had acted upon the teachings of the Quran with patience and perseverance will be given their record in their right hand, signifying that they had lived up to its commandments to the best of their ability.

56:42; 69:26.

Commentary:

Those "who had thrown the Book of God behind their backs, i.e. those who had treated the Quran as a discarded thing" (25:31), will be given their record behind their backs. This will constitute a sign that they had not acted upon its teaching.