عَسَىٰ رَبُّكُمْ

10:14, 15.

Commentary:

It appears from the Bible that, like the followers of other Prophets of God, the followers of Moses were made to bear additional burdens of which they complained to Moses (Exod. 5:21). To that complaint a reference is made in this verse.

The word "land" mentioned in the verse refer not to Egypt but to the Holy Land which had been promised to the Israelites and which they inherited in accordance with the promise. The word may also mean "the earth" generally.

Though primarily the address in the words, that He may then see how you act, is to the Israelites of the time of Moses, the words possess a much wider application. They apply with equal force to succeeding generations as well.

It is noteworthy that similar words have been used with regard to Muslims also (10:15) and, like the Israelites, they have been told that God would make them successors in the land and would bestow upon them Khilafat and dominion, and then He would see whether they acted righteously in the earth. This resemblance also shows that Muslim dispensation is a counterpart of the Mosaic dispensation and that a time was to come when Muslims also were to become corrupt like the Jews. It is to this tragic fact that a reference has been made in the prayer, "Make us not of those upon whom Thy wrath has descended" (see note on 1:7).

Commentary:

After speaking of the utter destruction of the Israelites, the Quran in the present verse gives them a message of hope and informs them that, although so far as the Bible and the Jewish faith are concerned their fate is sealed forever and they can never hope to regain their departed glory, yet, outside the Mosaic Dispensation, God has opened to them a new way by following which they can be readmitted to His Mercy and Grace. That way is Islam and through it they can again rise to their former power and greatness (Deut. 33:1-3). They should avail themselves of this new opportunity and inherit Divine blessings. If, however, they refuse to benefit by this last opportunity, God’s wrath shall descend on them and they shall be consigned to everlasting perdition. While in these verses the Jews were told that according to the prophecies of their own Scriptures there was no future for them outside Islam, the Muslims have also been warned that, like the Jews, they too will be punished twice if they did not give up their evil ways. But they also threw this timely warning to the winds and the result was their disgrace and punishment. They, too, were twice punished. The first punishment overtook them at the fall of Baghdad when the barbarous hordes of Hulagu laid waste that great seat of learning and power. In the heyday of their glory Muslims married the beautiful women of Farghana. These women brought with them their idolatrous beliefs with the result that later generations of Muslims became infected with these beliefs and lost the respect they once had for their own religion and became lax in morals and discipline. This led to the invasion of Baghdad by the savage Tartar hordes who exceeded the Babylonian despoilers of Palestine in savagery and barbarity. Baghdad fell in 1258 A.D. and 1,800,000 Muslims are said to have been put to the sword. All members of the royal family were mercilessly butchered and for days the city was given over to pillage and arson and with the destruction of the Abbasid Empire, Muslim power in the east came to a most inglorious end. Islam, however, emerged triumphant from this dreadful ordeal. The victors became the vanquished and the humble servants of Islam. The second punishment was destined to overtake Muslims in the latter days. Its signs have already begun to appear. See also 17:105.

8:30; 48:6; 64:10.

Commentary:

The never-ceasing desire for perfection on the part of believers in Paradise as expressed in the words, "Our Lord perfect our light for us," shows that life in Paradise will not be a life of inaction. On the contrary, spiritual advance in Paradise will know no end, for as the believers will attain excellence, characteristic of a certain stage, they will not stop at that, but seeing in front of it a higher stage of excellence and thus finding that the stage at which they had arrived was not the highest stage, will desire the attainment of the next higher stage, and so on without end.

In short the believers will go on making advancement in Paradise and shall never recede a step. Their activity far from ceasing will rather increase. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said that in Paradise the believers will be imparted knowledge of new attributes of God which they will try to copy in themselves.

From the verse it further appears that after entering Paradise, the believers will seek maghfirah, i.e. "suppression of a defect." In this sense of maghfirah the verse means that the righteous will be continually praying to God for the attainment of perfection and complete immersion in divine light. They will be continually going upwards and will regard each state as defective in comparison with a higher one to which they will aspire and will, therefore, pray to God to suppress the defective state that they may be able to get to the higher one. This is the true significance of Istighfar of which the literal meaning is, "asking forgiveness for one’s lapses."