عِندِكَ

62:9.

Important Words:

مشیدة (strongly built) is derived from شاد meaning, he plastered (a wall, etc.) with the requisite material. شاد البناء means, he raised the building high. شادوا الدین means, they strengthened and exalted the religion. شیدہ means, he raised it high, namely, a place or a building; or he built it firmly and strongly and raised it high (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The words, Wheresoever you may be, death will overtake you, may either refer to the general physical law about the inevitability of death, meaning that when one must die sooner or later, there is no reason why one should be so afraid of death as to refuse to fight in a just cause; or they may be taken as particularly addressed to the hypocrites, who disobeyed the Divine command to fight, thinking that in this way they would be able to avoid death. The verse purports to say that God had decreed that they should suffer death and destruction, however well protected they might be.

It was customary with the hypocrites that when Muslims achieved a success, they attributed it to God, saying that since Islam was a divine religion, it was bound to prosper and succeed. But when a misfortune overtook Muslims, they declared that it was due to mistakes committed by the Prophet. The Quran says that from the viewpoint from which they ascribe success to God, failures are also ascribable to Him. By attributing success to God and failure to the Prophet, the hypocrites sought to discredit the Prophet and to lower him in the estimation of Muslims.

The words, Say, All is from Allah, point to the fact that both successes and misfortunes were foretold by the Holy Prophet (e.g. see 2:156-158). So even the failures which the hypocrites attributed to the Holy Prophet really constituted a proof of his truth. The expression, All is from Allah, is also true in this sense that God is the final controlling power in the universe and whatever good or evil befalls man is attributable either to the general law of nature ordained by God or to one or other of His special decrees.

4:109.

Important Words:

بیت (spends the night scheming) is derived from بات meaning, he passed or spent the night. بات زید نائما means, Zaid passed the night sleeping. بیت الامر means, he did or designed or schemed the thing at night. بیت رأیه means, he thought upon his opinion and concealed it, or he conceived it in his mind. بیت العدو means, he attacked the enemy, and took him by surprise by night (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The word "night" or "scheming by night" should not be taken too literally. The reference is to secret plotting, whether by night or during the daytime. As generally secret plotting is done at night, the word بیت has been used, the night time affording a sort of cover and secrecy.

Commentary:

This was the prayer which Abu Jahl, the leader of the disbelievers, offered to God at Badr and it was accepted. He prayed on that memorable day that God might destroy him and his party if the Prophet was in the right (Bukhari, ch. on Tafsir). Strange to say, not only were Abu Jahl and his companions punished at Badr by God but, as prayed for by Abu Jahl, even stones were rained down upon them; for, when at the throwing of a handful of pebbles by the Holy Prophet (8:18), there arose a strong wind, it literally rained upon the disbelieving host hard pebbles from the desert.

Commentary:

The construction of the verse does not seem to lend countenance to the conclusion generally considered derivable from it, viz. that Shu‘aib or Jethro agreed to marry one of his daughters to Moses in lieu of eight or ten years of service. The fact of the matter appears to be that Shu‘aib having grown very old needed an honest man to look after his flocks and Moses having been found as possessing the required qualifications was taken in service by him at the instance of one of his daughters. Eight or ten years were agreed upon as the tenure of service. Shu‘aib, however, being a holy man either himself realized or was informed by God that a great future lay before Moses. He, therefore, offered to marry one of his daughters to him and, desiring that his son-in-law should live with him for some time and benefit by his noble company, laid it down as one of the conditions of marriage that Moses should stay with him for eight or ten years. Thus it is not correct to say that Shu‘aib offered to marry his daughter to Moses in lieu of the latter serving him for eight or ten years. Whatever remuneration Moses might have received from Shu‘aib had nothing to do with the marriage proposal.

The flight of Moses from Egypt and his stay in Midian for ten years bears a striking resemblance to the residence of the Holy Prophet for ten years in Medina after his Hijrah from Mecca. Moses must have, in a large measure, benefited himself spiritually by his God-fearing and righteous father-in-law’s company just as his upbringing in the house of Pharaoh had equipped him with temporal knowledge. But the noble Prophet of Islam was indebted to no human being for the great treasures of spiritual and temporal knowledge possessed by him. He had received them direct from God.

The expression من عندک means, 'It would be an additional favour from you.'

9:93; 16:109; 63:4.

Commentary:

As the principal subject of the Surah is war, it naturally deals with three categories of men, viz. true believers, firm disbelievers and the hypocrites who vacillate between faith and disbelief. The verse under comment deals with the third category of men.

The expression ما ذا قال آنفا has a twofold meaning. A hypocrite being a double-faced person generally uses language susceptible of double meaning. This he does in order to extricate himself from an awkward position, wherein, should one construction of his speech land him in trouble, he might be able to avoid that consequence by putting quite a different construction on it. The above expression is an appropriate instance of the equivocal language used by the hypocrites of Medina. If one of them, after a meeting with the Prophet, happened to meet a Muslim, he would say "What was it that he said just now," meaning, what beautiful and highly useful things had the Prophet said. But if he chanced to meet a hypocrite like himself he would use the same expression but meaning "what non sense talk had the Prophet indulged in."