فَٰعِلِينَ

Important Words:

غیابة (bottom) is derived from غاب which means, he was or became absent; or distant and remote; or hidden and concealed. غیابة or غیبة means, that part of anything which veils or conceals one; the bottom of a well; covert or place of concealment of birds; a low or depressed piece of land or ground; also a grave (Lane & Aqrab).

جب (deep well) is derived from جب (jabba). They say جبه i.e. he cut it; or cut it off. جب (jubb) means, a well; or a well not cased with stone or the like; or a well containing much water; or a deep well; or a well that people have found, not one that they have dug; or a well that is wide or ample (Lane & Aqrab).

سیارة (travellers) is derived from سار which means, he went or passed along; or he marched, journeyed or departed by night or by day. سیارة means, one who travels or journeys much; a caravan; a company of persons journeying. السیارة is the name of the five planets viz. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

This verse embodies yet one more point of resemblance between Joseph and the Holy Prophet. Just as one of the brothers of Joseph opposed the proposal to slay him and suggested instead that he should be disposed of in some other manner, so when the plot to kill the Holy Prophet was mooted and hatched at Mecca, some of the plotters objected. Similarly, when the Meccans made a compact to boycott and starve the Holy Prophet and his followers to death, some of the citizens opposed this compact and finally broke it.

11:79.

Commentary:

The verse states that Lot offered to the infuriated people his daughters as hostages against any possible infringement on his part or that of his guests of the interests of the town. As his daughters were married to townsmen, he, their father, could do nothing against the interests of the town; and if he did anything of that sort, they could easily wreak vengeance on him through his daughters.

Some Muslim commentators, blindly following the story of the Bible (Gen. 19:8), have interpreted this verse as meaning that Lot offered those people his daughters for the gratification of their lust. This interpretation is absurd. No sensible man, much less a Prophet of God, would seek to deflect a man from one sinful act by suggesting to him the commission of another and more heinous sin. It is inconceivable that Prophet Lot should have offered his own daughters to those wicked people that they should satisfy their lust with them instead of with the strangers. Human imagination staggers at such a foolish and wicked idea. Some other commentators are of the opinion that, being an elderly man and a Prophet, Lot referred to the women of the tribe as his daughters, meaning that these people should go in unto their wives rather than gratify their lust unnaturally. This interpretation, though much more sensible than the Biblical story, is also not admissible being in conflict with the context (see also 11:79).

It may also be noted here that the words ان کنتم فاعلین (if you must do something) do not, according to Arabic idiom, mean "if you must commit sodomy." They simply mean, "if you must do something."

39:68.

20:56; 29:20; 30:12.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that at that time the great empires will be rolled up like the rolling up of written scrolls by a scribe i.e. they shall be destroyed. But taken in a metaphorical sense it may signify that through the Holy Prophet a complete transformation will come about and the old heaven will be rolled up and in its place a new heaven and a new earth will be created. And so it came to pass. The old order died and with the Holy Prophet a new and better order came into being. Never had heaven witnessed such a complete transformation in the lives of a people as it did in the Holy Prophet’s time.

The expression نعیدہ (so shall We repeat it) implies that the order brought into being by the Holy Prophet will receive a setback through the material outlook on life created by the godless and mechanistic Western civilization. But this setback will be temporary and a new spiritual awakening will be brought about by the selfless efforts of a great follower of the Holy Prophet (the Promised Messiah) and his devoted followers, and Islam will again emerge triumphant. The verse may also mean that at the time to which reference has been made in the preceding verses, great empires will be reduced to ashes and powerful nations will be destroyed and other nations will rise to power in their place.

Important Words:

لـھواً (pastime) is here taken by some (in the dialect of Yemen) to mean a 'son' or 'wife'. Taken in this sense of the word, the verse would mean, "If We had wished to take a son or wife, We should have made them of Our kind and not of human species." The verse constitutes an effective argument against the sonship of Jesus. The particle ان means both 'if' and 'not,' and the clause ان کنا فاعلین may mean (a) if We would do this; (b) We would not do this.

Commentary:

The substance of the verse is that it is inconsistent with the Dignity and Majesty of God that He should have created this universe without a great object. If its creation had not been intended to serve a great and sublime purpose, God would not have sent His messengers and prophets and would not have revealed His will to them. The very object of the creation of man demanded that when spiritual darkness spreads over the world, God should have sent a Messenger "to bring back the erring flock into the fold of the Master." It is implicit in the belief in the existence of God that the universe should have been created to serve a great and noble purpose.

29:25; 37:98.

Commentary:

Being unable to refute Abraham’s argument, no course was left open to his idolatrous people but to have recourse to persecuting and tormenting him and if possible to killing or burning him to death—indeed a very clear but mean confession of their discomfiture and defeat at Abraham’s hands. Similarly did the opponents of the Holy Prophet plot against him. The Quran says: And remember the time when the disbelievers plotted against thee that they might imprison thee or kill thee or expel thee (8:31).

Besides the verse under comment, at two other places in the Quran the plot against Abraham has been mentioned. In 29:25 we have: And the answer of his people was only that they said, 'slay him or burn him' and in 37:98 it is stated: they said, 'Build for him a structure and cast him into the fire.'

34:11; 38:19-20.

Important Words:

الجبال (the mountains) is the plural of جبل which is derived from جبل (jabala). جبله علی کذا means, God created him and adapted him to it. جبل (Jabalun) means, a mountain; a rocky tract; any rocky elevation; the lord or chief of a people; their learned man; a man who does not move from his place. جبال means, mountains, big or learned men; people living in mountains etc. (Lane & Aqrab). See also 13:32.

الطیر (the birds) means, a bird or birds. طائر which is the singular of الطیر means, a bird; an omen; the cause of actions good or bad; actions good or bad and their consequences; natural powers of man; a highly righteous and spiritual man (Lane & Aqrab). As a bird flies high in the air and builds its nest on lofty trees or mountains, therefore a man who soars high in the spiritual firmament is called a طائر in spiritual terminology. See also 3:50; 7:132 & 17:14.

Commentary:

This verse has been very much misunderstood and misinterpreted. The misunderstanding arises from the far-fetched construction placed upon it by some commentators. There is, however, nothing in the wording of the verse itself to justify the element of mystery introduced into it. A few simple words used metaphorically in order to add elegance and beauty to the diction of the verse have been distorted to render it a veritable riddle. The words "We subjected the mountains and the birds to celebrate God’s praise with David" have been taken literally to mean that the mountains and birds were under David’s control and when he sang the praises of God they actually joined with him in singing those praises. They simply mean that big men (الجبال) and highly spiritual men (الطیر) glorified God and sang Divine praises along with David. And if according to the verse, the mountains and birds were subjected to David there was nothing extraordinary in the mountains and the birds being subject to his control as at several other places in the Quran not only mountains and birds but all other things in the heavens and the earth—the sun, the moon, the stars, the day and the night, the animals, the birds, the rivers, the seas, the winds, the clouds etc., are stated to have been subjected to man (2:165; 7:55; 22:38 & 45:13-14). The word الجبال; in the present verse, as stated under Important Words above, signifies also mountainous territory or "people living in the mountains" as the name of a place sometimes stands for its people (12:83). Thus the subjection of "the mountains" to David may signify that he conquered and subjugated wild and savage mountain tribes. The Bible also refers to this fact. It says, "And Hiram, King of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons and they built David a house. So all the elders of Israel came to the King to Hebron; and King David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord and they appointed David King over Israel" ( II Sam. chap. 5). Thus the words, "We subjected the mountains and the birds to celebrate God’s praises with David" have been particularly used about David in the verse because he was a great conqueror and subduer of wild mountain tribes.

Similarly, celebration by birds and mountains of God’s praises should also occasion no surprise. Elsewhere in the Quran we read that all things, animate or inanimate, the angels, animals, birds, the heavens and the earth, even the forces of nature, sing the praises of God, only man cannot understand their glorification (13:14; 17:45; 21:20-21; 24:42; 59:2; 61:2; 62:2; & 64:2). The glorification of God by these things which is the carrying out by them of the duties assigned to them by God demonstrate: that God is perfect and completely free from all flaws, failings and frailties and so is His handiwork.

The word "birds" used in the verse may also signify actual birds. In this sense the reference would be that David made free use of birds for carrying messages in time of war which had been especially trained for this purpose. Or it may signify flocks of birds which followed David’s victorious armies and feasted on the dead bodies of his fallen foes. Lastly, the word "birds," may signify men of high determination and great resolve who are ever ready to scale great heights and are not afraid of difficulties and dangers in the cause of religion. In brief, the verse means to say that men of ordinary spiritual caliber had become highly spiritual and soared very high in the spiritual firmament through the purifying company of David.

The verse may also be rendered as, "We subjected the mountains and the birds to David; they all celebrated God’s praises." This rendering removes much misunderstanding and difficulty.

For a fuller explanation of this and the next three verses see 34:11-14 & 38:19, 20, 37, 38, 39.

The expression, "We gave Solomon the right understanding of the matter," has been used to show that Solomon’s policy of moderation and conciliation was right in the then obtaining circumstances. In this verse the Quran defends Solomon against the charge levelled at him by some Jewish writers of having pursued a weak policy which brought about the downfall of his dynasty after him. The words, however, should not be taken to mean that the strong policy adopted by David in his own time was wrong. Any misunderstanding leading to this inference has been dispelled by the following clause: "And to each of them We gave wisdom and knowledge," which makes it quite clear that the policies of both David and Solomon were best in the circumstances and quite suited to the particular occasion.