وَنَزَّلْنَا

4:42; 16:85.

10:38; 12:112.

Commentary:

This verse brings to completion the theme of the preceding verses and purports to say that when on the Day of Judgement various Prophets will present their own examples to establish the guilt of disbelievers, the Holy Prophet also will be presented as a witness against the latter. Disbelievers will be told that when the Holy Prophet who was like them and was one of them eschewed all idolatrous practices and succeeded not only himself in winning the pleasure of God but also led many others to the goal of their life, why could not they benefit by his example? Was this not due to his belief in the Divine teaching which was revealed to him and their rejection of that teaching and their refusal even to recognize its need?

The verse then proceeds to describe the eminent qualities of the Quran and says that it contains an exposition of all the spiritual needs of man and of the means which attract the Grace and Mercy of God.

The words کل شیء (everything) should not be understood to mean everything absolutely, but only all those things that pertain to the spiritual needs of man. So the verse means to say that all fundamental and basic principles which are necessary for the moral and spiritual development of man are embodied in the Quran. The fact that the exposition and explanation of some injunctions and principles is to be found in the Hadith may not be understood to contradict this claim of the Quran. The Hadith contains only explanations and expositions of the Quranic teaching and nothing over and above it or in opposition to it. The Holy Prophet was the greatest exponent of the Quran and so what he said in explanation of a certain injunction of the Quran was perfectly in harmony with it and was free from the possibility of error. This view is also corroborated by the Quran itself (53:4). Indeed they are in grievous error who say that the Prophet was an ordinary mortal like them and therefore they were not bound by all the interpretations, expositions and explanations of the Quranic verses given by him and that they could explain and interpret the Quran as well as he.

2:51; 14:7; 44:31-32.

19:53; 20:13; 28:31; 79:17.

Important Words:

المن (manna). They say من علیه i.e. he bestowed a favour on him. من which is infinitive noun signifies bestowing favour upon a man or doing good to him. المن means, (1) anything which comes to a man without much effort on his part; (2) a favour; (3) honeydew (Aqrab). Dr. Jesenius in his dictionary has also referred to المن as having been fromمن (manna) and means, a favour or bounty. See also 2:58.

السلوی is derived from سلا. They say سلا عن الشیء i.e. he was satiated with the thing. سلوی is (1) a whitish bird resembling a quail; (2) anything which gives a man satisfaction or contentment, (3) honey (Aqrab). See also 2:58.

Commentary:

The Israelites had lived long in bondage under the heartless tyranny of the Pharaohs and consequently had come to lose all those manly qualities that go to make a people hardy, brave and courageous. According to the divine scheme of things they were destined to conquer and rule over Canaan. Therefore after Moses had taken them out of Egypt they were made to live in the arid and barren region of Sinai in order that they might become used to a free and hard life and thus acquire and develop those qualities which were so essential for a great future that lay in store for them. But having lived in bondage for a long time they had lost all initiative and had become used to a life of lethargy and lassitude. So when they saw that they would have to live in the wilderness where no amenities of life were to be found and even food was lacking, they were utterly dismayed and fretted and fumed and quarrelled with Moses saying: "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Exod. 16:3). God heard the murmurings of the Israelites and commanded Moses to tell those ungrateful people: "At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God" (Exod. 16:12). And how this Divine promise was fulfilled has been described in the Bible as follows:

And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. (Exod. 16:13-15).

This was the food which in answer to the murmurings of the Israelites God, out of His infinite grace and mercy, bestowed upon them in the wilderness of Sinai and which they were given without much effort or labour on their part, and which was found when stark hunger seemed to stare them in the face, and the fact of its having been found in that place and condition did, indeed, constitute a great miracle. It is to this incident that reference has been made in the verse under comment.

The manna has also been referred to in a saying of the Holy Prophet, viz. الکمأة من المن i.e. the truffle is one of the things included in the manna (Bukhari). In Lane’s Lexicon we have the following explanation for manna under the word ترنجبین (turanjabin): A kind of manna: the manna of the thorny plants called by the Arabs the haj, and hence by European botanists Alhagi; according to Dr. Boyle it is a sweetish juice which exudes from the Alhagi maurorum, crystallizes into small granular masses, and is usually distinguished by the name of Persian manna; a kind of dew that falls mostly in Khurasan and Mawara an-Nahr and in our country, mostly upon the haj; the best thereof is that which is fresh or moist and white (Ibn Sina), the من or manna mentioned in the Quran (p.306).

24:44; 25:49.