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For the English Commentary of the Light of Holy Qur’ān

www.maaref-foundation.com/light.htm

E-mail: enlightening_commentary@yahoo.com

All rights reserved by the Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) Library

Title: An English Commentary into the Light of the Holy Qur’ān

Compiler: A Group of Muslim Scholars and " Copyright 1998 Kamal Faghih Imani "

Translator: Mr. Sayyid ‘Abbās Sadr-‘āmelī

Published by: The Scientific and Religious Research Center

Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) Public Library, under the direction of

Ayatullah Allamah Mujāhid Al-Haj Sayyid Kamāl Faghīh Īmānī.

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Number of Copies in this Print: 6,000

First Edition: 2009 A.D. , 1388 / 1430 A.H.

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Part 22 (continued)

Sura As-Saba’

(The Sabā)

No. 34, (Revealed at Mecca)

54 verses in 6 Sections

“… and He is the Wise, the Aware.”

It is because of His vast wisdom that this surprising system governs over the world, and it is because of His Knowledge and awareness that everything has been located in its own place, and whatever thing a being needs, it is available for it (him).

The commentators have discussed very much about the objective meaning of ‘the praise of Allah in Hereafter’.

Some of them have said that although there is no duty for people in the Hereafter, the servants of Allah will eagerly praise Him there and glorify Him, and they will take pleasure by praising Him.

Some others have said: the people of Paradise will praise Him for His grace, while the people of Hell will do it for His justice.

Sometimes it is said: the people who are in this world, because of the various curtains over their hearts and thoughts, mostly have not a sincere praise, but in Hereafter, where the curtains are removed and according to the sentence: “On that Day the Sovereignty will be Allah’s; …” and everything will be made manifest for everybody, all of them will begin praising Him with a perfect sincere intention.

Also in this world human beings may become neglectful and, imagining some beings as independent of the Essence of Allah, praise them. But in Hereafter, where the relation of all to His Pure Essence is like the rays of sunshine to the sun and it will be made manifest, no one will praise aught but Him.

Moreover, the holy Qur’ān has repeatedly said that the people of Paradise will praise Him there. For example: “… and the close of their cry (will be): ‘(All) praise is (only) Allah’s, the Lord of the Worlds’.”(1)

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In another occurrence, upon the time when the believers enter the eternal gardens of Paradise, it says: “And they will say: ‘(All) praise is (only) Allah’s Who has removed from us (all) sorrow, …”(1)

This praise is expressed not only by the tongues of human beings and angels, but also it can be heard from all the particles of the world of existence, and there is no being but praises and glorifies Him.

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}2{ یَعْلَمُ مَا یَلِجُ فِی الأَرْضِ وَمَا یَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا یَنزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَآءِ وَمَا یَعْرُجُ فِیهَا وَهُوَ الرَّحِیمُ الْغَفُورُ

2. “He knows whatever goes down into the earth and whatever comes out of it, and whatever comes down from the heaven and whatever goes up to it; and He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.”

He knows the men who have raised from it; the springs that gush out from it; the gases come from inside of it; the volcanoes emerge from it; the insects which have nests in the earth and originate from it; and, in short, He is aware of all the creatures that come out of the depths of the ground, whether we know or we do not know.

Then the verse adds that He also knows whatever comes down from the sky, and whatever goes up to it, among them are the drops of rain, the life giving rays of the sun, the powerful waves of revelation and heavenly religious affairs, the angels who come down to the earth in order to convey the messengership or to perform other things, the heavenly rays which come from beyond the atmosphere unto the earth globe, the piercing flames and wandering meteorites which are attracted toward the earth. Allah is aware of all of them. It continues saying:

“… and whatever comes down from the heaven and whatever goes up to it; …”

Allah also knows the servants’ deeds which ascend to the heaven; of the angels, that after fulfilling their duty, return to the heaven; of the Satans that go to the heavens to eavesdrop; of the branches of thick tall trees; of the vapours that rise from the sea and form the pieces of cloud in the sky; of the moan of an oppressed that ascends to the heaven. Yes, He knows all of these things.

Is there anyone to be aware of these affairs but He? Can the knowledge of all learned men among human beings dominate a part of His knowledge? So, at the end of the verse, it says:

“… and He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.”

Allah being qualified by these two attributes is either for the sake that among the things ascend to the heaven there are

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the deeds of the servants and their souls, and it is He Who takes them under the cover of His mercy and forgiveness.

Or it is for the sake that the descent of all the heavenly blessings and merits are produced by His Mercy; and the righteous deeds of the believing servants, which, basing on the Qur’ānic sentence: “… it is He Who exalts the righteous deeds …,”(1), ascend up and will be involved of His forgiveness.

Or, it says that those who so thank for these blessings deserve His mercy, and those who are faulty, if do not exceed the limits, will have forgiveness.

Shortly speaking, the above verse has a vast meaning in all its dimensions and it must not be limited in one side.

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}3{ وَقَالَ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا لاَ تَأْتِینَا السَّاعَةُ قُلْ بَلَی وَرَبّ-ِی لَتَأْتِیَنَّکُمْ عَالِمِ الْغَیْبِ لاَ یَعْزُبُ عَنْهُ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ فِی السَّمَاوَاتِ وَلاَ فِی الأَرْضِ وَلآ أَصْغَرُ مِن ذَلِکَ وَلآ أَکْبَرُ إِلاَّ فِی کِتَابٍ مُّبِینٍ

3. “And those who disbelieve say: ‘The Hour (of Judgment) shall not come upon us.’ Say: ‘Yes! By my Lord, the Knower of the unseen, it shall certainly come upon you, from Him is not hidden the weight of (even) an atom in the heavens nor in the earth, and neither is aught smaller than that, nor greater, but (all) is in a manifest Book.”

But, in view of the fact that the evidences of Hereafter are manifest, by means of a decisive sentence, and in the form of stating the conclusion, the Qur’ān orders the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) to declare:

“… Say: ‘Yes! By my Lord, the Knower of the unseen, it shall certainly come upon you, …”

The emphasis is on the word ‘Lord’, because the Hereafter is one of the affairs of Lordship. How is it possible that Allah is the cherisher of human beings and makes them progress alongside the path of development but in the midway He leaves them and, by death, everything comes to an end, while man’s life becomes aimless and his creation would become naught.

This very subject has been emphasized on in Sura At-Taqābun, No. 64, verse 7, where it says: “The unbelievers think that they will not be raised up (for Judgment). Say: ‘Yes, by my Lord, you shall surely be raised up; then shall you be told (the Truth) of all that you did. …”

And since one of the objections of the opponents of Resurrection was that when the man’s body becomes dust and its particles will be scattered around, who can recognize them, and gather them, and return them to life again? On the other hand, who can keep the account of all the deeds of the servants, hidden and manifest, inward and outward, and reckon them in a proper time? So, in the continuation of the verse, the Qur’ān adds:

“… from Him is not hidden the weight of (even) an atom in the heavens nor in the earth, …”

The Qur’ānic word /ya‘zub/ is derived from /‘uzūb/ which originally means: ‘going far from the family for finding a pasture’. The verse continues saying:

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“… and neither is aught smaller than that, nor greater, but (all) is in a manifest Book.”

Thus, neither the atoms of the man’s body scattered about in the earth nor their being mixed with other creatures, nor even the entrance of these parts into the body of other men by means of food stuffs, none can create any problem for their being returned together in Hereafter.

Their deeds will remain in this world, too, though their forms change, and He is well aware of all these things. Similar to this meaning is also recited in Sura Qāf, No. 50, verses 3 and 4, where the Qur’ān says: “What! When we die and become dust (shall we live again?) that is a (sort of) Return far (from our understanding)” “We already know how much of them the earth takes away; with Us is a Record guarding (the full account).”

Concerning the objective meaning of the Qur’ānic phrase /kitābun mubīn/ (a manifest Book), many commentators have said it is ‘The Protected Tablet’. But there is another question asking: what is the Protected Tablet? As we have said before, the most probable meaning which can be stated for it is that it is the very tablet of the infinite knowledge of Allah wherein everything is recorded, and no change will occur in it.

The vast world of existence is also a reflection of this Protected Tablet, because all the particles of ourselves and all our sayings and deeds will remain protected in it, though their appearance will outwardly change, but they will never vanish.

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}4{ لِیَجْزِیَ الَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ اُوْلَئِکَ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ وَرِزْقٌ کَرِیمٌ

4. “That He may reward those who believe and do righteous deeds, for such is forgiveness and a bountiful provision.”

‘A bountiful provision’ is in the sense of any worthy sustenance, and the vastness of its concept is so much that it envelops all the Divine merits, even the bounties which no eye has ever seen and no ear has ever heard of and nobody has thought of.

In other words, Paradise, with all its spiritual and material bounties, is found in this word.

Some commentators have rendered this Qur’ānic word, /karīm/, as two good and painless things, but it seems that its meaning is vaster than that.(1)

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}5{ وَالَّذِینَ سَعَوْ فِی ءَایَاتِنَا مُعَاجِزِینَ اُوْلَئِکَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مِن رّ ِجْزٍ أَلِیمٌ

5. “And those who strive hard in invalidating Our signs, challenging (us), for such will be a chastisement of a painful wrath.”

with the term of /’alīm/ (painful), and it refers to the kinds of spiritual and bodily painful chastisements.

Some commentators have paid attention to this point that here at the time of stating the bounties of the people of Heaven, the Qur’ān has not applied the Arabic word /min/ (of) to be evidence that those bounties are vast, while this word has been applied for the chastisement in order to be a sign of a relative limitation and the statement of His Mercy.

The Arabic term /sa‘aw/ is derived from the word /sa‘y/ in the sense of any effort and endeavour. Here it means to strive for rejecting and denial of the Divine revelations and hindering people from embracing the religion of Allah.

The Arabic term /mu‘ājizīn/ is derived from /‘ajaza/ in the sense of ‘to make impotent’, and in these instances it is used for those who run away from someone in a way that he cannot have dominance over them. It is evident that this quality mentioned for the guilty is for the imagination they used to practically show. Their action was similar to the act of the persons who thought they could commit whatever crime they desired to do and they would escape from the realm of the Power of Allah.

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}6{ وَیَرَی الَّذِینَ اُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ الَّذِی اُنزِلَ اِلَیْکَ مِن رَبّ-ِکَ هُوَ الْحَقَّ وَیَهْدِی اِلَی صِرَاطِ الْعَزِیزِ الْحَمِیدِ

6. “And those who have been given the knowledge see that what has been sent down to you from your Lord is the truth, and guides to the path of the Mighty, the Praised.”

confining its meaning to them alone has no evidence, but, on the contrary regarding to the Arabic verb /yarā/ (see), which is in present tense, and also with regard to the vast concept of the sentence which says: “Those who have been given the knowledge” it envelops all the scholars and knowledgeable ones in any age and in any place.

And if we see that in the commentary of Ali-ibn-’Ibrāhīm this sentence has been rendered into Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.), it is, in fact, the statement of complete and perfect expansion of it.

Yes, any scholar, who contemplates on the content of this heavenly Book with no bigotry, consisting of its meaningful gnosis, good ordinances, wise advices, and abundant shaking admonitions, as well as its wonderful histories, and scientific miraculous discussions, knows that all of them attest to the legitimacy of these verses.

Nowadays, there have been published different books about Islam and the Qur’ān by the eastern and western scholars in which there can be found some very clear and expressive confessions upon the greatness of Islam and the truthfulness of the abovementioned verse.

The application of the Qur’ānic phrase /huwal-haqq/ (it is the truth) in the verse is an inclusive expression which adapts to the whole content of the Qur’ān, because ‘truth’ is the very concrete reality and the external existence, viz., the content of the Qur’ān is consistent with the laws of creation the realities of the world of existence, and the world of humanity.

And since it is such, it leads man toward the path of Allah, Who is both the Mighty and the Praised; that is, in the meantime that He is Mighty and has no failure, He is worthy of any kind of praise. He is not like the powerful men who

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when they sit on the throne of force, they take the path of cruelty, oppression, and monopolistic manner.

Similar to this meaning is recited in Sura ’Ibrāhīm, No. 14, verse one which says: “… (This is) a Book which We have sent down to you so that, by their Lord’s permission, you lead out the people from the darkness (of ignorance) into the light (of faith), into the way of the Mighty, the Praised (One).”

It is clear that the One Who is both Mighty, and worthy of praise, and Aware, and kind, His way is the most secure ways and the straightest ones, and those who pave His path approach themselves to the source of power and all sorts of praised attributes.

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}7{ وَقَالَ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا هَلْ نَدُلُّکُمْ عَلَی رَجُلٍ یُنَبّ-ِئُکُمْ اِذَا مُزّ ِقْتُمْ کُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ اِنَّکُمْ لَفِی خَلْقٍ جَدِیدٍ

7. “And those who disbelieve say (in ridicule): ‘Shall we point out to you a man who informs you (that) when you are scattered the utmost scattering (even then) you shall be certainly (raised) into a new creation?’”

seek for the truth. So this was something which was counted very dangerous for the chiefs of disbelievers; therefore they insisted to wipe out the thought about Resurrection and the reward or retribution of deeds from the people’s mind in any way they could.

They used to say: was it possible that those rotten bones and those scattered dusts that the winds had taken its atoms into different directions one day come together and become alive again?

Or that they called the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) ‘a man’ with an indefinite form in order to despise him.

But they had forgotten that, at the beginning, we were also as some separate scattered articles. Every drop of the existing water in our body had lied in a corner of the earth. Then, in the same way that Allah gathered them at the beginning, He is also capable to do it again at the end.

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}8{ أَفْتَرَی عَلَی اللَّهِ کَذِباً أَم بِهِ جِنَّةٌ بَلِ الَّذِینَ لاَ یُؤْمِنُونَ بِالأَخِرَةِ فِی الْعَذَابِ وَالضَّلاَلِ الْبَعِیدِ

8. “Has he forged a lie against Allah or there is madness in him? Nay! Those who do not believe in the Hereafter are in torment and are straying far (away from the truth).”

But the question is that why does it say that they are in punishment and straying now?

This is for the sake that there are some difficulties and events in the life that, without having faith in Hereafter, man cannot tolerate them.

Verily if the life were limited to these very few days of the lifetime in this world, the consideration of the death would be as horrible nightmare for all persons. That is why the deniers of Resurrection are always in a kind of worrying anxiety and a painful punishment, while the believers in Resurrection count death as a door to the lasting world and a means for breaking the cage of this life and being delivered from this prison.

Yes, belief in Resurrection gives peace and tranquillity to man. It often makes difficulties tolerable, and causes donation, devotion, and self-sacrificing for man to be easy.

In principle, those who counted Resurrection as evidence upon mendacity and insanity, as the result of their disbelief and ignorance, they encountered the punishment of moral darkness and far aberration.

Some commentators have pointed out that this punishment is a hint to the punishment in Hereafter, but the apparent of the holy verse shows that just now they are in punishment and aberration in this world.

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}9{ أَفَلَمْ یَرَوْا اِلَی مَا بَیْنَ أَیْدِیهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُم مِنَ السَّمَآءِ وَالأَرْضِ اِن نَّشَأْ نَخْسِفْ بِهِمُ الأَرْضَ أَوْ نُسْقِطْ عَلَیْهِمْ کِسَفاً مِنَ السَّمَآءِ اِنَّ فِی ذَلِکَ لاَیَةً لِکُلّ ِ عَبْدٍ مُنِیبٍ

9. “Have they not then observed what is before them and what is behind them of the heavens and the earth? If We please We will make them sink into the earth or We drop down upon them lamps from heaven. Verily in that is a sign to every penitent servant.”

verse 82; and also there are Sura Asrā’, No. 17, verse 99; and Sura Qāf, No. 50, verses 6 and 7.

By the way, this sentence is a premise for threatening this group, the zealous dark hearted group who insist to shut their eyes unto all the facts. So, next to that, it says:

“… If We please We will make them sink into the earth…”

It can happen that when an earthquake occurs and the earth splits, they may be buried inside of it. The verse continues saying:

“… or We drop down upon them lamps from heaven. …”

In this case, those lamps of stone may destroy them, their selves, their houses, and their lives altogether.

Yes, in this matter, there is a clear sign unto the Power of Allah and His ability over everything, but this sign is only for every servant who returns toward Allah and utilizes his thought. The verse continues:

“… Verily in that is a sign to every penitent servant.”

During his lifetime, everybody has seen some examples of earthquakes, eclipses of the moon and sinking things down into the earth, or he has heard about them. Some persons may have seen or heard of the fall of some aeroliths from above atmosphere, or as the result of falling rocks from the mountains because of thunder bolts, or volcanoes and the like. Any intellectual person knows that the occurrence of these affairs is possible in any time and in any place. If the earth is calm and the sky is safe and sound for us, it is because of the Power and command of Allah. How can we deny His ability in the erection of Resurrection while we are under His power? Or how can we escape from the realm of His Government?

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“And certainly We gave David an excellence from Us, …”

The Arabic word /fadl/ has a vast concept which envelops all of the bounties Allah (s.w.t.) had bestowed on David (a.s.), and mentioning it in an indefinite form, is evidence upon its greatness.

David was bestowed many merits, whether material or spiritual ones, from the side of Allah that the verses of the Qur’ān explain them. Once it says: “And certainly We gave David and Solomon knowledge and they both said: ‘Praise belongs to Allah, Who has favoured us above many of His believing servants’.”(1)

In another occurrence, the Qur’ān emphasizes particularly on their awareness from animals’ communication and it refers to it as a great favour, where it says: “… ‘O’ people! We have been taught the languages of the birds, and we have been granted of everything; verily this is the manifest favour’.”(2)

The different miracles, which will be mentioned in the commentary of the verse under discussion, are a part of those favours. Moreover, the beautiful song, the ability of judging justly, which is referred to in Sura Sād, are counted as another part of this divine favour. And most important of all is the favour of prophethood and messengership that Allah granted to David.

However, after this ambiguous hint, the holy Qur’ān explains it, and a part of the spiritual favours and some things of the material favours of David are detailed as follows:

“… (saying:) ‘O’ mountains! Sing you (the praise of Allah) along with him, and (you) the birds (too), …”

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The Arabic word /’awibbī/ originally is derived from the term /ta’wīb/ in the sense of preponderance and turning the sound in the throat of a person. This Arabic term is sometimes used in the sense of repentance, too, because its reality is returning unto Allah.

All the particles of the world, of course, entirely say the glorification of Allah and praise Him, whether someone like David does the same with them, or not, yet the privilege of David was in this that at the time of singing loudly and changing his inward murmuring into outwardly singing in the same way that concerning the glorification of pebbles in the Prophet’s hand has also been mentioned in the Islamic narrations.

Imam Sādiq (a.s.) in a tradition said: “Verily David went out (to the farms and deserts) while he was reciting Zabūr, and when he was reciting Zabūr there was no mountain, no stone, and no bird but murmured it with him.”(1)

Next to mentioning this spiritual favour, the Qur’ān refers to a material favour, where it says:

“… and We softened the iron for him,”

It may be said that Allah taught David, in a miraculous way, how to soften the iron in a manner that he could produce some thin but strong iron bars for waving and making a coat of mail. Or it may be said that before David, in order to defend in the battles, the plates of iron were used which were both heavy and when they fastened them to their bodies, they were so stable and inflexible that made the strivers very inconvenient. Until then, none could make anything like armour from some stable narrow iron bars that could be put on easily over the

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body like clothing and could be harmonious and soft with the movements of the body. But the apparent of this holy verse shows that it was by the command of Allah that iron became miraculously soft in the hand of David. It does not matter that the same One Who gave the property of softening the iron to the hot furnace, gave the same property in another form to the David’s fingers. Some Islamic narrations have pointed to this meaning, too.(1)

In a tradition it is cited that Allah sent revelation to David, saying: “You are a good servant save that you get your sustenance from public treasury.” Then David wept for forty days (and asked Allah to lead him somehow). So, Allah softened iron for him and he made armour …, and in this way he did not need to use from public treasury.(2)

It is true that the use of public treasure is for those who serve the society without demanding any wage, and remove the important difficulties, but it is better that a person both deliver this service and, if it is possible for him, subsists through manual labour, David wanted to be such a kind of outstanding servant.

However, David utilized this ability that Allah had granted him in the best way, i.e., making a means used in the Holy war for protection against the enemies. He never profited from it in the ordinary means of life, but on the contrary, according to some narrations, besides running his own simple life, he spent a part of his income as a charity for the needy.(3)

In addition to all of these things, there was another benefit in this job of his which was counted as a manifest miracle for him.

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Some of the commentators have said that Luqmān came to David when he was weaving the first armour. David was changing iron into iron bars and formed them as numerous rings and joined the rings into each other. This scene attracted Loqmān’s attention very much. He fell into a deep thought while he was still watching and saying nothing until when David finished weaving the armour. He stood up and put the armour on and said: “What a good defensive means it is for fighting!” Luqmān, who had found out the final aim, said: “Silence is wisdom, but there are a few persons who do it.”(1)

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}11{ أَنِ اعْمَلْ سَابِغَاتٍ وَقَدّ ِرْ فِی السَّرْدِ وَاعْمَلُوا صَالِحاً إِنّ-ِی بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِیرٌ

11. “(Saying unto David): ‘Make wide coat of mail, and measure well the links, and do righteousness, verily I see what you do’.”

neither so small and narrow that they lose their flexibility, nor should they be so big and abnormal that sometimes the sword-point, a dagger, a javelin, and an arrow can pass it through. The whole affairs of it must be measured and proportionate.

Shortly speaking, Allah not only gave David the main substance regarding to the sentence “… We softened the iron for him”, but also taught him how to form and weave the coat of mail in order that he could provide a complete production from this ‘substance’ and ‘form’.

At the end of the verse, Allah addresses David and his family and says:

“… and do righteousness, verily I see what you do’.”

At the beginning of the verse the addressee was only David, but at the end of the verse he and his family, or he and his people, are addressed, because all of these things are as a preparation for righteous deed, and these are a means alongside that path that both David and his family could enjoy them.

One of the dimensions of the righteous deed is that carefulness must be observed in manufactures from every point of view, and a complete and useful product must be delivered so that any defective state and imperfection on it might be avoided.

This probability also exists that the addressee in this statement had been David and all those who utilized his hand woven armour, indicating that they should use this defensive means in the path of righteous deed, not in the way of oppression, cruelty, and sin.

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}12{ وَلِسُلَیْمَ-انَ الرّ ِیحَ غُدُوُّهَا شَهْرٌ وَرَوَاحُهَا شَهْرٌ وَأَسَلْنَا لَهُ عَیْنَ الْقِطْرِ وَمِنَ الْجِنّ ِ مَن یَعْمَلُ بَیْنَ یَدَیْهِ بِإِذْنِ رَبّ-ِهِ وَمَن یَزِغْ مِنْهُمْ عَنْ أَمْرِنَا نُذِقْهُ مِنْ عَذَابِ السَّعِیرِ

12. “And for Solomon (We made subservient) the wind which travelled in the morning a month’s journey and a month’s journey in the evening. And We made a fountain of molten copper to flow out for him, and of the jinn, some worked before him by the leave of his Lord; and whoever of them turned away from Our command, We made him taste of the chastisement of the blazing Fire.”

the stable substance for David, and for Solomon He causes the tender waves of the wind to become active and severe.

The smooth of the wind is never a barrier that it performs some important actions. It is the wind that moves some huge gigantic ships over the surface of the oceans; turns millstones, and balloons to float in the sky like aeroplane.

Yes, Allah made subservient this tender substance, with this amazing power for Solomon.

That how the wind moved Solomon’s things, (such as his throne or his carpet), is not clear to us. We only know there is nothing difficult and complicated for the Power of Allah. When man, with his very little power, can send balloons, and today the great gigantic aeroplanes with hundreds passengers and many heavy means can be sent to the depth of the sky, how is it difficult for Allah to move Solomon’s things by the wind?

Which factor was it that protected Solomon (a.s.) and his means from falling down or from the air pressure and other difficulties resulted from the movements in the heavens? This is also among the problems the details of which are not clear for us, but we know that there have been many of these kinds of supernatural events in the history of the Divine prophets, though, unfortunately, some ignorant persons, or the aware enemies, have mixed them with some superstitions in order to change the main feature of these issues into a bad form. So in this regard we suffice to the same amount that the Qur’ān has mentioned. (About this matter, we have also hinted out in the commentary of Sura Al-’Anbīyā’, No. 21, verse 81)

The Arabic word /quduww/ often means the time toward morning, opposite to the word /rawāh/ which means the time toward evening, when animals return to their abode in order to rest. But it is understood from relationships in the context that

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in this verse the Qur’ānic word /qudaww/ is the first half of the day while /rawāh/ means the second half of the day. Then the concept of the verse is that from morning until noon a man could pave a way equal to one month travelling that the travellers of that time might pave; and in the second half of the day he could travel the same distance, too.

Then the Qur’ān refers to the second Divine bounty given to Solomon. It says:

“… And We made a fountain of molten copper to flow out for him, …”

The term /’asalnā/ is derived from /sayalān/ in the sense of ‘to flow’, and the word /qitr/ means ‘copper’. The objective meaning of it is that Allah made this metal molten for him and, like a spring, caused it to flow.

Some commentators have meant the word /qitr/ in the sense of brass, and, thus, for the father, David, iron was softened and for the son, Solomon, metals became molten, (but the first meaning is popular).

How was a spring of molten copper, or other metals, under the control of Solomon? Did Allah teach this prophet the way of melting these metals in a vast measure by the way of miracle and inspiration? This was also one of graces of Allah unto this great prophet.

And finally, the verse refers to the third bounty of Allah unto Solomon, i.e., making subservient a group of jinn, where it says:

“… and of the jinn, some worked before him by the leave of his Lord; …”

“… and whoever of them turned away from Our command, We made him taste of the chastisement of the blazing Fire.”

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As it is also manifest from its name, jinn is a being which is not realized by the sense. It has intellect and power, and, as it is understood from the verses of the Qur’ān, it is responsible to fulfil some divine duties.

There are many superstitious stories cited about jinn, but if we omit these superstitions, the principle of its existence and the proper qualities that have been said about jinn in the Qur’ān, it is a matter which never contrasts the knowledge and intellect. More details about this subject will be delivered in the commentary on Sura Jinn, No. 72, Allah willing.

It is noteworthy that for running a vast government in a very vast country like the country of Solomon, many factors and agents are needed, but the most important of them all are three factors which have been mentioned in the above verse:

The first is a means of rapid movement by which the chief of the country can constantly go here and there and become aware of all parts of his country.

The second is the first original main material staffs which can be used for supplying necessary means of people’s life and different manufactures.

And, finally, some active human members are needed who can take enough benefit from those material stuffs and give them the necessary quantity to them so that the various needs of the country from this view can be removed.

We see that Allah granted these three merits to Solomon, and he, too, took benefit from them in a good way for people’s welfare, and furnishing the country and its security.

This subject does not allocate to the time of Solomon and his government, and being careful of it is necessary not only today but always and everywhere for correct running of a country.

****

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}13{ یَعْمَلُونَ لَهُ مَا یَشَآءُ مِن مَّحَارِیبَ وَتَمَاثِیلَ وَجِفَانٍ کَالْجَوَابِ وَقُدُورٍ رَّاسِیَاتٍ اعْمَلُوا ءَالَ دَاوُدَ شُکْراً وَقَلِیلٌ مِنْ عِبَادِیَ الشَّکُورُ

13. “They made for him whatever he wished of places of worship and mages and basins (large) like water-troughs and (cooking) cauldrons fixed, ‘Exercise thanks, O family of David! But few of My servants are grateful!’”

called /mihrāb/ is that it is the place of fighting against Satan and carnal desire.(1)

Or it is derived from the Arabic word /harb/ in the sense of ‘clothes’ which is taken off from the enemy’s body in the battle field, because in temple, the place of worship, man must put aside the cover of the worldly thoughts and mind dispersion from himself.(2)

However, these active clever workers of Solomon used to arrange some great and glorious temples for Solomon (a.s.) that were appropriate for his divine religious government so that people could easily perform their own religious worshipping duties.

The Qur’ānic term /tamāθīl/ is the plural form of /timθāl/ which has been used both in the sense of ‘portrait’, (picture), and statue. There have been commented differently on this matter that the features of which beings these pictures or statues were taken, and for what purpose Solomon ordered that they should be prepared.

It is possible that they had been made as ornament, in the same manner that they are now seen in important old buildings, and even in our modern buildings, too.

Or they were produced to give some additional glory and grandeur to his organizations, since the picture of some animals, like lion, is the cause of creation of grandeur in the thought of many persons.

Upon the commentary of this verse, a narration from Imam Sādiq (a.s.) indicates that he said: “By Allah, the pictures Solomon wanted to be produced were not the statues of men

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and women, but they were portraits of some trees and the like.”(1)

The Arabic word /jifān/ is the plural form of /jafnah/ in the sense of container of food. The word /jawāb/ is the plural form of /jābiyah/ in the sense of ‘pool’, and it is understood from this application that they provided some great vast containers each of which was like a pool for Solomon so that a large group could sit around it and eat food from it. In some rather old times, if we have not forgotten, at the tables of food some large vessels were used for eating food by a group, and, in fact, their tablecloth was that very vessel, and it was not customary that some independent separate containers to be used as it is done today.

The Arabic word /qudūr/ is the plural form of /qidr/ with the sense of a container in which food is cooked; and the Qur’ānic term /rāsiyāt/ is the plural form of /rāsiyah/ in the sense of ‘steadfast’ and ‘fixed’, and here its purpose is some cooking-pots that, because of their greatness, they were not moveable.

At the end of the holy verse, after mentioning these merits, Allah, addressing the family of David, says:

“… ‘Exercise thanks, O family of David! But few of My servants are grateful!’”

It is evident that using the divine blessings alongside the same path they are created and granted for is a kind of thanks-giving, and it is certain that those who utilize the merits of Allah generally in their own places are not so many. Of course, the people of the truth among human beings have always been very few. You may consider the number of the believers in comparison with the disbelievers, the guided ones with the misguided ones, the obedient ones with the zealous ones, the

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pious ones with disobedient ones, the just ones with evil-doers, the immaculate ones with other than them, the gratitude ones with ingratitude ones. At the end, some dignitaries have considered three stages for thankfulness: thanksgiving by heart, which is, (a), having consent and happiness for the blessing; (b) thanksgiving by the tongue, which is to praise the bestower of the blessing; (c), the thanksgiving of other limbs and organs, which is to harmonize the deeds with that blessing.

The Qur’ānic term /šakūr/ in Arabic is an amplification form, and denotes the abundance of thanksgiving that refers to the repetition of thanksgiving and its continuation by means of the heart, the tongue, and the limbs.

This epithet, of course, has sometimes been mentioned for Allah, too, like what is cited in Sura At-Taqābun, No. 64, verse 17, which says: “… Verily He is All-thankful, Most forbearing”, and the purpose of thankfulness of Allah is that as much the servants pave the path of obeying Him He will involve them in His merits and graces, and He thanks them, and by His grace, He increases them more than what they deserve.

****

Another tradition from the same Imam (a.s.) indicates: “Thanksgiving of a blessing is avoidance from sins.”(1)

Again in another tradition the same Imam (a.s.) said: “Allah, the Almighty and Glorious, revealed to Moses, saying: ‘O’ Moses! Do thank Me which is a due thank.’ Moses said: ‘How can I thank You a due true thank while every time I do thank You, You give me a new blessing for it?’ He said: ‘O’ Moses! Just now you performed thanksgiving to Me since you know that that (success) is from Me’.”(2)

This point is also necessary to be noted that being gratitude unto those who are a means for a bounty for Man is a kind of thanking Him. Imam Sajjād, Ali-ibn-il-Hussayn (a.s.) says: “When the Hereafter Day comes forth Allah, the Exalted, will say to some of His servants: ‘Did you thank so and so?’ The servant answers: ‘O’ Lord! I performed thanksgiving to You’. Allah says: ‘Since you did not thank him, you have not performed My Thanksgiving’.”

Then, the Imam (a.s.) added: “The one (among you) who thanks Allah the most is the one who thanks people (for their bounties and favours).”(3)

The Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) said: “Whoever does not thank for a small (bounty) will not thank for abundant bounties; and whoever does not thank people, will not thank Allah either.”(4)

It is narrated from Imam Sajjād, Ali-ibn-il-Hossayn (a.s.) who said: “The Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) said: ‘Verily (when) a believer is satiated from eating food, then he praises Allah, the Almighty; so He will give him a reward equal to

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that which He gives to him who fasts during the day and keeps vigil at night establishing prayer. Verily Allah accepts thanks-giving and loves those who are gratitude’.”(1)

Imam Sādiq (a.s.) said: “Thanksgiving is to avoid the unlawful things, and a complete thanksgiving is that one says: ‘The praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds’.”(2)

Imam Ali (a.s.) said: “Do continue your thanksgiving, then your blessing will be permanent.”(3)

We have discussed about the reality of ‘thanksgiving’ and that how it causes the blessing to be increased and that being ungrateful is the source of its annihilation in Sura ’Ibrāhīm, No. 14, verse 7.

****

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}14{ فَلَمَّا قَضَیْنَا عَلَیْهِ الْمَوْتَ مَا دَلَّهُمْ عَلَی مَوْتِهِ إِلآَّ دَآبَّةُ الأَرْضِ تَأْکُلُ مِنسَأَتَهُ فَلَمَّا خَرَّ تَبَیَّنَتِ الْجِنُّ أَن لَّوْ کَانُوا یَعْلَمُونَ الْغَیْبَ مَا لَبِثُوا فِی الْعَذَابِ الْمُهِینِ

14. “Then when We decreed death for him (Solomon) naught showed them his death except a creature of the earth devouring his staff; and when he fell down, the jinn came to know that, had they known the Unseen, they would not have tarried in abasing torment.”

ate his staff and, losing his equilibrium, he fell down on the ground. It was then that the jinn understood that if they had been aware of the Unseen they would not have remained in abasing chastisement. The verse continues saying:

“… and when he fell down, the jinn came to know that, had they known the Unseen, they would not have tarried in abasing torment.”

The Arabic term /tabayyanat/ here is derived from /tabyīn/ which usually means: ‘to be manifest’ (an intransitive verb), and sometimes it also means ‘To become aware of something’ (a transitive verb), and here the second meaning is appropriate. It means: until that time the group of jinn were not aware of the death of Solomon and they understood that if they had known the secrets of Unseen, they would not have remained in trouble and the pain of heavy labours during that time.

Some commentators have taken the sentence with the first meaning and have said that the concept of the verse is such that after that Solomon fell the status of the jinn became manifest for human being and they understood that the jinn were not aware of the secrets of the Unseen, and it was not right that some men had such a belief about them. The application of ‘abasing torment’ may be an indication to the hard heavy labours that sometimes Solomon, as a forfeit and punishment put on the shoulder of a group of jinn, else the prophet of Allah would never put anyone under pressure and punishment specially under an ‘abasing torment’.

By the way, Amīr-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) says: “… If there were anyone who could secure a ladder to everlasting life or a way to avoid death, it was Solomon, the son of David (a.s.) who was given control over the domain of the jinn and men along with prophethood and great position (before Allah) …”(1)

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Animals Work for Allah

1- A piece of the body of a cow makes a slain person alive and he introduces his killer: “Verily Allah commands you that you should sacrifice a cow …” (Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 67)

2- A spider protects the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) in the cave: “If you do not help him, yet Allah has helped him already …” (Sura At-Taubah, No. 9, verse 40)

3- A raven becomes the teacher of man: “Then Allah sent a raven digging up the ground …” (Sura Al-Mā’idah, No. 5, verse 31)

4- A hoopoe is ordered to take the Solomon’s letter to Bilqiys: “Go you with this letter …” (Sura An-Naml, No. 27, verse 28)

5- Birds in flocks are told to destroy the possessors of elephants: “And send down (to prey) upon them birds in flocks.” (Sura Al-Fīl, No. 103, verse 3)

6- A serpent can be a means to show the legitimacy of Moses: “… it was a clear serpent.” (Sura Al-’A‘rāf, No. 7, verse 107)

7- A big fish is commanded to punish Yūnus: “Then the big fish did swallow him …” (Sura As-Sāffāt, No. 37, verse 142)

8- Termite is the means of divulgement of Solomon’s death. “… devouring his staff …” (Sura Saba’, No. 34, verse 14)

9- The dog of the Companions of the Cave is ordered to guard. “… and their dog stretching out his paws on the threshold …” (Sura Al-Kahf, No. 18, verse 18)

10. Four birds cause the certainty of Abraham. “… Take four of the birds …” (Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 260)

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11. A donkey causes the certainty of Ezra to Resurrection. “… and look at your ass …” (Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 259)

12- In Hajj, camel, cow and sheep become the symbols of Allah “And (as for) the fat camels, We have made them for you of the symbols of Allah, …” (Sura Al-Hajj, No. 22, verse 36)

13. Animals are a means of theology. “Do they not look at the camels …” (Sura Al-Qāshiyah, No. 88, verse 17)

14- Animals become the means of man’s examination. “… Allah will surely try you with something of the games which your hands and your spears can reach, …” (Sura Al-Mā’idah, No. 5, verse 94)

15- An animal can be the miracle of Allah. “… This she-camel of Allah is a sign …” (Sura Al-’A‘rāf, No. 7, verse 73)

16- Animals can be the means of the Wrath of Allah. “… The locusts and the vermin and the frogs …” (Sura Al-’A‘rāf, No. 7, verse 133)

There are several suras in the Qur’ān entitled by the names of animals, such as: Al-Baqarah, Al-’An‘ām, An-Nahl, An-Naml, ’Ankabūt, and Fīl.

****

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}15{ لَقَدْ کَانَ لِسَبَإٍ فِی مَسْکَنِهِمْ ءَایَةٌ جَنَّتَانِ عَن یَمِینٍ وَشِمَالٍ کُلُوا مِن رّ ِزْقِ رَبّ-ِکُمْ وَاشْکُرُوا لَهُ بَلْدَةٌ طَیّ-ِبَةٌ وَرَبٌّ غَفُورٌ

15. “Indeed there was a sign for the (people of) Sheba in their abode, two gardens in the right and the left; ‘Eat of the sustenance of your Lord and give thanks to Him (that you have) a pure city and a forgiving Lord’.”

As we will see later, this great Divine sign originated from here that those people by utilizing the particular spatial conditions and situation of the mountains around that region, in addition to the abundant God-given talent of those people, they could control the floods, which had no result save destruction, behind a strong dam, by which they succeeded to build a very habitable country. What a great sign it is that a means of destruction is changed into the most important means of development.

The historians are divided in the belief that “Saba’” is whose name and what it is. The popular idea is that ‘Saba’” is the name of the father of Arabs of Yemen.

According to a tradition narrated from the Messenger of Islam (p.b.u.h.), there was a man by the name of Saba’, from whom ten children were born, and from every one of them a tribe from the tribes of Arabs came into being in that land. (Majma‘-ul-Bayān, following the verse)

Some believe that “Saba’” is the name of the land of Yemen, or a part of it. The apparent meaning of the Qur’ān in the story of Solomon and hoopoe in Sura An-Naml also shows that ‘Saba’” had been the name of a place, where it says: “… and I have come to you from Sheba with a sure tiding.”(1)

The situation here is that the apparent of the verse under discussion shows that “Saba’” had been a group of people who lived in that region, because the plural masculine pronoun /hum/ has returned to them. But there is not any inconsistency between these two commentaries, because it may be that at first Saba’ had been the name of a person, then all his offspring and his tribe were entitled by that name, and later this name was also used for their land.

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Then the Qur’ān refers to the explanation of this Divine sign which was given to the people of Saba’. It says:

“… two gardens in the right and the left; …”

The story was such that the people of Saba’, by building a great dam between the magnificent mountains of that region, could store the water of the numerous floods, which caused only destruction or at least were wasted in the deserts vainly, at the back of that great dam, and by creating some windows in the dam they could take the vast store of water behind it under their own control. Thus, they succeeded to plant and grow different things in the vast lands over there. Fakhr-i-Rāzī has cited a problem here, saying that the existence of “two gardens” is not an important thing which can be referred to as ‘a sign’. In our opinion basically this problem is not something worthy to be discussed, because they were not two ordinary simple gardens, but they were a series of gardens joined together at two sides of a great stream which were watered from that lofty dam. These gardens were so bountiful of fruits and blessed that, as history indicates, if a person would put a large basket on his head and at the season of fruit, he passed under these trees there he could pour so much fruit in it that after a short time the basket would be filled with fruits.

Is it not wonderful that a flood which is the source of destruction becomes the cause of cultivation? Is it not counted as a sign of Allah? In addition, an extraordinary security existed in that land which itself was counted one of the signs of Allah. This fact will later be referred to by the Qur’ān.

Then the verse says that Allah told them as follows:

“… Eat of the sustenance of your Lord and give thanks to Him (That you have) a pure city and a forgiving Lord’.”

This short sentence has reiterated a collection of material and spiritual bounties in the most beautiful form. From the

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point of material bounties, they had a pure and clean land. It was clean from the various pollutions: from thieves and unjust people, from pests and afflictions, from draught and famine, and from insecurity and terror. It has even been said that their land was clean from harmful insects, too. Their town had a clean air, a pleasant enlivening breeze, and a fertile land with productive trees.

From the point of spiritual bounty, they had the forgiveness of Allah. He would dispense with their short comings and faults and He did not punish them and He did not involve their land in misfortune.

****

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}16{ فَأَعْرَضُوا فَاَرْسَلْنَا عَلَیْهِمْ سَیْلَ الْعَرِمِ وَبَدَّلْنَاهُم بِجَنَّتَیْهِمْ جَنَّتَیْنِ ذَوَاتَیْ أُکُلٍ خَمْطٍ وَأَثْلٍ وَشَیْءٍ مِن سِدْرٍ قَلِیلٍ

16. “But they turned away (from Allah), so We loosed on them the Flood of ‘Arim, and We gave them in exchange for their two gardens, two gardens bearing bitter produce and tamarisk-bushes, and here and there a few lote-trees.”

Some commentators have rendered the Arabic term /‘arim/ into field-mice which, as a result of making holes in this dam, caused its destruction.

Lisān-ul-‘Arab introduces different meanings about the Arabic term /‘arim/ including: ‘a tiresome flood, barriers, which are built between valleys for stopping water, and also a big field-mouse’. (Lisān-ul-‘Arab)

Then the Qur’ān explains the later situation of this land as follows:

“… and We gave them in exchange for their two gardens, two gardens bearing bitter produce and tamarisk-bushes, and here and there a few lote-trees.”

The Qur’ānic word /’ukul/ means any kind of victuals.

The Arabic term /xamt/ means a bitter plant.

The Arabic word /’aθl/ is in the sense of ‘tamarisk-bush’.

And, thus, instead of those masses of green trees there remained only a few wild- deserted trees with a very low value that, perhaps, the most important of them was lote-tree a few of which were found among them.

The statement of these three kinds of tree which remained in that ruined region refers to three different groups of trees a part of which were harmful, some of them were useless, and some of them were of very little benefit, and on the whole they had their turning away, ingratitude and Divine punishment as a sequel, and flood, earthquake, tempest, thunder and lightning are not casual.

****

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}17{ ذَلِکَ جَزَیْنَاهُم بِمَا کَفَرُوا وَهَلْ نُجَازِی اِلاَّ الْکَفُورَ

17. “This We recompensed them for their disbelief; and do We ever recompense any but the ungrateful?”

}18{ وَجَعَلْنَا بَیْنَهُمْ وَبَیْنَ الْقُرَی الَّتِی بَارَکْنَا فِیهَا قُری ظَاهِرَةً وَقَدَّرْنَا فِیهَا السَّیْرَ سِیرُوا فِیهَا لَیَالِیَ وَأَیَّاماً ءَامِنِینَ

}19{ فَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا بَاعِدْ بَیْنَ أَسْفَارِنَا وَظَلَمُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ فَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ أَحَادِیثَ وَمَزَّقْنَاهُمْ کُلَّ مُمَزَّقٍ إِنَّ فِی ذَلِکَ لاَیَاتٍ لِکُلّ ِ صَبَّارٍ شَکُورٍ

18. “And We made between them and the towns which We had blessed (other) towns apparent and between them We had appointed stages of journey in due proportion: ‘Travel therein secure, by night and by day’.”

19. “And they said: ‘O our Lord! Place longer distances between our journeys’; and they were unjust to themselves, so We made them stories and We dispersed them all in scattered fragments. Verily in this there are signs for every patient, grateful one.”

In fact, between them and the blessed land there were some towns joined together like a chain, and the distances between these towns were so little that from each of them the other town could be seen; and this is the meaning of the Qur’ānic phrase: /quran zāhirah/ (towns apparent).

Some of the commentators have rendered this phrase in another way. They say that it refers to the towns which were just manifestly alongside the way and passengers could stay well in them. Or that these towns were upon some high places and they were apparent for the wayfarers.

As for the purpose of ‘the blessed towns’ that which towns they may be, most commentators have rendered it as the towns of old Syria (Syria, Palestine and Jordan), since this very meaning has been mentioned about this land in Sura ‘Isrā’, No. 17, verse one, and in Sura Al-’Anbiyā’, No. 21, verse 81.

But some other commentators say that the purpose of it may be the towns of “San‘ā” or “Ma’ārib” both of which have been located in the region of Yemen, and this commentary is not so improbable; because the distance between Yemen, which is located in the most southern point of Arabia, and Shāmāt (Syria), which is located in the most northern point, is so much so, and had been covered with some dry and hot deserts, that rendering the verse into it seems very improbable, and, it has not been recorded in history books either. Some commentators have also believed that the blessed lands may be the land of Mecca, which is improbable, too. This explanation was from the point of cultivation, but since only cultivation is not enough and security is its importance and basic condition, the verse adds:

“… and between them We had appointed stages of journey in due proportion: …”

“… ‘Travel therein secure, by night and by day’.”

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Thus, the towns had an appropriate distance, and from the point of the attack of wild and fearsome animals of the desert, or thieves and robbers, they were also in utmost security in a manner that people could travel between them without having any provision or any mount. They did not need to travel in groups and use some armed persons with them because of fear due to insecurity of the way, or for the fear of the lack of water and food along their way.

That who conveyed them the sentence: “Travel therein”, there are two probabilities: one of them is that it was conveyed to them by their prophet, and the other is that the mute tongue of that cultivated land and its secure and safe roads were the means of conveying the sentence to them.

Preceding the word /layālī/ before /’ayyām/ in the verse is for the sake of the importance of the existence of security at nights both security from the point of thieves of the way and wild animals of the desert, else providing security during days is easier.

****

Through the next verse, the Holy Qur’ān implies that these ingratitude people in the face of those great bounties of Allah, which had encompassed their whole living thoroughly, like many other nations who lived in pleasure, were involved in pride and negligence. Affluence of bounties and their scanty of capacity caused them to pave the way of ingratitude and deviated from the path of Truth and they became heedless of the commands of Allah.

Among their unwisely demands was that they asked Allah to appoint long distance between their journeys. The verse announces.

“And they said: ‘O our Lord! Place longer distances between our journeys’; …”

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Their purpose was that Allah would set a distance between their cultivated towns and there would appear some dry deserts between them, because the rich were not willing that the poor people could travel like them and travel wherever they wished without any provision and any mount. As if travelling was among their boasts and it was the sign of power and wealth and they desired that this privilege and superiority should be registered for them for ever.

Or comfort and welfare had made them inconvenient, in the same way that Mann and Salwa (two heavenly foods) had made the children of Israel tired and asked Allah for onion, garlic, and lentil.

Some have also guessed that the sentence “Place longer distances between our journeys” may point to this fact they had become so pleasure-seeking that they were not ready to travel for the purpose of breeding livestock or merchandise and agriculture, and they asked Allah that they would always remain at home and the time between their journeys would be increased.

But the first commentary seems best of all.

However, the verse says:

“… and they were unjust to themselves, …”

Yes, if they imagined that they had been unjust to others, they were wrong. They had taken a dagger and cut their own chest asunder, and they themselves had to tolerate all the hurts.

What an interesting meaning it is!

Next to this short sentence, which is stated about their painful fate, the Qur’ān implies that Allah punished them so seriously and twisted their lives so complex that it became as a matter of talk for others. The verse says:

“… so We made them stories …”

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Yes, from that furnished living and that glorious vast civilization, there remained nothing but some news talked by tongues, and a remembrance in minds, and some lines written on the pages of histories. The verse continues saying:

“… and We dispersed them all in scattered fragments. …”

Their region and towns became so ruined that they had not the ability of living there and, in order to continue their life, they had to go toward different places in different groups. Like leaves in the season of fall, which are in the current of storms, everyone of them was thrown into a corner, in a manner that their division became a ‘proverb’ and whenever people wanted to say, for example, a group was severely scattered, they used to say: “Like the people of Sheba and their bounties, they have scattered.”

As some commentators have said, the tribe of ‘Qasān’ went to Syria, ’Asad went to ‘Ammān, while the tribe of Khazā‘ah went toward Tahāmah, and the tribe of ’Anmār went to Yathrib. (Tafsīr-i-Qurtabī, and Tafsīr-i-’Abul-Futūh-Rāzī, following the verse under discussion). At the end of the verse, it says:

“… Verily in this there are signs for every patient, grateful one.”

Why can the patient and the grateful ones take lesson from these events? (Specially that the Arabic words: /sabbār/ (patient) and /šakūr/ (thankful) both are in the Arabic amplification form which indicate the statement of repetition and emphasis.)

This is for the sake that they can control their ungovernable desire by means of patience and perseverance, and they stand powerfully against sins, and because of their thanksgiving in the way obeying Allah they are prepared and vigilant. It is for this reason that they take an example well. But those who follow their desires and are heedless unto the Allah’s merits, how can they take an example from these events?

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}20{ وَلَقَدْ صَدَّقَ عَلَیْهِمْ اِبْلِیسُ ظَنَّهُ فَاتَّبَعُوهُ إِلاَّ فَرِیقاً مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنینَ

}21{ وَمَا کَانَ لَهُ عَلَیْهِم مِن سُلْطَانٍ إِلاَّ لِنَعْلَمَ مَن یُؤْمِنُ بِالأَخِرَةِ مِمَّنْ هُوَ مِنْهَا فِی شَکٍّ وَرَبُّکَ عَلَی کُلّ ِ شَیْءٍ حَفِیظٌ

20. “And certainly ’Iblīs found true his conjecture concerning them, so they followed him, except a party of the believers.”

21. “And he has no authority over them, save that We would know (distinguished) him who believes in the Hereafter, from him who is in doubt concerning it, and your Lord is the Preserver of all things.”

Presence of Allah, ’Iblis said: “… then, by Your power, I will lead them all astray.” “Except Your servants amongst them, sincere and purified (by Your grace).” (1)

Satan said this sentence by conjecture and guess, but finally this conjecture and guess became true, and the weak-faith people who were feeble in their will moved after him group by group. There were a small group of believers who broke the chains of Satan’s temptations and were not deceived by his traps. They came in freely, they lived freely, and they passed away freely. Though they were scanty from the point of number, each of them matched a world from the point of value. Ali (a.s.) says: “… they are few in number, but they are great in esteem before Allah …”(2)

In relation to the temptations of ’Iblīs and those who go into the realm of his influence and those who are outside this realm, through the second verse the Qur’ān points to two subjects. At first it says:

“And he has no authority over them, …”

It is we who let him and issue the permission of his arrival into the country of our mind and body.

This is the same thing that the Holy Qur’ān in another occurrence from the tongue of Satan says: “… I did not have any authority over you except that I called you and you responded me, …”(3)

But it is clear that after accepting his invitation from the side of some faithless and sensual persons, Satan will not stay motionless, but he will make the foundations of his domination firm on their selves. So, in the continuation of the verse, the Qur’ān adds about the aim of Satan’s freedom, as follows:

p: 75

“… save that We would know (distinguished) him who believes in the Hereafter, from him who is in doubt concerning it, …”

It is obvious that Allah (s.w.t.) is aware of every thing that happens in this world, from the pre-eternity to the future eternity. Therefore, the Qur’ānic term /lina‘lama/ (We would know) does not mean that He does not distinguish the believers from those who are in doubt. The temptations of Satan must come across so that they can be distinguished, but the purpose of this sentence is the objective accomplishment of the knowledge of Allah, since Allah never punishes persons from His innate knowledge and because of their deeds in potency, but there must be provided a sense of trial, the temptations of Satan and low desires begin so that every body authoritatively and with complete free will brings out what he has in his inside than the objective accomplishment of Allah’s knowledge appears, because there will not be any deserving of reward and retribution unless an action is fulfilled practically in outside.

In other words, no one will be rewarded or punished only because of innate goodness or innate evil, unless what is in potency appears in action.

At the end, as a warning to all the servants of Allah, the Qur’ān says:

“… and your Lord is the Preserver of all things.”

It says such so that the followers of Satan do not imagine that any thing of their deeds or sayings will disappear in this world, or Allah forgets it. No, never. Allah keeps and protects them all for the Day of Justice.

****

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In this section of verses, in fact, the Holy Qur’ān takes the polytheists into trial and by some logical questions it knocks them out. It makes manifest their baseless decayed logic in the field of intercession of idols.

In these verses the Qur’ān addresses the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) for five times and commands him to say to them something, and every time it propounds a new matter in connection with the fate of idols and idolatry, in a manner that at the end anybody feels that there is no empty school worse than the school of idolism, and that it can not be called even a school of thought and a religion.

By the above verse, it implies that they may call those that they consider (as their object of worship) other than Allah, but they should know that these idols never answer their pray nor do they solve any problem of theirs. It says:

“Say: ‘Call upon those whom you have asserted apart from Allah; …”

Then, the Qur’ān refers to the reasoning of this statement and implies that it is for the sake that these hand-made objects of worship do not own anything. It continues saying:

“… they own not the weight of an atom in the heavens nor in the earth, nor for them is any partnership in either (of them), nor for Him is (there) from among them any one to back Him up.”

If they were able to solve any problem they would have one of these three qualities: they owned something in the heavens and the earth; or, at least, they were partner of Allah in the creation, or, at last, they were assistants of Allah in something of these affairs.

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While it is clear that ‘necessary being’ is only One and the rest are all ‘possible being that are dependant to Him, so that if

He takes His grace from them, all of them will pave the way of destruction.

It is interesting that when it says: “… the weight of an atom in the heavens nor in the earth …” it means that the beings which do not own anything as heavy as the weight of an atom in the endless heavens and in the vast earth, what kind of difficulty can they remove from themselves than from you?

****

p: 79

}23{ وَلاَ تَنفَعُ الشَّفَاعَةُ عِندَهُ اِلاَّ لِمَنْ أَذِنَ لَهُ حَتَّی إِذَا فُزّ ِعَ عَن قُلُوبِهِمْ قَالُوا مَاذَا قَالَ رَبُّکُمْ قَالُوا الْحَقَّ وَهُوَ الْعَلِیُّ الْکَبِیرُ

23. “And intercession will not avail with Him except for him to whom He gives leave; till, when terror is lifted from their hearts, they will say: ‘What is it that your Lord said?’ They will say: ‘The truth’; and He is the Most High, the Great’.”

Is the purpose of the word ‘intercession’ mentioned here the intercession in the world or in the Hereafter? Both of them are probable, but the subsequent sentence shows that it is meant the intercession in the Hereafter.

So, after this sentence, it implicitly says that in that Day there will be such an anxiety and horror upon the hearts that both the intercessor and the one who is interceded will be full of anxiety, and they expect to see to whom Allah gives permission to intercede, and for whom. (This state of anxiety will continue until when it will be removed from the hearts and the command from the side of Allah will be issued. The verse says:

“… till, when terror is lifted from their hearts, …”

However, on that Day there is a surprising tumult. Those who expect to be interceded look worriedly at the intercessor and by non-verbal language or by their own tongues, they eagerly ask them for intercession.

But the intercessors also have waited for the command of Allah to see how and about whom He gives permission for intercession. This common and general anxiety will continue until when the command of intercession about those who are eligible for it will be issued from the side of Allah, the Wise.

It is in this circumstance that the both groups turn their faces to each other and ask each other (or the guilty ask the intercessors) as follows:

“… they will say: ‘What is it that your Lord said?’ …”

“… They will say: ‘The truth’; …”

And ‘the truth’ is not anything save the permission of intercession about those who had not entirely ceased their relation with Allah, not the polluted ones who had broken all the links and means of communication, and who had wholly become alien with Allah, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and his friends.

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At the end of the verse, the Qur’ān adds:

“… and He is the Most High, the Great’.”

This sentence is the continuation of the statement of the intercessors and its complement. Indeed, they say that since Allah is the Most High and the Great, whatever command He issues is the exact truth, and any truth adapts His command.

Whatever was said in the above is the nearest commentary that is consistent to the sentences of the verse.

In this regard, commentators have also cited some other commentaries, and it is wonderful that in some of them the relation and dependence of the beginning and the end of the verse, and its before and after, have never been considered at all.

****

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}24{ قُلْ مَن یَرْزُقُکُم مِنَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ قُلِ اللَّهُ وَإِنَّآ أَوْ إِیَّاکُمْ لَعَلَی هُدًی أَوْ فِی ضَلاَلٍ مُبِینٍ

24. “Say: ‘Who gives you sustenance from the heavens and the earth?’ Say: ‘Allah’. And verily we or you are upon right guidance, or in manifest error.”

hearer both say one thing, because even the polytheists knew Allah as the Creator and Giver of sustenance and, for the idols, they considered only the rank of intercession.

This point is also noteworthy that Allah’s sustenance, which comes down from heaven for human beings, is not limited to rain. The light and heat of the sun, the air which exists in the atmosphere of the earth, are also more important than the life- giving drops of rain.

Also, the blessings of the earth are not allocated to plants. kinds of water sources in the ground, various mains some of which had been discovered at that time and some others of them were discovered by the pass of time, all are under this title.

At last, the verse refers to a matter which itself can form the foundation of a proof, a true proof accompanied with the utmost justice and reverence, in a shape that opposite party may come down from the platform of pride and obstinacy and begin to think. It says:

“… And verily we or you are upon right guidance, or in manifest error.”

This statement points to this matter that there is clear contrast in our belief and yours, therefore it is impossible that both of them are right, because never two opposite things gather with together, therefore one group is upon guidance and the second group is in error. Now contemplate which group is on guidance and which is on misguidance. You can see the signs in both groups and observe which group contains the signs of guidance and which group has the signs of misguidance.

And this is one of the best methods of discussion and dispute which makes the opposite party contemplate. Some

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consider it as a kind of precautionary concealment, which is the utmost mistake.

It is interesting that in Arabic text of the verse the word ‘guidance’ has been mentioned with the Arabic word /‘alā/ (upon) and the word ‘error’ is mentioned with the Arabic word: /fī/ (in), which points to this fact that ‘the guided ones’ seem to be riding on a calm horse, or are located on a high place and dominate over all things, while the misguided ones are in deep error and in the darkness of their ignorance.

This is also noteworthy that the holy verse at first mentions ‘guidance’ and the word ‘error’ is cited after it, because at the beginning of the sentence at first it says: ‘We’ and after that it says: ‘you’ in order to have a delicate and colourless hint to the guidance of the first group and the lack of guidance of the second group.

Some of the commentators of the Qur’ān believe that the modifier /mubin/ (manifest) refers to /dalāl/ (error), because error consists of different kinds and the error of polytheism is the most manifest of all.

But there is also this probability that this modifier is used for both ‘guidance’ and ‘error’, because in these circumstances, inside the words of the eloquent, modifier is not repeated. Thus, both ‘guidance’ and ‘error’ are qualified by ‘manifest’, as in other verses of the Qur’ān this qualification is seen for both of them.(1)

****

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}25{ قُل لاَ تُسْأَلُونَ عَمَّآ أَجْرَمْنَا وَلاَ نُسْأَلُ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

}26{ قُلْ یَجْمَعُ بَیْنَنَا رَبُّنَا ثُمَّ یَفْتَحُ بَیْنَنَا بِالْحَقّ ِ وَهُوَ الْفَتَّاحُ الْعَلِیمُ

25. “Say: ‘You will not be questioned as to what we are guilty of, nor shall we be questioned as to what you do’.”

26. “Say: ‘Our Lord will gather us together, then will He judge between us (and you) with the truth, and He is the greatest Judge, the All-knowing’.”

harm for us. But we urge on this matter from the view of sympathy, truth-seeking and legitimacy.

****

In the second holy verse the reality is stated that how the situation of everybody will be dealt with, right and wrong will be separated from each other, and, according to their responsibilities, everyone will be given reward or retribution. It says:

“Say: ‘Our Lord will gather us together, then will He judge between us (and you) with the truth, …”

He will do this and separate us from each other so that the guided ones should be recognized from the misguided ones, and every one of them receives the fruit of his own deeds.

If you see that today all people are mixed and everybody claims that he is right and is the one who will prosper, this situation will not last for ever, and the day of the separation of the groups will come. The Lordship of Allah requires that finally there will come a Day when correct will be separated from incorrect, pure from impure and right from wrong and each of them will be set on their own place.

Now you may think what will you do on that Day? And in which group will you be? And have you made ready an answer for the questions of your Lord on that Day?

In order to make clear that this scene shall certainly occur, at the end the verse it adds:

“… and He is the greatest Judge, the All-knowing’.”

One of these two names, which are among the Most Beautiful Names of Allah, refers to His Power upon separating the men’s rows, and the next refers to His Infinite Knowledge, because separating the rows of right and wrong from each other is impossible without these two.

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The Arabic term /fath/, as Rāqib has said in Mufradāt, originally means: ‘removing complexity and difficulty’, which is of two kinds: sometimes it is seen by the eye, like unlocking a lock; and sometimes it is understood by contemplation, like: complexity of grief, sorrows, and opening the secrets of science, and also judging between two persons and solving the problem of their conflict.

It is worthy to be noted that in some Islamic narrations the phrase ‘Yā Fattāh’ has been emphasized on for solving the difficulties, since this great Name of Allah, which has been mentioned in the form of /fattāh/, which is the Arabic amplification form of /fath/, refers to the Power of Allah upon opening any difficulty and putting an end to any grief and sorrow, and providing the means of any conquest and victory. In fact, nobody is “fattāh” (The Opener) except Him and the key of all closed doors is with Him, His Power.

****

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}27{ قُلْ أَرُونِیَ الَّذِینَ أَلْحَقْتُم بِهِ شُرَکَآءَ کَلاَّ بَلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ

الْعَزِیزُ الْحَکِیمُ

27. “Say: ‘Show me those you have joined to Him as associates! By no means (can you do it). Nay! He is Allah, the Mighty, the Wise’.”

In fact, the word ‘Nay’ is a small word which has encompassed all these meanings. Then, at the end of the verse, for emphasis and strengthening this statement, it says:

“… He is Allah, the Mighty, the Wise’.”

His Honour and His Might requires that none finds any way into the realm of His Lordship, and His Wisdom also requires that He uses this Might in its correct place.

Yes, having these attributes is the sign of His being necessary existence, and the necessary existence of the world of existence is infinite and can never be more than One and has no associate and resemblance because every plurality makes him limited and possible, but the infinite being is always One.

****

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}28{ وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَاکَ اِلاَّ کَآفَّةً لّ-ِلنَّاسِ بَشِیراً وَنَذِیراً وَلَکِنَّ أَکْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ یَعْلَمُونَ

28. “And We have not sent you but unto the whole of mankind, a Bearer of glad tidings and a Warner, but most of the people do not know (it).”

The commentators have also suggested the both meanings probable in the verse. The first is that it may be used in the sense of ‘to gather’, and in this case the concept of the verse is the same thing which was mentioned in the above; saying: “And We have not sent you but unto the whole of mankind, …”, which points to the invitation of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) as a universal one.

The numerous authentic narrations recorded upon the commentary of this verse by the way of both Shi‘ites and Sunnites all strengthen this very interpretation, too. Therefore, the content of the verse is like that of Sura Al-Furqān, No. 25, verse one which says: “Blessed is He Who sent down the Furqān (the distinction of right and wrong) upon His servant that he may be a Warner to the worlds.”

And also like Sura Al-’An‘ām, No. 6, verse 19 which says: “… and this Qur’ān has been revealed to me that I may warn you thereby, …”

In the tradition that some of the commentators have mentioned in relation with the above verse, the generality of the invitation of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) is understood as one of his great honours, where he (p.b.u.h.) says: “Allah bestowed on me five things, and I do not say it as a boast (but I say as the gratitude of the bounty). I was appointed to all men, white and black, and the earth was appointed for me pure and purifier and (everywhere of it being) as a mosque. The booties of war are lawful for me while they were not lawful for anyone before me. I have been aided (by fear and horror in the hearts of the enemies) so that it paves the way of one month journey in front of me; and I was given (the rank of) intercession then I have stored it for my Ummah in Hereafter.”(1)

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}29{ وَیَقُولُونَ مَتَی هَذَا الْوَعْدُ اِن کُنتُمْ صَادِقِینَ

}30{ قُل لَکُم مِیعَادُ یَوْمٍ لاَ تَسْتَأْخِرُونَ عَنْهُ سَاعَةً وَلاَ تَسْتَقْدِمُونَ

29. “And they say: ‘When will this promise be (fulfilled) if you are truthful’?”

30. “Say: ‘You have the appointment of a day from which you cannot hold back any while, nor can you bring it on’.”

them the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) was commanded to say its time is in the Knowledge of Allah.

And also we recite in many verses of the Qur’ān that no one knows the time of Hereafter but Allah, and this is of the wisdom of Allah in order that human beings always spend time in the state of ‘being prepared’ and ready. Moreover, the luck of knowledge of details is usually not a hinder for the faith in universals. For example, from the sound of the bell of the house you are acknowledged that someone is at the door, though you do not know any detail about that person whether the one is a male or a female, how old he is and how much he knows. The lack of your knowledge unto these things does not damage your knowledge and faith that a person rang the bell of the house. Yes, we have knowledge about the Hereafter, though we do not know its time.

The Qur’ān always restrains to give a clear answer to this question and to define the time of the occurrence of Hereafter, and it emphasizes that this is one of the things the knowledge of which is with Allah and none but He is aware of it.

****

So, in the next verse, this very meaning is reiterated in a different sentence. It says:

“Say: ‘You have the appointment of a day from which you cannot hold back any while, nor can you bring it on’.”

This concealment of the date of the occurrence of the Hereafter, even unto the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.), as it was also pointed out before, is for the sake that Allah desires people to have a kind of freedom of action accompanied with

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the constant state of ‘being ready’, since if the date of Hereafter were defined, and its time was far, everybody would live in ignorance, pride and unawareness, and when its time was near, they would lose the freedom of action and their deeds would have the emergency state, and in both cases the man’s training aims would remain barren (fruitless). It is for this reason that the date of the occurrence of Hereafter is concealed to all. It is in the same manner the night of Qadr, the night which has the virtue of one thousand months, or the date of the reappearance of Hadrat Mahdī (a.s.).

The content of Sura Tā-Hā, No. 20, verse 15 which says: “Verily the Hour (of doom) is coming, (but) I will to keep it hidden so that every soul may be rewarded for its endeavour.” is a tender hint to this very meaning.

In the meanwhile that they considered that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), who informed of the Hereafter should know the exact date of it, was their ultimate mistake, and it was the reason of the lack of their knowledge from the duty of the prophecy. He was commanded only to convey the Message and to give warning and glad tidings, but the question of Hereafter relates to Allah, and it is He Who is aware of all its details, and He has given to His Prophet (p.b.u.h.) that part of the training issues that He had decided to be necessary for him.

Here, there arises a question and it is that the holy Qur’ān, threatening the opponents about the appointed time of Hereafter, says: “… you cannot hold back any while …”, but why does it also say: “… nor can you bring it on”? What effect does it have in the goal of the Qur’ān?

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In answer, two points must be noted to. The first is that mentioning these two with together points to the decisiveness and exactness of the date of something. Just in the same way that we say so and so matter, sooner or later, has a decisive appointed time.

The second is that a group of obstinate pagans always put the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) in pressure that why the Hereafter did not come, and in other words, they made haste for it, whether in mockery or other than it. The Qur’ān tells them not to haste; its date is the same that Allah has appointed.

****

p: 96

had made their decision not to believe until future eternity, while if a truth-seeking person, for any reason, is not convinced can not deny the future probable reasons without hearing them and say that he absolutely refuses other reasons, too.

In relation to the objective meaning of the Qur’ān sentence: /’allaŏīna kafarū/ (those who disbelieve), some of the Islamic commentators have rendered it into pagans, some into the Jews and ‘the People of Book’, but the context of the later verses, which speaks about paganism, is an evidence that the purpose of it is ‘pagans’.

The purpose of the Qur’ānic phrase: /’allaŏī bayna yadayh/ (that which is before it) is the heavenly Books which had been sent down before Qur’ān. This meaning has been applied in many verses of the Qur’ān with the same sense specially after mentioning the word Qur’ān; and that some commentators have said that its purpose is probably ‘Resurrection’, or is ‘the content of the Qur’ān’ does not seem so probable.

However, the denial of faith in the Books of the former prophets perhaps has been for the purpose that the Qur’ān prophesies of this matter that the symptoms of the Messenger of Islam and the Qur’ān have clearly been mentioned in the Torah and the Bible, so in ordered to negate the prophecy of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.), they negate other heavenly Books, too, and say that they neither believe in this heavenly Book, the Qur’ān, nor in the Books before it.

Then the Qur’ān refers to their situation in the Hereafter and, addressing the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), it says:

“… and could you see when the unjust shall be made to stand before their Lord, bandying words

one with another! …”

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Again, it is understood from the above holy verse that one of the most important extensions of ‘injustice’ is that very ‘polytheism’ and ‘disbelief’.

The application of the Qur’ānic phrase /‘inda rabbihim/ (before their Lord) refers to this matter that they will attend before the One Who has been their owner and their Lord; and what a shame is higher than this that a person is summoned to the One that he has never believed in Him and in Whose commandments, while his whole self has been built and covered with His bounties.

At this time, the ‘oppressed’, the same unaware persons who blindly followed some others, will say to the ‘oppressors’, viz., the same ones who used to pave the way of pride and domination over others, and giving them the line of satanic thought, as such: if you had not been, and if your satanic beguiling temptations had not existed, we would have been in the row of the believers. The verse says:

“… Those who were despised as weak will say unto those who had prided: ‘Had it not been for you, we would certainly have been believers’.”

By this manner, they want to put all their sins on the shoulder of these cruel ‘oppressors’, though they were not ready to have such a decisive treatment with them in the world, because in that life weakness and vileness had dominated them and they had lost their own freedom and frankness. But now that those false concepts, which separated the oppressors from them, have gone and the fruit of the deeds of everyone is made manifest, they stand in front of them and speak frankly, disputing with them.

****

p: 99

}32{ قَالَ الَّذِینَ اسْتَکْبَرُوا لِلَّذِینَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا أَنَحْنُ صَدَدْنَاکُمْ عَنِ الْهُدَی بَعْدَ إِذْ جَآءَکُم بَلْ کُنتُم مُّجْرِمِینَ

32. “Those who had prided shall say unto those who were despised as weak: ‘Did we turn you away from the guidance after it had come to you? Nay! You (yourselves) were guilty’.”

}33{ وَقَالَ الَّذِینَ اسْتُضْعِفُوا لِلَّذِینَ اسْتَکْبَروُا بَلْ مَکْرُ الَّیْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ إِذْ تَأْمُرُونَنَآ أَن نَّکْفُرَ بِاللَّهِ وَنَجْعَلَ لَهُ أَندَاداً وَأَسَرُّوا النَّدَامَةَ لَمَّا رَأَوُا الْعَذَابَ وَجَعَلْنَا الأَغْلاَلَ فِی أَعْنَاقِ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا هَلْ یُجْزَوْنَ

اِلاَّ مَا کَانُوا یَعْمَلُونَ

33. “And those who were despised as weak shall say unto those who had prided: ‘Nay! It was a plot (of yours) by day and by night when you bade us that we should disbelieve in Allah and set up equals with Him. And they declare (their) remorse when they see the Penalty; and We will put shackles on the necks of those who disbelieved. Are they requited aught save what they used to do?”

application of the Qur’ānic sentence /ta’murūnanā/ (you bade us) is the evidence for this matter.)

It is evident that the proud cannot have any answer to this statement and do not deny their participation in this great crime.

Therefore, both groups will be regretful of their deeds: the proud will be regretful for making others astray, and the oppressed ones for their unconditionally accepting these evil temptations. The verse continues saying:

“… And they declare (their) remorse when they see the Penalty; and We will put shackles on the necks of those who disbelieved. …”

Some commentators have said that this regret is probably because of the intensity of the terror they get from seeing the Divine punishment and the chains and shackles on their necks. This will cause their tongue not to be able to speak though the same ones, in other halts of the Hereafter will cry: “… ‘Oh woe to us! Verily we were unjust’.”(1)

Some philologists have meant the Arabic phrase /’asarrū/ in this verse in the sense of ‘declare’, in spite of those who have meant it ‘hide’, and said that this term has been used with two opposite meanings in the Arabic language, and its like is not few, but regarding to the usages of this term in the Qur’ān, and other than it, this meaning is not probable, because the Arabic word /sirr/ usually comes as opposite to /‘alan/, and Rāqib has also stipulated that this meaning is weak. Yet, some of the lexicologists have referred to both of them.

However, this is the consequence of their own deeds that they have provided from before. The verse says:

“… Are they requited aught save what they used to do?”

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Yes, these are the very deeds and behaviour of pagans and evil-doers that will be shown in the form of shackles of captivity put on their necks, hands and feet. In this world, too, they were captives of their low desires, money, power, and position, and, in Hereafter when the deeds will incarnate, the same captivities will appear in another form.

The above mentioned holy verse once more makes clear the incarnation of deeds, which has repeatedly been pointed out, because it implicitly says that their recompense is, in fact, the incarnation of their own deeds.

And what a meaning is more lively and clearer than this for incarnation of deeds?

The application of the Qur’ānic sentence /’allaŏīna kafarū/ (those who disbelieved) is an evidence that both those who tempted others proudly will be involved in this fact, and those oppressed who were tempted, and all pagans. And, basically, mentioning this quality is a hint to this fact that the cause of their punishment is their paganism.

****

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}34{ وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا فِی قَرْیَةٍ مِن نَذِیرٍ إِلاَّ قَالَ مُتْرَفُوهَآ إِنَّا بِمَآ اُرْسِلْتُم بِهِ کَافِرُونَ

}35{ وَقَالُوا نَحْنُ أَکْثَرُ أَمْوَالاً وَأَوْلاَداً وَمَا نَحْنُ بِمُعَذَّبِینَ

34. “And We sent no Warner into any city except the opulent ones of it said: ‘Verily we are disbelievers in what you are sent with’.”

35. “They also said: ‘We are more (than you) in wealth and children and we shall not be punished’.”

used in the sense of ‘prosperity’. The Arabic word /mutraf/ is applied for the one whose affluence of bounty and welfare of life has made him proud, and neglectful, and has caused him to be disobedient.(1)

Yes, those who were in the first row of the opponents of the Divine prophets (a.s.) were usually from this group of disobedient neglectful people of prosperity. Since, on one side, they saw the teachings of the prophets as a hinder for their pleasures and lusts, and on the other side, they were defenders of the deprive that by usurpation of whose rights had reached to this dazzling life, and on the third side, in order to guard their wealth and properly, they always used the power of government, and in all these instances they found the Divine prophets in their opposite situation, then they immediately decided to stand against them.

It is wonderful that they did not emphasize on a particular divine ordinance or instruction, but they generally said: “… ‘Verily we are disbelievers in what you are sent with’ …” They insisted not to be with them even for a step, which itself is the best proof for their obstinacy and enmity against the truth.

This is an important matter which the Qur’ān has disclosed through different verses: that the deprived were often the first group of people who accepted the invitation of the Divine prophets, and the proud people, who were in prosperity, were also the first group of people who began opposition.

Certainly the deniers of the Divine prophets’ call were not allocated to this group; the factors of mischief and claimers of polytheism and superstitions were those who ceaselessly tried to forcefully drug others towards themselves.

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This very meaning is also mentioned in Sura Az-Zukhruf, No. 43, verse 23; Sura Hūd, No. 11, verse 116; and also in Sura Mu’minūn, No. 23, verse 33.

This group oppose not only against the Divine prophets, but also against any step of improvement that may be taken from the side of any learned reformer and any studious scholar. In order to confuse the programs of the reformers, they often conspire and commit any crime they can.

****

Next verse refers to their futile logic to which they betake all times to prove their superiority and to beguile common people. It announces:

“They also said: ‘We are more (than you) in wealth and children …”

They say that Allah has affection to them because He has given them both abundant wealth and plenty of human power, and this is the evidence for His grace upon them and the sign for their rank and near position to Him, so He will not punish them, the near- stationed ones! The verse continues saying:

“… and we shall not be punished’.”

Does Allah punish His beloved? If we were banished from His presence, why would He give us so many bounties? In short, our world being bountiful itself is a clear reason for the good of our Hereafter.

Some of the commentators believe that the Qur’ānic sentence: /wa mā nahnu bi mu‘aŏŏabīn/ (we shall not be punished) is probably a reason that they denied the Hereafter and punishment entirely, while the later verses show that this sentence does not imply this meaning but their purpose has been in this that, for the reason of their wealth, they are nigh to Allah.

****

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}36{ قُلْ إِنَّ رَبّ-ِی یَبْسُطُ الرّ ِزْقَ لِمَن یَشَآءُ وَیَقْدِرُ وَلَکِنَّ أَکْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ یَعْلَمُونَ

36. “Say: ‘Verily my Lord amplifies the sustenance for whom He pleases and straitens for whom He pleases, but most of the people do not know’.”

are apparently in welfare with affluence of favours are beloved and accepted by Him.

There are many deprived persons who are tried by this means and reach the most superior ranks; and there are many persons who enjoy the comforts of life but whose wealth and properties are some pests for them and work as the cause of their punishment.

Does not the Holy Qur’ān explicitly say in Sura Taqābun, No. 64, verse 15: “Verily your properties and your children may be but a trial; where as Allah, with Him is the highest Reward”?

This statement does not mean that man may stop the necessary effort and endeavour in life, but the purpose is that having financial possibilities and abundant human powers are never counted as the criterion of spiritual values of man with Allah.

Then the Qur’ān refers to the standard of the values of individuals and that which causes the nearness to Allah, and (as a separate exception) says:

“… except for him who believes, and does righteousness, these are (the ones) for whom is a double recompense for what they did, and they in the exalted places shall be secure.”

Thus, all these criterions of these two cases return to “Faith and righteous deed” from any one, in any time, and wherever they may be, and the difference of persons in the presence of Allah depends on the difference of the degrees of their Faith and righteous deeds, and there is nothing else save this.

Even having much knowledge and relating to some great persons, even to prophets, if they are not accompanied with

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these two criterions do not lonely increase anything to the value of man.

It is here that the holy Qur’ān, with its unique explicitness, nullifies all deviated and superstitious imaginations in the field of the factors of getting nearness to Allah and the man’s value of existence, and summarizes the noble standard in two things which all human beings can tolerate and obtain, so that neither anyone’s material possibilities nor his deprivation, are effective in them.

Yes, if wealth and children also pave this way, they will take this divine colour and will assume the colour of faith and righteous deed, and they will be the cause of getting nearness to Allah. But the properties and children that make man aloof from Allah, and like an idol will be worshipped which cause mischief and corruption, they are the fuels of Hell, and, as the Qur’ān says, they are the man’s enemy and the enemy of his happiness. It says: “O’ you who have Faith! Verily, among your wives and your children are (some that are) enemies to yourselves so beware of them …”(1)

However, as it was also said before, the Arabic term /di‘f/ singly does not mean ‘two fold’, but it means “many folds”, and it has been used with the same sense in the verse under discussion, because we know that the reward of each good deed is at least ten folds with Allah. The holy Qur’ān says: “Whoever brings a good (deed) he shall have ten times its like, …”,(2) and sometimes it is much more than that.

The Arabic word /qurufāt/ is the plural form of /qurfah/ in the sense of some rooms which are in the upstairs that have both some lighter and better weather, and the pests are far

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from them. That is why this meaning has been applied for the best abodes of Paradise.

This word is originally derived from /qarf/ in the sense of lifting and taking something.

The application of the Qur’ānic term /’āminūn/ (those who are in security), concerning the people of Paradise, is a very comprehensive meaning which reflects the peace of their both body and spirit from any point of view, because they have neither the fear of an annihilation, destruction, and death, nor the fear of the enemy’s attack, nor the fear of sickness, pest, grief and even the fear of fear; and there is no bounty higher than this that one passes time in a complete security; in the same way that there is no affliction worse than insecurity in different aspects of life.

****

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}38{ وَالَّذِینَ یَسْعَوْنَ فِی ءَایَاتِنَا مُعَاجِزِینَ أُوْلَئِکَ فِی الْعَذَابِ مُحْضَرُونَ

}39{ قُلْ اِنَّ رَبّ-ِی یَبْسُطُ الرّ ِزْقَ لِمَن یَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ وَیَقْدِرُ لَهُ وَمَآ أَنفَقْتُم مِن شَیْءٍ فَهُوَ یُخْلِفُهُ

وَهُوَ خَیْرُ الرَّازِقِینَ

38. “And those who strive against Our signs to void them, they shall be arraigned into the chastisement.”

39. “Say: ‘Verily my Lord amplifies the sustenance for whom He pleases of His servants and straitens (it) for him and whatever thing you spend He replaces it; and He is the Best Sustainers’.”

he has built for him by his wealth and children? The verse says:

“And those who strive against Our signs to void them, they shall be arraigned into the chastisement.”

There is also this probability that the above meaning is for the sake that this Divine promise is so certain that as if they are in it just now in the same way that it has been mentioned in the previous holy verse: “… and they in the exalted places shall be secure.”

As some philologists have said, the application of the Qur’ānic term /mu‘ājizīn/ means that they imagine that they can flee from the realm of Allah’s Power and His punishment, while this is a mere baseless delusion.

****

Through the next verse, Qur’ān says:

“Say: ‘Verily my Lord amplifies the sustenance for whom He pleases of His servants and straitens (it) for him …”

Then it continues saying:

“… and whatever thing you spend He replaces it; and He is the Best Sustainers’.”

The content of the verse is an emphasis on the previous matter, but from two points of view it is new. The first is that the previous verse the concept of which was the same as this one was mostly about wealth, children, and disbelievers, while the application of the Arabic word /‘ibād/ (servants) in the verse under discussion shows that it refers to the believers. That is, concerning the believers, He sometimes amplifies the sustenance – where it is good for the believer – and He

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sometimes straitens and limits the sustenance in the place

where it requires. However, the vastness and narrowness of sustenance can cot be the evidence for anything.

The second matter is that the previous holy verse said about the vastness and narrowness of sustenance and living concerning two different groups of men, while the verse under discussion may be a hint to two different states of one person whose sustenance is vast and sometimes is straitened and limited.

Moreover, what is mentioned at the beginning of this verse is, in fact, a preliminary for that which is at the end of the verse, i.e. encouraging to spending in the cause of Allah.

The Qur’ānic sentence /fahuwa yuxlifuhū/ (He replaces it) is an interesting meaning which shows that whatever is spent in the cause of Allah is, in fact, a rich profitable bargain, because Allah undertakes its recompense; and we know that when a gracious one undertakes the recompense of something he does not observe equality, but he pays it back several folds, and sometimes hundred folds.

The promise of Allah, of course, is not limited to Hereafter and next life, which is certain in its turn, but in this world, too, He gives kinds of favours abundantly instead of those godly payments.

The Qur’ānic sentence “… and He is the Best sustainers” has a vast meaning which can be considered from different dimensions.

He is the Best of all sustainers because He knows what to bestow and how much of provision He may endow that it

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would not be the cause of mischief and corruption, and He knows everything.

Whatever He wills He can grant to whomever He wishes, because He is powerful to do everything.

Allah does not demand any recompense for what He bestows, because He is self-sufficient in Essence.

Allah grants the things even without asking them from Him, because He is aware of all things, and He is Wise.

And none, but He, is the giver of sustenance, since whatever a person has is from Him, and whatever a person gives to another one the person is the means of transferring the sustenance, not the giver of sustenance.

This point is also noteworthy that for fleeting properties He gives some lasting bounties, and He gives ‘abundant’ recompense for a ‘scanty’ deed.

****

p: 115

}40{ وَیَوْمَ یَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِیعاً ثُمَّ یَقُولُ لِلْمَلآَئِکَةِ أَهَؤُلآءِ اِیَّاکُمْ

کَانُوا یَعْبُدُونَ

}41{ قَالُوا سُبْحَانَکَ أَنتَ وَلِیُّنَا مِن دُونِهِم بَلْ کَانُوا یَعْبُدُونَ الْجِنَّ أَکْثَرُهُم بِهِم مُّؤْمِنُونَ

40. “And on the Day when He will muster them all together then He will say to the angels: ‘Did these worship you?’”

41. “They (the angels) will say: ‘Glory be to You. You are our Guardian, not they, nay rather, they were worshipping the jinn, (while) most of them were believers in them’.”

Mentioning ‘angels’ out of all objects of worship that the polytheists had, is either for the sake that the angels were the most honoured creatures that they used to worship.

Or it is for the sake that the idolaters considered the pieces of stone and wood as the symbol of the heavenly creatures (angels, spirits, and prophets) and they worshipped them under this title. It is cited in the history of idolatry among Arabs that once when ‘Amr-ubn-Luhā had travelled to Syria saw some people who were worshipping their idols. He asked them about that action and they answered that they were some gods that they had made in the shapes of heavenly creatures in order to get help from them and by means of them they asked for rain. ‘Amr-ubn-Luhā liked it and followed their idea and he brought an idol with him to Arabia as a present, and since then idolatry began there and continued until when Islam came and rooted it out.

****

Now we refer to the response of the angel in answer to the question of Allah. They will choose the most inclusive and the most polite answer as the verse says:

“They (the angels) will say: ‘Glory be to You. You are our Guardian, not they, nay rather, they were worshipping the jinn, (while) most of them were believers in them’.”

Concerning the kind of the concept of the answer of the angels, commentators have delivered various ideas and each of them has rendered it differently. But what seems nearer to the fact is that: the purpose of ‘jinn’ is Satan and other evil beings that encouraged the idol-worshippers to this action and decorated it in their sight. Thus, the purpose of ‘worshipping the jinn’ is obeying their commands and accepting their temptations.

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By expressing their hate and repudiation and announcing their dislike of this action the angels will say that the main factor of this corruption was Satans, though they apparently worshipped the angels, the real feature of it must be made manifest.

Similar to this meaning is also recited in Sura Yūnus, where it says: “And the Day We shall muster them all, then We shall say to those who associated others (with Us): ‘Get you to your place! You and your associates’, then We shall set a space between them, and their associates shall say: ‘It was not us (indeed) that you used to worship!’” (1)

That is, you, indeed, used to worship your own low desires, delusions and conjectures, not us. Moreover, your worship was done neither by our command nor with our consent, and such worship is not, in fact, a real worship.

****

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}42{ فَالْیَوْمَ لاَ یَمْلِکُ بَعْضُکُمْ لِبَعْضٍ نَّفْعاً وَلاَ ضَرًّا وَنَقُولُ لِلَّذِینَ ظَلَمُوا ذُوقُوا عَذَابَ النَّارِ الَّتِی کُنتُم بِهَا تُکَذّ ِبُونَ

42. “So on that Day one of you shall not own for the other any profit or harm, and We will say unto those who did injustice: ‘Taste you the chastisement of the Fire which you used to deny’.”

of the Qur’ān ‘disbelief’ has been rendered into ‘injustice’ or ‘pagans and polytheists’ have been introduced as ‘the unjust ones’, because, before anything else, they have done injustice to themselves. They take off the honourable crown of worship of Allah from their own heads and put the abased shackle of servitude of idols on their necks and, thus, they naturally lose their entire honour, personality, and fate.

In fact, in Hereafter, they receive both the punishment of their own polytheism and the punishment of the denial of Resurrection, and both of these meanings are compiled in the sentence: “… and We will say unto those who did injustice: ‘Taste you the chastisement of the Fire which you used to deny’.”

****

p: 120

}43{ وَإِذَا تُتْلَی عَلَیْهِمْ ءَایَاتُنَا بَیّ-ِنَاتٍ قَالُوا مَا هَذَا اِلاَّ رَجُلٌ یُرِیدُ أَن یَصُدَّکُمْ عَمَّا کَانَ یَعْبُدُ ءَابَآؤُکُمْ وَقَالُوا مَا هَذَآ إِلآَّ إِفْکٌ مُفْتَرًی وَقَالَ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا لِلْحَقّ ِ لَمَّا جَآءَهُمْ إِنْ هَذَآ اِلاَّ سِحْرٌ مُّبِینٌ

43. “And when Our clear signs are recited to them, they say: ‘This is naught but a man who desires to bar you from that your fathers used to worship’; and they say: ‘This (Qur’ān) is nothing but a falsehood forged’. And the unbelievers say to the truth, when it has come to them: ‘This is nothing but a manifest sorcery’.”

The application of the phrase: “This is naught but a man who desires to” has been used for the contempt of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) by means of two elements: one is the word /hāŏā/ (this), and the other is /rajul/ (a man), in an indefinite form, while all of them knew the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) very well and that he had a good background.

This is also notable that the Qur’ān qualifies the ‘signs’ by the word ‘clear’, which means the proofs of their legitimacy are accompanied with them and this fact does not need to be explained.

Then the Qur’ān refers to their second statement that they expressed in order to nullify the invitation of the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.). It says:

“… and they say: ‘This (Qur’ān) is nothing but a falsehood forged’. …”

The Arabic word /’ifk/, as was explained before, means: ‘anything that changes from its original form’. So, the opposite winds in Arabic are called /mu’tafikāt/, then it has been used also for any falsehood, accusation, and any incorrect statement. Some others say that the word /’ifk/ is used for great lies.

Although the application of the word /’ifk/ for accusing the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) of falsehood was enough, they emphasized it with the Arabic word /muftarā/ without having any document for this claim of theirs.

Finally, their third accusation to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) was the denigration of ‘sorcery’, as the last part of the verse under discussion says:

“… And the unbelievers say to the truth, when it has come to them: ‘This is nothing but a manifest sorcery’.”

It is surprising that this aberrant group used to state these three accusations with the most explicit emphasis which was restriction. Once they said that it was only a manifest sorcery;

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in another place they said it was but a lie; and, finally, in the third place they said that he only wanted to bar them from the objects of worship of their ancestors.

These three undue charges, of course, do not contrast with each other, although they did not refuse to say contradictory words. Therefore, there is no reason that, according to the statement of some commentators, we attribute each of these accusations to one group of the disbelievers.

This point is also notable that: in the first and second stages the Qur’ān has used the word /qālū/ (they said), but in the third stage, instead of that, it has used the sentence: /qālallaŏīna kafarū/ (those who disbelieved said), pointing to this fact that all these miseries originate from disbelief, denial of the Truth, and enmity with reality. Else, how is it possible that, without having any reasoning, one forges all these accusations, one after another, to a man that the proofs of legitimacy are clearly seen from his speech, his deed, and his background? As if, by these three accusations they followed an accurate program in conflicting against the Prophet (p.b.u.h.).

On one side, they saw that it was a new religion and had a proper attraction. On the other side, the Prophet’s threats to Divine punishment in this world and the next, willy-nilly, had made some people terrified.

On the third side, the Prophet’s miracles (p.b.u.h.) affected on the minds of common people.

They had devised a way in order to nullify each of these three subjects. So, in opposition to the new religion, they attached to protecting the heritage of the ancestors, while their ancestors were, as the Qur’ān says, the extension of verse which says: “… had no understanding of anything nor were they guided aright.”(1)

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It does not matter that he restrains people from such superstitious customs which are the devise of the foolish ignorant ones, and that against the Prophet’s threats to Divine punishment, they had propounded the subject of mendacity in order to make people calm.

In the face of miracles, they propounded the accusation of ‘sorcery’ so that they could justify it thereby and stop people from embracing it.

But, as we know and history testifies it, too, none of these Satanic temptations did work effectively, and finally people accepted this pure religion in groups.

****

p: 124

}44{ وَمَآ ءَاتَیْنَاهُم مِن کُتُبٍ یَدْرُسُونَهَا وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَآ اِلَیْهِمْ قَبْلَکَ مِن نَّذِیرٍ

44. “And We had not given them (Arab pagans) any Books which they could study, nor did We send unto them before you any Warner.”

}45{ وَکَذَّبَ الَّذِینَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَمَا بَلَغُوا مِعْشَارَ مَآ ءَاتَیْنَاهُمْ فَکَذَّبُوا رُسُلِی فَکَیْفَ کَانَ نَکِیرِ

45. “And those before them rejected (the messengers) and these have not yet attained a tenth of what We had given them but they belied My apostles; so (see) how was My punishment (unto them)!”

Some commentators have taken it with the sense of one-hundredth, but many Arabic dictionaries and commentaries have mentioned the first meaning for it. But, however, these kinds of figures do not refer to the number and they are used to show scantiness in comparison with the figures like: seven, seventy, one thousand, and the like which are used to show multiplicity.

Therefore, the concept of the verse is that Allah has vanished some powerful haughty persons that comparing them these people have not even a small part of their power.

Similar to this meaning is said in other different verses of the Qur’ān, including Sura Al-’An‘ām, No. 6, verse 6 which says: “Have they not considered how many a generation We destroyed before them, when We had established in the earth (to the extent) that We have not established you, and We sent abundant (water down from) the sky upon them and made the rivers flow beneath them? Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and raised up after them another generation.”

Again, the like of this very meaning is mentioned in Sura Al-Mu’min, No. 40, verse 21; and in Sura Ar-Room, No. 30, verse 9, too.

The Qur’ānic word /nakīr/ is derived from /’inkār/ in the same sense, and the purpose of denying Allah is the denial of His punishment.

****

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Each of the words and meanings mentioned in this verse points to an important matter that ten points of which are referred to in the following:

1- The sentence ‘I exhort you’ in fact points to this fact that your goodness and interest is considered in this saying, not in any other matter.

2- The application of the Arabic word /wāhidah/ (only one thing), specially with the term /’innamā/ (only) for emphasis, is a clear indication to this reality that the root of all individual and social improvements is the utilization of intellects. Whenever the thought of a nation is inactive, it will be invaded by the thieves and robbers of faith, religion, freedom, and independence. But when thoughts become active the way will be closed to those robbers.

3- The application of the Arabic term /qiyām/ here does not mean ‘to stand on one’s two feet’, but it means readiness for performing affairs, because when a person stands on his feet he is almost ready to fulfil different programs of the life. Therefore, contemplation needs a former preparation which brings a motion and motive into being in man so that he willingly and intentionally begins to contemplate.

4- The application of the word /lillāh/ (for the sake of Allah) points to this meaning that standing and preparation must have a divine godly motive, and the contemplation which originates from such a motive is worthy.

In principle, sincerity in affairs, and even in thinking, is the cause of deliverance, happiness, and beatitude.

It is interesting that the faith in Allah has here been taken certain so contemplation for other issues is an indication to this fact that Monotheism is an innate thing which is clear even without thinking.

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5- The application of the Qur’ānic phrase: /maθnā wa furādā/ (two by two and one by one) points to this fact that pondering and contemplation must be done far from tumults. People ought to rise singly or maximum two by two and utilize their thoughts, because contemplation inside a tumult will not be so deep, in particular that the factors of egotism and bigotry in the path of defending from one’s own belief in front of a crowd is rather more evident.

Some other commentators also believe that these two meanings are probably for this purpose that men must learn the ‘individual’ thought and the congregational thought, i.e., with consultation. A person must both contemplate lonely and enjoy the others’ proper thoughts, because despotism in thought and judgment is often the cause of destruction; and cooperation in thought and struggle for solving the scientific difficulties, where it does not stretch to tumult, has a better effect, and it is perhaps for this reason that the word /maθnā/ (two by two) has been preceded by the word /furādā/ (one by one).

6- The application of the Qur’ānic word /sāhibikum/ (your companion), in respect to the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), has an indication to this fact that he is not an unfamiliar person for you. He has lived among you for many years, and you have known him for his deposit, perspicacity, truthfulness, and veracity. You have never seen any dark or weak point in his biography. Therefore, justly all the accusations you attribute to him are baseless.

7- The Arabic word /jinnah/ in the sense of madness is originally derived from the word /jinn/ with the sense of ‘cover’, and in view of the fact that a mad man is such that as if his wisdom were covered, this meaning has been used about him. However, the notable point is in this that it seems to say this fact that how is it possible that an inviter to contemplation

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to be mad himself? And this fact that he is caller to thinking itself is an indication to his utmost wisdom and perspicacity.

8- The sentence saying: “… he is only a Warner to you …” summarizes the messengership of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) in the subject of ‘warning’, that is, to give warning unto people concerning the responsibilities and the court and retribution of Allah. It is true that the Prophet has the messengership of glad tiding, too, but that which mostly makes man move is ‘warning’. So, in some other verses of the Qur’ān, ‘giving warning’ has been mentioned as the only duty of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.); such as Sura Al-Ahqāf, No. 46, verse 9 which says: “… and I am not but an open Warner.” The like of this meaning is recited in Sura Sād, No. 38, verse 65, as well as in other verses, too.

9- The application of the Qur’ānic sentence “… before a severe chastisement” points to this meaning that Hereafter is so nigh that as if it is in front of you; and verily, in comparison with the life-time of this world it is so, too. This meaning has also been referred to in a few Islamic narrations. The holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “My appointment (to prophecy) and the establishment of Hereafter are like these two; (then he put his fore-finger and his middle finger with together and showed the audience).”(1)

Thus, how is it possible that our religion like Islam be a means of stupefaction or be resulted by ignorance, while its bringer addresses all human beings, in its best form, and says that they mobilize for enlivening the asleep thoughts, in a quiet environment which is empty of any tumult.

It must be in an environment far from sensual desires, and poisonous atmosphere of propaganda.

It should be far from bigotries and aloof from obstinacies.

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You must rise for the sake of Allah, and contemplate only for Him.

This is the only admonition of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) to you, and nothing else.

Is not this laughable that such a religion, that has repeated this very invitation both here and in many other instances, be accused to stupefaction of thoughts?

In particular that he says to you to contemplate not only in solitude and individually, but also you may ponder two by two and with the help of each other. You must hearken to the content of the invitation of the divine prophets, study their reasoning and if they adapt to wisdom, you accept it.

The recent events which happened because of the raise of revolutionary Muslims during our time in different countries against the hellish powers of the East and the West, and made the world dark in the view of the tyrants and threatened the pillars of their power, showed that they had understood this point correctly that the noble religious beliefs work as their severe enemy and is counted a great danger for them; and it also showed what was the aim of these hostile accusations that they attributed to Islam.

It is verily wonderful that in the philosophical analysis of the Western sociologists this subject has been considered certain that there is not any supernatural world, and religion is an artificial phenomena made by man. Then they quarrel upon this matter that: what is its cause? Is its cause the economical affairs, or the men’s fear, or the man’s lack of cognizance, or some spiritual complexes?

But they are not ready to, for a moment, empty their mind of this wrong pre-judgment and think that there is probably another world beyond the world of nature; and that they may contemplate about the clear proofs of Monotheism and the

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manifest signs of the prophecy of some divine prophets, such as: Muhammad (p.b.u.h.).

These people are not unlike to the pagans of the Age of Ignorance, with this difference that the pagans were some illiterate zealous and obstinate people, while these are also zealous and obstinate but are literate, and for this reason, they are more dangerous and more seductive.

It is interesting that the last part of many of the verses of the Qur’ān contains invitation to contemplation, or comprehension, or admonition.

Sometimes it says: “… Verily there is a sign in that for a people who reflect.” (1)

And sometimes it says: “… Certainly there are signs in that for a people who reflect.”(2)

And sometimes it says: “… that they may ponder.” (3)

And sometimes the same sentence is stated as addressing the believers: “… Thus does Allah make the signs clear to you, in order that you may ponder?” (4)

There are a great deal of such meanings in the Qur’ān, like invitation to: understanding, wise, wisdom, and admiring those who use their wisdom, and intensively blaming those who do not apply their thought. This meaning has been referred to in the verse under discussion (No. 46)

There are many explanations in the Qur’ān about men of knowledge, scientists, and the rank of knowledge that if we try to gather all of them with together and give commentary for them, it will become an independent book by itself.

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In this respect it is enough to say that the holy Qur’ān has mentioned one of the qualities of hellish people the lack of contemplation and wisdom, where it says about them: “They will say: ‘Had we but listened or used our intelligence, we should not be among the companions of the Blazing Fire’.”(1)

In another occurrence, it implies that, in principle, there are some persons who have ears but they do not hear, they have eyes but they do not see, they have mind but they do not ponder. The verse says: “Indeed We have created for Hell many jinn and humans; they have hearts with which they do not understand, and they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. They are as cattle, rather they are more astray. These are the heedless ones.”(2)

****

The Imam (a.s.), in answer to him, said: “When he passes by a ruin or a (ruined) house (empty of dwellers) he should say to the house: ‘Where have your dwellers gone? What happened to your founders? Why do not you speak?”(1)

4- Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) says: “Contemplation invites to goodness and acting to it.”(2)

Imam Ali (a.s.) said: “Before making decision do ponder, consult before that you regret, and think deeply before you attack.”(3)

****

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}47{ قُلْ مَآ سَأَلْتُکُم مِنْ أَجْرٍ فَهُوَ لَکُمْ إِنْ أَجْرِیَ إِلاَّ عَلَی اللَّهِ وَهُوَ عَلَی کُلّ ِ شَیْءٍ شَهِیدٌ

}48{ قُلْ إِنَّ رَبّ-ِی یَقْذِفُ بِالْحَقِ عَلاَّمُ الْغُیُوبِ

47. “Say: ‘Whatever reward I have asked of you, it is for yourselves; my reward is only with Allah; and He is witness over all things’.”

48. “Say: ‘My Lord hurls the truth (on hearts), the great Knower of the Unseen’.”

This matter points to this fact that whatever a wise person does must naturally have a motive. When my perfect intellect is proved to you and you see that I have no material motive, you should know that the Divine and spiritual motive has made me do it.

In other words, I invited you to ponder. Now you do think and ask your own conscience what has caused me to warn you against the intense punishment of Allah? What benefit do I get from this, and what kind of material profit does it have for me? In addition, if your pretext for this turning away from the truth is this that you must pay a dear price for it, principally, I have asked no compensate and reward from you.

This very meaning is clearly mentioned in Sura Al-Qalam, No. 68, verse 46 which says: “Or do you ask from them a reward, so that they are burdened with debt?”

Upon the meaning of the Qur’ānic phrase /fa huwa lakum/ (it is for yourselves) there are two commentaries: the first is that it may be an implicit declaration of the lack of asking for any kind of reward absolutely; like that we say: “Whatever I have wanted from you can be yours.” Indicating that, I have wanted nothing from you. The witness to this statement is the sentence next to it which says: “… my reward is only with Allah; …”

The second is that: if you see that in some of my words that I have brought from my Lord I have told you: “… ‘No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin.’ …”(1) The profit of this also returns to you, because the concept of the sentence: ‘The love of those near of kin’ returns to ‘deposit and Wilāyah’ which is the continuation of the subject of messengership, that which is also necessary for the continuation of your guidance.

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The evidence upon this recent statement is the occasion of revelation narrated here by some commentators. They have said when the verse saying: “… say: ‘No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin …” was revealed, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) told the pagans of Mecca: “Do not annoy my relatives” and they accepted this suggestion, too. But when the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said something bad against their idols, they said that Muhammad did not treat us justly. From one side he wanted us we would not annoy his relatives, but on the other side, by saying something bad against our gods, he annoys us. It was here that the recently mentioned verse was revealed and told them that whatever the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) wanted from them in this regard was for their own benefit, now the pagans may hurt them or not.(1)

And, at the end of the verse, it says:

“… and He is witness over all things’.”

If I ask my reward from him it is for the sake that He is aware of all my deeds and intentions.

Moreover, He is a witness to my legitimacy, because it is He Who has given me these clear signs and miracles.

And verily He is the best witness, because the one who knows the facts better than all, and can deliver it better than anyone, and there comes out of him nothing but the truth, he is the best witness, and He is Allah.

Regarding to what was said about the legitimacy of the invitation of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), the next verse implicitly says that Qur’ān is a reality which is undeniable and it has been cast on the heart of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) from the side of Allah, and it announces:

“Say: ‘My Lord hurls the truth (on hearts), the great Knower of the Unseen’.”

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Regarding to the fact that the Arabic word /yaqŏifu/ is derived from /qaŏf/ in the sense of ‘to throw from a far point’ or ‘to throw from a far distance’, there have been delivered different commentaries upon this verse which are consistent with each other.

The first is that: the purpose of ‘hurls the truth’ is casting the content of the heavenly Books and Divine revelation upon the hearts of the Divine prophets and the messengers of Allah, because as the result of being ‘Knower of the Unseen’ He knows the receptive hearts and chooses them and casts the revelation upon them so that it penetrates deeply into them.

Thus, this statement is not unlike to the tradition which says: “The knowledge is a light that Allah casts it into the heat of the one He pleases.” The application of ‘Knower of the Unseen’ verifies this.

Some others have said that its purpose is: ‘casting the Truth on the falsehood and knocking down the wrong by the ‘Truth. That is, the Truth has such a power that it removes all the barriers out of its way and none is able to stand against it. So, it is a threat against the opponents that they might not rise against the Qur’ān, and know that the legitimacy of the Qur’ān will defeat them.

In this case, it is similar to the matter which is mentioned in Sura Al-’Anbiyā’, No. 21, verse 18 which says: “Nay! But We hurl the truth against falsehood so that it breaks out its brain, and behold, falsehood vanishes away. …”

This probability has also been suggested that the purpose of the application of /qaŏf/ here is the penetration of the legitimacy of the Qur’ān in both near and far points of the world and pointing to this fact that finally this heavenly revelation will be worldly and its light will light everywhere.

****

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}49{ قُلْ جَآءَ الْحَقُّ وَمَا یُبْدِئُ الْبَاطِلُ وَمَا یُعِیدُ

}50{ قُلْ إِن ضَلَلْتُ فَإِنَّمَآ أَضِلُّ عَلَی نَفْسِی وَإِنِ اهْتَدَیْتُ فَبِمَ-ا یُوحِی اِلَیَّ رَبّ-ِی اِنَّهُ سَمِیعٌ قَرِیبٌ

49. “Say: ‘The Truth has come, and falsehood neither brings forth anything nor does it reproduce (it)’.”

50. “Say: ‘If I astray, I astray only against my own self, and if I am guided aright, it is of what my Lord has revealed unto me. Verily He is All-Hearing, the (Most) Nigh’.”

temptations, and tyrannical primordial innovation all are simply compiled in the meaning of ‘falsehood’.

In fact, this verse is like Sura Al-’Isrā’, No. 17, verse 81 which says: “And say: ‘The truth has come and the falsehood’ has vanished away, verily the ‘falsehood’ is (something) vanishing.”

Question: Why does falsehood still exist after coming the Qur’ān and the Prophet of the Truth?

Answer: The logical and scientific sovereignty is different from practical and executive sovereignty. Whatever relates to Allah is sending the Truth, and that which relates to us is action and executing the Truth. This is what we practically did not perform. Yes, the return of the health of a sick person depends on a correct prescription and consuming its medicine. One of them is the duty of physician and the other is the duty of the sick person.

****

Then, in order to make clear that whatever he says is from the side of Allah, and that the entire guidance is from Him, and that there happens no mistake in the Divine revelation, in the next verse, He adds:

“Say: ‘If I astray, I astray only against my own self, and if I am guided aright, it is of what my Lord has revealed unto me. …”

That is, if I, too, be left alone to myself, as you claim, I will become astray, because finding the way of the Truth from among the mass of wrong ways is not possible except by His help; and the light of guidance in which there is no aberration, is the light of His revelation.

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Then, you may come nigh toward this light, the Divine revelation, in order that you come out from the realm of darkness and arrive into the realm of light.

At the end of the verse, the Qur’ān says:

“… Verily He is All-Hearing, the (Most) Nigh’.”

You should not think that He may not hear our words and yours; or He hears them but He is far from us. No, He is both Hearing and Nigh. Therefore, nothing of our speaking and our demands is concealed to Him.

****

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}51{ وَلَوْ تَرَی اِذْ فَزِعُوا فَلاَ فَوْتَ وَاُخِذُوا مِن مَکَانٍ قَرِیبٍ

}52{ وَقَالُوا ءَامَنَّا بِهِ وَأَنَّی لَهُمُ التَّنَاوُشُ مِن مَکَانٍ بَعِیدٍ

51. “And could you see when they shall become terrified, but (then) there shall be no escape and they shall be seized upon a near place (you will surprise),”

52. “And they shall say: ‘We believe in it’, and how shall the attaining (of faith) be possible to them from a distance place?”

while some others say that it relates to the punishment of the Day of Hereafter.

But in the last verse of the verses under discussion, there is a meaning which shows that these verses are all related to this world and the worldly sudden punishment for incorrigible wrong doers, or the punishment of the time of giving up one’s life, because in that verse the Qur’ān says: “And a barrier shall be set between them and that which they desire, as was done unto the likes of them afore-time, …”(1)

This meaning does not adapt to the punishment of the Day of Hereafter, because, on that Day, all will be gathered with together for Reckoning, as Sura Hūd, No. 11, verse 103 says: “… That is a Day (when) mankind are to be gathered to, and that is a Day that shall be witnessed (by all).” And Sura Al-Wāqi‘ah, No. 56, verses 49-50 say: “Say: ‘Those of old and those of later times,” “All will certainly be gathered together for the meeting appointed for a Day well-known.”

Therefore, the purpose of the sentence: “… they shall be seized upon a near place” is that these faithless and cruel persons not only cannot escape from the realm of the Power of Allah, but also He will seize them from a place which is very near to them.

Were not the Pharaohs buried under the waves of the Nile which was the capital of their honour? Did not Korah sink into the earth with his treasures? Did not the people of Sheba whose story is referred to in this very Sura afflict from the nearest place, i.e., the same great dam which was in the midst of their city and was the cause of their life and motion? So,

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Allah afflicts them from the nearest place in order that they see His Power.

A great deal of unjust kings were killed or destroyed by their nearest men; and many of the cruel powerful men received the last stroke from the inside of their homes.

Many Islamic narrations, introduced by the way of the Shi‘ites and the Sunnites, have adapted this verse to the revolt of Sufyānī. (There are a group of people who follow the school of thought of Abū-Sufyān, the continuation of the thought of the Age of Ignorance, who will raise against the adherents of the Truth in the threshold of the reappearance of Mahdī (a.s.) and his army.) At time when they will be going toward Mecca to occupy it they will afflict the Divine punishment. A severe earth-quake causes that the earth will split asunder and they will fall into it. This meaning, in fact, is the statement of one of the expansions of the Qur’ānic phrase: “… they shall be seized upon a near place”, that they shall meet the Divine punishment in a place where on they are standing.

Ibn-’Abbas, Ibn-Mas‘ūd, Abū-Hurayrah, Abū-Hathīfah, Umm-us-Salamah, and ‘Āyishah, according to what has been mentioned in the books of the Sunnites, have narrated the content of this tradition from the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.).(1)

And many of the commentators of the Shī‘ites have recorded this tradition in their commentary Books, such as: Qummī, Majma‘-ul-Bayān, Nūr-uth-Thaqalayn, and As-Sāfī. Also a group of the commentators of the Sunnites such as the writer of the Commentary of Rūh-ul-Ma‘ānī and Rauh-ul-

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Bayān, and Qurtubī have narrated it following to the verses under discussion.

The Late ‘Allamah Majlisī has narrated a lot of traditions in this regard in Bihār-ul-’Anwār from Imam Muhammad Bāqir (a.s.) and from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) which show that one of the denotation expansions of the verses under discussion is the revolt of Sufyānī at the time of reappearance of Hadrat Mahdī (a.s.), when Allah will seize and destroy them from the nearest place to them.(1)

As it has repeatedly been said, the narrations which are mentioned upon the commentary of the verses of the Qur’ān mostly refer to the clear denotation expansions and they are never as a reason for limiting the concepts of them.

****

In the next verse, their circumstance, when they are involved in the grips of the Divine chastisement, is explained. It implicitly says that they will say they believe in the Qur’ān, in its bringer, and in Origin and End. It says:

“And they shall say: ‘We believe in it’, …”

“… and how shall the attaining (of faith) be possible to them from a distance place?”

Yes, when the death and the sudden punishment come, the doors of return will absolutely be closed, and, as if, there will be created a firm dam between man and recompense of the past wrong deeds. For this very reason, expression of Faith at that time is done from a very far distance.

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Principally, such a faith which is compulsory, and is because of extraordinary terror of the punishment they see by their own eyes, is not valuable. Therefore, some other verses of the Qur’ān say: “… and even if they were returned, they would revert to what they were prohibited, and most certainly they are liars.” (1)

The Arabic word /tanāwuš/ is derived from /nauš/ in the sense of ‘taking something’, and some have taken it in the sense of ‘to take easily’, i.e., how can they reach an aim easily which is very far?

****

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}53{ وَقَدْ کَفَرُوا بِهِ مِن قَبْلُ وَیَقْذِفُونَ بِالْغَیْبِ مِن مَکَانٍ بَعِیدٍ

}54{ وَحِیلَ بَیْنَهُمْ وَبَیْنَ مَا یَشْتَهُونَ کَمَا فُعِلَ بِاَشْیَاعِهِم مِن قَبْلُ اِنَّهُمْ کَانُوا فِی شَکٍّ مُّرِیبٍ

53. “And indeed they did disbelieve in it before, and aim their conjectures about the unseen from a distant place.”

54. “And a barrier shall be set between them and that which they desire, as was done unto the likes of them afore-time; for they have been in a disquieting doubt.”

distant place’, and totally is a tender allusion of a person who judges about the world of supper-nature without having any knowledge, in the same manner that throwing something from a distant place rarely strikes to the target, This conjecture and judgment of their does not strike the aim either.

Sometimes they called the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) ‘sorcerer’, sometimes ‘mad’, and sometimes ‘a liar’. Sometimes they considered the Qur’ān as the production of the thought of a man, and sometimes they entirely denied the Paradise, the Hell, and Hereafter. All of these were a kind of ‘stoning to unseen’, ‘throwing an arrow in darkness’, and ‘throwing something from a distant place’.

Then it adds that finally death separated them from what they desired:

“And a barrier shall be set between them and that which they desire, as was done unto the likes of them

afore-time; …”

In a painful moment, they see that all their wealth and properties, all their castles and positions, and their desires are separated from them. Those who had clasped to even a penny and could not leave the least material possibilities, how will they be at the moment when they must suddenly say farewell to all of them and shut their eyes and go toward a dark and terrible future?

****

How beautiful says Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) when he illustrates the moments of death and separation from the bounties of the world through his delightful words in the clearest form. He (a.s.) says: “… Pangs of death and grief for

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losing (this world) have surrounded them. Consequently their limbs become languid and their complexion changes. Then death increases its struggle over them.

In one of them, it stands in between him and his power of speaking although he lies among his people, looking with eyes, hearing with his ears, with full wits and intelligence. He then thinks over how he wasted his life and in what (activities) he passed his time. He recalls the wealth he collected when he had blinded himself in seeking it, and acquired it from fair and foul sources. Now the consequences of collecting it have overtaken him. He gets ready to leave it. It would remain for those who are behind him. They would enjoy it and benefit by it.

It would be an easy acquisition for others but a burden on his back, and the man cannot get rid of it. He would thereupon bite his hands with teeth out of shame for what was disclosed to him about his affairs at the time of his death. He would dislike what he coveted during the days of his life and would wish that he who envied him on account of it and felt jealous over him for it should have amassed it instead of he himself.”

Finally, in the last sentence of the verse under discussion, it implies that the reason of all these things is that they always spent their life in doubt and, naturally, such fate was waiting for them. The verse says:

“…for they have been in a disquieting doubt.”

****

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O’ Lord! Set us among those believers who before losing opportunities awaken and try to compensate whatever they had missed.

O’ Lord! Appoint us of those who at the time of affluence begin thanksgiving and do not become proud and neglectful, and that at the time of afflictions they do not complain but they take a lesson.

****

The End of Sura As-Saba’

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Sura Al-Fātir

(The Originator)

No. 35, (Revealed at Mecca)

45 verses in 5 Sections

creation what He pleases; verily Allah is All-Powerful over every thing.”

been given to the angels, the verse immediately speaks about their creation and the considerable power that Allah, the Almighty, has bestowed on them. It says:

“… Who appointed the angels messengers having wings two, three, and four. …”

Then the verse continues saying:

“… He adds to creation what He pleases; verily Allah is All-Powerful over every thing.”

Allah (s.w.t.) adds to the creation whatever His Will and His Wisdom require including wings and other things. In this regard, the verse is absolute and it contains any kind of adding, irrespective of tallness of the body, moderation in face and bodily power and good intellect, and other merits. Some of the commentators say that the purpose of ‘adding to creation’ is: beautiful face, nice voice, and fair hair.

On the whole, the Qur’ān explains the specialties of the angels as follows:

1- The angels are some wise and intellectual beings of the honourable servants of Allah. “… but (angels) are (His) honoured servants.”(1)

2. They obey Allah (s.w.t.) and never commit sin. “They do not precede Him in speech, and (only) according to His commandment do they act.”(2)

3. They have been given many important and various duties from the side of Allah: Some of them bear the ‘Arsh (throne): “… bear the throne of Your Lord above them.”(3) A group of them manage the affair: “And those who manage the affair.”(4)

A group of them are the angels of taking souls: “… until when Our messengers came to them to take them away, …”(5)

A group of them are the recorders of the deeds of men: “And surely there are Watchers over you,” “Honourable scribes:” “They know (and understand) whatever you do.”(6)

A group of them are the protectors of man from dangers and evil events: “… and He sends guardians (to watch) over you until when death comes to one of you, …” (7)

A group of them are ordered to punish the disobedient people: “And when Our messengers (the angels) came to Lot, he was grieved for them and felt straitened to protect them. He said: ‘This is a distressful day’.”(8)

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A group of them are Divine helpers to the believers in battles: “O you who believe! Remember Allah’s blessing upon you when hosts came against you, so We sent upon them a strong wind and hosts, that you saw not, and Allah sees what you do.” (1)

And, finally, a group of them are the bringers of revelation and heavenly Books from Allah for Divine prophets: “He sends down the angels with the inspiration of His commandment upon whomever of His servants He wills …”(2)

4- They are always busy glorifying Allah, as Sura Ash-Shurā, No. 42, verse 5 says: “… and the angels celebrate the Praise of their Lord and seek forgiveness for those who are on the earth, …”

Yes, because of talent and potentials of development that man has, he is higher than and superior to the angels so much so that all angels, with no exception, once for the sake of the creation of Adam fell in prostration and Adam became their teacher. (Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verses 30-34)

6- Some angels appear for prophets and even other than the prophets in the form of human beings, as we recite in Sura Maryam that the great angel of Allah came to Mary as a handsome man: “… Then We sent unto her Our Spirit (Holy Spirit) that presented himself to her a perfect man”.

In other occurrences of the Qur’ān we recite that angels appeared in the form of some men before Abraham and Lot, (Sura Hūd, No. 11, verses 69 and 77). It is understood from the verses of this Sura that the people of Lot, too, saw them in the form of some handsome men, (Sura Hūd, No. 11, verse 78).

Is the appearance in the form of man a concrete fact? Or is it in the form of presentation and interfering in the perceptive

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faculty? The outward of the verses of the Qur’ān implies to the first meaning, though some great commentators have chosen the second meaning.

7- It is understood from Islamic narrations that the number of angels is so large that they can never be compared with all human beings. Once Imam Sādiq (a.s.) was asked whether the number of the angels is larger or that of the human beings, he said: “By Allah in whose hand is my soul! the angels in heavens are more than the (number of) whole atoms of the dust of the earth, and there is no place in heaven but an angel is busy glorifying and praising Him therein.” (Bihār-ul-’Anwār, Vol. 59, P. 126).

8- They neither eat nor drink nor marry. Imam Sādiq (a.s.) in a tradition said: “Verily the angels neither eat, nor drink, nor marry, and they do live only by the breeze of the (Divine) ’Arsh!)” (Bihār-ul-’Anwār, Vol. 59, P. 174)

9- They have neither sleep nor negligence, nor laziness. Ali (a.s.) in a tradition said: “There is no cessation between them, nor there is negligence with them, nor there is sin among them… sleep does not overtake them, their wisdom never involves in mistake and forgetfulness, their bodies do not tend to laziness, and they do not lie in the loins of fathers and in the wombs of mothers.” (Bihār-ul-’Anwār, Vol. 59, P. 175)

10- They have different proper positions and ranks. Some of them are always in the state of ‘bowing’ while some others are in the state of prostration.

The Qur’ān, from the tongue of the angels, says: “There is not (any one) of us but for his is an assigned place.” “And verily we are they who range ourselves in order;” “And verily we are they who celebrate His glory!” (Sura As-Sāffāt, No. 37, verse 164-166)

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Imam Sādiq (a.s.) says: “Verily Allah has some angels who are (in the state of) bowing until the Day of Hereafter, and verily Allah has some angels who are (always in the state of) prostration until the Day of Hereafter.” (Bihār, Vol. 59, P. 174)

For more information about the specialties of the angels and their classes, you may refer to the books entitled: As-Samā’-i-wal-‘Ālam, Bihār-ul-’Anwār, Abwāb-ul-Malā’ikah, Vol. 59, P. 144-326. also, Nahj-ul-Balāqah, sermons number one and ninety one, Sermon ’Ishbāh, sermons 109, and 171.

Having these attributes mentioned for the angels in mind, are they abstract or material?

Certainly, with these specialties, they cannot be formed from the dirty elemental matter, but it does not matter that they have been created from some tender matters, some things beyond this ordinary matter which we are acquainted with. Of course, we know the angels as those who are introduced by the Qur’ān and by the certain Islamic narrations, and we know them as a great part of the high and outstanding beings of Allah, without considering any rank for them save the rank of servitude, and we do not know them as the partner of Allah in creation or worship, because this is absolutely polytheism and infidelity.

By the way, in many phrases of the Torah the angels are introduced as gods, which is blasphemous and this is one of the signs of the distortion in the present Torah. But the Qur’ān is pure and far from these meanings, since it has not considered any rank for them except servitude and worship, and executing the commands of Allah; and, as we said before, it is understood from the different verses of the Qur’ān that the rank of a complete man is higher than and superior to the angels.

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}2{ مَّا یَفْتَحِ اللَّهُ لِلنَّاسِ مِن رَّحْمَةٍ فَلاَ مُمْسِکَ لَهَا وَمَا یُمْسِکْ

فَلاَ مُرْسِلَ لَهُ مِن بَعْدِهِ

وَهُوَ الْعَزِیزُ الْحَکِیمُ

2. “Whatever mercy Allah opens to men, none can withhold and whatever He withholds, none can loose after Him, and He is the Mighty, the Wise.”

Similar to this meaning has also been mentioned in some other verses of the Qur’ān, for example it says: “And if Allah afflicts you with any hurt, none can remove it but Him. And if He intends any good for you, none can repel His favour. He causes it to reach whomsoever of His servants He pleases, and He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.”(1)

****

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}3{ یَآ أَیُّهَا النَّاسُ اذْکُرُوا نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ عَلَیْکُمْ هَلْ منْ خَالِقٍ غَیْرُ اللَّهِ یَرْزُقُکُم مِنَ السَّمَآءِ وَالأَرْضِ لآ اِلَهَ اِلاَّ هُوَ فَاَنَّی تُؤْفَکُونَ

3. “O’ people! Remember Allah’s favour upon you; is there any creator, apart from Allah, who gives you sustenance from the heaven and the earth? There is no god but He; whence are you then turned away (from the truth)?”

Now that you know that Allah is the origin of all of these blessings, then do know that there is no object of worship but He, and worshipping is eligible only for His Pure Essence. It says:

“… There is no god but He; whence are you then turned away (from the truth)?”

The Qur’ānic term /tu’fakūn/ is derived from /’ifk/ which is used for anything that diverts it from its original state, therefore any hardship which diverts from the Truth is called /’ifk/ and it is from this very point of view that it is applied in the sense of falsehood and slander; but some commentators believe that this word refers to the great lies and slanders.

****

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}4{ وَاِن یُکَذّ ِبُوکَ فَقَدْ کُذّ ِبَتْ رُسُلٌ مِن قَبْلِکَ وَاِلَی اللَّهِ تُرْجَعُ الأُمُورُ

4. “And if they belie you, apostles before you have been belied, and to Allah are all affairs returned.”

}5{ یَآ أَیُّهَا النَّاسُ اِنَّ وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقٌّ فَلاَ تَغُرَّنَّکُمُ الْحَیَاةُ الدُّنْیَا

وَلاَ یَغُرَّنَّکُم بِاللَّهِ الْغَرُورُ

5. “O’ people! Verily the promise of Allah is true. So let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the arch-deceiver (Satan) deceive you about Allah!”

The repetition of warning unto people that they should be neither proud of the Satan’s temptations nor of the world is, in fact, an indication to this that the way of penetration of sin in man consists of two ways:

1- The deceptive glories of the world: rank and dignity, wealth and position, and kinds of lusts, (being proud of the Divine forgiveness and mercy, and it is here that, from one side, Satan decorates the dazzling glory of this world in the man’s view and introduces it as a present, attractive, lovely, and valuable thing. And, on the other side, whenever man decides to control himself, by the remembrance of Hereafter and the Great Court of Allah, against the charm and intense attraction of the world, Satan makes him proud of the vastness of the Divine Mercy and, consequently, he invites him to sin and disobedience.

But man may be neglectful that in the same manner that Allah is ‘the Most Merciful of all merciful’ in the rank of mercy, in the rank of punishment and retribution, He is severe in retribution, too. His Mercy never encourages any one to committing sin, as His Wrath cannot be the cause of despair.

The Qur’ānic word /qarūr/ here means a being which is extraordinarily deceitful, and the objective meaning of it here may be any deceitful factor, and its purpose may be particularly Satan.

Of course, the second meaning is more fitting with the next verse specially that, in the verses of the Qur’ān, ‘deceit and pride’ has repeatedly been attributed to Satan.

****

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}6{ إِنَّ الشَّیْطَانَ لَکُمْ عَدُوٌّ فَاتَّخِذُوهُ عَدُوّاً اِنَّمَا یَدْعُواْ حِزْبَهُ لِیَکُونُوا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ السَّعِیرِ

}7{ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِیدٌ وَالَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ وَأَجْرٌ کَبِیرٌ

6. “Verily Satan is your enemy, so you (too) take him (as your) enemy. He only invites his adherents that they may become companions of the Blazing Fire.”

7. “Those who disbelieve, for them shall be a severe chastisement, and as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for them shall be forgiveness and a great recompense.”

concerning prostration to Adam, he took an oath that he would be an enemy to Adam and his children for ever, and he even asked Allah a respite and length of lifetime for this action.

Satan persists on his saying and he avail himself of the slightest opportunity for enmity upon man. Does wisdom let you that you do not accept him as an enemy and remain neglectful of him even for a moment? Let alone that you wish to follow Satan’s footsteps, or accept him as a close friend and sincere adviser. The Qur’ān says: “… Will you then choose him and his seed as your protecting friends instead of Me, when they are enemies to you? …”(1)

Moreover, he is an enemy who attacks you from every side, as he himself says: “Then I will certainly come upon them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right and from their left; …”(2)

Specially that he is in a hiding place where he sees man and man does not see him: “… Surely he sees you: he and his Tribe, from where you do not see them. …”(3)

Of course, this does not hinder your power to defend yourself against his temptations. There is an interesting meaning in the teachings of Allah to Moses, the son of ‘Imrān, as Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) narrates that Allah told Moses: “I have four recommendations to you in the protection of which you should try: ‘The first is that: during the time you do not see your sins to be forgiven, do not refer to others’ defects. The second is that while you do not see my treasures have been

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ended, you might not be sad for your sustenance. The third is that when you do not see my sovereignty destroyed, you should not be hopeful to anyone except Me. The fourth is that during the time you do not see Satan as dead, you should not (think to be) secured from his deceit (and plots)’.”(1)

However, the enmity of Satan unto the children of Adam is a matter which has been pointed out in many verses of the Qur’ān, and he has even been mentioned repeatedly in them as ‘a manifest enemy’: (Al-Baqarah, verses 161, 203; Al-’An‘ām, verse 142; ’Al-A‘rāf, verse 22; Yūsuf, verse 5; Yāsīn, verse, 60; and Az-Zukhruf, verse 62)

We should always avoid such an enemy.

For more emphasis, the Qur’ān at the end of the verse, says:

“… He only invites his adherents, that they may become companions of the Blazing Fire.”

The Qur’ānic word /hizb/ originally means: ‘a group or society which has an organization and intensity in action’; but it is usually used for any group and society that follow a special program and aim.

The purpose of the Qur’ānic phrase ‘Hizb-ush-Shaytān’ is his adherents and those who are on his line.

Of course, Satan can never take anybody as a formal member of his party, and invites him toward Hell. The members of his party are those who are mentioned in some other verses of the Holy Qur’ān and they have the following symptoms:

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Those who have put the yoke of Satan’s servitude and friendship on their necks are as such: “His authority is only over those who befriend him, (following him), …”(1) Those who are qualified as follows: “Satan has gained hold on them, so he makes them forget the remembrance of Allah; they are Satan’s party. Beware! Verily, the party of Satan are the losers.”(2)

It is interesting that in three occurrences of the verses of the Qur’ān ‘The Party of Allah’ has been mentioned, and in three different occurrences ‘The Party of Satan’ is referred to; so that what persons may enrol their names in this party or may be the members of that one.

But, however, it is natural that Satan invites his party to corruption, and sins, to pollutions of lusts, to polytheism, disobedience, cruelty, and, finally, to the Hell-Fire.

****

In the second verse, the Qur’ān refers to the final fate of ‘The Party of Allah’ and the painful end of ‘the Party of Satan’ as follows:

“Those who disbelieve, for them shall be a severe chastisement, and as for those who believe and do righteous deeds, for them shall be forgiveness and a great recompense.”

It is interesting that, concerning those who deserve of Divine punishment, the above verse suffices to the subject of disbelief, while for gaining ‘forgiveness and a great recompense’ it does not suffice to, ‘faith’ alone and adds ‘righteous deed’ to it,

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because only infidelity by itself causes a person to dwell eternally in Divine punishment, but having faith without good action does not cause man to be saved, so, from one view, faith and good action are necessarily with each other.

At the end of this holy verse, the Qur’ān at first mentions forgiveness, and then speaks of ‘great recompense’, for, in fact, at first forgiveness washes the spirit of the believers and then makes them ready to receive ‘a great recompense’. In literary terminology, the first is called ‘dissociation’ and the second is ‘ornamenting’.

****

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In view of the fact that in the previous verses people were divided into two groups: a believing group and a disbelieving group, or ‘the party of Allah’, who are the enemy of Satan, and ‘the Party of Satan’, who are the followers of Satan, this verse has stated one of the important qualities of these two groups, which, in fact, is the origin of their other evil programs, where it says:

“Is he, then, to whom the evil of his deed is made alluring so that he looks upon it as good, (equal to one who is rightly guided)? …”

In fact, this very subject is the key of all miseries of the misguided and obstinate nations whose ugly deeds seem to them as fair because of the fact that they are consistent with their lusts and their black hearts.

It is also evident that such an obstinate person neither accepts any admonition, nor does he usually show any fitness for listening to criticisms, nor does he agree to change his way. He neither tries to experience and analyse his deeds, nor is he anxious about their sequels.

Further than that when the ugliness and beauty is spoken of, they consider beauties as theirs, and attribute the true believers with the ugly things. There were many obstinate pagans who when heard the previous verses about the Party of Satan and their painful fate they adapted them with the true believers and counted themselves as an extension of the Party of Allah. And this is a very great calamity.

But, who makes the evil deeds of the wrong doers seem fair in their view: Allah or the carnal desire or Satan? No doubt the main factor is carnal desire and Satan, but since Allah has created this effect in their deeds it can be attributed to Allah; because when people commit a sin at the beginning that their nature is pure, their conscience is vigilant, and their wisdom

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works fairly well, they become inconvenient from their action, but the more they repeat it, the more their inconvenience decreases.

Gradually they reach to the stage of indifference, and if they repeat it more, the ugly things seem beautiful in their views, thus far that they imagine it among their honours and virtues, while they have been drowned in the dirty situation of corruption.

It is interesting that when the Holy Qur’ān propounds this question, saying: “Is he, then, to whom the evil of his deed is made alluring so that he looks upon it as good, …?” it does not clearly express the opposite point of it. As if it intends to give a vast respite to the hearer that he illustrates in his mind all the different things that he can consider opposite to it and understands more. It seems it wants to say whether such a person is like the truth seekers.

Is such a person like the pure hearted persons who are always busy examining their own selves?

Is there any hope of felicity for such a person?

Then, the Qur’ān refers to the statement of reason of the difference of these two groups. It adds:

“… Now verily Allah makes err whom He pleases and guides aright whom He pleases, …”

If the ugly deeds of the first group are decorated in their views, this is the consequence of the Divine mislead. It is He Who has put this property in the repetition of ugly deeds to which the man’s self accustoms itself, he gets the habit of it, and harmonizes with it.

It is He Who gives some penetrating and kin eyes, together with some hearing ears to the pure-hearted believers for understanding the facts as they exactly are.

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It is clear that the Divine Will is accompanied with His Wisdom and gives everyone whatever he is eligible to.

So, at the end of the verse, the Qur’ān says:

“… so let not your soul waste away in grief for them; …”

This meaning is similar to the content of verse 3 in Sura As-Shu‘arā’, No. 26, which says: “Perhaps you will kill yourself with grief, for that they do not become Believers.”

The application of the Qur’ānic word /hasarāt/ which is an object for the previous sentence refers to this fact that not only you grieve for them one regret but also with several regrets.

They are the regret of losing the bounty of guidance, the regret of wasting the jewel of humanity, the regret of losing the sense of recognition thus far that they see an ugly thing as beautiful; and, finally, the regret of their encountering the Fire of the Wrath of Allah.

But why does Allah say: “… So let not your soul waste a way in grief …”? It is because Allah is cognizant of their deeds and He gives them what they deserve of. The verse continues saying:

“… verily Allah is Cognizant of what they do.”

The extraordinary sympathy of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) unto the misguided and deviated ones is completely understood from the tone of the verse. And this is the state of a true Divine leader that, because of the people’s lack of acceptance of the truth and rejecting the means of their happiness, he pains so much that as if he tended to kill himself.

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}9{ وَاللَّهُ الَّذِی أَرْسَلَ الرّ ِیَاحَ فَتُثِیرُ سَحَاباً فَسُقْنَاهُ اِلَی بَلَدٍ مَّیّ-ِتٍ فَأَحْیَیْنَا بِهِ الأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا کَذَلِکَ النُّشُورُ

9. “And Allah is He who sends the winds that stir up cloud then We drive it to a dead land and there with revive the earth, after it is dead. Even so is the Resurrection.”

It is also necessary to note this point that the Qur’ānic phrase /tuθīru/ is derived from /’iθārah/ in the sense of ‘distribute and scatter’, and here it refers to the rising of pieces of cloud as the result of the blow of winds over the water of oceans, since the subject of the movement of pieces of cloud has been mentioned in the next sentence, saying: “… That stir up cloud …”

It is interesting that we recite in a tradition from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) that once one of his companions asked him: “O’ Messenger of Allah! How does Allah quickens the dead and what is the sign of it in the world of creation?”

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “Have you not passed by the land of your tribe while it has been dry and dead, and then you passed by it while it has become green?”

I said: “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.”

He (p.b.u.h.) said: “In such a way Allah quickens the dead and this is its sign in the creation.”(1)

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}10{ مَن کَانَ یُرِیدُ الْعِزَّةَ فَلِلَّهِ الْعِزَّةُ جَمِیعاً اِلَیْهِ یَصْعَدُ الْکَلِمُ الطَّیّ-ِبُ وَالْعَمَلُ الصَّالِحُ یَرْفَعُهُ وَالَّذِینَ یَمْکُرُونَ السَّیّ-ِئَاتِ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ شَدِیدٌ وَمَکْرُ أُوْلَئِکَ هُوَ یَبُورُ

10. “Whoever desires glory, the glory belongs to Allah wholly to Him do ascend the good words and the righteous deed, He uplifts it; but those who devise evil deeds, for them is a terrible chastisement, and their plot shall come to naught.”

During the last hours of his lifetime when Imam Hassan (a.s.) was asked by one of his companions named Junādat-ibn-’Abi-Sufyān to advise him, Imam stated some valuable and effective admonitions for him, among which was this: “If you wish to be ‘honoured’ without having any tribe, and to have reverence without the power of government, then come out from the shade of sin of Allah, and settle in the glory of the obedience of Allah.”

And if we see that some verses of the Qur’ān introduce glory, besides Allah, for the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and the believers, (like Sura Munāfiqūn, No. 63, verse 8 which says: “… Honour belongs to Allah and His Messenger and to the Believers, …”, it is for the reason that they have earned glory from the rays of the glory of Allah, too.

Then the verse introduces the way of reaching to glory as follows:

“… to Him do ascend the good words and the righteous deed, He uplifts it; …”

The Qur’ānic phrase: /’al kalimut-tayyib/ means: ‘pure words’, and the purity of a speech depends on the purity of its content, and the purity of content relates to the concepts which adapt to the pure, brilliant, objective facts. What reality is higher than the Pure Essence of Allah and His right and just religion, as well as the pure righteous ones who pave the way of its distribution? Therefore, this holy phrase has been rendered into correct belief in Origin, Resurrection and Allah’s religion.

Some of the commentators have rendered the Qur’ānic phrase: /’al kalimut-tayyib/ into: ‘there is no god but Allah’, while some others have rendered it into: /subhān-allah-i-wal-hamd-u-lillāh-i-walā-’ilāha-’illallāh-u-wa-llāh-u-’akbar/,

and some commentators have rendered it, after mentioning

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there is no god but Allah, into “Muhammad rasūl-ullāh wa ‘Aliyyan waliyyullāh wa xalīfata rasūlihī”. Or in some Islamic narrations the Qur’ānic phrase /’al kalimut-tayyib/ and /’al ‘amal-us-sālih/ have been rendered into the love of Ahl-ul-Bayt (a.s.) or the like of it. All of them are of the kind of the statement of clear extensions for that vast concept, and they do not create any limitation in its concept, because every statement which has a pure and excellent content is entirely found in this title. However, the same Lord Who, according to the previous verse, makes the dead land alive by life-giving drops of rain, furnishes ‘the pure word and righteous deed’, too, and causes them to reach to the neighbourhood of His Mercy.

Then the Qur’ān refers to the opposite point of it, where it says:

“… but those who devise evil deeds, for them is a terrible chastisement, and their plot shall come to naught.”

Although the corruptive persons imagine that, by injustice, cruelty, falsehood, and plot, they can obtain a kind of glory for them by means of wealth, property, and power but at the end they shall understand that not only they have provided a chastisement for them, but also their efforts in this way will become naught.

As the Qur’ān says, there were some people who behaved like this: “And they have taken gods besides Allah that they might be for them a glory.”(1) And there were some hypocrites who imagined themselves as some honoured ones and the believers as the meaner: “They say: ‘If we return to Medina, surely the more honourable (element) will expel there from the meaner’ …”(2)

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There were some other persons, who considered the deceit of the Pharaohs as their own glory, or they sought honour from sin, injustice, and cruelty, but all of them were defeated. So, it is only faith and righteous deed which go up toward Allah.

In philology the Arabic word /makr/ means any kind of device, but in some instances it is used in the sense of the devices that are accompanied with mischief, and the verse under discussion is among those instances.

The term /sayyi’āt/, mentioned in the above verse, refers to all ugly and evil things which occur, irrespective of creedal evils and practical ones, and that some commentators have rendered it into the pagans’ plots for killing or banishing the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) from Mecca is, in fact, one of the expansions of it, not its whole concepts.

The Qur’ānic word /yabūr/ is derived from /bawār/ and /būrān/ which originally means excess dullness of market, and since this kind of dullness of market often causes destruction, this word has been used in the sense of destruction and annihilation.

The whole glory belongs to Allah. Does this state mean something save reaching to the stage of being Almighty? If it is so, where can glory be sought, and what can give glory to man?

By a clear analysis we reach this fact that the reality of glory, at the first degree, is the power which appears in the heart and entity of man and dissuades him from having humility submission, and collusion in relation with disobedient and rebellious persons to the command of Allah. It is a power that with having it one never surrenders to unlawful lusts and he never obeys his low desires.

It is a power which usually elevates him up to the stage of impenetrability before any wealth and force.

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Does this power originate from any source save from the Faith in Allah, which is the main source of power and glory?

What was said is only in the stage of thought, belief, soul and spirit; but in the stage of action, glory originates from some deeds that have correct root and an accurate program and style. In other words, glory can be found in ‘righteous deeds’. These two elements give man honour, greatness, might, and glory.

The world loving sorcerers, contemporary to Pharaoh, began their tricks in his name and glory. “… and said: ‘By Pharaoh’s dignity we shall certainly be the victors.”(1) Yet, before long, they failed from the shepherd-stick of Moses (a.s.), but when they came out from the cover of the disgraceful flag of Pharaoh and went under the light of Monotheism and believed, they became so strong and mighty that the most severe threats of Pharaoh did not affect on them. They eagerly lost their hands, feet, and even souls in the cause of Allah and suffered martyrdom. By this action, they proved that they would surrender neither to money nor to force. They remained mighty and, today, their honourable history contains a great deal of instructive lessons for us.

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}11{ وَاللَّهُ خَلَقَکُم مِن تُرَابٍ ثُمَّ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَکُمْ أَزْوَاجاً

وَمَا تَحْمِلُ مِنْ أُنثَی وَلاَ تَضَعُ اِلاَّ بِعِلْمِهِ وَمَا یُعَمَّرُ مِن مُعَمَّرٍ وَلاَ یُنقَصُ مِنْ عُمُرِهِ إِلاَّ فِی کِتَابٍ اِنَّ ذَلِکَ عَلَی اللَّهِ یَسِیرٌ

11. “And Allah did create you from dust; then from a sperm-drop, then He made you pairs. And no female conceives nor does she bring forth, save with His knowledge and none is given long life who is given long life neither is any diminished in his life, but it is in a Book. Verily this, for Allah, is easy.”

“And Allah did create you from dust; then from a sperm-drop, then He made you pairs. …”

These are three stages among the whole stages of the creation of man: soil, sperm-drop, and the stage of matrimony.

It is certain that man is from dust, not only from this point that all materials that form the man’s body are derived from dust, and that which man takes food from, or wherefrom his sperm-drop originates all are finally found in the materials which are in soil.

Some commentators believe that the concept of ‘the creation of man from dust’ probably refers only to the first creation, while the creation from sperm-drop refers to later stages. The first one is the stage of men’s compendious creation, (because the entity of all human beings has been extracted in the entity of Adam); and the second is the expansive stages which are separate from each other.

However, the stage of person’s matrimony is the stage of continuation of generation and man’s reproduction.

Then it refers to the fourth and the fifth stage of man’s life, viz., the subject of ‘pregnancy’ of mothers and their delivery. It says:

“… And no female conceives nor does she bring forth, save with His knowledge …”

Yes, the subject of pregnancy, and the complicated and very amazing changes of foetus, then reaching the stage of delivery and the wonderful variations that, at that sensitive moment, come forth to mothers, from one side, and to the foetus, on the other side, are so tender and accurate that is not possible save by relying on the infinite knowledge of Allah. It is done in a manner that if the governing regulation over it changes, even very slightly, the program of delivery or delivery

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itself will face with disturbance and confusion, and it will come to destruction.

Each of these five stages of man’s life is more wonderful than the other.

The inanimate dust is in one side and the wise, alert, and originative man, the alive, is on the other side. How different they are!

The sperm-drop which has been formed of a few drops of fetid water is on one end, and the handsome, beautiful, and talented man equipped with different senses and organs is on the other end.

Next to this stage, there is the subject of variety of man into two genders: male and female.

Regarding to the abundant differences in the body and soul, there will come some physiological problems into being each of which takes its own separate way from the very beginning of the combination of semen and everyone of them goes toward the duty which has been given to them and thus they develop.

The next subject is the responsibility of mother which is the acceptance and bearing of this burden, its protection, its nutrition and its growth, which has attracted the thoughts of great scientists to them, and they confess that it is one of the most surprising subjects of the world of existence.

The last stage of this part of foetus is the stage of birth. It is a revolutionary stage and completely dangerous, that is accompanied with a great deal of wonders.

What factors command foetus to come out from the mother’s womb?

How is the complete harmony arranged between this command and readiness of the limbs of the mother for its execution.

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How can foetus totally change the situation to which it has been accustomed for nine months just in a moment: ceases its relation with the mother, uses the fresh air, the way of his food from umbilical cord is suddenly closed, the new way, i.e., the mouth begins to work, the dark environment of mother is left and the bright environment full of light is used, and it resists against all these changes and it immediately adapts itself to them?

Are these things not the best signs to the endless power and knowledge of Allah? It is a complete injustice that man judges so vainly about his own creation.

Then the Qur’ān refers to the sixth and seventh stages of this wonderful program. It says:

“… and none is given long life who is given long life neither is any diminished in his life, but it is in a Book. …”

What factors are effective in the length of man’s life? What factors fight against the continuation of his life? And in short, what factors must gather and help each other in order that man can continue his living for one hundred years or less and more! And, finally, what factors cause the difference in man’s life-time?

All of these things have also some complicated and exact computations of which none is aware but Allah; and whatever we know in these fields today comparing with what we do not know is very little and worthless.

The Arabic word /mu‘ammar/ is derived from the word /‘umr/ which is originally derived from /‘imārat/ in the sense of ‘habitation’, and the fact that the length of man’s living is called lifetime is for the sake that the habitation of his body is in this time.

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This word, /mu‘ammar/, means a person who has a long life. So, the Qur’ān concludes the verse with this sentence , saying:

“… Verily this, for Allah, is easy.”

The creation of this wonderful being from ‘dust’ and the initiation of the creation of a complete man from ‘sperm-drop’, and also the whole facts concerning ‘genetic state’, conjugality, pregnancy, delivery, increase and decrease in life-time, whether from the point of power and from the point of knowledge, and computation of all of them is entirely easy and simple for Him. These are as a small part of the extroversive verses that, from one side, they relate and acquaint us with the world of existence, and, on the other side, they are counted as some valid proofs upon the possibility of Resurrection.

He Who was able to create a being from ‘dust’ and from sperm-drop for the first time, is He not able to revive men?

And does He, Who is aware of the minutes of these laws, have any difficulty in protecting and reckoning of the deeds of people in the scene of Resurrection?

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}12{ وَمَا یَسْتَوِی الْبَحْرَانِ هَذَا عَذْبٌ فُرَاتٌ سَآئِغٌ شَرَابُهُ وَهَذَا مِلْحٌ أُجَاجٌ وَمِن کُلٍّ تَأْکُلُونَ لَحْماً طَرِیّاً وَتَسْتَخْرِجُونَ حِلْیَةً تَلْبَسُونَهَا وَتَرَی الْفُلْکَ فِیهِ مَوَاخِرَ لِتَبْتَغُوا مِن فَضْلِهِ وَلَعَلَّکُمْ تَشْکُرُونَ

12. “And not are the two seas alike, the one (is) palatable, and pleasant to drink, and the other, salt and bitter. Yet from the both you eat fresh flesh; and you extract ornaments which you wear, and you see the ships cleave through it that you may seek of His bounty and that you may be thankful.”

source, but they have appeared in two completely different forms and with various benefits.

It is also wonderful that:

“… Yet from the both you eat fresh flesh; …”

“… and you extract ornaments which you wear, …”

Moreover, you can take enjoy both of them, not only for transportation but also for carrying your goods, as the verse says:

“… and you see the ships cleave through it that you may seek of His bounty and that you may be thankful.”

Some points:

1- As the Lisān-ul-‘Arab says, the Arabic word /furāt/ is the water which is in utmost purity and wholesomeness.

The Qur’ānic word /sā’iq/ means the water that because of its wholesomeness is easily swallowed, contrast to the word /milh/ (a salt water) and the word /’ujāj/ (a bitter water) that as if this kind of water hurts the throat and bars the way of the gullet.

2- Some commentators believe that this holy verse is an example to show the lack of equality between believers and disbelievers, but the verses before and after it all talk about the signs of creation. Even the last part of this very verse is the evidence over this fact that this sentence, too, discusses about the secrets of Unity, and it is an indication to the variety of the seas and their different effects, and their common benefits.

3- In this verse three benefits out of abundant benefits of the seas have been mentioned: foodstuff, means of ornament, and the subject of transportation.

We know that the seas are one of the important sources of man’s foodstuff, and every year millions of tons of fresh flesh are taken from them without that man bears a considerable trouble for it. The system of creation has arranged a proper

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program in this regard so that men can enjoy this vast blessing, the spread Divine food table, without the least task.

Some different means of ornament, such as: pearl, shell, pearls and coral are drawn out from the seas. The emphasis of the Qur’ān on this subject is for the sake that, contrary to the beasts, the man’s self has different dimensions one of which is the sense of beauty. This sense is the origin of the appearance of some artistic, literary and taste issues, the satiation of which correctly and far from any kind of excess and defect, and immoderation and extravagance pleases the self and gives man mirth and calmness, and makes him ready for the heavy affairs of life.

As for the subject of transportation, which is one of the most important fillers of human civilization and the man’s social life, regarding the fact that the seas (and oceans) have covered the main part of the surface of the earth and, that they relate to each other, they can do man the best favour in this regard.

The amount of the goods that are transported on the seas and the number of the passengers who are removed from one place to another on them is so large that they cannot be compared with any other means of vehicle. Sometimes it happens that one ship can carry by it the loads as many as the tens of thousand cars.

4- Of course, the benefits of the seas are not limited to what was said in the above, and the Qur’ān does not tend to limit them in these three aspects. The formation of pieces of cloud, different medicines, oil, the means of clothing, the fertilizing materials for the uncultivated lands, having effect on winds, and so on are counted as other favours of the seas.

5- The emphasis of the Holy Qur’ān on ‘fresh flesh’ is an expressive indication to the nutrition benefited from such

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fleshes comparing the harms of the stale fleshes, the conserves, and the like.

6- There arises a question here: the seas with salt water are spread all over the globe, where is the sea with sweet water?

In answer it must be said: the seas and lakes with sweet water are not so few in the earth, like the lakes of sweet water in the United States and the others. Moreover, some great streams are sometimes called sea, like the great river of Nile which in Arabic has been called /bahr/ (sea) in the story of Moses. (Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 50, Sura As-Shu‘arā, No. 26, verse 63, and Sura Al-’A‘rāf, No. 70, verse 38)

Moreover, the advance of the water of the great streams into the seas, regarding the fact that it goes through the salty water therein and does not mix with it for a length of time, itself forms some seas of sweet water in different places.

7- The Qur’ānic sentence: ‘That you may seek of His bounty’ contains a vast meaning which includes any economical activities which are done by means of sea-ways.

The last sentence of the verse: ‘That you may be thankful’, has been mentioned for awakening the sense of thanksgiving in men and it is a means for theism and theology.

Be Careful of the Following Points:

1- The spiritual elements effective in prolongation and, shortening the life-time: In relation to the discussion stated in the abovementioned verses about the increase and decrease of lifetime by the command of Allah, paying attention to the Islamic narrations concerning the prolonging and shortening of lifetime, a group of Qur’ānic commentators have explained some matters in this regard. There are, of course, some natural factors effective in increasing and decreasing the length of lifetime most of which have been known to human beings yet,

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like correct feeding free from excess and defect, being constantly busy working and moving, avoidance from any kind of narcotic materials and dangerous addictions and alcoholic liquors, avoiding the permanent excitements, and having a strong Faith which can give man peace and power in the difficulties of life and living.

But, besides these things, there are some factors that their outward relation with the question of prolongation of life-time is not so clear to us, while some Islamic narrations have properly emphasized on it. As a few examples, pay attention to the following narrations:

1- The holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) says: “Verily alms-giving (in the way of Allah) and union of kindred cause houses to be furnished and prolong the life-times’.”(1)

2- He (p.b.u.h.) also has said: “Whoever desires his sustenance to be increased and his death to be postponed should perform union of kindred.”

3- Concerning some of sins, like fornication in particular, Islamic narrations indicate that such sins decrease the length of lifetime. Among them is the famous tradition of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) in which he has said: “O’ Muslims! Do avoid fornication which has six sequels: Three of them are in this world and three of them are in Hereafter. Those three which are in the world are as these: it causes the worth (and light) of man to be vanished, brings indigence, and decreases the length of lifetime. …”(2)

4- Imam Bāqir (a.s.) says: “Kindness and hidden alms-giving remove poverty and increase life-time, and prevent seventy kinds of evil death.”(3)

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There are also some indications in Islamic narrations concerning some other sins, such as injustice, and sins in absolute. Some of the commentators who have not been able to make difference between the ‘appointed death’ and the ‘sudden death’ have attacked to these traditions and believe that they are contradictory to the texts of the Qur’ān which consider the limit of the length of man’s lifetime fixed and unchangeable.(1)

And if we do not separate these two kinds of the term of death from each other, the comprehension of many of the issues in relation with fore-ordination and destiny, and the effect of effort and endeavour in men’s lives will remain insolvable.

This discussion can be made clear by a simple example. For instance, a person provides a new car that, according to the different preparations used in the structure of it, the car can work for example for twenty years, but upon condition that it would be treated well and the necessary protections should be applied. In this case the appointed term of this car is twenty years, not more than that.

But if the necessary protections are not applied, and the car is given to some unaware experienced and careless persons to ride and they use it beyond its power and capacity, and every day they take it to work in rough roads, the life-time of the car may decrease to half or less than that. This is that very ‘sudden death’ of it.

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}13{ یُولِجُ الَّیْلَ فِی النَّهَارِ وَیُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِی الَّیْلِ

وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ

کُلٌّ یَجْرِی لأَجَلٍ مُسَمًّی ذَلِکُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّکُمْ لَهُ الْمُلْکُ

وَالَّذِینَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِ مَا یَمْلِکُونَ مِن قِطْمِیرٍ

13. “He merges the night into the day and He merges the day into the night, and He has made subservient (to you) the sun and the moon, each of them running to

an appointed time;

such is Allah, your Lord;

to Him belongs the kingdom, and those whom you call upon, apart from Him, possess not (so much as) the skin of a date-stone.”

The Qur’ānic term /yūlij/ is derived from /’īlāj/ in the sense of ‘to merge’. It may refer to one of the following two meanings, or both of them: the gradual increase and decrease of the nights and the days during the year which cause the appearance of different seasons with all their effects and blessings. The gradual decrease from the night and adding to the day, and vice versa, is because of the existence of twilight, which hinders the dangers of sudden transfer from darkness to light and from light to darkness. It gives human beings enough preparation to quietly and slowly transfer from one to another without any danger.

Then the verse refers to the subject of making the sun and the moon subservient, and says:

“… and He has made subservient (to you) the sun and the moon, …”

What a subservient is higher than this that all of them run in the way of man’s interests and that they are the source of kinds of favours in the man’s life. The cloud, the wind, the moon, the sun, and the universe are all busy in order that men can provide his life well and he would not be in negligence, and he should always remember the main real origin of these merits. (Concerning the subservient of the sun and the moon we had a rather detailed explanation mentioned in the commentary of Sura Ar-Ra‘d, No. 13, verse 2, and in the commentary of Sura ’Ibrāhīm, No. 14, verse 33)

But in the meantime that the sun and the moon in full regularity rotate in their orbits and they are good servants for humankind, the system which governs over them is not eternal, and even these great stars, with their much light, will finally become dark and will be destroyed.

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So, next to the subject of making them subservient, the Holy Qur’ān adds:

“… each of them running to an appointed time; …”

And according to Sura Takwīr, No. 81, verses 1-2, which say: “When the sun (with its spacious light) is folded up.” “And when the stars fall, losing their lustre.” All of them turn to darkness and will become extinguished.

Some other commentators have delivered here another commentary for the Qur’ānic term /’ajal-im-musammā/ (the appointed term). It refers to the rotations of the sun and the moon. The first prolongs one year and the second ends in one month.(1)

But, regarding to the different usages of this meaning in numerous verses of the Qur’ān which have been applied in the sense of ‘the end of life’, it becomes clear that the said commentary is not correct, and its commentary is that very first one, i.e., the end of the lifetime of the sun and the moon. (In this relation, you may refer to Sura An-Nahl, verse 61, Sura Fātir, verse 45, Sura Az-Zumar, verse 43, Sura An-Nūr, verse 4, and Sura Qāfir, verse 67)

Then, as a conclusion upon this monastic discussion, the verse continues saying:

“… such is Allah, your Lord; …”

Allah is the Lord Who has assigned the system of light and darkness and the accurate movements of the sun and the moon with all their favours.

The verse continues again saying:

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“… to Him belongs the kingdom, and those whom you call upon, apart from Him, possess not (so much as) the skin of a date-stone.”

The Qur’ānic term /qitmīr/, as Rāqib says in Mufradāt, is the sign which exists at the back of the date-stone (a small gap), and according to Tabarsī in Majma‘-ul-Bayān, and Qurtabī in his commentary book, it is a thin white skin which has covered over the date-stone thoroughly. In any case, it indirectly refers to some very small and worthless beings.

Yes, these idols are neither the source of any benefit, and harm, nor do they defend you nor of themselves, nor do they have any authority and possession even over the skin of a dater-stone. Yet, why do you, the unwise, worship them and demand them to solve your problems?

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}14{ إِن تَدْعُوهُمْ لاَ یَسْمَعُوا دُعَآءَکُمْ وَلَوْ سَمِعُوا مَا اسْتَجَابُوا لَکُمْ وَیَوْمَ الْقِیَامَةِ یَکْفُرُونَ بِشِرْکِکُمْ وَلاَ یُنَبّ-ِئُکَ مِثْلُ خَبِیرٍ

14. “If you call upon them, they will not hear your prayer; and even if they heard, they would not answer you; and on the Day of judgment they will deny your partnership; and none can inform you like (the One Who is) aware.”

Moreover, this fact is higher than that:

“… and on the Day of judgment they will deny your partnership; …”

They will say: O’ Lord! these did not worship us, but they, in fact, worshipped their own carnal desire.

This witness is done by non-verbal language that whoever looks at idols he hears this statement from them by the ear of his conscience. Or the same Lord Who on that Day makes the man’s limbs, organs, and skin of the body speak, will order them to talk and they will bear witness that these deviated polytheists used to worship, in fact, their own conjectures and carnal desires.

This holy verse is similar to the content of verse 28 in Sura Yūnus, No. 10 which says: “And the Day We shall muster them all, then We shall say to those who associated others (with Us): ‘Get you to your place! You and your associates’, then We shall set a space between them, and their associates shall say: ‘It was not us (indeed) that you used to worship!’ ”

For more emphasis, at the end of the verse the Holy Qur’ān says:

“… and none can inform you like (the One Who is) aware.”

A Notable Point:

Through the commentary of the previous verses, it became clear that the purpose of the sentence: “If you call upon them, they will not hear your prayer, …”, mentioned in the verse under discussion, is idols which have neither a hearing ear to listen to the demands of their worshippers, nor if they had,they would not be able to solve any problem, nor do they possess anything and any authority.

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But in order to cease the communication of the Muslims with the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) and the great leaders by the way of seeking supplicating and intercession, some outwardly Muslims have taken hold of this verse and the like of it and have said that all those whom you call besides Allah, even the prophets, do not hear your word and if they heard they would not answer. Or they have seized Sura Al-’A‘rāf, No. 7, verse 197 which says: “And those whom you call upon other than Him can neither help you, nor help themselves.”, and the like.

Thus, they negate any supplicating to the souls of prophets and the Imams and count it contrast to Monotheism. While a simple glance over the verses which are before these verses and after them are sufficient to perceive this fact that the purpose of the verse is idols, because the words in all these verses are about idols; the words are about the pieces of stone and wood that they considered as the partners of Allah. And they believed in a power for them in the face of the Power of Allah.

But who is the one who does not know that the Divine prophets and the friends of Allah are like the martyrs in the cause of Allah about whose life the Qur’ān explicitly speaks, saying that they have the purgatory life, and we know that in the purgatory life the activity of the soul is vaster and more expanded, because it has been delivered from the worldly needs and material curtains. This is from one side.

On the other side, no doubt, supplicating to these pure souls does not mean that we have considered any independence for them against Allah, but the aim is that we get help from their honour and their position with Allah, and that we seek help from the reverence and greatness they have in the Court of Allah, and this is the exact Unity and servitude of Allah.

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Therefore, as the Qur’ān explicitly says in the subject of intercession, they intercede only by the leave and command of Allah: “… Who is it that can intercede with Him save by His leave? …”(1) Also, supplicating to them is from this way and of this kind.

Who can reject the clear verses of supplicating? Or may he imagine this act as polytheism and stands against the Qur’ān and claims Monotheism? They are but some proud ignorant persons who bring these subjects forth to create separation between Muslims.

We study in the biography of the companions of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) that for their difficulties they used to go beside the tomb of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and resorted and sought help from his pure soul in the Presence of God.

As Biyhaqī, the famous traditionist of the Sunnites, Narrates that there happened a draught and famine at the time of the second Kalif. Then Bilāl, accompanied with a group of Companions of the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), went beside the Prophet’s grave, and said such: “O’ Messenger of Allah! Seek rain for your Ummah … for verily they have annihilated.”(2)

Some of the commentators of the Sunnites, like ’Ālūsī, have narrated many traditions in this regard. After a discussion and strictness concerning these traditions, at last he says:

“Next to all these statements, I do not see any hinder in resorting to Allah by the rank of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) whether at the time of his life and after his death.” Then he also adds the names of some others who have a rank with Allah and confesses to the admissibility of resorting to them. (Rauh-ul-Ma‘ālī)

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Yes, the One really free from need and Self-Subsistent in the whole world of existence is He Who is Allah. All human beings, or it is better to say all beings are thoroughly needy and they are dependant to that Independent Existence that if their relation is ceased from Him, even for a moment, they are nothing.

Therefore, none should bow and submit to other than Him, and demand other than Him to provide his needs, because they all are in need of Him, too. Even dignifying the Divine prophets and leaders of the Truth is for the sake that they are His messengers and His deputies and they absolutely have no independence from themselves. Thus He is both Self-Sufficient and Praised, that is, in the meantime that He is Self-Sufficient, He is so generous and kind that He is worthy of any sort of praise and gratitude; and also, in the mid-time that He is gracious and kind to the servants, He is Self-Sufficient of all.

Being attentive to this fact produces two positive effects on the believing persons. From one side, it causes them to come down from the horse of pride, selfishness, and disobedience, and warns them that they have not anything from themselves to boast for it, and whatever they have they are the deposits of Allah with them. And on the other side, they should not ask their needs from other than Allah, and they do not put the yoke of servitude of other than Him on their necks. They must deliver themselves from all possessions so that all others become servants of theirs.

By this kind of concept and theology, whatever the true believers see in the world they know them from His source, and no means may cause them to be neglectful from the cause of causes.

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}16{ إِن یَشَأْ یُذْهِبْکُمْ وَیَأْتِ بِخَلْقٍ جَدِیدٍ

}17{ وَمَا ذَلِکَ عَلَی اللَّهِ بِعَزِیزٍ

16. “If He pleases, He will take you off and bring a new generation,”

17. “And this is not hard to Allah.”

}18{ وَلاَ تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَی وَإِن تَدْعُ مُثْقَلَةٌ اِلَی حِمْلِهَا لاَ یُحْمَلْ مِنْهُ شَیْءٌ وَلَوْ کَانَ ذَا قُرْبَی

اِنَّمَا تُنذِرُ الَّذِینَ یَخْشَوْن َرَبَّهُم بِالْغَیْبِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلاَةَ وَمَن تَزَکَّی فَاِنَّمَا یَتَزَکَّی لِنَفْسِهِ وَاِلَی اللَّهِ الْمَصِیرُ

18. “And no one laden bears the burden of another; and if one heavy-burdened calls for its load to be carried, not a thing of it will be carried, even if he be a near kinsman. You warn only those who fear their Lord in secret and keep up prayer. And whoever purifies (himself), he only purifies for his own self. And Unto Allah (alone) is the destination (of all).”

because they themselves will carry the burden of their own sins and it does not relate to us?

Answer: This verse does not justify the silence before unlawful things, because undue silence itself is a sin upon those who commit this action. Our duty is to bid the right and forbid the wrong, but if they did not follow it, their sin would not be upon us.

The Qur’ānic term /wizr/ means the heaviness and a load. The Arabic word /muθqalah/ means the weight of a load. The word /himl/ refers to the load on the back while /haml/ refers to the load in the womb. (Mufradāt by Rāgib)

This Qur’ānic sentence: “And no one laden bears the burden of another. …” is one of the basic fundamentals in Islamic convictions. In fact, on one side, it relates to the justice of Allah that He counts everybody pledged in his own action, rewards his righteous efforts and endeavours, and gives retribution for his sins.

On the other side, it points to the severity of the divine punishment on the Day of Hereafter when nobody agrees to carry the burden of the sin of another person, even though he had been fond of him extraordinarily.

Being attentive to this meaning has a great effect in man’s self-improvement, because whoever is careful of himself he never tends to corruption with the pretext that his entourage or his environment is polluted. He does not count the pollution of the environment as a justification for his own pollution, because everybody carries his own burden.

On the other side, it gives man such a conception and understanding that the reckoning of Allah with societies is not a total and a lamp reckoning, but everybody will be reckoned separately and independently. That is, if he has done his duty both in relation to his purification and struggle against

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corruption, there will be no fear and horror on him, although all humankind totally, except him, are polluted with infidelity, polytheism, injustice, and sins.

Principally, no training program will be effective without attracting the attentions to this basic principle.

This very subject is referred to in the second sentence in another form. It says:

“… and if one heavy-burdened calls for its load to be carried, not a thing of it will be carried, even if he be a near kinsman. …”

An Islamic tradition indicates that on the Day of Hereafter there will be brought a mother and a son both of whom have a heavy burden of sins. The mother asks her son to carry a part of her burden of sin and responsibility instead of those labours she tolerated in the world for him. The son will say to the mother to get distance from him, because he is involved in difficulty more than her. (The Commentary of Abul-Futūh, Qurtubī, and Rauh-ul-Bayān)

Finally, in the third sentence this fact is revealed that the warnings of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) affect only in the receptive hearts, where it says:

“… You warn only those who fear their Lord in secret and keep up prayer. …”

The warnings of Divine prophets and Allah’s friends will not have any effect unless there is the fear of Allah in the heart, and the one does not feel the observance of a spiritual power over him inwardly and outwardly, and by establishing the daily prayers which survives his heart and causes him to remember Allah, he does not help this inner feeling.

At the beginning of an action, when a person has chosen no faith and has not believed, if he has not a truth-seeking character and does not feel responsibility before the cognition

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of the facts, he will not hearken to the invitation of prophets, and consequently he will not contemplate over the Divine signs in the world of existence.

In the fourth sentence, the verse returns again to this fact that Allah is self-sufficient from all. It adds:

“… And whoever purifies (himself), he only purifies for his own self. …”

And, at last, in the fifth and the last sentence, it warns that if the good doers and the evil doers do not reach the result of their deeds in this world, it does not matter because the return of all is to Him. It says:

“… And Unto Allah (alone) is the destination (of all).”

****

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}19{ وَمَا یَسْتَوِی الأَعْمَی وَالْبَصِیرُ

}20{ وَلاَ الظُّلُمَاتُ وَلاَ النُّورُ

}21{ وَلاَ الظّ-ِلُّ وَلاَ الْحَرُورُ

}22{ وَمَا یَسْتَوِی الأَحْیَآءُ وَلاَ الأَمْوَاتُ اِنَّ اللَّهَ یُسْمِعُ مَن یَشَآءُ

وَمَا أَنتَ بِمُسْمِعٍ مَّن فِی الْقُبُورِ

}23{ اِنْ أَنتَ اِلاَّ نَذِیرٌ

19. “And the blind and the seeing are not alike,”

20. “Nor the darkness and the light,”

21. “Nor the shade and the heat”

22. “Neither are the living and the dead alike. Verily Allah makes whom He pleases hear, and you cannot make those hear who are in the graves.”

23. “You are naught but a Warner.”

In the first parable, a disbeliever and a believer are likened to a blind person and a seeing person. It says:

“And the blind and the seeing are not alike,”

Faith is both light and light giver; and it gives light and cognition to man’s whole life in his world-view, belief, action. But infidelity is darkness in which there is neither a correct insight for the whole world of existence, nor a proper conviction, nor a righteous deed.

In this regard, the Qur’ān in Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 257 expressively says: “Allah is the Guardian of those who have faith; He brings them out of darkness into light, and those who reject faith, their guardians are false-deities (Tāqūt), who bring them out of light into darkness; they are the inhabitants of the Fire wherein shall they abide forever.”

Then, it implies that since only the seeing-eye is not enough there must be a light, too, so that, by the help of these two factors, the things can be observed. The next holy verse concerning the equality of them, says:

“Nor the darkness and the light,”

The reason of it is that darkness is the cause of mislead. It is the factor of dangers, but light is the source of life, living, movement, growth, and development. If light were destroyed, all sources of energy in the world would be wiped out and death would dominate the whole world of matter. Such is the light of faith in the world of spirituality which is the cause of growth, development and life.

In the third sentence, it continues saying:

“Nor the shade and the heat”

A believer continues to live in peace, security and safety under the shade of his faith, but a disbeliever, because of his infidelity, is in inconvenience and pain. Rāqib in Mufradāt

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says: “The word /harūr/ means: ‘a hot and blazing wind’, (a drying and fatal wind)”.

Zamakhshary in Kashshāf says: “The term /sumūm/ is called to some harmful and fatal winds which blow during the day, while the Arabic word /harūr/ is called to the same winds whether they blow during the day or at might.” Anyhow, how different is this wind and the cold cheerful shade which gives rest to both soul and body?

****

And finally through the last similitude in the fourth verse, the Qur’ān says:

“Neither are the living and the dead alike. …”

The believers are the living ones who usually have effort, endeavour, movement and growth. They are somehow like plants which have leaves, flowers, and fruits; but disbelievers are like pieces of dry wood which have neither greenness nor flower, nor shade, and they are not useful but for burning.

Then, at the end of the verse, the Qur’ān adds:

“… Verily Allah makes whom He pleases hear, …”

Allah makes him hear in order that he hears the invitation of the truth heartily and answers the call of the callers of Monotheism.

But the more your cry is loud, and your words are pleasant, and the more your statement is expressive, the dead do not perceive anything from it; and those who have lost their human soul as the result of continuously committing sins and being drowned in bigotry, enmity, injustice, and corruption, certainly are not ready to accept your invitation. The verse says:

“… and you cannot make those hear who are in the graves.”

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In the fifth verse Allah implicitly says that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) should not be worried and anxious about the lack of faith in them, his duty was to convey it and to warn them. The verse says:

“You are naught but a Warner.”

****

the Qur’ān say: “… you cannot make those hear who are in the graves”? or that a famous tradition indicates that on the day of the battle of Badr, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) ordered that the dead bodies of the pagans would be cast into a well at the end of the war. Then he called them and said: “Have you found truth what Allah and His Messenger promised? But I found truth what Allah promised me.”

Here ‘Umar protested and said: “O’ Messenger of Allah! How do you speak with some bodies in which there is no soul?”

The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “You do not hear what I say better than that they do, except that they are not able to answer anything.”(1)

Or that one of the rites of a dead is that the right beliefs are indoctrinated him (her). How does this action adapt to the verses under discussion?

With regard to one point, the answer to this question can be made clear. This is a fact that the verses under discussion speak about the lack of understanding in the dead in ordinary natural case, while the tradition of the Battle of Badr is different from the indoctrination of a dead. It relates to some extraordinary conditions by which Allah (s.w.t.) transfers the sayings of His Messenger (p.b.u.h.) extraordinarily to the ears of those dead bodies.

In other words, the communication of man in the purgatory world with this world will be ceased, except in the cases that Allah commands, and then this communication occurs. That is why, in ordinary circumstances we cannot communicate with the dead.

Another Question is: If our sound does not reach the dead, what is the meaning of our greeting to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.)

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and to the Imams (a.s.), resorting to them, visiting of their tombs, and asking for intercession from them before Allah? Some extravagant Muslims, who are generally known for their thought conventionalism also relying on this very imagination, without considering other verses of the Qur’ān, and without having any veneration for the abundant traditions narrated from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), have negated the subject of resorting and, as they think, they have nullified it.

****

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}24{ اِنَّآ أَرْسَلْنَاکَ بِالْحَقّ ِ بَشِیراً وَنَذِیراً وَاِن مِنْ اُمَّةٍ إِلاَّ خَلاَ فِیهَا نَذِیرٌ

}25{ وَإِن یُکَذّ ِبُوکَ فَقَدْ کَذَّبَ الَّذِینَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ جَآءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِالْبَیّ-ِنَاتِ وَبِالزُّبُرِ وَبِالْکِتَابِ الْمُنِیرِ

}26{ ثُمَّ أَخَذْتُ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا فَکَیْفَ کَانَ نَکِیرِ

24. “Verily We sent you with truth as a bearer of glad-tidings and a Warner, and there was not a people but a Warner having gone in them (in the past).”

25. “And if they belie you, so indeed did belie those before them; their apostles had come unto them with clear proofs, and with scriptures, and with the enlightening Book.”

26. “Then did I seize those who disbelieved, so how (severe) was My punishment?”

is used for both time and place, and since time is always passing the ‘past times’ is called /’azminah xāliyah/, because there is no trace from them at the present time and the world is empty of them.

Therefore the Qur’ānic sentence saying: “… and there was not a people but a Warner having gone in them (in the past)” means that every nation of the ancient nations had had a Warner in the past.

This point is also noteworthy that according to the above verse all nations had a Divine Warner, viz., a Divine prophet, though some commentators have taken it with a vaster meaning which envelops the scholars, and learned ones who warn people, too.

Of course, this statement does not mean that in any town and city a prophet has been appointed, but when the invitation of Divine prophets and their words reach peoples it is enough, because the Qur’ān says: “… a Warner having gone in them” (Fīhā) and it does not say /minhā/ (among them)

****

In the next verse, it implies that if they reject you it is not wonderful and, you should not be surprised and sorry, because the people who were before them rejected their prophets, too, while their messengers came to them with clear miracles, books containing admonitions, and the heavenly Books introducing ordinances, and enlightening laws to them. It says:

“And if they belie you, so indeed did belie those before them; their apostles had come unto them with clear proofs, and with scriptures, and with the enlightening Book.”

It is not only you who, with having miracles and heavenly Book, have been rejected by this ignorant group of people; the former prophets had encountered this difficulty, too. So you

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should not be sad and do stand firm in your path, and do know that those who must accept the truth will accept it.

What is the difference between ‘Bayyināt’, ‘Zubur’, and ‘The enlightening Book’?

1- The Qur’ānic term /bayyināt/ means some clear proofs and miracles which prove the legitimacy of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.).

2- The purpose of Zubur is that part of the prophets’ Books which contained of only some admonitions, advices, and supplications, (like supplications of David)(1)

3- The Qur’ānic phrase /kitāb-il-Munīr/ refers to that group of heavenly books which contain some ordinances, laws, and different social and individual instructions, such as Turat, Bible, and Qur’ān.

****

In the last verse of the verses under discussion, the Qur’ān, referring to the painful retribution of this group, implicitly says: It was not such that they could remain safe from the Divine retribution and would continue constantly their rejections, but Allah seized the disbelievers and punished them severely. The verse says:

“Then did I seize those who disbelieved, …”

The Arabic word /’axaŏtu/ is derived from /’axaŏa/ with the sense of ‘to take’, but its application in such cases indirectly means ‘punishment’, because taking and capturing someone is the beginning of punishment.

However, Allah caused some pagans to be faced with a tempest, another group with a destructive hurricane, and some

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people were destroyed by the heavenly Blast, lightning, and earthquake. Then at the end of the verse, for emphasis and stating the greatness and severity of their punishment, the Qur’ān says:

“… so how (severe) was My punishment?”

In any case, on one side, these verses console and encourage all those who pave the path of Allah, particularly the true leaders of any nation in any time that they should not be despaired of the murmurs of the opponents and know that the Divine invitations have always been faced with the intensive oppositions from the side of aberrant zealous ones and cruel profit seekers, and in the meantime, there have been some sympathetic pure lovers who sacrificed their souls helping the claimers of the path of the truth.

And, on the other side, it is a threat against these aberrant opponents that they should know that they cannot continue their disgraceful and destructive deeds forever. Soon or late, the divine punishments will encompass them.

****

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limited elements each of which is fairly more beautiful than the other.

This skilful painter, by a single pen and ink, has produced kinds of pictures which attract the attention of their visitors and charm them. At first, it says:

“Have you not seen that Allah sends down water

from the sky, then We bring forth with it fruits of various colours, …”

This verse begins with a confessional interrogation and, besides moving the curiosity sense of men, points to this fact that this matter is so clear and vivid that whoever looks at it he seas that from the same water and land, one of which is colourless and the other has only one colour, there have been created these abundant different colours in various fruits, beautiful flowers, leaves and blossoms with diverse features.

The Qur’ānic word /’alwān/ (colours) may refer to the apparent colours of fruits that even in a single fruit, like an apple, there exist different colours, let alone the diverse fruits. And it may refer to the differences in their different tastes, constructions, and properties, so much so that even in one kind of fruit you can find various sorts. For example, there are, perhaps, fifty kinds of grapes and more than seventy kinds of date.

In the continuation of the verse, the Qur’ān has referred to the variety of roads which exist in the mountains and these mountains cause the ways to be recognized from each other. It says:

“… and in the mountains are streaks, white and red, of divers hues and (others) intensely black?”

From one side, this difference of colours gives a special beauty to the mountains and, on the other side, it is a cause for finding ways not being lost in the crooked roads of the

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mountains, and, ultimately, it is a proof upon the Power of Allah over everything.

The Arabic word /judad/ is the plural form of /juddah/ in the sense of ‘road and way’.

The Arabic word /bayd/ is the plural form of /’abyad/ which means ‘white’; and /humur/ is the plural form of /’ahmar/ in the sense of ‘red’.

The Qur’ānic term /qarābīb/ is the plural form of /qirbīb/ which means ‘black in full’, and that in Arabic ‘crow’ is called /qurāb/ is also from this quality. Therefore, the mention of the word /sūd/, which is also the plural form of /’aswad/, next to it is for an emphasis upon the ‘intensely black’ colour seen in some mountain roads.

However, the construction of the mountains with diverse and completely different colours, from one side, and the mountain roads with various colours, on the other side, are some other signs for the Greatness, Power, and Wisdom of Allah which every moment appear in a form and every time decorate themselves in another clothing.

****

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}28{ وَمِنَ النَّاسِ وَالدَّوَآبّ ِ وَالأَنْعَامِ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ کَذَلِکَ إِنَّمَا یَخْشَی اللَّهَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ الْعُلَمَآءُ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزِیزٌ غَفُورٌ

28. “And of the people and beasts and cattle are of various colours likewise; verily only those of His servants fear Allah who have knowledge, verily Allah is Mighty, Forgiving.”

Besides the outward features, their innate colours, their characters, their attributes and qualities, their talents and tastes may be completely different so that they all with together form a single unit with the whole needs.

In the world of moving creatures, there are many thousands kinds of insects, birds, creepers, sea-animals, different desert wild animals that, with all their specialties and wonders of creations, each of them is a sign of the Power and Greatness and Knowledge of the Creator.

After stating these signs of Unity, finally, as a conclusion, it implies that the matter is like that.

And, since enjoying from these great verses of creation is for the wise and knowledgeable servants more than others, at the end of the verse, it says:

“… verily only those of His servants fear Allah who have knowledge, …”

Yes, from among all of Allah servants only scholars are those who gain the high rank of ‘fear’, that is, the fear of responsibility accompanied with perception of the greatness of the position of their Lord. This state of ‘Fear’ is the result of contemplation on the extroversive and introversive verses of the Qur’ān, and knowing the Knowledge and Power of Allah and the aim of His creation.

Rāqib in Mufradāt says: “The word /xašyat/ means a ‘fear’ mixed with veneration, and it is often used in some instances which originate from knowledge and awareness of something.” Therefore, in the Qur’ān, this rank is counted specialized to the learned ones.

We have repeatedly said that this is a fear because of the responsibilities that one has in front of Allah: a fear that he may not fulfil his own duties well. Furthermore, in principle, perceiving the greatness, that greatness which is unlimited and

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infinite, for a being that is limited, such as man, causes fear. Upon the commentary of this verse, Imam Sādiq (a.s.) in a tradition said: “The purpose is that there are some scholars whose deeds are consistent with their words. The one whose saying and deed are not consistent is not knowledgeable.”(1)

Another tradition announces: “The most learned one of you is the one whose fear to Allah is the most.”(2)

Shortly speaking, from the view and logic of the Qur’ān, the ‘learned ones’ are those scholars and authorities that the light of knowledge has made their whole selves enlightened with the light of Allah, faith, and piety, and they intensively feel responsibility unto their duties and they fulfil them more than the others.

At the end of the above verse, as a short reasoning upon what was said, the Qur’ān says:

“… verily Allah is Mighty, Forgiving.”

His Veneration and endless Power is the origin of the fear of the learned ones; and His Forgiveness, which is the sign of His unlimited Mercy, is the cause of their ‘hope’. Thus, these two holy names keep the servants of Allah between ‘fear’ and ‘hope’. And we know that the constant movement toward development is not possible without being qualified with these two characters.

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}29{ إِنَّ الَّذِینَ یَتْلُونَ کِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلاَةَ وَأَنفَقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ سِرّاً وَعَلاَنِیَةً یَرْجُونَ تِجَارَةً لَن تَبُورَ

}30{ لِیُوَفّ-ِیَهُمْ اُجُورَهُمْ وَیَزِیدَهُم مِن فَضْلِهِ إِنَّهُ غَفُورٌ شَکُورٌ

29. “Verily, those who recite the Book of Allah and establish prayer and spend (in charity) out of what We have provided them, secretly and openly, hope for a merchandise which will never perish,”

30. “That He will pay them their rewards fully and increase of His grace unto them; verily He is Forgiving, Thankful (of their good deeds).”

righteous deed, an action which, on one side, joins man to Allah the manifestation of which is prayer, and, on the other side, it relates him to the servants of Allah the manifestation of which is spending in charity, expending from whatever Allah has bestowed on a person, including: wealth, knowledge, authority, powerful thought, character, experiences, and, briefly speaking, from all merits that Allah has given him.

Sometimes this expending is done secretly (/sirran/) to be the sign of a complete sincerity, and sometimes it is done openly (/‘alāniyah/) in order to encourage others and to be the veneration of rituals.

Yes, the knowledge which has such an effect is the source of hope.

Regarding the contents of this verse and the verse before it we conclude that the true Muslim scholars have the following characteristics.

From the spiritual point of view, their hearts are full of fear of Allah mixed with His greatness.

From the point of speech, their tongues are busy reciting the verses of Allah.

From the point of the spiritual and bodily action, they establish prayer and worship Him.

And, finally, from the point of aim, the horizon of their thought is so high that they have left the fleeting material world aside and look for only the Divine beneficial merchandise which will neither be dull nor does it vanish.

This point is also noteworthy that the Arabic word /tabūr/, mentioned in this noble verse, means destruction. Thus, ‘the merchandise free of destruction’ is a trade which has neither slackness nor degeneration.

An interesting tradition indicates that once a man came to the Messenger of Allah (p.b.u.h.) and said: “Why do I not like

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death?” The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “Do you have any property?” He answered: “Yes”. He (p.b.u.h.) told him: “Send it before you.” The man answered: “I cannot.” The Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “Verily the heart of a person is with his property. If he sends it before himself, he likes to join it; and if he keeps it (for later), he likes to be with it.”(1)

This tradition, in fact, has illustrated the whole content of the above mentioned verse, because it implies that they establish prayer and spend in charity in the path of Allah (s.w.t.) and are willingly hopeful of the next world, because they have sent some goodness before themselves and they are willing to reach it.

****

The next holy verse states the aim of the true believers as follows. They do these righteous deeds:

“That He will pay them their rewards fully and increase of His grace unto them; verily He is Forgiving, Thankful (of their good deeds).”

This sentence, indeed, points to their ultimate sincerity that, in their actions, they look for nothing but the Divine reward. Whatever they desire they ask it from Him, and they do nothing for hypocrisy, showing, admiration, and glorification of this one or that one, because the most important thing in righteous deeds is the sincere intention.

The application of the Arabic term /’ujūr/ (the plural form of /’ajr/) in the sense of ‘wage’ is, in fact, a grace from the side of Allah, as if He sees the servants as His creditors because of their righteous deeds, while whatever the servants have belongs to Him; even the strength for performing the righteous deeds has also been given from His side.

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A more affectionate meaning is the sentence which says: “… and increase of His grace unto them, …”. This gives them glad tidings that besides the ordinary reward, which itself sometimes is hundreds or thousands fold of the deed, He increases it of His grace. And He bestows on them, from some merits which no mind can bear and none in this world is able to consider.

However, the sentence which says: “… verily He is Forgiving, Thankful …” shows that the first grace of Allah unto them is that very forgiveness of their sins and the faults they might have had, since the most anxiety of a person is the anxiety about this issue.

After having peace of mind from this point of view, He involves them in His thankfulness, i.e., He thanks for their good deeds and endows on them the best reward.

It is much to be regretful that a free wise man refuses such a merchandise and refers to other than it; and worse than that is that he sells the goods of his self for naught.

Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) says: “Is there no free man who can leave this chewed morsel (of the world) to those who like it? Certainly, the only price for your selves is Paradise. Therefore, do not sell your selves except for it.”(1)

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}31{ وَالَّذِی أَوْحَیْنَآ إِلَیْکَ مِنَ الْکِتَابِ هُوَ الْحَقُّ مُصَدّ ِقاً لّ-ِمَا بَیْنَ یَدَیْهِ اِنَّ اللَّهَ بِعِبَادِهِ لَخَبِیرٌ بَصِیرٌ

31. “And that which We have revealed to you of the Book, it is the truth verifying that which is before it, verily Allah, about His servants, is Aware, Seeing.”

human beings. This legitimacy is a clear proof upon this fact that it has been sent down from the side of Allah.

The holy sentence which says: “… verifying that which is before it …” is another proof upon the veracity of this heavenly Book, because it adapts with the signs which have been mentioned in the former heavenly Books about it and its bringer. (In this regard, there is a detailed discussion in the commentary of Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 41)

The Qur’ānic sentence which says: “… verily Allah, about His servants, is Aware, Seeing” states the cause of legitimacy of the Qur’ān and that it is parallel with the facts and needs, because it has been sent down from the side of Allah Who knows His servants well and is Aware and Seeing unto their needs.

As for the difference between the Qur’ānic words /xabīr/ and /basīr/ some commentators have said that the word /xabīr/ is in the sense of cognizance about innate things, beliefs, intentions and the man’s spiritual construction, while /basīr/ means having insight unto the man’s outward things and his bodily phenomena.(1)

Some other commentators believe that the word /xabīr/ refers to the principle of the creation of man, and /basīr/ refers to his deeds and states.

****

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}32{ ثُمَّ أَوْرَثْنَا الْکِتَابَ الَّذِینَ اصْطَفَیْنَا مِنْ عِبَادِنَا فَمِنْهُمْ ظَالِمٌ لّ-ِنَفْسِهِ وَمِنْهُم مُّقْتَصِدٌ وَمِنْهُمْ سَابِقٌ بِالْخَیْرَاتِ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ

ذَلِکَ هُوَ الْفَضْلُ الْکَبِیرُ

32. “Then We gave the Book (Qur’ān) as inheritance unto those whom We elected of Our servants. But of them are some who wrong themselves, and of them are some who follow the middle course, and of them are some who outstrip (others) through good deeds, by Allah’s leave. That is the great (Divine) favour!”

and labour or trouble, and Allah gave this very great Book to Muslims in such a way.

There is a great deal of traditions narrated from Ahl-ul-Bayt (a.s.) in all of which the Qur’ānic phrase: ‘the elected servants of Allah’ has been rendered into the immaculate Imams.(1)

As we have repeatedly said, these narrations are the statement of the clear and first grade expansions of the case and they do not hinder that the scholars, and learned ones of the Ummat, and those martyrs and righteous ones who tried hard in the way of protecting this heavenly Book and continuation of the performance of its instructions, are counted under the title of “those whom We elected of Our servants”.

Then the Qur’ān divides them into an important division in this regard. It says:

“… But of them are some who wrong themselves, and of them are some who follow the middle course, and of them are some who outstrip (others) through good deeds, by Allah’s leave. That is the great (Divine) favour!”

The apparent of the verse indicates that these three groups among ‘the elected ones of Allah’ are the inheritors and bearers of the Book of Allah. In a more clear meaning, Allah has given the protection of this heavenly Book, after His Messenger, upon this Ummah, the ones who are elected by Allah, but there are different groups among them. Some of them fail to fulfil their great duty in protecting this Book and performing its ordinances and, in fact, they did injustice to themselves. These are the extension of “Some who wrong themselves”.

Another group did a considerable amount of this duty concerning the act of protection and practicing on this Book,

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although they had some faults and shortcomings in their deeds, too. These are the extension of “Some who follow the middle course”.

And, finally, there are some distinguished persons who fulfil their heavy duties very well and, in this race-field they outstrip others. This group, who are foremost in good deeds, are the same ones whom in the above mentioned verse have been rendered into: “Some who outstrip (others) through good deeds, by the leave of Allah.”

The Qur’ānic phrase: /sābiqun bil xayrāt/ (outstrip through good deeds), in many traditions narrated from Ahl-ul-Bayt (a.s.) has been interpreted into Imam and the Immaculate ones; and the phrase: /zālim-un-linafsihī/ has been rendered into the ones who have not knowledge unto Imam (a.s.); while the term /muqtasid/ is used for those who know Imam (a.s.) and follow him.(1)

These interpretations are clear verifications upon what was said in the commentary of the whole verse, and it does not matter that these three groups can exist among the inheritors of the book of Allah.

Perhaps it is not necessary to mention that the interpretations in the above mentioned traditions are from the kind of the statement of clear extensions; that is the immaculate Imam is in the first row of “Some who outstrip (others) through good deeds”, and scholars, learned men, and protectors of the divine religion are in other rows.

The commentary which has been mentioned about /zālim/ and /muqtasid/ in the traditions are also from the kind of the statement of extension; and if we see that in some narrations the existence of scholars in the concept of the verse has totally

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been negated, in fact, is for attracting attentions to the existence of Immaculate Imam in front of these rows.

It is noteworthy that in commenting these three groups some of the former commentators and the modern commentators have delivered many other probabilities that, in deed, all of them are from the kind of the statement of extension.

Concerning the Qur’ānic sentence which says: “That is the great (Divine) favour”, some commentators have said that it is that very inheritance, the Book of Allah.

Some other commentators believe that it is a hint to the success which is given to those who outstrip (others) through good deeds and pave this way by the leave of Allah. That is, they outstrip all nations in doing good deeds: they outstrip in learning knowledge; in piety and morality; in worshipping and serving the servants; in effort and endeavour; in order and reckoning; in donation and self-sacrifice, and they are usually the foremost in all these affairs.

Yes, the bearer of that heritage can be only such persons.

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}33{ جَنَّاتُ عَدْنٍ یَدْخُلُونَهَا یُحَلَّوْنَ فِیهَا مِنْ أَسَاوِرَ مِن ذَهَبٍ وَلُؤْلُؤاً وَلِبَاسُهُمْ فِیهَا حَرِیرٌ

33. “Gardens of Eden! They shall enter; therein they shall be adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls; and their raiment there shall be of silk.”

others have spiritual aspect and inward nature; and the third part has pointed to the negation of the existence of any kind of hindrance and trouble. It says:

“… therein they shall be adorned with bracelets of gold and pearls; and their raiment there shall be of silk.”

In this world they were heedless to the dazzling glares and did not make themselves as captives to the glare of ornaments and when the deprived had not some cheep pieces of clothing, they did not tend to have expensive garments. To recompense these, in the next world, Allah will make them wear the best clothing and ornaments.

In this world, they adorned their outward with good deeds, then, in the next world, which is the world of incarnation of deeds, Allah will adorn them with kinds of ornaments, too.

We have repeatedly said that our words, which have been formed for the limited life of this world, never can convey the concepts of the great world of Hereafter. In order to state those bounties, we need to apply another kind of Alphabet, culture and dictionary. But, however, in order that an outline of those great bounties could be shown to us, the prisoners of this world, we must take help from the slight ability of these very words to explain those bounties.

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}34{ وَقَالُوا الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِی أَذْهَبَ عَنَّا الْحَزَنَ إِنَّ رَبَّنَا لَغَفُورٌ شَکُورٌ

34. “And they say: ‘Praise belongs to Allah, Who has removed from us (all) sorrow; verily our Lord is Forgiving, Thankful.”

The Qur’ānic words /hazan/ and /huzn/, as many books of philology and commentary indicate, both have the same meaning, and they originally are in the sense of unevenness and roughness of the earth; and since sorrow cause the man’s spirit to become uneven and rough, this meaning has been applied in this sense. Then, according to the verse, those people of Heaven will add:

“… verily our Lord is Forgiving, Thankful.”

By His forgiveness, He removes the heavy grief of faults and sins, and by the attribute of His thankfulness, He bestows the eternal merits on us which never will the shade of sadness fall on them. His forgiveness has covered our abundant sins, and, by His thankfulness, He has given us a great deal of rewards for our small and scanty deeds.

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}35{ الَّذِی أَحَلَّنَا دَارَ الْمُقَامَةِ مِن فَضْلِهِ لاَ یَمَسُّنَا فِیهَا نَصَبٌ

وَلاَ یَمَسُّنَا فِیهَا لُغُوبٌ

35. “He Who, of His grace, has made us to dwell in a house for ever, toil shall not touch us therein, nor shall fatigue therein afflict us.”

Qur’ānic term /luqūb/ means the same, too; while some others have mentioned a difference between these two as follows: they say that the word /nasab/ refers to the bodily toils, while the term /luqūb/ refers to the spiritual troubles.(1)

Also, some commentators have taken the Qur’ānic term /luqūb/ in the sense of weakness and fatigue resulted from toil and pain, and thus, /luqūb/ becomes the consequence of /nasab/.

Therefore, in the Heaven, there is neither any factor of bodily toils, nor any means of spiritual pain.

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}36{ وَالَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا لَهُمْ نَارُ جَهَنَّمَ لاَ یُقْضَی عَلَیْهِمْ فَیَمُوتُوا وَلاَ یُخَفَّفُ عَنْهُم مِنْ عَذَابِهَا کَذَلِکَ نَجْزِی کُلَّ کَفُورٍ

36. “And those who disbelieve, for them shall be the Fire of Hell, it shall not be decreed that they should die, nor shall the chastisement of it be lightened to them; even thus do We recompense every ungrateful one.”

For such persons, death is a way to deliverance, but by the aforementioned sentence this way has been closed to them. There will remain another way. It is in this that they should be alive and gradually their chastisement may decrease, or that their tolerance could be increased so that consequently their pain and toil may decrease. This way is also closed by another sentence which says:

“… nor shall the chastisement of it be lightened to them; …”

And, at the end of the verse as an emphasis upon the decisiveness of this Divine threat, it says:

“… even thus do We recompense every ungrateful one.”

Those who, firstly, showed ingratitude to the bounty of the existence of Divine prophets and heavenly Books, lost their Divine given capitals which could help them in gaining happiness.

Yes, the recompense of such evil-doers is burning in the painful chastisement of Fire, a Fire which they themselves lit in the life of this world and its fuel was their own evil thoughts and deeds.

Since the Qur’ānic word /kafūr/ is an amplification form in the Arabic language, it has a deeper meaning than the word /kāfir/ (disbeliever). Moreover, the word ‘disbeliever’ is usually used as opposite to the word ‘believer’, while the Arabic word /kafūr/ (ungrateful) is used as for the ingratitude of all blessings. Therefore, it has a vaster meaning. Thus, the word /kafūr/ refers to those who have been ungrateful to all the divine bounties, and they have closed all the doors of His Mercy to them in this world. Therefore, in Hereafter, Allah will close all the doors of deliverance to them, too.

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}37{ وَهُمْ یَصْطَرِخُونَ فِیهَا رَبَّنَآ أَخْرِجْنَا نَعْمَلْ صَالِحاً غَیْرَ الَّذِی کُنَّا نَعْمَلُ أَوَلَمْ نُعَمّ-ِرْکُم مّا یَتَذَکَّرُ فِیهِ مَن تَذَکَّرَ وَجَآءَکُمُ النَّذِیرُ فَذُوقُوا فَمَا لِلظَّالِمِینَ مِن نَصِیرٍ

37. “And they shall cry aloud therein (for help, saying:) ‘O’ our Lord! Take us out (so that) we will do good deeds other than what we used to do (before).’ (They will be said): ‘Did We not give you long life enough to remember therein for him who would remember?’ And (moreover) the Warner came to you. So (now) taste you (the fruit of your deeds), then for the unjust there is no helper.”

The application of the Qur’ānic word /sālihan/, in an indefinite form, points to this fact that they did not do the least righteous deed, and its consequence will be those painful chastisements for these who had let no way for them toward Allah and were thoroughly full of sin. Therefore, performing some righteous deeds may also cause deliverance.

The application of the Qur’ānic word /na‘mal/ (we will do), an Arabic verb in the future form which denotes to the continuation of their action, is also an emphasis on this very meaning that they used to do some impious deeds.

Yes, because of his pure nature, a sinner, at the beginning, understands the ugliness of his deeds, but gradually he will be accustomed to them and its ugliness will be decreased in him. Little by little, it goes beyond that and that ugly action will appear to him as a good action, as the Qur’ān says: “… The evil of their deeds has been made fair seeming to them. …”(1) And sometimes the Qur’ān says: “… While they think that they are working good deeds.”(2)

However, for this request there will be given a conclusive answer to them from the side of Allah, as follows:

“… (They will be said): ‘Did We not give you long life enough to remember therein for him who would remember?’ …”

The verse continues saying:

“… And (moreover) the Warner came to you. …”

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Now that the case is such and all the means of felicity have been available for you, but you did not enjoy them, you should be afflicted the chastisement here. It says:

“… So (now) taste you (the fruit of your deeds), then for the unjust there is no helper.”

This holy verse clearly indicates that they had not anything insufficient because they had enough respite, and there came to them necessary Divine Warners so that these two elements of awareness and felicity were ready for them, therefore, there was no excuse or pretext remained for them. If they had not enough respite, it could be an excuse; and if you had enough respite, but there might not came any teacher, trainee, leader, and guide to them, they would have a pretext, too; but with the existence of these two, what kind of excuse they may have!

The Qur’ānic word /naŏīr/ (Warner) in the verses of Qur’ān usually refers to the Divine prophets and specially to the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.), but some Islamic commentators have mentioned here a vaster meaning for it which encompasses both the Divine prophets, and the heavenly Books, and the awakening events like the death of friends and relations, and senility and weakness, in particular that in the Arabic language the word /naŏīr/ has been abundantly used in the sense of senility.

This point is also noteworthy that in Islamic narrations there have been mentioned differently a limit in the lifetime which is enough for the man’s awareness and admonition. Some of them have rendered it to the age of sixty; as a tradition from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) indicates: “Whomever

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Allah has given sixty years of lifetime, He has closed the way of excuse to him.”(1)

This very meaning has also been narrated from Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.)

Another tradition narrated from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) indicates: “When the Day of Hereafter comes, a caller will call: ‘O people of sixty years old! (Where are you?) This is the same lifetime about which Allah has said: ‘Did We not give you long life enough to remember therein for him who would remember?’”(2)

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they had before. This meaning is clearly mentioned in Sura Al-’An‘ām, No. 6, verse 28 which says: “… and even if they were returned, they would revert to what they were prohibited, and most certainly they are liars.”

Moreover, the verse is a warning unto all believers so that they try to purify their sincere intentions and they do not keep anyone in their mind save Allah, because if there is the least insincerity in their intention and motive He, Who is aware of all the Unseen things, surely knows it and compensates it accordingly.

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}39{ هُوَ الَّذِی جَعَلَکُمْ خَلآَئِفَ فِی الأَرْضِ فَمَن کَفَرَ فَعَلَیْهِ کُفْرُهُ وَلاَ یَزِیدُ الْکَافِرِینَ کُفْرُهُمْ عِندَ رَبّ-ِهِمْ إِلاَّ مَقْتاً وَلاَ یَزِیدُ الْکَافِرِینَ کُفْرُهُمْ إِلاَّ خَسَاراً

39. “He is the One Who appointed you viceroys in the earth, so whoever disbelieves, his disbelief shall be against him, and their unbelief does not increase the infidels with their Lord in anything except hatred; and their unbelief does not increase the infidels but loss.”

different sorts of bounties, and He has taught man the way of using these facilities. Yet, how has man forgotten his main benefactor and refers to the superstitions and artificial objects of worship?

In fact, this sentence is the statement of ‘the Unity of Lordship’ which itself is a clear proof over ‘the Unity of worship’.

This sentence, however, is a warning unto all human beings that they should know that their course is not eternal and everlasting. In the same way that they became the vicegerents of the former nations, after a few days these people will also pass away and some others will succeed them. Therefore they must be careful what they do in their short lifetime. They must consider their future fate, and that what kind of record will they leave in the history of the world from them? That is why the verse immediately says:

“… so whoever disbelieves, his disbelief shall be against him, and their unbelief does not increase the infidels with their Lord in anything except hatred; …”

However, their disbelief does not add to them except loss. It continues saying:

“… and their unbelief does not increase the infidels but loss.”

In fact, the last two sentences are as a commentary upon the sentence: “… whoever disbelieves, his disbelief shall be against him, …”, because this sentence implicitly says that the infidelity of a person results a loss upon him. Then the Qur’ān brings two kinds of reasoning for this subject.

The first is that disbelief and infidelity with their Lord, Who is the giver of all bounties, does not result aught save Divine Wrath and punishment.

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The other is that, besides the Divine Wrath, this infidelity does not give anything to them except loss. They lose their lifetime and the capital of their own existence and take wretchedness, degradation, and darkness for it. What a loss is greater than this?

And either of these two proofs is enough for condemning this incorrect style.

The repetition of the Arabic term /lāyazīd/ (does not increase), which is in present tense, is an indication to the continuation of action and points to this fact that man is naturally looking for increase and excess. If he paves the path of Monotheism, he will have the increase of happiness and perfection, but if he paves the path of disbelief, he will obtain the increase of Wrath of Allah and loss.

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}40{ قُلْ أَرَأَیْتُمْ شُرَکَآءَکُمُ الَّذِینَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَرُونِی مَاذَا خَلَقُوا مِنَ الأَرْضِ أَمْ لَهُمْ شِرْکٌ فِی السَّمَاوَاتِ أَمْ ءَاتَیْنَاهُمْ کِتَاباً فَهُمْ عَلَی بَیّ-ِنَتٍ مّ-ِنْهُ بَلْ إِن یَعِدُ الظَّالِمُونَ بَعْضُهُم بَعْضاً

اِلاَّ غُرُوراً

40. “Say: ‘Have you seen your associates on whom you call, apart from Allah? Show me what they have created in the earth; or have they a partnership in (the creation of) the heavens? Or have We given them a Book so that they follow a clear argument from it? Nay, the unjust

promise each other nothing but delusions.”

Yet, what is the reason of the polytheists’ worship? The act of being object of worship is a secondary thing to creative power. Now that you know that the creator of the heavens and the earth is only Allah, and there will be no object of worship except Him, because the Unity of divinity is always a reason upon the Unity of worship.

Now that it was proved that there is no intellectual reasoning for your claim, do you have any reasoning from tradition with you?

Or do you have a heavenly Book for it? The verse says:

“… Or have We given them a Book so that they follow a clear argument from it? …”

No, they have no clear proof from the Divine Books with them. Therefore, their capital for it is nothing save guile and delusion. In this regard, the verse says:

“… Nay, the unjust promise each other nothing but delusions.”

In other words, if the idolaters, and other polytheists of any kind and group, claim that the idols have a kind of power on the earth to provide their needs, they should deliver an example of their earthly creation.

And if they believe that these idols are the manifestation of the angels and heavenly sacred beings, as it was the belief of a group of them, they must show their participation in creation of the heavens.

And if they believe that these are not some partners in the creation, and only the rank of intercession has been given to them, as some of the polytheists believed, they must bring a proof from the heavenly Book for proving this claim.

Now that they have none of these proofs, then they are some unjust deceivers who tell each other false words.

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It is notable that the purpose of ‘the earth and the heavens’ here is the entire creations on the earth and in the heavens, and the application of the word creation due to the earth and having a partnership in the creation of the heavens, points to this fact that ‘the partnership in the heavens’ should be by the way of creation.

And, the application of the Arabic word /kitāban/, in an indefinite form and also concerned to Allah, is a hint to the fact that there is the least reasoning for their claim in neither of the heavenly Books.

The Arabic word /bayyinah/ points to this fact that the clear reasoning can be found in heavenly Books.

The application of the Qur’ānic plural word /zālimūn/ (the unjust) is another emphasis on this meaning that ‘polytheism’ is a clear ‘injustice’.

The application of ‘the promises of delusion’ is a hint to this fact that the polytheists used to take these superstitions and delusions from each other in the form of some hollow vain promises, and some of them transfer them to some others in the form of gossips and baseless imitations.

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}41{ إِنَّ اللَّهَ یُمْسِکُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ أَن تَزُولاَ وَلَئِن زَالَتَآ إِنْ أَمْسَکَهُمَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ مِن بَعْدِهِ إِنَّهُ کَانَ حَلِیماً غَفُوراً

41. “Verily Allah holds the heavens and the earth lest they remove (from the orbit); and did they remove, none would hold them after Him; verily He is the Forbearing,

the Forgiving.”

they are for their temporal origination. And, thus, the protection of the system is not anything except the continuation of new creation and Divine emanation.

It is worthy to note that, without being fastened by anything, the celestial spheres have been rotating for millions of years in their places with the same orbs that have been decided for them without the least deviation, the example of which is seen in solar system. Our globe, the earth, rotates in its orb round the sum for millions or milliards of years with an exact order, which originates from the equilibrium of the power of polarization, and it obeys the command of Allah. Then, as an emphasis, the verse says:

“… and did they remove, none would hold them

after Him; …”

Neither your idols, nor the angels, nor anything other than them is able to do this job.

In order not to shut the door of repentance to deviated polytheists and let them return in any stage they are, at the end of the verse the Qur’ān says:

“… verily He is the Forbearing, the Forgiving.”

Because of His forbearance, Allah does not hasten in punishing them, and because of His forgiveness, He accepts their repentance, with its conditions, in any case and stage it is. Thus, the ending part of the verse refers to the situation of polytheists and that His Mercy encompasses them at the time of repentance and returning.

Some commentators have taken these two attributes in relation to maintenance of the heavens and the earth, because their destruction is an affliction and a punishment, and Allah, because of His Forbearance and Forgiveness, does not let people get this punishment and affliction, though the sayings and deeds of many of them require that this chastisement

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should be sent down, as Sura Maryam, No. 19, verses 88 to 90 say: “And they say: ‘The Beneficent (Allah) has taken (unto Himself) a son’.” “Indeed you have put forth something hideous!” “At it the skies are about to burst, and the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down crashing.”

During the length of the history of human beings this event has repeatedly happened that some of the astronomers have foreseen that, in its way, a particular comet, or other than it, may pass by the earth and probably it crashes this globe. These predictions have worried the thoughts of all people in the world. In these circumstances this feeling appears for everybody that in this problem nobody can do anything, because if, for example, so and so celestial globe comes towards the earth and, under their gravity they crash each other, there will remain no trace from the thousand-year-old civilization of mankind, and even from other living creatures on the earth; and no power, except the Power of Allah, can prevent this event.

In these cases everyone feels absolute need unto absolute Self-Sufficient Allah; but when those probable dangers are removed, forgetfulness encompasses human beings.

Not only the crash of the celestial spheres and planets cause calamity, but also a slight deviation of a planet, like earth, from its orb may bring forth a calamity.

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}42{ وَأَقْسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ جَهْدَ أَیْمَانِهِمْ لَئِن جَآءَهُمْ نَذِیرٌ لَّیَکُونُنَّ أَهْدَی مِنْ إِحْدَی الأُمَمِ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُمْ نَذِیرٌ مَّا زَادَهُمْ إِلاَّ نُفُوراً

42. “And they swore by Allah with the strongest oaths that if a Warner came to them, they would be more rightly guided than any one of the nations; but when a Warner came to them, it increased them naught but aversion (unto the truth).”

The Arabic term /’aymān/ is the plural form of /yamīn/ which means ‘oath’. Originally it means ‘right hand’, but since at the time of taking oath and promising people they shake hands with their right hands and take an oath, this word has gradually been used in the sense of oath.

The Arabic word /jahd/ is derived from /jihād/ in the sense of ‘struggle and effort’. Therefore, the application of the Arabic phrase /jahd-a-’aymānihim/ refers to the strong oath.

Yes, when they were observing the former events recorded in the pages of the history, saying about disloyalties, ingratitude actions, hindrances and crimes of the former nations, specially the Jews unto their prophets, they wondered very much, while they had every kind of claim and boast about themselves.

But when their own trial practically came forth and they wanted to practise it, they showed that they were of the same kind, as the Qur’ān in this verse declares:

“… but when a Warner came to them, it increased them naught but aversion (unto the truth).”

We must be also attentive to this matter. God forbids those who are waiting for the advent of Hadrat Mahdī (May Allah hasten his glad advent) and say that if he (a.s.) comes they will do so and so, but when he (a.s.) comes they stand against him.

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}43{ اسْتِکْبَاراً فِی الأَرْضِ وَمَکْرَ السِّیئِ وَلاَ یَحِیقُ الْمَکْرُ السَّیّ-ِئُ اِلاَّ بِاَهْلِهِ فَهَلْ یَنظُرُونَ إِلاَّ سُنَّتَ الأَوَّلِینَ فَلَن تَجِد َلِسُنَّتِ اللَّهِ تَبْدِیلاً

وَلَن تَجِدَ لِسُنَّتِ اللَّهِ تَحْوِیلاً

43. “On account of their arrogance in the earth, and devising evil; but evil devising encompasses only the devisers themselves; so do they expect anything except the way of (Allah against) the former people? For never shall you find any alternation in the course of Allah and never shall you find in the course of Allah any change.”

may temporarily reach others, but finally they come forth against the devisers themselves and will make them disgrace before the servants of Allah, and will make them shameful in front of Allah; and this is the same evil fate that the pagans of Mecca encountered. In fact, the verse implies that they did not suffice only to get aloof from this great Divine Prophet, but also they took help from their entire ability and power in hurting him; and the main motive of it was arrogance, pride, and the lack of humility before the truth.

In the continuation of the verse, the Qur’ān threatens this arrogant, deceitful and treacherous group by an expressive awakening sentence, and says:

“… so do they expect anything except the way of (Allah against) the former people? …”

This short sentence is a hint to the whole evil ends of the haughty, and disobedient former nations, such as the people of Noah, ‘Ād, Thamūd, and Pharaoh, each of whom were afflicted with a great calamity, and the Qur’ān has frequently pointed to some parts of their painful and evil fates. Here, by this very short sentence, the Qur’ān illustrates all of them in front of the eyes of this group.

Then, for a more emphasis, it adds:

“… For never shall you find any alternation in the course of Allah and never shall you find in the course of Allah any change.”

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}44{ أَوَلَمْ یَسِیرُوا فِی الأَرْضِ فَیَنظُرُوا کَیْفَ کَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الَّذِینَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَکَانُوا أَشَدَّ مِنْهُمْ قُوَّةً وَمَا کَانَ اللَّهُ لِیُعْجِزَهُ مِن شَیْءٍ فِی السَّمَاوَاتِ وَلاَ فِی الأَرْضِ إِنَّهُ کَانَ عَلِیماً قَدِیراً

44. “Have they not travelled in the earth and seen how was the end of those before them while they were stronger than them in power? Nor is Allah to be frustrated by anything whatever in the heavens or on the earth; verily He is Knowing, Powerful.”

countries all were so strong that the idolaters of Mecca, compared with them, were counted naught.

Moreover, the more men are powerful, comparing the power of Allah, their power is naught, because nothing in the heavens nor in the earth can escape from the realm of His Power, and will not frustrate Him. The verse says:

“… Nor is Allah to be frustrated by anything whatever in the heavens or on the earth; …”

Allah is both Knowing and Powerful. Neither does anything remain concealed from His sight nor anything is difficult for His Power, nor can anybody overcome Him.

If these blind-hearted, arrogant and deceitful persons think that they can escape from the grips of His Power, they are in error, and if they do not leave their committing ugly deeds, at last they will confront the same fatal end of the former arrogant ones.

We repeatedly recite in the verses of the Qur’ān that Allah invites the faithless and disobedient persons ‘to travel in the earth’ and see the traces of the nations who have afflicted the Divine chastisement.

In Sura Ar-Room, No. 30, verse 9 we recite: “Have they not travelled in the earth and seen how was the end of those before them? …” These are those who had a stronger power than these and changed the earth, and they made it more populated than the amount these have done. Their prophets came to them with clear proofs, but they continued their own egotism, and were encompassed with painful divine punishment. Never did Allah injustice to them, but they were unjust to themselves. This verse from Sura Ar-Room continues saying: “… they were stronger than them in strength, and they ploughed up the earth and cultivated it more than they themselves have cultivated it; and their messenger came to them with clear proofs (miracles)

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(which they rejected to their own destruction); so Allah would never deal with them unjustly, but they deal unjustly with their own selves.”

These frequent emphases of the Qur’ān are some proofs upon the extraordinary effect of these observations in the selves of human beings. They must go to see by their eyes that which they have studied in the history or heard from people.

They should go and see the former destroyed land of the Pharaohs, the ruined castles of the ancient kings, the scattered graves of Caesars, the rotten bones of people such as Numrūd, and the afflicted lands of the people of Lūt and Thamūd from near and close distance, they can hear the advice of these silent people and pay attention to the cry of those who are buried under the dust, and watch by their eyes what will finally happen to them.

****

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}45{ وَلَوْ یُؤَاخِذُ اللَّهُ النَّاسَ بِمَا کَسَبُوا مَا تَرَکَ عَلَی ظَهْرِهَا مِن دَآبَّةٍ وَلَکِن یُؤَخّ-ِرُهُمْ اِلَی أَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّی فَاِذَا جآءَ أَجَلُهُمْ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ کَانَ بِعِبَادِهِ بَصِیراً

45. “And if Allah were to seize the people (to punish them) for what they have earned, He would not leave on the back of it any creature; but He gives them respite till an appointed term. So when their term expires, then verily Allah is seeing with respect to His servants.”

“And if Allah were to seize the people (to punish them) for what they have earned, He would not leave on the back of it any creature; …”

In that case, there will be sent down so many frequent punishments, and lightning, earthquakes and tempests will destroy the unjust ones in a form that the earth will not be a suitable place for anyone to live on. Yet, the verse continues saying:

“… but He gives them respite till an appointed term. …”

But this patience and respite of Allah has an account. It lasts until when their appointed term has not come, but when their appointed term reaches, He will recompense everybody, as the verse says:

“… So when their term expires, then verily Allah is seeing with respect to His servants.”

He (s.w.t.) both sees their deeds and is aware of their intentions.

Here, there arise two questions the answer of which is made manifest by what was said.

The first is that: Does this general command envelop Divine prophets, friends of Allah, and righteous ones, too?

The answer of this question is clear, because these kinds of ordinances refer to almost the mass of people and the decisive majority of them, and surely the Divine prophets, Imams, and righteous ones, who are in minority, are out of this circle. Shortly speaking, every ordinance has an exception and such ones are as exceptions of this ordinance.

The second is that: Does the application of the Qur’ānic term /dābbah/ (creature), mentioned in the above verse, refer to non-human creatures, too? That is, will they be destroyed as the result of the punishment upon human beings?

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The answer to this question will be made clear in regard to this point that the philosophy of the existence of other living creatures is for the benefit of men from them, and when the human generation is whipped out, their existence will not be necessary. The Arabic word /dābbah/ is derived from /dabīb/ in the sense of ‘to work slowly’, but from the philological point of view it refers to any living creature, and sometimes the Arabic word /dawāb/ is used for the animals fit for riding, in particular.

At last, we put an end to this discussion with a tradition from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) which has been recorded upon the commentary of this verse. According to this tradition, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) says: “Allah, the Mighty, the Glorious, has implicitly said: ‘O’ the children of Adam! It is by My will and desire that you have been created free and you can wish for yourself whatever you wish; and it is by My Will that you have possessed a kind of will that you can decide for yourself whatever you will. You have got strength by means of the bounties I gave you and you have committed sins; and it was by means of My Power and Safety that I gave you and you could do the obligations I commanded you. Therefore, due to your good actions, I am prior to you yourself, but due to your sins, you are prior to Me. By means of the bounties I have given you, the good things ceaselessly come to you from My side, and the vice and wretchedness always come to you from yourself because of your treacheries. I have never neglected you for warning and advising and I did not punish you immediately at the time of your pride and negligence, but I gave you enough respite that you might repent and improve yourselves.” The verse says:

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“… but He gives them respite till an appointed term. So when their term expires, then verily Allah is seeing with respect to His servants.”

Then, the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said that this is the same thing that Allah says: “And if Allah were to seize the people (to punish them) for what they have earned, He would not leave on the back of it any creature …”(1)

****

O’ Allah! Appoint us among those who come forth before lasting the respites and return to You, and enlighten their dark past course by the light of good deeds and attracting Your consent.

O’ Allah! If Your Grace had not encompassed us, the fire from inside of our evil deeds would have swallowed us into its bottom; and if the ray of the light of Your forgiveness had not been showered on our heart, the army of Satan would have occupied it.

O’ Allah! Protect us from any kind of polytheism, and lit the torch of sincere Faith and Unity in our heart, and increase the light of piety in our speech and deeds.

****

The End of Sura Al-Fātir

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The Virtue of Sura Yā-Sīn:

According to numerous Islamic traditions which have been vastly received on this concern, Sura Yā-Sīn is one of the most important Suras of the Qur’ān, in a manner that it has been introduced in some traditions as ‘The Heart of the Qur’ān’.

A tradition narrated from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) indicates he said: “Everything has heart (centre) and Yā-Sīn is the heart of the Qur’ān.”(1)

This very meaning has been narrated in a tradition from Imam Sādiq (a.s.) who, at its end, adds: “Whoever recites Sura Yā-Sīn on a day before sun sets, during the whole day he will be protected and sustained (affluently); and whoever recites it at night before sleeping, one thousand angels will be for him to protect him from any accursed Satan and any impediment.” And after it, he (a.s.) mentions some other important virtues for it, too.(2)

There are so many other Islamic traditions on this regard mentioned in the Sunnites and Shi‘ites books that if we want to reiterate them, it will be a long explanation. Thus, it must be confessed that there are few suras of the Qur’ān which have so many virtues in them.

As we have said, these virtues are not for those who only recite the words of it and forget its meanings, but this greatness is for the sake of the magnificent content of this Sura.

The content of the Sura is awakening, faith-giving, giver of responsibility, and increaser of piety in man, in a manner that when a person contemplates in it and this contemplation reflects in his deeds, it brings the goodness of this world and the next for him.

****

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Sura Yā-Sīn

No. 36, (Revealed at Mecca)

83 verses in 5 Sections

words are about the Holy Qur’ān, but here Allah swears by them and says: “By the Qur’ān, full of wisdom.”

It is interesting that Qur’ān is qualified by the word /hakīm/ while this word is usually the quality of an alive and wise person. As if it introduces the Qur’ān as a wise, living, and leading leader that can open the doors of wisdom to human beings, and lead them to the straight way that will be pointed out in later verses.

Of course, Allah does not need to take any oath, but the oaths of the Qur’ān have always two important usages. The first is an emphasis on the concerning matter, and the second is the statement of the greatness of the thing by which is sworn, for nobody takes an oath to the worthless things.

Therefore, in the next holy verse, the Qur’ān reiterates the thing for which the oath in the previous verse has been taken. It says:

“Verily you are of the messengers,”

“On a straight path.”

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}5{ تَنزِیلَ الْعَزِیْزِ الرَّحِیمِ

}6{ لِتُنذِرَ قَوْماً مَّآ اُنذِرَ ءَابآؤُهُمْ فَهُمْ غَافِلُونَ

5. “A revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful.”

6. “That you may warn a people whose fathers were not warned, hence they are heedless.”

addressee in this sentence has been taken the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.), not the polytheist nor the people in general.

The answer is that: the purpose has been in this fact that He emphasizes that you are legitimate and on the straight path, whether they accept it or not. For this very reason, you should be earnest in the heavy mission of your messengership, and do not let the least discouragement come to you because of the rejection of the opponents.

In the next verse, the Qur’ān explains the main aim of the descent of the Qur’ān, as follows:

“That you may warn a people whose fathers were not warned, hence they are heedless.”

The purpose of this people is certainly the pagans of Arab, and if someone says that, as they believe, there has not been any nation without a Warner, and the earth will never be empty of Allah’s Authority, and, moreover, we recited is Sura Al-Fātir, No. 35, verse 24: “… and there was not a people but a Warner having gone in them (in the past)” there is, of course, an answer for it.

In answer we will say that the purpose of the verse under discussion is the manifest Warner and a great prophet whose name is heard everywhere, else, in any time, there exists Divine authority for those who eagerly seek him. And if we see that the course between the time of Hadrat Messiah (a.s.) and the advent of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) has been counted as the course of intermission, it does not mean that there has not absolutely been any Divine Authority for them, but this interval had been from the point of the appointment of great prophets or arch-prophets.

Imam Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) in this regard says: “Verily Allah appointed Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) when neither

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one of Arabs used to read a heavenly Book, nor (anyone) claimed prophesy.”(1)

However, the aim by sending down the Qur’ān was to make the negligent people aware and to awaken those who were asleep. It intended to remind them the dangers that had surrounded them, and the sins they were involved in and the Polytheism and immorality, they were polluted by. Yes, the Qur’ān is the base of knowledge and awareness, and it is the Book of sanctification of the heart and soul, too.

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}7{ لَقَدْ حَقَّ الْقَوْلُ عَلَی أَکْثَرِهِمْ فَهُمْ لاَ یُؤْمِنُونَ

}8{ اِنَّا جَعَلْنَا فِی أَعْنَاقِهِمْ أَغْلاَلاً فَهِیَ اِلَی الأَذْقَانِ فَهُم مُّقْمَحُونَ

7. “The word (of punishment) has been realized against most of them, yet they do not believe.”

8. “Verily, we have put chains on their necks, and these reach up to their chins, so their heads are raised.”

believe and have no way to return, because they have ruined all the bridges behind them.

The fact is in this that man will be corrigible and worthy of being guided if he has not totally ruined his monotheistic nature with his ugly and polluted deeds, otherwise, an absolute darkness will dominate over his heart and all of the doors of hope will be closed for him.

By the way, it was made clear by this statement that the purpose of the majority of the persons who never believe is the chiefs of polytheists and pagans, and that was why that some of them were killed in the battles of Muslims in the state of polytheism and idolatry, and those who remained did not have any faith in their hearts until the end, while after the conquest of Mecca, the majority of the Arab polytheists embraced Islam groups and groups, as the Qur’ān says: “… the people enter Allah’s Religion in crowds.”(1)

The verses which are recited after it and refer to the barriers in front of them and behind them and count their eyes blind, and clearly says that they are alike whether they are warned or not, all attest to this very meaning.

However, the next holy verse continues explaining this unchangeable group, when it says:

“Verily, we have put chains on their necks, and these reach up to their chins, so their heads are raised.”

The Arabic word /’aqlāl/ is the plural form of /qul/ and the word /qalala/ originally means: something which is in the middle of some things. For example, the flowing water, which passes through some trees, is called /qalal/ and the Arabic word /qul/ was a ring which was put on the necks or the heads of persons and then it was fastened with some chains. So, since the hand was put in the middle of it, this word has been used

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for it. Sometimes the rings which were put on the necks were separately fastened by a chain, and the rings on the heads were different from them. But, sometimes the hands were put in a ring and this ring was fastened to the ring which was on the neck, and, thus, the prisoner or the captive was intensively put in pressure, limitation, and torture.

If this word is used for the state of thirst or intense of grief and anger, it is called /qullih/ which is also for the sake of penetrating this state into the man’s heart and soul. Principally, the Arabic word /qall/ has been applied in both the senses of: ‘to bring in’ and ‘to enter’, therefore the income of the house, or agriculture, and the like is called /qallih/.(1)

In any case, sometimes when the ring, which was put on the neck, came up to the chin and set the head upward, and the captive or prisoner, being extraordinarily tortured by it, could not see around him.

How interesting is the resemblance which has been made from the state of obstinate idolaters to such persons. Those have put the ring of imitation and the chain of superstitious customs on their necks, hands, and feet and their rings are so wide and vast that they have kept their heads upward and they are deprived from seeing the facts around them. They are some captives who have neither the power of activity and motion, nor the ability of watching.

Some commentators have mentioned a few occasions of revelation for the above mentioned verse and the verse next to it, saying that they have been revealed about Abūjahl, or a man from ‘Banī Makhzūn’ tribe, or the tribe of Quraysh. They frequently decided to kill the Prophet

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(p.b.u.h.), but Allah, by the way of miracle, hindered them to commit this action, and at that sensitive moment when they reached the holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and wanted to attack him, their eyes could not see, or the power of motion was taken from them.(1)

But these occasions of revelation do not hinder the generality of the concept of the verse and the vastness of its meaning about all chiefs of pagans and those who are obstinate and zealous. In the meantime it is a confirmation over what was said on the commentary of the Qur’ānic phrase “They do not believe” that its purpose is not the majority of polytheists, but the purpose of it is the majority of the chiefs of polytheists, pagans, and hypocrites.

****

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}9{ وَجَعَلْنَا مِن بَیْنِ أَیْدِیهِمْ سَدّاً وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ سَدّاً فَأَغْشَیْنَاهُمْ فَهُمْ لاَ یُبْصِرُونَ

}10{ وَسَوآءٌ عَلَیْهِمْ ءَأَنذَرْتَهُمْ أَمْ لَمْ تُنذِرْهُمْ لاَ یُؤْمِنُونَ

9. “And We have put a barrier in front of them and a barrier behind them, and (further), We have covered them up, so they do not see.”

10. “And the same is to them whether you warn them or you do not warn them, they do not believe.”

What a wonderful clear illustration it is! From one side, they are like some prisoners who are put in ring and chains.

And, on the other side, this ring is so wide and vast that it has caused their heads to be kept upward unto the sky so that they do not see absolutely anything from around them.

Think carefully about this kind of person who has such circumstances. What can he do? What thing does he understand? What can he see? And how can he walk? Such is the status of the self-loving egoistic men of pride, and the blind and deaf imitators, who are obstinate and zealous, in front of the face of the facts.

For this reason the Qur’ān explicitly says:

“And the same is to them whether you warn them or you do not warn them, they do not believe.”

The more your speech is influential, and the more the heavenly revelation is fairly effective, they will not affect unless they arrive into a receptive ground. If thousand years the world illuminating sun shines on a saline, and the life-giving rains come down on it, and the spring winds constantly pass over it, this land will not deliver any product save some thorn, because the receptivity of the recipient beside the activity of the agent is its condition.

****

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}11{ إِنَّمَا تُنذِرُ مَنِ اتَّبَعَ الذّ ِکْرَ وَخَشِیَ الرَّحْمَنَ بِالْغَیْبِ فَبَشّ-ِرْهُ بِمَغْفِرَةٍ وَأَجْرٍ کَرِیمٍ

11. “You can only warn him who follows the reminder (Qur’ān) and fears the Beneficent (Allah) in secret; so give him the good tidings of forgiveness and a generous wage.”

have a hearing ear and a receptive heart. Warning leaves two effects on them. The first is following the contents of the Holy Qur’ān; and the second is to be in awe before Allah and for responsibilities.

In other words, these two states potentially exist in them, but, after warning, they become active, in spite of the blind-hearted, obstinate and negligent persons who have neither a hearing ear nor are they ready to fear.

A great deal of the commentators believe that the objective meaning of the word /ŏikr/, in this verse, is the Holly Qur’ān, because this word, in this form, has repeatedly been used in this very meaning.

But it does not matter that the purpose of the word /ŏikr/ is its lexicographical meaning which is any kind of remembrance that includes the verses of the Holy Qur’ān and other warnings of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and those of the Divine leaders.

****

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}12{ إِنَّا نَحْنُ نُحْیِ الْمَوْتَی وَنَکْتُبُ مَا قَدَّمُوا وَءَاثَارَهُمْ وَکُلَّ شَیْءٍ أَحْصَیْنَاهُ فِی إِمَامٍ مُبِینٍ

12. “Verily We shall give life to the dead, and We write down that which they send before and (even) their footprints, and We have numbered everything in a clear Register.”

surely remain nothing save that they will be protected in the record of deeds for the Reckoning Day.

The Qur’ānic sentence /mā qaddamū/ (that which they send before) refers to the deeds they have done and there is no trace remained from them; but the application of the Qur’ānic phrase /wa ’āθārahum/ (and their footprints) refers to the deeds which remain from a person and their effects are seen in the environment, like: remaining voluntary alms: (buildings, mortmain properties, and the centres which remain after the death of a person and people take benefit from them)

There is also this probability in the commentary that the Qur’ānic sentence /mā qaddamū/ (that which they send before) points to the deeds which have personal aspect while the Qur’ānic phrase /’āθārahum/ points to the affairs which become precedent custom and later, after the death of the person, will also be the source of public welfare and blessing, or the cause of vice, harm, and sin.

The concept of it is vast, of course, and both of these commentaries may be involved in its concept.

For more emphasis, at the end of the verse the holy Qur’ān adds:

“… and We have numbered everything in a clear Register.”(1)

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The majority of the famous commentators have rendered the Qur’ānic phrase: /’imām-in-mubīn/ here into ‘Protected Table’. The same Book in which all the deeds of men and the whole beings and events of this world are recorded and protected.

The application of the word /’imām/ here may be for the sake that in the Hereafter this book is the guide and a lead for all of the angels of reward and retribution, and it is a criterion for evaluation of the value of men’s deeds and their reward and retribution.

It is interesting that in some other verses of the Holy Qur’ān this meaning (Imam) has been used in respect to ‘the Turah’, where the Qur’ān says: “Is he then (like unto him) who has a clear proof from his Lord and follows him a witness from Him, and before it (is) the Book of Moses, a guide and a mercy (testifying it)? …”(1)

The usage of the word /’imām/ (guide) in this verse, about the Torah, is for the knowledge, ordinances, and instructions in it. It is also for the signs of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) which have been mentioned in it. In all these affairs it could be guide and leader of people. Thus, the above mentioned word has a concept in every one of them proportionate to it.

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“And coin for them a similitude of the people of the town, when the messengers came to it.”

The Arabic term /qaryah/ originally means the name of a place where people gather (to live); and sometimes the people themselves are called /qaryah/. Therefore, it has such a vast meaning that it envelops both cities and villages, though in the ordinary Persian language this term is used for only a village. In Arabic and in the Qur’ān this term has frequently been used for the main and important cities, such as: Egypt,

Mecca, and the like.

Among the commentators it is popular that this city is meant ’Antākiyyah, which has been one of the cities of Shāmāt, and it had been one of very famous cities of ancient Room, and at the present time, from the geographical point of view is in the territory of Turkish country.

However, it is understood from the verses of this Sura that the people of this city had been idol worshippers, and these messenger had come to invite them toward Monotheism and struggle against polytheism.

****

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}14{ إِذْ أَرْسَلْنَآ إِلَیْهِمُ اثْنَیْنِ فَکَذَّبُوهُمَا فَعَزَّزْنَا بِثَالِثٍ فَقَالُوا إِنَّآ اِلَیْکُم مُّرْسَلُونَ

14. “When We sent unto them two (of Our apostles) they belied them both, then We strengthened (the two) with a third and they said (unto the people): ‘Verily we are messengers to you (from Allah)’.”

}15{ قَالُوا مَآ أَنتُمْ إِلاَّ بَشَرٌ مّ-ِثْلُنَا وَمَآ أَنزَلَ الرَّحْمَنُ مِن شَیْءٍ اِنْ أَنتُمْ اِلاَّ تَکْذِبُونَ

}16{ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا یَعْلَمُ إِنَّآ اِلَیْکُمْ لَمُرْسَلُونَ

}17{ وَمَا عَلَیْنَآ إِلاَّ الْبَلاَغُ الْمُبِینُ

15. “They said: ‘You are not but men like unto us, nor has the Beneficent (Allah) sent down anything. You are speaking only lies’.”

16. “They (the messengers) said: ‘Our Lord knows that we have been sent to you.”

17. “And our duty is only to deliver the clear Message’.”

the generation of Adam including Abraham (a.s.), whom all knew as a prophet, surely were human beings. Moreover, can anything ever understand the men’s needs, difficulties and pains save a human being?

That why the significant attribute of Allah’s mercifulness is emphasized on, it may be from this point that, by narrating their statement, because: how is it possible for Allah, Whose general Mercy has been spread throughout the world, He does not send some messengers for training people and for inviting human beings to rectitude and development?

****

However, these prophets were not hopeless from the severe opposition of that misguided people and did not let any weakness and debility come to them. Their answer to them was as follows:

“They (the messengers) said: ‘Our Lord knows that we have been sent to you.”

“And our duty is only to deliver the clear Message’.”

Certainly the messengers of Allah did not suffice to mere claiming, and to only oath, but, as it is understood from the Qur’ānic sentence /balāq un mubīn/ (the clear Message), they showed some miracles and proofs from themselves, else their message, as an expansion of the Clear Message, must be in such a manner that it conveys the reality to all, and this is not possible but by the help of some firm proofs and clear godly miracles.

Some Islamic narrations indicate that, like Jesus (a.s.), by the leave of Allah, they cured some irrecoverable patients.

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}18{ قَالُوا اِنَّا تَطَیَّرْنَا بِکُمْ لَئِن لَّمْ تَنتَهُوا لَنَرْجُمَنَّکُمْ وَلَیَ-مَسَّنَّکُم مِنَّا عَذَابٌ أَلِیمٌ

}19{ قَالُوا طَآئِرُکُم مَعَکُمْ أَئِنْ ذُکّ-ِرْتُم بَلْ أَنتُمْ قَوْمٌ مُّسْرِفُونَ

18. “(The pagans told the prophets:) ‘For us, we augur an evil omen from you, if you do not desist, we will certainly stone you, and there shall certainly afflict you a painful chastisement from us’.”

19. “They said: ‘your evil omens are with yourselves, (should you augur a bad omen) if you are admonished? But you are a prodigal people’.”

They did not even suffice it, but by the manifest threat they showed their evil and ugly intentions, and said:

“… if you do not desist, we will certainly stone you, and there shall certainly afflict you a painful chastisement from us’.”

Yes, when the adherents of wrong and the supporters of injustice and corruption have not any acceptable logic, they always rely on some threat, pressure, and hardship. They are neglectful of the fact that those who pave the path of Allah will never submit because of these threats, but their perseverance will be increased. On the day when they entered this field, they put their souls ahead and became ready for donation.

The second verse indicates that it was here that the Divine messengers, by their expressive and clear logic, answered their meaningless words, as follows:

“They said: ‘your evil omens are with yourselves, (should you augur a bad omen) if you are admonished? …”

If misery, misfortune, and evil events have encompassed the environment of your society and the Divine blessings have gone out from amongst you, you must seek its cause inside yourselves and in your wrong thoughts, and in your ugly and evil deeds, not in our invitation. It is you who have made the atmosphere of your lives dark in relation to idolatry, sensuality, tyranny, and voluptuousness, and thus you have ceased the bounties of Allah from you.

A group of commentators have considered the Qur’ānic sentence: /’a ’in ŏukkirtum/ as a hinder to an independent matter and said that its concept is this that if the Divine prophets come and admonish you and warn you its recompense is that you threaten them to punishment and think of their existence as omen. They have brought light, guidance, goodness and

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blessing for you. Is the response of such a service those threats and ugly words?

At last, the last word of these messengers of Allah to them was this that they said:

“… But you are a prodigal people’.”

That is, the main problem of yours is your prodigality and oppression. If you have denied Monotheism and referred to polytheism, its reason is prodigality and violating the Truth; and if your society has been afflicted an evil fate, its cause is also immoderation in sins and polluting to lusts. And, finally, if you threaten the benevolent to death for their benevolence, this is also because of your oppression.

Next to the commentary of the rest verses of this story, we will explain about the historical event of these messengers and the place where these events happened.

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}20{ وَجَآءَ مِنْ أَقْصَا الْمَدِینَةِ رَجُلٌ یَسْعَی قَالَ یَا قَوْمِ اتَّبِعُوا الْمُرْسَلِینَ

}21{ اتَّبِعُوا مَن لاَ یَسْأَلُکُمْ أَجْراً وَهُم مُّهْتَدُونَ

20. “And from the farthest part of the city there came a man running; he said: ‘O’ my people! Follow the messengers;”

21. “Follow those who ask no reward of you, and who are themselves guided.”

they intended to kill them, he did not count his silence in that occasion permissible and, as it is understood from the Qur’ānic word /yas‘ā/ (running), he quickly and hastily reached himself to the centre of the city and defended the truth as much as he could.

The application of the Arabic word /rajul/ (man), in an infinitive form, points to this matter that he was an ordinary person. He had not so much power and dignity, and he was alone in his own path. In the meanwhile, the light and the heat of Faith had made him so light and warn that heedless to the sequels of this severe defence from the strugglers of the path of Unity, entered the battle-field, so that the believers of the time of the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.), who were not more than a few at the beginning of Islam, would take an example and know that even a single believer has responsibility, too, and silence is not permissible for him.

The application of the Qur’ānic phrase /’aqsal madīnah/ (the farthest part of the city) shows that the invitation of these messengers had reached the far points of the city, too, and had attracted the receptive heart. Besides this, the far points of the cities are always the place of the oppressed who are more receptive to accept the truth. On the contrary, in the centre of cities there usually live some welfare people who are not easily absorbed to the truth.

The application of the Arabic phrase /yā qaum/ (O’ my people!) indicates to the sympathy of this simple man unto the citizens and people of that area, and invitation to obeying and following the divine prophets is a sincere invitation which has no benefit in it for him.

Now, we refer to the fact that by which logic and proof did this believing struggler attract the attention of his fellow citizens? At first he began saying:

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“Follow those who ask no reward of you, …”

This is the first sign of their veracity, that they have no material benefit in their invitation. They do not demand people any wealth, nor any position and rank, nor even any thank and gratitude, nor any other reward or recompense.

This meaning is the same thing which has repeatedly been emphasized on in the Qur’ān concerning the great prophets as the sign of sincerity, no request, and purity of the hearts of prophets. Only in Sura As-Shu‘arā’, No. 26, the sentence “I do not ask you …” has been repeated for five times. (Verses: 109, 127, 145, 164, and 180).

Then the verse concerning these prophets implicitly adds that, as it is understood from the content of their words and invitation, they are some guided persons. It says:

“… and who are themselves guided.”

This points to this fact that the lack of submission to the invitation of a person is either for the sake that his invitation is in the way of the truth and drives persons to aberration; or it is in the way of the truth but those who bring it earn some benefits under its shade which causes pessimism unto that invitation. But when there is neither that nor this, is there any room for hesitation?

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}22{ وَمَا لِیَ لآ أَعْبُدُ الَّذِی فَطَرَنِی وَإِلَیْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

}23{ ءَأَتَّخِذُ مِن دُونِهِ ءَالِهَةً إِن یُرِدْنِ الرَّحْمَنُ بِضُرٍّ لاَ تُغْنِ عَنّ-ِی شَفَاعَتُهُمْ شَیْئاً وَلاَ یُنقِذُونِ

}24{ إِنّ-ِی إِذًا لَفِی ضَلاَلٍ مُبِینٍ

22. “And why should not I worship Him Who brought me into being, and unto Whom you all shall be returned.”

23. “Shall I take (other) gods besides Him, if the Beneficent (Allah) desires affliction for me, their intercession shall not avail me aught, neither can they deliver me?”

24. “Verily in that case I shall be in manifest error.”

In fact, he has taken the main pretext of the idol worshippers who said they worshipped idols for the sake that they intercede (the idols) in the court of Allah. The Holy Qur’ān implies that what kind of intercession may it be? They themselves are in need of your help. What can they do for you when you are in afflictions?

The application of the Qur’ānic term ‘Ar-Rahmān’ (The Beneficent Allah) here, besides pointing to the vastness of the Mercy of Allah and that all merits and bounties returned toward Him, which itself is a proof upon the ‘Unity of worship’, indicates to this point that the Beneficent Allah does not desire any harm for anyone, unless the man’s wrong action reaches to its utmost degree. This causes man to be far from the vast scope of Allah’s Mercy and inflicts him in the realm of His Wrath.

Then, in order to emphasize on it and to explain it more, this believing champion said:

“Verily in that case I shall be in manifest error.”

What error can be more manifest than this that a wise man knees before these fatuous idols and puts them in comparison with the Creator of the earth and heaven.

****

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}25{ إِنّ-ِی ءَامَنتُ بِرَبّ-ِکُمْ فَاسْمَعُونِ

}26{ قِیلَ ادْخُلِ الْجَنَّةَ قَالَ یَا لَیْتَ قَوْمِی یَعْلَمُونَ

}27{ بِمَا غَفَرَ لِی رَبّ-ِی وَجَعَلَنِی مِنَ الْمُکْرَمِینَ

25. “Verily I have believed in your lord,

therefore hear me!”

26. “(Finally he became martyr.) It was said (unto him): ‘Enter Paradise.’ He said: ‘O’ would that my people had known,”

27. “That my Lord has forgiven me and made me of the honoured ones.”

your Lord, …”? The apparent of the previous verses shows that the addressees are the same polytheists and idolaters who were in that land. This meaning has been used in many verses of the Qur’ān concerning pagans and at the time of stating the Monotheistic arguments. (You may refer to Sura Yūnus, verses 3, and 32; Sura Hūd, verses 3 and 52, Sura An-Nahl, verse 24; Al-Kahf, verse 29)

And also the Qur’ānic sentence /fasma‘ūn/ (therefore hear me!) does not contrast to what was said, because he has mentioned this sentence to invite them to follow his own statement. It is similar to what has been mentioned in the story of the believer of ’Āl-i-Fir‘aun, where, addressing the Pharaohs, he says: “O’ my people! Follow me, I guide you to the path of guidance.”(1)

This makes it clear the fact that some of the commentators have said the addressees in this sentence are the same messengers who had come from the side of Allah for the invitation of this group, and they have taken the word ‘rabbikum’ and the sentence ‘therefore hear me’ as a ‘frame of reference’ for it, for which there is no kind of evidence available.

But, what did this obstinate group do in respect to this pure believer? The Qur’ān says nothing about it, but it is understood from the tone of the later verses that they rebelled against him and killed him.

Yes, the enthusiastic and exiting words of this man which were accompanied with some strong arguments and some interesting points not only did not affect positively on those black hearts and on those mind full of deceit and pride, but

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also it lit such a fire of enmity and grudge in their hearts that they sprang and, with utmost callousness and cruelty, attacked this brave man to kill him. According to a narration, they stoned him and his body was so harshly thrown by stones that he fell down and died, while he constantly was saying: “O’ would that my people had known.” (The commentary book by Qurtabī)

According to another narration they trampled him under their feet so violently that his soul flew to the heaven. (The commentary books: Majma‘-ul-Bayān, Tibyān, Abulfutūh-i-Rāzī and so on.)

But the Qur’ān has stated this fact in an interesting and secret sentence:

“(Finally he became martyr.) It was said (unto him): ‘Enter Paradise.’ …”

This is the meaning which has been used in other verses of the Qur’ān about the martyrs in the path of Allah: “And do not think of those who were killed and in the way of Allah to be dead. Nay, they are alive, being provided sustenance with their Lord.”(1)

It is interesting that this meaning shows that as soon as the martyrdom of this faithful man happened he entered Paradise. The length of the time between these two events was so short that the Qur’ān, in its smooth meaning, instead of mentioning his martyrdom, had mentioned his arrival into Paradise; and how nigh is the way of Paradise and the eternal happiness to martyrs!

It is clear that the purpose of Paradise here is the Purgatory Paradise, because it is understood from both the verses of the

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Qur’ān and Islamic narrations that such a Paradise will be of the believers, and in the same manner there will be the Purgatory Hell for the wrong doers, too.

Thus, there will be another kind of Paradise and Hell in the purgatory world which are the samples of Paradise and Hell in Resurrection. There is a tradition about grave narrated from Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) who said: “The grave is either a garden from the gardens of Paradise, or it is a cavity out of the cavities of Hell.”(1)

However, the pure soul of this man went up to the heavens and hastened toward the nearness of the Divine Mercy, in the bliss of Paradise, where whose only wish was that which the verse continues saying:

“… He said: ‘O’ would that my people had known,”

“That my Lord has forgiven me and made me of the honoured ones.”

He wished that they had had an eye which was not covered with the thick heavy worldly material curtains and they could see whatever is behind this curtain; that is they might see these plenty of bounties, generosity and honour from the side of Allah and that they might know that, instead of their scorns, what the great favour Allah had done to him. He wishes they could see and believe. But alas!

A tradition indicates that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) said: “Verily this faithful man not only in his life wanted good for his people, but also after his death wished their guidance.”(2)

It is noteworthy that at first he emphasized on the forgiveness of Allah and then upon His generosity, because, at

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first, the man’s soul should be purified from the pollution of sins with the spiritual water of forgiveness, and when it became purified, he might approach the rank of nearness and generosity of Allah.

However, this was the end of this man, the true faithful champion, who did not have any shortcoming in fulfilling his duty and supporting the Divine prophets and, at last, he became martyr and succeeded to be admitted to the nearness of Allah’s Mercy.

Now, what was the end of that disobedient cruet nation?

The Qur’ān does not say anything about the end of those three prophets who were sent to that nation, but a group of commentators have written that, besides killing that faithful man, that nation killed their own prophets, too.

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}28{ وَمَآ أَنزَلْنَا عَلَی قَوْمِهِ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ مِن جُندٍ مِنَ السَّمَآءِ وَمَا کُنَّا مُنزِلِینَ

}29{ إِن کَانَتْ إِلاَّ صَیْحَةً وَاحِدَةً فَإِذَا هُمْ خَامِدُونَ

28. “And We did not send down upon his people, after him, any host from heaven, nor do We ever send down.”

29. “It was no more than a single (heavenly) Blast that suddenly they were still.”

In the second verse, the Qur’ān adds:

“It was no more than a single (heavenly) Blast, that suddenly they were still.”

Was this Blast the sound of a thunderbolt which appeared from a piece of cloud and came down to the earth, shook everything and ruined all buildings, and by means of the intense terror, they submitted to death? Or was it a blast which, as the result of a horrible earthquake, came out from the inside of the earth into the atmosphere and the waves of its burst brought all to the mouth of death?

Whatever it was, it was no more than a Blast happened in a fleeting moment. It was a ‘cry’ which made all cries silent, and it was a shock which caused all to be motionless. And such is the power of Allah, and this was the fate of a misguided and useless nation.

****

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}30{ یَا حَسْرَةً عَلَی الْعِبَادِ مَا یَأْتِیهِم مِن رَّسُولٍ إِلاَّ کَانُوا بِهِ یَسْتَهْزِؤُونَ

30. “Alas for the servants! Never came there unto them a messenger but they used to mock him!”

about Allah; as ‘Wrath’, ‘anger’ and the like, in their real concepts do not exist in respect to Allah either. But the purpose is that the status of those wretched people was so that whoever became aware of their circumstance he would be sad and stressed that why did they drown in that horrible whirlpool while they had so many means of prosperity.

The application of the Qur’ānic word /‘ibād/, (the servants of Allah), points to this fact that it is surprising that the servants of Allah, who are encompassed with the bounties of Allah, have committed such crimes.

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}31{ أَلَمْ یَرَوْا کَمْ أَهْلَکْنَا قَبْلَهُم مِنَ الْقُرُونِ أَنَّهُمْ إِلَیْهِمْ لاَ یَرْجِعُونَ

}32{ وَاِن کُلٌّ لَمَّا جَمِیعٌ لَدَیْنَا مُحْضَرُونَ

31. “Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them? Not to them will they return.”

32. “And all of them shall surely be brought before Us.”

But, regarding to the previous verse saying: “Alas for the servants! …” it shows that its purpose is all human beings, because the Qur’ānic word /‘ibād/ (servants) in that verse envelops all human being throughout the history, those who, at the time of appointment of the Divine prophets, belied them and mocked them. However, it is an invitation to all the people of the world that they may carefully study the story of former nations, and observe their remaining effects, and use the sense of taking an example from them to understand them well, and the ruin castles of those arrogant people may have an effect on them.

At the end, the verse adds:

“… Not to them will they return.”

That is, the great calamity is here that they have no possibility to return to the world and recompense their former sins and misfortunes. The bridges behind them have been ruined so violently that it is impossible for them to return in order to recompense these faults.

This commentary is just like the word of Hadrat Ali (a.s.) who has said in one of the sermons of Nahj-ul-Balāqah about taking example from the dead. He said: “There is neither a possibility that they transfer from their ugly deeds nor are they able to increase their goodness.”(1)

****

In the next verse the Qur’ān says:

“And all of them shall surely be brought before Us.”

That is, it is not such that if they were destroyed and could not return to this world, everything is finished. In fact, death is neither the beginning nor the end. Soon all human beings will be mustered in the scene of Hereafter for reckoning and, after

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that, there will be the painful chastisement of Allah which is waiting for the wrong doers.

In this case, is it not the time they take example from their condition and do not afflict themselves in the same fate as theirs and, in this remaining respite, they go aside from this terrible whirlpool.

Yes, if death were the end of everything, it would be possible to say that it was the beginning of tranquillity, but also it is not so. If we were left to ourselves when we died, death would be the cause of rest for all the living people. But when we pass away, we will be quickened again and after that we wholly will be asked about everything.

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surprise. With all great progresses which man has gained in science, none has opened its puzzle yet. It has not exactly been known to anyone that under what factors at the beginning the inanimate beings changed into living cells.

Still no one knows how the seeds of plants and their different levels have minutely been built; and what mysterious laws administer them that they move when the suitable conditions are provided, and they begin to grow and absorb the atoms of the dead land into their own being; and, in this way, they change the dead beings into some tissues of the living creature so that every day it shows some new manifestations of life.

From one side, the subject of life in the world of plants, animals, and revival of the dead lands are some clear proofs upon the fact that there have been applied a great knowledge in the creation of this world; and, on the other hand, they are as a manifest sign upon Resurrection.

It is clear that the Arabic pronoun /lahum/ (for them) refers to /‘ibād/ (servants) which has been mentioned in previous verses; and the purpose of /‘ibād/ here is all the servants who made mistake and deviated in the subjects of Origin and Resurrection, and the Qur’ān counts their circumstance as the cause of regret and sigh.

The application of the Arabic word /’āyah/ in an indefinite form points to the greatness, importance and clarity of this monotheistic sign.

The Qur’ānic sentence /fa minhu ya’kulūn/ (so they eat of it), from one side, points to this fact that man feed from a part of vegetal grains, and some others of them are not edible for

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man, but they have some other benefits, such as: food for animals, producing the colouring matters, medicine, and other things which are utilized in man’s life.

And, on the other side, by preceding the word /minhu/ to /ya’kulūn/, which is usually used for restriction, expresses this point that the most (and also the best) source of man’s food is vegetal stuffs, so much so that as if they form all foods of man.

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}34{ وَجَعَلْنَا فِیهَا جَنَّاتٍ مِن نَّخِیلٍ وَأَعْنَابٍ وَفَجَّرْنَا فِیهَا مِنَ الْعُیُونِ

}35{ لِیَأْکُلُوا مِن ثَمَرِهِ وَمَا عَمِلَتْهُ أَیْدِیهِمْ أَفَلاَ یَشْکُرُونَ

34. “And We made therein gardens of date-palms and grape vines, and We caused springs to flow forth in it,”

35. “That they may eat of its fruit, and of what their hands have produced; will they not then be grateful?”

the word /naxl/ is a name for the tree, the fruit of which is fresh date and is called /tamr/ (fresh but dry date).

Some believe that this difference of meaning that in one place the Qur’ān says: ‘Tree’ and in another place it says: ‘fruit’ is for the sake that date-palm, as it is popular, all its parts are useful: its trunk, its branches and leaves are totally used differently, and its fruit is superior to all of these things, while vine is usually planted for its fruit and its trunk and branches have not much usage. And that both of them are mentioned in plural form, this may refer to the different kinds of these two fruits, because each of them is of more than 10 kinds, with different specialties and suitable for everybody and for various tastes.

This point is also noteworthy that in the previous verse the meaning was referred to giving life to the dead lands, which is usually accompanied in the Qur’ān with the statement of the descent of rain, but in this verse the words are about the flowing springs, because for a great deal of agriculture only rainwater is not enough and fruit trees are usually in need of flowing water, too.

The Arabic term /fajjarnā/is derived from /tafjīr/which here means: ‘to create a vast gap’, and since springs are gushed forth by splitting the land, this meaning has been used for coming out spring-water from the land.

The next holy verse states the aim of the creation of these fruitful trees as such:

“That they may eat of its fruit, and of what their hands have produced; will they not then be grateful?”

Yes, the fruits which appeared on the branches of trees, without being in need of any changes, are eatable when they are picked up from the trees; and this shows the utmost grace and greatness of Allah unto humankind.

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He has packed this delicious prepared food as well that it can be maintained for a long time without that it loses its nutritiousness. This is different from the foods man makes from natural god-given stuffs that they often become putrid quickly.

There is another commentary upon this verse which is noteworthy, too. It says: the Qur’ān intends to point both to the fruits that are used without any change, and to the kinds of different foods which are obtained with an action on these fruits. (In the first commentary the Arabic word /mā/ in the Qur’ānic sentence is a negative sign, while in the second one is a ‘relative pronoun’.

However, the aim is that this sense of gratitude and thanksgiving of men may be moved so that, by the way of thanksgiving they can step in the stage of knowing Allah, in which thanking the Benefactor is the first step of knowing Allah (s.w.t.).

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}36{ سُبْحَانَ الَّذِی خَلَقَ الأَزْوَاجَ کُلَّهَا مِمَّا تُنْبِتُ الأَرْضُ وَمِنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَمِمَّا لاَ یَعْلَمُونَ

36. “Glory be to Him Who created pairs (of) all things, of what the earth grows, and of their selves and of what they do not know.”

certain is that the term /’azwāj/ is the plural form of /zauj/ which is called to the two genders of masculine and feminine, whether they are in the world of animals, or other than them. Then, this word has been expanded and every two beings which are companions to each other, or even they are opposite to each other, are called /zauj/. This word is used even for two similar rooms in a house, or two halves of a door, or two fellow-members. And, thus, it considers a pair for any being in the world.

However, it is not impossible that matrimony here is used with the same specific sense of masculine gender and feminine gender, and, in this verse, the Qur’ān informs of the existence of matrimony in the world of all plants, human beings, and other beings that people are not aware of.

These beings may be plans that the vastness of the scope of matrimony had not been discovered yet at that time.

Or it may point to the animals in the depth of the seas of which on that day nobody was aware and today a part of it has been discovered for human beings.

Or it points to other living creatures that live in other heavenly spheres.

Or they are very small living creatures, although the modern scientists do not know any masculine and feminine among them; but the world of these living creatures is so mysterious and secret that the knowledge of man has not found a way to this part of it. Even, as we said, the existence of matrimony in the world of plants was unknown at the time of the revelation of the Qur’ān, except some special instances, like the trees of dates and the like, and the Qur’ān uncovered it. In the present centuries, by the way of science, this meaning has been proved that the subject of matrimony in the world of plants is a general and common subject.

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This probability has also been delivered that ‘matrimony’ here refers to the existence of positive and negative particles inside the centre of atom and the electrons which rotate around it and which has been proved.

Some have also believe that it refers to the combination of the things from ‘matter’ and ‘form’, or ‘substance’ and ‘accident’ while some others consider that it is an implicit declaration of different kinds of plants, human beings, animals, and other beings in the world.

But it is clear that when we can adapt these words to the real meaning (masculine and feminine genders) and there is not any frame of reference contrary to it, why do we refer to the allusive meanings; and, as was said, there are several interesting commentaries for the real meaning of matrimony here.

However, this verse is one of the verses that state that man’s knowledge is limited and which shows that there are a great deal of facts in this world which are not known to our knowledge.(1)

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}37{ وَءَایَةٌ لَّهُمُ الَّیْلُ نَسْلَخُ مِنْهُ النَّهَارَ فَإِذَا هُم مُّظْلِمُونَ

}38{ وَالشَّمْسُ تَجْرِی لِمُسْتَقَرٍّ لَّهَا ذَلِکَ تَقْدِیرُ الْعَزِیزِ الْعَلِیمِ

37. “And a sign for them is the night; We strip it of the day and behold they are plunged in darkness.”

38. “And the sun runs unto a resting-place fixed for it; that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing.”

sunset this clothing is taken off of its body, like the skin, in order that its innate becomes manifest.

To be careful in this meaning reiterates this point that the main nature of the earth is darkness, and light is something casual which is given to it from another source. It is like a shirt put on the body of a person that when he takes it off, the natural colour of the body is made manifest.

Here, the Qur’ān has emphasized on the darkness of night. It seems it intends to state the change of the light of the day into darkness of the night, as an example of the death after life, and this is next to the statement of giving life to the dead lands, which was mentioned as a sign out of the Divine signs in the previous verses.

However, when man is in the midst of the darkness of night, he remembers the light and its blessings, the light and its excitements, the light and its source, and, by a comparison he will be acquainted with ‘the Creator of light and darkness’.

****

In the next verse, which has been pointed out next to the night as a sign, there is the light of sun as a sign. It says:

“And the sun runs unto a resting-place fixed for it; …”

This verse clearly states the constant motion of the sun, but, concerning the purpose of this motion, commentators have delivered different discussions. A group of them say that this motion refers to the apparent motion of the sun round the earth which will continue until the end of the world and, in fact, is the destination of the sun and it is the end of its lifetime.

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Some others have rendered it to the declamation of the sun in summer and winter towards the North and South of the earth, because we know that from the beginning of spring the sun declines from the moderate line (equator) toward the North and goes forth as far as 23 northern degree and from the beginning of summer it returns back until the beginning of autumn when it reaches the moderate line (equator). It also continues its movement toward the South until the beginning of winter, and from the beginning of winter it moves toward the line of equinox and it reaches it at the beginning of spring.

Of course, all these motions, in fact, are because of the movement of the earth and the inclination of its excess due to the level of its orb, though apparently and as the result of the sense it seems relates to the movement of the sun.

Some others consider it as an indication to the rotation of the ‘sun globe’, because the studies of the scientists have decisively proved that the sun turns round itself.

The last and the most modern commentary for the abovementioned verse is the same thing that scientists have recently discovered. It says that the sun moves with the solar system in the midst of our galaxy toward an appointed direction and toward a far distanced star which has been called ‘Weca’.

These meanings do not contrast to each other and the Arabic phrase /tajrī/ may refer to all these movements and the movements which have not been known to our knowledge and that they may be discovered in future.

However, to move the sun, this very great globe which is one million and two thousand times bigger than the earth and

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with an accurate movement in the endless atmosphere, is possible by no one save by Allah Whose Power is above all powers and Whose Knowledge is infinite. That is why, at the end of the verse, the Qur’ān says:

“… that is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing.”

The last word about this verse is that there is a meaningful hint in its content upon the system of the solar year which comes into being by means of the movement of the sun in zodiacs a system that gives order and program to the living of man, and arranges its different aspects.

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}39{ وَالْقَمَرَ قَدَّرْنَاهُ مَنَازِلَ حَتَّی عَادَ کَالْعُرْجُونِ الْقَدِیمِ

}40{ لاَ الشَّمْسُ یَنْبَغِی لَهَآ أَن تُدْرِکَ الْقَمَرَ وَلاَ الَّیْلُ سَابِقُ النَّهَارِ وَکُلٌّ فِی فَلَکٍ یَسْبَحُونَ

39. “And (as for) the moon, We have fixed for it the stages till its returns to be bent like an old palm branch.”

40. “Neither is it expedient for the sun that it should overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day; and each swims along in (its own) orbit.”

narrow with a yellow colour and a little light. It is not visible during the ‘two remaining nights’ which is called in Arabic /muhāq/. In the lunar months, of course, which contains twenty nine days, the moon is usually seen in the sky until twenty seventh night, and ‘the two remaining nights’ is /muhāq/ (the absence of the moon).

These stages are completely exact and accurate, in a manner that the astronomers, according to their minute calculations, can foretell them from one hundred years sooner.

This marvellous system gives order to the men’s living. It is a natural celestial calendar which everybody is able to study. It is so that if a person is careful in the situation of the moon in different nights, he can, by looking at its situation, know, exactly or approximately, which night of the lunar month that night is. This fact has been experienced, because, at the beginning the tips of the crescent are upward and gradually the bulk of the moon increases until the seventh night when a complete half of the moon is fully made manifest. Then its increasing state will continue on to the fourteenth night when it becomes a full moon.

From this night on, the moon decreases from down side until the twenty first night when the moon appears in a semicircle form. It continues being decreased until the twenty eighth night when the moon is seen with a weak colourless crescent the tips of which are downward.

Yes, the main basis of the men’s living is formed by order, and without defining the exact time having order is impossible; and Allah has set this exact monthly and yearly calendar in the sky for this very aim.

It is from this hint that the tender concept of the Qur’ānic phrase /kal ‘urjūn-il-qadīm/ (to the best like an old palm branch) is made clear. As most commentators and philologists

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have said, the Arabic word /‘urjūn/ means that part of the bunch of dates which is attached to the tree. The explanation is that: dates appear on the tree in the form of bunch of dates. The end of this bunch is in the form of yellow wooden arc which is attached to the tree, and its tip is like a sweep, and the dates, like grapes, are joined to its strings. When the bunch of dates is cut, that wooden arc branch remains on the tree. When it dries, it is completely similar to the crescent before /muhāq/, because, as the crescent of the last nights of the lunar month, which is in the east of the sky, appears nearly in the morning. It is like arc, yellow and withered, the tips of which is downward, and /‘urjūn-il-qadīm/ is also like this.

This similarity, in fact, appears in different dimensions. They are from the point of arc form of the date branch, from the point of yellow colour, from the point of withered state, from the point of its tips being downward, and from the point of it being inside the mass of green branches of the palm tree which is not unlike to the crescent of the last night inside the dark sky.

The moon is qualified as ‘old’ which points to its oldness, because the more old these branches are, the more narrow, withered, and yellowish they become, and they are more alike to the crescent of the last lunar month. Glory be to Allah! That how many tenders and beauties there are in a short phrase of the Holy Qur’ān!

The last verse of the group of verses under discussion speaks about the perseverance and permanence of this order of year, month, day and night. The Lord has arranged such a program for them that there appears the least change in their situation, and it is for this very perseverance that the history of man can be arranged fully. It says:

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“Neither is it expedient for the sun that it should overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day; and each swims along in (its own) orbit.”

We know that the sun spends its term in twelve months during one year while the moon passes its stages during one month.

Therefore, the circular movement of the moon in its orb is twelve times quicker than the movement of the sun in its orb. That is why it implies that the sun in its own movement never reaches the moon so that it performs its one-year movement during one month and that the one year system varies.

Also, the night never outstrip the day so that it brings a part of it into itself and that the present system alters, but all of them continue their path without the least change for millions of years.

And, thus, the state of sun and moon swimming in their orbits also comes forth from this.

There is also this probability that the purpose of the ‘sun swims in its orbit’ is its movement accompanied with the solar system and accompanied with the galaxy inside which we are, because it has been proved that our solar system is a part of the great galaxy which is rotating round itself.

As many known commentators believe, the Qur’ānic sentence “each swims along in (its own) orbit” refers to each of the sun, the moon and stars that have a separate orbit for themselves, though the word ‘stars’ has not formerly been mentioned in the verses, with regard to the mention of /layl/ (night) and companionship of stars with the sun and the moon, the recognition of this meaning does not seem impossible, in particular that the term /yasbahūn/ has been mentioned in plural form.

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There is also this interpretation that this sentence refers to each of sun, moon, night and day, because each of night and day has an orb for itself and exactly they turn round the earth. Always half of the earth is dark while another half has light and these two turn round the earth one complete round during twenty four hours.

The Qur’ānic term /yasbaḥūn/ is derived from /sabāhat/ that, according to Mufradāt by Rāqib, originally means move ‘speedily’ in water and space, which points to the quick movement of the heavenly spheres. It has likened them to some intellectual beings that continue swiftly their rotation. This fact has also been proved today that the celestial spheres are moving in their path with very surprising speeds, and sometimes with extra ordinary speed.

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}41{ وَءَایَةٌ لَّهُمْ أَنَّا حَمَلْنَا ذُرّ ِیَّتَهُمْ فِی الْفُلْکِ الْمَشْحُونِ

}42{ وَخَلَقْنَا لَهُم مِن مّ-ِثْلِهِ مَا یَرْکَبُونَ

41. “And a sign for them is that We bore their offspring in the loaded ship.”

42. “And We have created for them the like of it whereon they ride.”

ships without that it speaks about them, perhaps it is for this sake that offspring need more to this still amount, since adults are more prepared for walking and paving the beaches on foot than little children.

Moreover, this meaning is more fitting for moving their sympathy.

The application of the Qur’ānic term /mašhūn/ (full) points to this fact that not only they themselves embark in the ship but also their goods and their necessary means are carried with them.

However, the movement of ships is the greatest and the most important means of transformation for human beings, and their benefit is thousands times more than other vehicles. This is the result of the particular specialties of water and the specific gravity of the materials that an ordinary ship has usually been made therewith.

All of these are the might and forces that Allah has made subservient to man and each of them, and also their entire existence, is a sign among the Divine signs.

****

In order that it should not misunderstand that the only god-given mount is ship, in the next verse it adds:

“And We have created for them the like of it whereon they ride.”

These are the vehicles which run on land, or in the sky and atmosphere and carry both men and their heavy means. Some commentators have simply rendered this holy verse into camel which has been called the ‘ship of desert’. Some others have rendered it into all beasts, and some others into airplanes and aircrafts which have been invented in our time; and applying the Qur’ānic phrase /xalaqnā/ (We created) about them is for

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this view that their materials and means have been created formerly.

But the verse has a vast scope of meaning which envelops all these concepts and other than them, too.

Of course, in some verses of the Qur’ān the word beasts has numerously been mentioned beside /fulk/ (ships), like the verse which says: “… and made for you of the ships and the cattle what you ride on.”(1) And also in Sura Al-Mu’min, No. 40, verse 80 we recite: “… and upon them and upon the ships you are carried.” But these verses do not contrast to the generality of the concept of the verse.

****

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}43{ وَاِن نَّشَأْ نُغْرِقْهُمْ فَلاَ صَرِیخَ لَهُمْ وَلاَ هُمْ یُنقَذُونَ

}44{ إِلاَّ رَحْمَةً مِنَّا وَمَتَاعاً إِلَی حِینٍ

43. “And if We please, We drown them, then there shall be none to help them, nor shall they be rescued.”

44. “Save (by) mercy from Us, and enjoyment for a while.”

At last, in order to complete this meaning, in the next holy verse it says:

“Save (by) mercy from Us, and enjoyment for a while.”

Yes, by no means they can deliver, except that Our mercy comes to them and Our grace hastens to help them.

The Arabic word /hīn/ means ‘time’ and in the above verse it refers to the end of the man’s life and his death. Some commentators have rendered it into the end of the world.

Yes, those who have embarked a ship (the old small ships or the huge great modern ships which run on the oceans) understand well the depth of the meaning of this verse, that the most gigantic ships of the world are like a blade of straw in the face of great waves of the sea and terrible storms of oceans, and if the mercy of Allah were not upon persons, their deliverance would be impossible.

In this narrow way, which is between death and life, He intends to show His Power to humankind, perhaps the misled ones of the way may find a path toward Him therefrom.

****

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}45{ وَإِذَا قِیلَ لَهُمُ اتَّقُوا مَا بَیْنَ أَیْدِیکُمْ وَمَا خَلْفَکُمْ لَعَلَّکُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ

}46{ وَمَا تَأْتِیهِم مِنْ ءَایَةٍ مِنْ ءَایَاتِ رَبّ-ِهِمْ إِلاَّ کَانُوا عَنْهَا مُعْرِضِینَ

45. “And when it is said to them: ‘Be in awe of that which is before you and that which is behind you; haply you will be treated with mercy, (they turn back).”

46. “And there comes not to them any sign from the signs of their Lord but they turn aside from it.”

which they have in behind, and the application of ‘behind’ is for the sake that they have not come yet, as if they are running behind the one’s back and finally they reach him one day and will encompass him. The purpose of ‘being in awe of them’ is that he may not create their factors and, in other words, he would not do something that he should meet these terrible chastisements.

The evidence for this statement is that the application of the Qur’ānic term /’ittaqū/ in the verses of the Qur’ān is either in concern with Allah, or in concern with Hereafter Day and Divine punishments that, in fact, both return to one meaning, because to be in awe of Allah (s.w.t.) is to be in awe of His punishment.

This itself is a proof upon the fact that to be in awe of Divine punishment mentioned in the verse under discussion is also the chastisement in this world and the next.

****

The second verse emphasizes again on the same meaning, and distinguishes the obstinacy of the blind hearted people in neglecting the verses of Allah and the prophet’s teachings, where it says:

“And there comes not to them any sign from the signs of their Lord but they turn aside from it.”

Neither is the statement of introversive verses effective in them, nor is the explanation of the extroversive verses; neither threat nor glad-tiding to the mercy of Allah. They accept neither the logic of intellect nor the command of sympathy and nature. They are like some blind persons who do not see the nearest things around them and do not differ between the light of the sun and the darkness of the night.

****

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}47{ وَإِذَا قِیلَ لَهُمْ أَنفِقُوا مِمَّا رَزَقَکُمُ اللَّهُ قَالَ الَّذِینَ کَفَرُوا لِلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا أَنُطْعِمُ مَن لَوْ یَشَآءُ اللَّهُ أَطْعَمَهُ إِنْ أَنتُمْ إِلاَّ فِی ضَلاَلٍ مُبِینٍ

47. “And when it is said to them: ‘Spend out of what Allah has provided you with the sustenance, those who disbelieve say to those who believe: ‘Shall we feed him whom, if Allah willed, He could feed (Himself)? You are not but in a manifest error’.”

in different times. He tries him whether he performs the rites of deposit, high-mindedness of nature, and gratitude, or he neglects all of them; and at the time he is wealthy whether he spends out what he has in his possession in the way of Allah, or not.

Some commentators have adopted the above verse upon some particular groups, such as: the Jews, or Arab pagans, or a group of atheists and rejecters of the religions of the Divine prophets, but the apparent is that the verse has a general concept and in any time there can be found some examples for it, though the reference of its concept at the time of the revelation of the verse had been a number of the Jews or polytheists. This has been a common pretext in the length of centuries that they say: if the giver of sustenance is Allah then why do you want us to give sustenance to the poor persons? And if Allah has wished they remain deprived then why do we help the one whom Allah has made deprived?

They are unaware that sometimes the order of creation chooses something and the order of religion another thing.

The order of creation has required such that Allah, the wise, puts the earth with all its merits at the man’s disposal and lets them free in their actions in order that they pave the path of development, and in the meantime He has set some instincts in him each of which leads him toward a direction.

And the order of religion has required such that, in order to control the instincts, purification of the carnal souls, and training men by the way of donation, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, and spending out, it appoints some laws and causes man to reach, by this way, the rank of Allah’s viceroy for which he has potentiality.

By the way of Zakāt (alms) they may purify their selves, and by means of charity they may wipe out miserliness, and

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thereby they dismiss the class division, which is the source of thousands of evils in man’s life. This is just like that some persons say that what is the necessity in this that we study or teach others? If Allah desired, He would give knowledge to us all so that none was in need of learning knowledge. Does any wise person accept this logic?

The Qur’ānic sentence “Those who disbelieve say”, which has emphasized on their disbelief, points to this fact that these superstitious logics and pretexts originate from infidelity.

Upon the commentary of the sentence “you are not but in a manifest error” it is said that its purpose is the speech of the pagans due to the believers. In fact, they wanted to be paid in their own coin opposite the believers and to attribute them to ‘a manifest error’,

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}48{ وَیَقُولُونَ مَتَی هَذَا الْوَعْدُ إِن کُنتُمْ صَادِقِینَ

}49{ مَا یَنظُرُونَ إِلاَّ صَیْحَةً وَاحِدَةً تَأْخُذُهُمْ وَهُمْ یَخِصّ-ِمُونَ

}50{ فَلاَ یَسْتَطِیعُونَ تَوْصِیَةً وَلآ إِلَی أَهْلِهِمْ یَرْجِعُونَ

48. “And they say: ‘When will this promise come to pass if you are truthful?’”

49. “They are not awaiting for aught but a single (fatal) blast which will overtake them while they are disputing among themselves.”

50. “Then they shall not be able to make a bequest, nor shall they be able to return unto their families.”

They implicitly say: the fact that you can not define a proper time for the establishment of Hereafter is an evidence upon this matter that you are not truthful in your statement.

****

In answer to this question, which is accompanied with derision, the Holy Qur’ān firmly and earnestly implies that the establishment of the Hereafter and the end of this world is not a complicated matter for Allah and it is not a difficult thing for Him, when it says:

“They are not awaiting for aught but a single (fatal) blast which will overtake them while they are disputing among themselves.”

This very single great heavenly Blast is enough to take the soul of every one of them immediately in any place and any state they are, and to change their material exiting lives, which contain disputations and constant quarrels, into a silent world, vacant from any sound and noise.

In Islamic narrations, it has been narrated from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) that this heavenly Blast occurs so suddenly that before that the two people who are bargaining and have spread a cloth can role it, the world will end, and there will be some people that, at that moment, have taken some food from the plate, but before it reaches their mouth the heavenly Blast comes and the world finishes. There will be some people who are busy mending a pool in order that they water their cattle, but before that the cattle become satiated the Hereafter comes forth.(1)

The Qur’ānic sentence: /mā yanzurūn/ here means ‘they are not awaiting’, because, as Rāqib says in Mufradāt, the

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Arabic stem /nazar/ means the circulation of thought for observing or conceiving something. Sometimes it is used in the sense of deliberation and research, and also in the sense of knowledge resulted from research.

The Arabic term /sayhah/ (blast) originally means cleaving a piece of food or cloth and arising a sound from it. Then it has been used for any loud sound and cry-like. Sometimes, it has also been applied for the length of the body.

The Arabic phrase /yaxissimūn/ is derived from /xusūmat/ in the sense of ‘quarrel’ and ‘dispute’; but on what thing do they dispute? This meaning has not been mentioned in the verse, but it is clear that the purpose is to dispute upon the worldly matter and the affairs of the material life. But some commentators have taken it in the sense of disputation upon ‘Resurrection’, while the first meaning seems more fitting, though it is not improbable that taking a consistent meaning which includes both of them and that envelops any kind of disputation is also possible.

It is noteworthy that the numerous pronouns existing in the verse all refer to the pagans of Mecca who were doubtful in the subject of Resurrection, and they ridiculously asked that when Hereafter will occur.

But it is certain that the purpose is not they themselves, but the purpose is the kind of them. (It is the kind of those who are neglectful and unaware of Resurrection), because they died and did never see this heavenly Blast.

However, by this short and decisive statement, the Qur’ān warns them that, firstly, Hereafter will suddenly be established, and secondly, it is not a complicated matter that they would be busy disputing and quarrelling about its possibility; everything will be ended by a single blast and the world will be finished.

****

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Then, in the third verse, it implies that this subject will so quickly and suddenly happen that they will not be able even to make a bequest, or return to their houses or to their families. It says:

“Then they shall not be able to make a bequest, nor shall they be able to return unto their families.”

When an event happens for a person, and he usually feels that the end of his life is near, wherever he is, he tries to go home in order to be among his family: with his wife and children; then, by testament, he gives his half-done affairs and the fate of his remaining persons to others that this or that person would undertake them and recommend them to other persons.

But the Blast of the end of the world gives no respite to anyone; and supposing there will be a respite, does anyone remain alive to listen to the recommendations of people? Or, for example, the wife and children sit by the spouse and father and take his head in bosom so that he dies peacefully? Nay, none of these things is possible.

And that the word ‘a bequest’ has been used in an infinitive form, it points to this fact that they will not have even the chance of a small bequest and recommendation, either.

****

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mentioned in the world they used to say: “What is Rahmān?”, but on that Day they will say: “This is what the Beneficent (Allah) promised”.

In this verse, the Qur’ān points to another stage which is the stage of life after death. It says:

“And the Trumpet shall be blown, then behold, from their graves they shall hasten on to their Lord.”

By the command of Allah, the dust and the rotten bones will have life again and come out from their graves and attend that wonderful court for trial and reckoning. They will have life again and will be quickened by a single Blast, in the same manner that all of them died with a single Blast (blown in the Trumpet). Neither their death nor their being quickened is difficult for Allah. Just like the trumpet which is blown for the soldiers of the army to gather and be ready, and then, in a short time, they all get up and come out from their tents and attend in the row, the act of raising the dead is, like that, quick for Allah, too.

The Qur’ānic word /’ajdāθ/ is the plural form of /jadaθ/ in the sense of ‘grave’. This meaning shows well that resurrection, besides having the spiritual aspect, has the bodily aspect, too, and the man’s new body will be made from the same former materials.

The application of the Arabic term /nufixa/ (shall be blown) in the past tense form is for the sake that in the Arabic language the certain future affairs are stated in past verb form indicating that there is no doubt in it, as if it had happened before.

The Arabic term /yansilūn/ is derived from /nasl/ in the sense of ‘walking quickly’. Rāqib in Mufradāt says: this word originally means: ‘to separate from something’, and that a person’s children in Arabic are called /nasl/ (offspring) it is for

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the sake that they have separated from father and mother. Therefore, when a person quickly gets away and separates, this word is used.

The application of the Arabic term /rabbihim/ (their Lord) seems that it refers to this fact that the Lordship, ownership and training of Allah require that there should be a reckoning and Resurrection for the affairs.

However, it is clearly understood from the verses of the Holy Qur’ān that ending of this world and the beginning of the next world both will happen suddenly and with a revolutionary movement and each of them has been rendered into ‘blowing in the Tempest’, the full explanation of which will be mentioned in the commentary of Sura Az-Zumar, No. 39, verse 68.

****

In the next verse, the Qur’ān adds:

“They shall say: ‘Oh! woe to us! who has raised us up from our sleeping-place? This is what the Beneficent (Allah) promised; and the apostles told the truth.”

Yes, the scene is so expressive and terrible that man forgets all the false and superstitious matters, and he will not have any way except confessing the facts explicitly. It likens the graves to sleeping-places, and the Resurrection to getting up from sleep. This has also been mentioned in a famous tradition which says: “You will pass away like that you sleep, and you will be raised as you get up from sleep.”(1)

Here they terrify and cry that woe to us! Who did awaken us from sleeping, and rose up from our sleeping-place?

But soon they will realize and remember that the true prophets in the world have given them promise of this Day from the side of Allah. They answer themselves that this is the

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promise of the Beneficent, Allah; the Lord Whose general mercy has enveloped all and Whose prophets told the truth and made us aware of this Day, but alas we mocked them all.

Therefore, the Qur’ānic sentence: “… this is what the Beneficent (Allah) promised and the apostles told the truth” is the continuation of the statement of the rejecters of Resurrection, but some commentators have considered it as the statement of the angels or the believers, which contrasts the apparent of the verse, and there is no necessity upon it, because the confusion of the rejecters on the fact on that Day is not a matter that is mentioned only in this verse. Sura Al-’Anbiyā’, No. 21, verse 97 says: “And the true promise has drawn nigh; then behold, staring wide (in terror), the eyes of those who disbelieve! (They say:) ‘Alas for us! We were heedless of this (Day); nay; we were unjust ones’.”

However, the application of the Arabic term /marqad/, which is used in the sense of ‘sleeping-place’ and ‘sleep’, denotes to this fact that in the world of purgatory they are in a state similar to sleep, and as it is said in the commentary of Sura Al-Mu’minūn, No. 23, verse 100, due to the majority of people, who are in a status between infidelity and faith, ‘purgatory’ is not unlike to the state of sleeping, where both the excellent believers and extraordinary vice disbelievers are completely aware and enjoy the blessings or are faced with kinds of chastisement.

Some of the commentators have given this probability that the terror and grief in Hereafter is so much that the purgatory chastisement, compared with it, is like naught but a peaceful sleep.

Then, in order to explain the speed of the occurrence of the blast of the trumpet, in the third verse the Qur’ān says:

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“There would be naught but a single Blast, when they shall all brought before Us.”

Therefore, there will not need a long time for the dead to be quickened and that they rise from their graves and attend in the just court of Allah, in the same manner that there needs not a long time for the death of individuals. The first Blast is a cry for death and the second Blast is a cry for life and attending in the court of Allah, the Just.

The application of the word ‘Blast’ (a cry) and emphasizing it with the word ‘single’ and then the application of the Arabic term /’iŏā/, which in such instances informs of the sudden occurrence of something, and the application of “They shall all be brought before Us” in the form of a nominal sentence all are as evidence to the quick occurrence of this part of Resurrection.

The conclusive tone of these verses and the piercing influence of them in the men’s hearts is so effective that as if they hear this cry with their ears saying: O’ men who are asleep! O’ the scattered dusts! And O’ rotten bones! Stand up! Stand up! And be ready for Reckoning and recompense! How beautiful the verses of the Qur’ān are, and how expressive their warnings are!

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}54{ فَالْیَوْمَ لاَ تُظْلَمُ نَفْسٌ شَیْئاً وَلاَ تُجْزَوْنَ إِلاَّ

مَا کُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

54. “So this day no soul shall be dealt with unjustly in the least, nor shall you be recompensed but that which you used to do.”

and making it as a person’s companion injustice? And by this it is made clear that, basically, in that sense ‘injustice’ does not have any concept. If here, amongst human beings, there is sometimes justice and sometimes injustice, it is for the reason that they have not the ability of showing and delivering the deeds of everybody to him.

Some of the commentators have considered that the recent sentence refers to the evil doers and pagans who will face with retribution equal to their deeds and it does not refer to the believers, because Allah will give them the rewards more than their deeds because of His Grace and His Mercy.

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}55{ إِنَّ أَصْحَابَ الْجَنَّةِ الْیَوْمَ فِی شُغُلٍ فَاکِهُونَ

}56{ هُمْ وَأَزْوَاجُهُمْ فِی ظِلاَلٍ عَلَی الأَرَآئِکِ مُتَّکِئُونَ

}57{ لَهُمْ فِیهَا فَاکِهَةٌ وَلَهُم مَّا یَدَّعُونَ

}58{ سَلاَمٌ قَوْلاً مِن رَّبٍّ رَّحِیمٍ

55. “Verily the inhabitants of Paradise that ِay are busy in rejoicing,”

56. “They and their wives shall be in the shades, reclining on raised coaches;”

57. “They shall have fruits therein, and they shall have whatever they desire.”

58. “‘Peace’: is the word from a Merciful Lord (for them).”

The Arabic word /šuqul/ and the term /šuql/ both are with the sense of events and moods that come to man and make him busy to them whether they are happy or sad.

But since the Qur’ānic term /fākihūn/ has immediately been mentioned after it, and this term is the plural form of /fākih/in the sense of joyful, happy, and laughing, it can be a hint to the affairs which make man so busy to him that he may neglect the annoying affairs totally in a way that he will be in full rejoicing and no grief or sorrow dominates him, and he forgets even the horror and fear that he gets at the time of the establishment of Hereafter and attending in the Divine court of justice. If this horror does not really go, the shade of anxiety and sorrow will constantly have heaviness on the man’s heart. Therefore, one of the effects of this business of mind is forgetting the terror of the Hereafter.

****

However, next to the peace of mind which is the source of all bounties, and it is the condition of using all merits, it refers to the explanation of other bounties. It says:

“They and their wives shall be in the shades, reclining on raised coaches;”

The Arabic term /’azwāj/here means ‘the heavenly wives’, or it means the faithful wives whom they had in this world. And that some have said that it may be in the sense of ‘their associates’, like Sura As-Sāffāt, No. 37, verse 22 which says: “(And Allah will command the angels:) ‘Gather you together those who were unjust and their mates and what they used to worship,” that here it seems very improbable, in particular that the Qur’ānic term /’arā’ik/, the plural form of /’arīkah/,

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according to a group of commentators and philologists is in the sense of some beds which are in bridal chamber.(1)

The application of the Arabic word /zilāl/ (shades) refers to the shades of the trees in Paradise amidst which the thrones of the people of Heaven have been erected. Or it refers to the shades of the castles in Paradise. All of these show that there is sunshine there, too; but there is not a tormenting sunshine. Yes, they have some other kind of pleasure and happiness under the pleasant shades of the Heavenly trees.

****

In addition to that, the verse says:

“They shall have fruits therein, and they shall have whatever they desire.”

It is clearly understood from other verses of the Qur’ān that the food of the people of Paradise is not only fruits, but the abovementioned verse shows that the best food of the people of Heaven is fruit, the special fruits which are completely different from the fruits of this world. And, even in this world, according to the confession of the specialists of nutriment, fruits are the best and the most suitable nutriment for man.

The Qur’ānic term /yadda‘ūn/ is derived from /da‘āyah/in the sense of ‘demand’, i.e. whatever they demand and desire it will available for them, and they will not have any wish which will not be done for them.

In Majma‘-ul-Bayān the Late Tabarsī says: “An Arab uses this meaning in respect to /tamannī/ and he says: ‘whatever you desire you may demand from me’.”

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And thus, whatever today man may think of and whatever does not come into his mind from among the kinds of merits and the bounties, they will be available and prepared there, and the entertainment of Allah from His guests will be done in the highest possible level.

But, the most important of all are the spiritual merits which are referred to in the last verse of the verses under discussion. It says:

“‘Peace’: is the word from a Merciful Lord (for them).”

This enlivening and pleasant call, which is full of His love and affection, attracts the man’s attention to itself so deeply, and gives him joy, happiness and spirituality, that does not match any other bounty. Yes hearing the call of the beloved one, is a call filled with love and mixed with grace which causes the people of Paradise to be thoroughly rejoicing, a moment of which is superior to the whole world and whatever exists in it.

A tradition narrated from the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) indicates that he said: “While the people of Paradise are busy enjoying the bounties of Heaven there will appear a light above them. This is the light of Allah which is cast upon them and at the same time a call will be heard saying: ‘Peace and greeting on you, O’ the people of Paradise!’ And this is the same thing which has been mentioned in the Qur’ān. It is here that the view of Allah attracts them so strongly that they neglect His all other things and, in that state, they forget the whole bounties of Paradise. It is here that the angels come out from every door and say: ‘Peace upon you’.”(1)

Yes, the ecstasy of the intuition and presence of the Beloved and the visit of the Lord’s Grace are so delightful and gratifying that a moment of which is not equal with any

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blessing, even with the whole world. The lovers of visiting Him are so that if this spiritual gift might be ceased from them, they would die. Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) in a tradition said: “If I remain walled from the visit of the Lord for a moment, I will die.” It is interesting that the apparent of the verse is that this greeting of Allah unto the believers in Paradise is a direct greeting without any intermediator. It is a greeting from the Lord, Allah, the greeting which originates from His special Mercy, i.e., the rank of His specific Mercy, and all grace and favours are gathered in it. Oh, what a blessing it is!

****

In principle, Paradise is ‘the Abode of Peace’, as Sura Yūnus, No. 10, verse 25 says: “And Allah does call mankind to the Abode of Peace, …” And the people of Paradise, who are the dwellers of this abode, will sometimes face with the angel’s greeting. At the time of arrival into Paradise, the angels arrive to them from every door and say: “Peace (be) upon you (saying) that you persevered in patience! (And now) how excellent is the Ultimate Abode.”(1) And sometimes the dwellers of ’A‘rāf call them and say: “… Peace be upon you! …”(2) And sometimes they will be faced with the angels’ greeting after entering into Paradise: “… and the warders thereof say unto them: ‘Peace be unto you …”(3) Sometimes, at the time of taking their souls, this greeting is delivered to them from the side of the angels of death. They say: “… Peace be upon you! Enter the Paradise because of what you used to do.”(4) And sometimes they themselves greet each other.

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And, in principle, in their greeting there is ‘Peace’, the Qur’ān says: “… their greetings therein is: ‘Peace!’.”(1)

And, finally, the superior and above all of these is the greeting of Allah: “‘Peace’: is the word from a Merciful Lord (for them).”

Briefly speaking, there will be heard there neither a vain word nor a sinful thing. There will be only ‘peace’ and ‘peace’. The Qur’ān says: “They shall not hear therein vain or sinful discourse,”

Of course, it is not a greeting in mere pronunciation, but it is a greeting the effect of which penetrates in the depth of man’s soul and makes it thoroughly full of tranquillity, peace, and health.

****

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}59{ وَامْتَازُوا الْیَوْمَ أَیُّهَا الْمُ-جْرِمُونَ

}60{ أَلَمْ أَعْهَدْ إِلَیْکُمْ یَا بَنِی ءَادَمَ أَن لاَّ تَعْبُدُوا الشَّیْطَانَ إِنَّهُ لَکُمْ عَدُوٌ مُّبِینٌ

}61{ وَأَنِ اعْبُدُونِی هَذَا صِرَاطٌ مُّسْتَقِیمٌ

}62{ وَلَقَدْ أَضَلَّ مِنکُمْ جِبِلاًّ کَثِیراً أَفَلَمْ تَکُونُوا تَعْقِلُونَ

59. “And (they will be told) get you aside this day O’ you the guilty ones!”

60. “Did I not make covenant with you, O’ children of Adam, that you should not serve the Satan, verily he is a manifest foe to you;”

61. “And that you should serve Me? This is the straight path.”

62. “And yet he has led astray a great number of you. Did you not then understand?”

The first is that the Qur’ān implies that, on that Day, with a contemptuous tone, it will be said to the guilty ones to get aloof from the believers. The Qur’ān says:

“And (they will be told) get you aside this day O’ you the guilty ones!”

It was you who, in the world, had substituted yourself deceitfully in the rows of the believers and sometimes took benefit of their honour and credit. Now you must separate your rows from theirs, and appear in your own real feature.

This is, in fact, the actualization of the promise of Allah that in Sura Sād, No. 38, verse 28 He says: “Shall We treat those who believe and do good like the mischief-makers in the earth? Or shall We make the pious ones like the wicked?”

However, the apparent of the verse under discussion refers to the separation of the rows of the guilty from those of the believers, though the commentators have delivered some other probabilities, among them is the separation of the rows of the guilty from each other, and every group of them will be in a definite line.

****

The next verse refers to the expressive rebukes and blames of Allah unto the sinners on the Day of Hereafter and says:

“Did I not make covenant with you, O’ children of Adam, that you should not serve the Satan, verily he is a manifest foe to you;”

This Divine covenant has been taken from man in different ways, and He has repeatedly mentioned this matter to him.

At first, on the day when the children of Adam were living on the earth, they were addressed by this word of Allah, saying: “O’ children of Adam! Let not Satan seduce you as he expelled your parents from the Garden, stripping them both of their clothing that he might expose unto them their shameful

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parts. Surely he sees you, he and his tribe, from where you do not see them. We have made the Satans the friends of those who do not believe.” (Sura Al-’A‘rāf, No. 7, verse 27)

Then, this very warning was expressed by the tongues of Divine messengers, as Sura Zukhruf, No. 43, verse 62 says: “And let not the Satan prevent you, surely he is manifest enemy.” And in Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 168 we recite: “… and do not follow the footsteps of Satan surely he is a manifest foe for you.”

On the other side, this covenant has also been taken in the world of nature with the tongue of bestowing wisdom on man, because the intellectual proofs clearly testify that man should not obey the command of the one who has been his enemy from the first day and has sent him out from the Paradise, and has sworn to seduce the children of Adam.

From the third side, by the Divine constitution and innate disposition of all human beings upon Monotheism, and the restriction of obedience for the Pure Essence of Allah, this covenant has also been taken from man. And thus, not only by one mere language but also by several languages this Divine recommendation has been performed and this promise and covenant has been signed.

By the way, we recite in a narration from Imam Sādiq (a.s.) who said: “Whoever obeys a person in committing a sin, he has worshipped him.”(1)

In another tradition Imam Bāqir (a.s.) said: “Whoever listens to a speaker (and accepts his statement) he has worshipped him. If the speaker reiterates the ordinance of Allah, he has worshipped Him, but if the speaker speaks from the side of Satan, he has worshipped Satan.”(2)

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And in the third verse, for more emphasis and stating the duty of the children of Adam, it says:

“And that you should serve Me? This is the straight path.”

From one side, He has taken covenant from men that they should not obey Satan, because he has proved his enmity and hatred from the first day. Which wise person follows the command of his ancient and manifest foe? And in the opposite side, He has taken covenant that he obeys Him and He has defined its reason by saying: “This is the straight path.” This, in fact, is the best motivation for human beings, because, for instance, when it happens that a person finds himself in the middle of a dry and hot desert and sees his soul, his wife and children, as well as his wealth, in the danger of the thieves and wolves, the most important thing he may think of, as finding the straight way toward the destination, a way which can lead him easier and sooner to the point of safety.

However, it is understood from this meaning that this world is not the abode of residence, because the path is shown to the person who passes a passage and he has a destination in front of him.

****

Again, for being more acquainted with this clear dangerous enemy, in the fourth verse, it says:

“And yet he has led astray a great number of you. Did you not then understand?”

Do you not see that how many miseries Satan has provided for his followers? Have you not studied the history of the ancient nations to see how painful and evil fates his followers had? The ruins of their afflicted cities are in front of your eyes; and their sorrowful end is clear for anyone who has the least understanding and thought.

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Then, why do not you take earnest the enmity of the one who has repeatedly shown the examination of his enmity? You make friends with him again, and, even, you choose him as your own leader and as your own friend.

The Qur’ānic term /jibill/, as Rāqib says in Mufradāt, is in the sense of ‘society’ and ‘group’; and the application of the Arabic term /kaθīr/ is for emphasis concerning the followers of Satan who form a great number of people.

However, a safe wisdom requires that man should seriously avoid of such a dangerous foe who shows no mercy to anyone and his prays are seen over the soil of destruction everywhere, and he should not let himself be in negligence. As Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.), the aware leader, in one of his sermons (No. 192, Nahj-ul-Balāqah), addressing people, attracts their attention to this fact by saying: “Therefore, O’ the servants of Allah! You should fear lest Satan infects you with his disease (pride), or leads you astray through his call, or marches on you with his horsemen and foot-men, because, by my life, he has put the (dangerous) arrow in the bow for you, has stretched the bow very strongly, and has aimed at you from a nearby position, and he (Satan) said: ‘O’ Lord! Because you have left me to stray, certainly I will adorn (evil) to them on the earth, and certainly I will cause them all to go astray’. (Qur’ān, 15:39)”(1) (While Allah was not the cause of his mislead, but his low desire made him astray.) And, really, it is surprising that we choose such an enemy as our friend!

****

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}63{ هَذِهِ جَهَنَّمُ الَّتِی کُنتُمْ تُوعَدُون

}64{ اصْلَوْهَا الْیَوْمَ بِمَا کُنتُمْ تَکْفُرُونَ

63. “This is the Hell which you were promised.”

64. “Enter you into it today for what you were disbelieving.”

}65{ الْیَوْمَ نَخْتِمُ عَلَی أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَتُکَلّ-ِمُنَآ أَیْدِیهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ أَرْجُلُهُم بِمَا کَانُوا یَکْسِبُونَ

65. “Today we set a seal on their mouths, and their hands speak to Us, and their feet bear witness as to what they have been earning.”

they did, they deny them thinking that it is the worldly court and they can deny the facts by tricks. Here, the bearing witness of the limbs will begin and wonder accompanied with terror will overcome their entity thoroughly, and all the ways of escape will be shut to them. As Sura Fussilat, No. 41, verse 20 says: “Until when they come to it, their ears and their eyes and their skins shall bear witness against them as to what they used to do.”

And Sura An-Nūr, No. 24, verse 24 says: “On the day when their tongues and their hands and their feet testify against them as to what they used to do.”

This point is also noteworthy that in one place the Qur’ān says ‘their tongues testify’ (like Sura An-Nūr), and in the verse under discussion He says: “… We set a seal on their mouths.” This meaning may be for the sake that at first on the man’s tongue will be set a seal and his limbs will begin to bear witness. When he sees the witness of the limbs, his tongue will start speaking, and since there is no room for denials the tongue will confess the truth, too.

There is also this probability that the objective meaning of the witness of the tongue is not the ordinary speaking, but it is a speech like the speech of other limbs which comes from its inside not from its outside.

Concerning the number of witness in that great Court and that how they will testify, we will explain it in more details when commenting on Sura Fussilat, No. 41, verses 19-23, Allah willing.

The final word is that the witness of the limbs is about the pagans and sinners; otherwise, the account of the believers is clear. Imam Bāqir (a.s.) in a tradition says: “The limbs of a

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believer do not testify against him, but they testify against the one on whom the command of punishment has been decreed. As for the believer, his record (of deeds) will be given to his right hand, (and he will recite it himself), as Allah has said: ‘… then whoever is given his book in his right hand, then these will read their book (joyfully) and they will not be treated unjustly in the least’.”(1)

****

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}66{ وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَطَمَسْنَا عَلَی أَعْیُنِهِمْ فَاسْتَبَقُوا الصّ-ِرَاطَ فَاَنَّی یُبْصِرُونَ

}67{ وَلَوْ نَشَآءُ لَمَسَخْنَاهُمْ عَلَی مَکَانَتِهِمْ فَمَا اسْتَطَاعُوا مُضِیّاً وَلاَ یَرْجِعُونَ

66. “And if We please, We would obliterate their eyes, then they would race to the way, but how would they see?”

67. “And if We please, We would surely transform them in their place, then they would not be able to go on, nor will they return.”

“And if We please, We would surely transform them in their place, …”

(They may be transformed into some motionless statues that have no soul, or into some palsied animals.) The verse continues saying:

“… then they would not be able to go on, nor will they return.”

However, the two abovementioned verses are about the chastisements in the world. They are as threatening to the disbelievers and the sinners that Allah is able to afflict them to such painful fates in this very world, but, because of His Grace and Mercy, He has not done so, haply these obstinate sinners become aware and return to the path of the truth.

****

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“And whomever We cause to live long, We reverse him to an abject state in constitution; do they not then understand?”

The Qur’ānic term /nunakkishu/ is derived from the Arabic term /tankīs/in the sense of reversing something in a manner that its top comes down and its down goes up in the place of the top. Here, there is a metonymy pointing to the complete return of man to the circumstances of his childhood.

From the very beginning of his creation, man is weak and then gradually he grows and develops. During the foetus course every day he passes some new stages and new growth. After his birth he will swiftly continue the path of development from the point of body and spirit, and the God-given strengths and talents, which are hidden inside his entity, will appear one after another. The course of youth, and next to it, the course of expertness approach, and man will be seated in the climax of bodily and spiritual development. Here, sometimes, the body and the spirit separate their way from each other. The spirit will continue its path of development, while the body begin retardation. But, at last, the man’s intellect, too, will begin the downward march, and little by little, and sometimes quickly, that stages of childhood return. The childish movements begin, and thinking, and even one’s pretext seeking will be like those of children. The bodily weakness will also come along with them, with this difference that these movements and spiritualities are sweet and attractive when they are from the side of children, because they are some glad-tidings unto their future hopeful lives and that is why they are completely tolerable. But in relation to the old persons, they are pungent, not beautiful, and, sometimes, hateful, or pitiful.

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Verily, there will come some days which will be very painful, so much so that the depth of its inconvenience is hardly considerable.

This meaning has been pointed out in Sura Al-Hajj, No. 22, verse 5, where it says: “… and some of you are kept back to the worst part of life so that they know nothing after having known (much), …”. (They will not recognize even their nearest members of their family.)

However, the Qur’ānic sentence /’afalā ya‘qilūn/ (do they not then understand) gives a wonderful remark in this regard and it tells men: if this strength and power that you have were not temporary it would not be taken from you so easy. Do know that there is another might over you which is capable of doing everything.

You must be careful of yourself before reaching that stage, and before that the mirth and beauty turns into sadness and withered state, make the best of it and provide the provision of the path of the next world in this world, since in the term of weakness, senility, and wretchedness mostly you are able to do nothing.

So, one of the five things that the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) recommended Abūthar to be careful of this very thing. He (p.b.u.h.) said: “Do avail five things before five things: your youth before your senility, your health before your sickness, your richness before your poverty, your ease before your affliction, and your life before your death.”(1)

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}69{ وَمَا عَلَّمْنَاهُ الشّ-ِعْرَ وَمَا یَنبَغِی لَهُ إِنْ هُوَ إِلاَّ ذِکْرٌ وَقُرْءَانٌ مُّبِینٌ

69. “And We have not taught him poetry, nor would it beseem him; it is naught but a Reminder and manifesting Qur’ān,”

admonishments and wisdoms; a remembrance of the created things in the heaven, the earth, and the seas; a remembrance of the future of the history, the triumph of the government of the truth and the world becoming full of justice and condemnation of the unjust and the cruelty; a remembrance of the purgatory, Resurrection, and the events before Hereafter, and the state of the scene of Hereafter, the dangers of Hell, and the blessings of Paradise.

The Holy Qur’ān is the source of admonishments and remembrance. The Qur’ān is a clear and understandable word with argumentation.

Yes, with negation of poetry from the Prophet (p.b.u.h.), the Qur’ān adds:

“… it is naught but a Reminder and manifesting Qur’ān,”

****

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}70{ لِیُنذِرَ مَن کَانَ حَیّاً وَیَحِقَّ الْقَوْلُ عَلَی الْکَافِرِینَ

70. “That it may warn him who is alive and the Word may be proved against the disbelievers.”

controlling the self, virtue, and morality; and the Qur’ān grows this life in man’s self.

However, concerning the invitation of the Qur’ān, human beings are divided in two groups. A group of them are alive and alert. These are those who answer its invitation positively and hearken to its warnings and admonishments. The next group are the dead-hearted disbelievers who never show any positive reaction to it. But this warning works to complete the argument upon them and makes the command of punishment certain on them.

However, man has several kinds of life and death. The first is ‘the vegetation life’ which is the manifestation of the very growth, eating, and reproduction, and from this point of view he is rather similar to all of plants.

The next is the animal life and death, the clear sign of which is ‘feeling’ and ‘motion’, and in these two qualities he is the same as other animals.

The third kind of life is specific to human beings. This life separates them from plants and other animals. This is the human and spiritual life. This is the same thing which has been rendered as ‘the life of the hearts’ in the Islamic narrations; and the objective meaning of ‘heart’ here, is the man’s spirit, mind, and emotions.

Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) in his sermons and sayings has emphasized on this matter very much. Concerning the Holy Qur’ān, in a sermon in Nahj-ul-Balāqah he says: “… and understand it thoroughly for it is the best blossoming of the hearts …”(1)

In another place, concerning wisdom and knowledge, he (a.s.) says: “Wisdom is a life for the dead hearts.”(2)

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Sometimes the sickness of the heart is compared with the sickness of the body. Ali (a.s.) says: “… while worse than bodily ailment is the disease of the heart…”(1) And one time he (a.s.) says: “… He whose fear of Allah (his piety) is less, his heart dies…”(2) There are many other expressions of this kind. Imam Zayn-ul-‘Ābidīn (a.s.) in one of his supplications says: “A great crime has caused my heart to die”(3)

On the other side, the Qur’ān has considered a special kind of apparent insight, hearing, apprehension, and perception, for man as about the disbelievers it says: “… deaf, dumb, and blind (are they) wherefore they do not understand.”(4)

In another occurrence, Qur’ān calls the hypocrites as some diseased-hearted people that Allah increases their disease: “In their hearts is a disease, so Allah has increased their disease …”(5) It introduces those who do not fear Allah as stone-hearted ones whose heart is harder than stone: “Then your hearts hardened after that as stones or even worse in hardness …”(6)

In another place the Qur’ān says: “Only those accept who hearken, and (as for) the dead, Allah will raise them up, then unto Him they will be returned.”(7)

From all these meanings, and from some abundant other expressions which are similar to them, it is clearly understood that the Qur’ān counts the pivot of life and death that very pivot of human and wisdom, because the whole value of man has also been put in this very section.

****

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}71{ أَوَلَمْ یَرَوْا أَنَّا خَلَقْنَا لَهُم مّ-ِمَّا عَمِلَتْ أَیْدِینَا أَنْعَاماً فَهُمْ لَهَا مَالِکُونَ

}72{ وَذَلَّلْنَاهَا لَهُمْ فَمِنْهَا رَکُوبُهُمْ وَمِنْهَا یَأْکُلُونَ

71. “Have they not seen that We have created for them of that Our hands wrought cattle that of them they own?”

72. “And then (the cattle) We have subdued to them, and some of them they ride upon, and some of them they eat.”

If cow and sheep were not tamed, the door of the world of dairy products, which have many benefits for man, would be shut to him, and if all animals were wild, many of the journeys could not be performed.

Both the earth: “… has made the earth manageable …”(1) and animals are subdued: “And then (the cattle) We have subdued …”(2) But man, who is in need of both of them is disobedient: “Verily man does transgress all bounds.”(3)

****

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}73{ وَلَهُمْ فِیهَا مَنَافِعُ وَمَشَارِبُ أَفَلاَ یَشْکُرُونَ

73. “And therein they have benefits and drinks, will they not then be grateful?”

Even today, different kinds of serums and vaccines which are the most effective means for struggling against disease or for prevention, are provided from cattle and the materials taken from their blood.

Even the most worthless things in the life of cattle, that is, their feces, are used, too. By them lands will be fertilized and trees are made fruitful.

The application of the Qur’ānic term /mašārib/ refers to the kinds of milk which are taken from different cattle and a great part of man’s food stuff is usually produced from it and its productions, so that the milk industries and the products from milk in the world today form an important part of exports and imports of some countries, the same milk which is a complete food for man. This wholesome drink comes out from special parts of the body and causes the pleasure of its drinkers and is the source of strength for the weak.

****

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}74{ وَاتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ ءَالِهَةً لَّعَلَّهُمْ یُنصَرُونَ

}75{ لاَ یَسْتَطِیعُونَ نَصْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ لَهُمْ

جُندٌ مُّحْضَرُونَ

74. “And they have taken gods besides Allah, haply they might be helped.”

75. “They shall not be able to help them; and yet they (the disbelievers) are their host (who in Hereafter) shall be brought forth (in Hell Fire).”

attend the Court of Justice of Allah and after that they entirely will be sent into Hell without that the idols can solve any problem of their own host.

In principle, the Arabic word /muhdarūn/ (shall be brought forth) is a sign of contempt everywhere, and bringing persons forth without that they themselves be willing to it is the sign of their humiliation.

****

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}76{ فَلاَ یَحْزُنکَ قَوْلُهُمْ إِنَّا نعْلَمُ مَا یُسِرُّونَ وَمَا یُعْلِنُونَ

76. “Therefore, let not their speech grieve you. Verily We know what they do in secret and what they do openly.”

}77{ أَوَلَمْ یَرَ الإِنسَانُ أَنَّا خَلَقْنَاهُ مِن نُّطْفَةٍ فَإِذَا هُوَ خَصِیمٌ مُّبِینٌ

}78{ وَضَرَبَ لَنَا مَثَلاً وَنَسِیَ خَلْقَهُ قَالَ مَن یُحْیِ الْعِظَامَ وَهِیَ رَمِیمٌ

77. “Has not man seen that We created him of a sperm-drop? Yet behold! He is an open disputant.”

78. “And he has struck for Us a similitude and forgotten his creation; he says: ‘Who shall quicken the bones when they are decayed?’”

Occasion of Revelation, verses: 77-78

In the majority of the concerning commentary books it has been cited that: A man from among the polytheists by the name of ’Ubay-ibn-Khalaf, or ’Umayyat-ibn-Khalaf, or ‘Ās-ibn-Wā’il found a piece of rotten bone and said that by that firm proof he would stand with entity against Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) and he might nullify his speech about Resurrection. He took that piece of stone and came to the Prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.). (Perhaps, he made a part of it as powder at the presence of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.)) and said: “Who can give life again to these decayed stones? (And which intellect may believe it?)”. Then the abovementioned verses together with four verses after them were revealed and gave a logical firm answer to him and those who thought like him.

different sections. This Sura began with the name of the Holy Qur’ān and the subject of prophethood, and it ends with seven related verses which contain the strongests statement about Resurrection.

At first, the Qur’ān takes man to the beginning day of his life, the day when he was not more than a worthless sperm-drop, and makes him think. It says:

“Has not man seen that We created him of a sperm-drop? Yet behold! He is an open disputant.”

What an expressive meaning it is! At first it emphasizes on the word ‘man’, that is, every man with any belief and school of thought and with any amount of knowledge can find out this truth.

Then it speaks of the Arabic word /nutfah/ which originally means: the naught worthless water; so that this proud and egoistic man thinks a little and knows that what he was on the first day. And, yet, the entire of this naught drop of water has not been the source of his entity, but a very small living cell, which cannot be seen by the ordinary eyes, among thousands cells which were floating in that drop of water, combined with a very small living cell which was in the woman’s womb, and then, from that very small being, man came into being.

This creature passed the developing stages one after another, that according to the statement of the Qur’ān, at the beginning of Sura Al-Mu’minūn, six stages of them are inside the womb: (the stages of: sperm, then clot, then a lump of flesh, then the appearance of bones, then they being covered

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with flesh, and, finally, the appearance of sense and movement in it.)(1)

After his birth, when he was a weak and unable child, he quickly passed the stages of development, too, until when he reached the stage of his puberty: the bodily and mental growth. Yes, this weak and unable creature became so strong and powerful that he let himself stand against Allah and forget his both past and future and become the clear example of “an open disputant”.

It is interesting that the Qur’ānic phrase /xasīm-un-mubīn/ (an open disputant) has an aspect of ‘strength’ and an aspect of ‘weakness’ that, apparently, here the Qur’ān refers to both of them.

From one side, this action is not done save by a human being that naturally has intellect, thought, understanding, and independent will, authority, and power. (And we know that the most important thing in the man’s life is his ability of speaking, the contents of such speeches will formerly be provided in his thought, then they will be put together in the form of sentences and, like bullets of a gun, these sentences come out of the mouth and will be shot at the aim one after another. This is the marvellous action that no living creature can do except man.

And, thus, the holy verse illustrates the power of Allah in this great strength that He has given to this apparently insignificant drop of water.

But, on the other side, man is a forgetful and proud being, and he uses these bounties, that He has bestowed on him,

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against Him and disputes inimically against Him. What an unaware and stubborn being he is!

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The next holy verse implicitly announces that for man’s unawareness this is enough that he struck a similitude for Allah and as he thought he had found a firm proof while he, forgetting his first creation, said: ‘Who can quicken these bones when they are decayed?’. The verse says:

“And he has struck for Us a similitude and forgotten his creation; he says: ‘Who shall quicken the bones when they are decayed?’”

The purpose of ‘striking similitude’ here is not an ordinary proverb or a simile and an allusion, but the purpose is the statement of a reasoning and mentioning an extension in order to prove a general matter.

Yes, he (’Ubay-ibn-Khalaf, or ’Umayyat-ibn-Khalaf, or ‘Ās-ibn-Wā’il) finds a rotten bone in the desert. It was not known to whom that bone belonged. Whether he had died by a natural death, or he had been killed badly in one of the battles of the Age of Ignorance, or he had died because of hunger. However, he thought he had found a very firm proof. With an anger accompanied with happiness, he takes the piece of bone of a dead person and says: “By this firm proof I stand with enmity against Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) So that he can not give any answer.”

He came hastily to the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and shouted saying: “Who can give life to this rotten bone?” Then he crushed a part of the bone into powder and scattered it on the

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ground. He thought the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) would not have any answer for that logic.

It is interesting that the Qur’ān has given his whole answer in a short sentence, saying: “… and forgotten his creation …” although next to it, the Qur’ān has also mentioned some more explanation with more reasoning so it implies that if he had not forgotten his creation, he would not have attached such a weak and vain reasoning. O’ forgetful man, return back and look at your creation that you were an insignificant sperm and every day He put a new cloth of life on you. You are always in the state of death and resurrection. You were changed from the state of clot into an animal and you came out from that world and became a human being. But you, O’ forgetful man! Did you forget all these states and ask who gives life to these decayed bones?

When this bone decays completely, just it will become dust. Were you not dust at first?

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}79{ قُلْ یُحْیِیهَا الَّذِی أَنشَاَهآ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَهُوَ بِکُلّ ِ خَلْقٍ عَلِیمٌ

79. “Say: ‘He will enliven them who created them for the first time, and He knows all creation,”

He Who has such a ‘Power’ and ‘Knowledge’ will have no difficulty for the subject of Resurrection and enlivening the dead. If we turn a magnet amongst a heap of dust which contains scattered pieces of iron, it will quickly gather all these pieces of iron, while it is not more than an inanimate being. By a single command, Allah can easily gather all the particles of every man’s body in any place of the earth it may be.

He is aware of not only the principle of the creation of man, but also of their intentions and actions, and the account and reckoning of them is clear with Him.

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}80{ الَّذِی جَعَلَ لَکُم مِنَ الشَّجَرِ الأَخْضَرِ نَاراً فَإِذَآ أَنتُم مِنْهُ تُوقِدُونَ

80. “He Who made for you fire from the green tree, and behold! from it you kindle (fire).”

kindling fire they used the wood of some special trees called ‘Markh’ and ‘‘Afār’, which grew in the deserts of Arabia.

The Arabic terms /marx/ and /‘afār/ were the names of two kinds of kindling wood, the earlier was put in the below and the latter was put over it, and like a kindling stone, a spark came out from them and, in fact, they were used instead of today match. The Qur’ān implicitly says: that the Lord, Who can bring out fire from these green trees, is also able to give life to the dead.

Water and fire are two opposite things. The One Who can put them beside each other, has the ability to put ‘life’ beside ‘death’ and ‘death’ beside ‘life’.

Praise upon the Creator of existence Who keeps ‘fire’ inside ‘water’ and holds ‘water’ in the middle of ‘fire’. It is certain that giving life to the dead people is not a difficult thing for Him.

If we step out beyond this meaning, we reach a more punctilious commentary, and it is that the property of kindling fire by the wood of trees is not limited to the wood of ‘Marakh’ and ‘Afār, but this property exists in all trees and in all of the materials of the world, (although the wood of the abovementioned two trees, because of their materials and their specific gravity, are more appropriate for this action).

In short, if any piece of wood of any trees strikes hard to another piece, they produce spark, even it is the wood of the green trees.

It is for this reason that sometimes there happen some vast and horrible fire accidents inside forests that nobody has been their factor; their only factor has been the strong blow of winds and storms that has caused the branches of trees to crush to each other and from between them a spark has come to burn dry leaves and then the blow of wind has helped it, and this

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has been the main factor. This is the very spark of electricity which appears by friction and rubbing. This is the same fire which is hidden inside of all particles of the beings of the world and, at the time of friction and rubbing, it shows itself in such a way, He creates ‘fire’ from ‘a green tree’.

This is a vaster commentary which makes the perspective of gathering of opposites in creation vaster, and which shows subsistence in ‘destruction’ more clear.

But, here, there is a third commentary which is deeper than that, which has been found out by the help of modern science and we have called it ‘the resurrection of energies’.

}81{ أَوَلَیْسَ الَّذِی خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ بِقَادِرٍ عَلَی أَن یَخْلُقَ مِثْلَهُم بَلَی وَهُوَ الْخَلاَّقُ الْعَلِیمُ

81. “Is not He, Who created the heavens and the earth, able to create the like of them? Yes, (He can!) And he is the Creator (Omnipotent), the Knower.”

worlds, how is it possible that He would not be able to enliven the dead?

And since the answer of this question is present in the heart of any vigilant person, it does not wait for its answer, and immediately implicitly says: Yes, He has such a power. And next to it, the Qur’ān emphasizes on these two great attributes of Allah, which must be noted in relation to this subject, viz., the attribute of Creativity and His infinite Knowledge, which, in fact, is an evidence upon the former statesment, saying that if you are in doubt concerning His Power in relation with creation “He is the Creator”. And if the act of gathering these particles needs knowledge, He is Omnipotent and, from any point of view, is Aware and Knower.

By the way, the Arabic antecedent of the Qur’ānic term /miθlahum/ (the like of them) returns to human beings, that is, the Creator of the heavens and the earth is able to create the like man.

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}82{ إِنَّمَآ أَمْرُهُ إِذَآ أَرَادَ شَیْئاً أَن یَقُولَ لَهُ کُن فَیَکُونُ

}83{ فَسُبْحَانَ الَّذِی بِیَدِهِ مَلَکُوتُ کُلّ ِ شَیْءٍ وَإِلَیْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ

82. “His command, when he intends anything, is only to say to it ‘Be’, so it is.”

83. “So glory be to Him, in Whose hand is the domination of everything, and unto Whom you shall be returned.”

In other words, when Allah intends something, it will immediately come into being, so that there is no distance between ‘His Will’ and the existence of the things. Therefore, the application of ‘command’, ‘saying’ and the phrase: ‘Be’ all are an explanation for the subject of creation and making men understand His Power, and, as we said before, the command in expression, utterance and the word containing ‘B’ and ‘E’ are not necessary. All of them indicate the rapid existence of the things after the Will of Allah. He does not need any utterance and words.

And again in other more clear words, there are no more than two stages in the deeds of Allah: the stage of Will, and the stage of creation. In the abovementioned verse, the second stage has been referred to as ‘command’, say, and the phrase ‘Be’. How beautifully Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (a.s.) says in one of his sermons: “When He intends to create something He says ‘Be’ and there it is, but not through a voice that strikes (the ears) is that call heard. His speech is an act of His creation. His like never existed before this. If it had been created it would have been the second god.”(1)

In other words, every call needs an addressee, and when a thing has not been existed, how does Allah addresses it by the phrase ‘Be’? Is a non-existent thing addressable?

This very meaning has been mentioned in some other verses of the Qur’ān. For instance, Sura Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 117 says: “… and when He decrees a matter to be, He only says to it ‘Be’ and it is.”(2)

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In the next verse, which is the last verse of Sura Yā-Sīn, in a general conclusion on the subject of Origin and Resurrection it ends beautifully this discussion, where it says:

“So glory be to Him, in Whose hand is the domination of everything, and unto Whom you shall be returned.”

Regarding to the fact that the Arabic word /malakūt/is derived from /mulk/ in the sense of ‘government and ownership’ the additional Arabic letters ‘wāw’ and ‘tā’ in the Qur’ānic form of /malakūt/ are for emphasis and exaggeration. Then the concept of the verse is such: the unconditioned sovereignty and ownership of everything is in the hand of Allah, and such a Lord is far from any inability, and, in this case, giving life to the dead and quickening the rotten bones and their scattered dust will not bring any difficulty for Him, since certainly all of you will return to Him, and the Resurrection is true.

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The End of Sura Yā-Sīn

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martyr, and He will raise him among martyrs, and He will set him in the same grade with the martyrs in Paradise.”(1)

These abundant rewards are given for reciting the Sura if the person performs the content of the Sura and the Qur’ān accordingly, and these are required but the barriers must be removed, too.

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Sura As-Sāffāt

(The Rangers)

No. 37, (Revealed at Mecca)

182 verses in 5 Sections

“By those who range themselves in ranks,”

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Then, it says:

“And those who drive away (the evils and temptations) with reproof,”

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“And the reciters of a Remembrance (Qur’ān),”

Who are these three groups? And whom are these qualities about? And what is its final aim? The popular and known commentary is that these are some qualities for some groups of angels. These are some groups of angels who have stood in rows in the world of existence and are ready for performing the command of Allah. They are some groups of Divine angels who restrain men from sins, and nullify the temptations of Satans in their hearts. Or they are arranged for the cloud in sky to take them to different sides and make them ready to water the dry lands.