مِثْلَ

5:69.

5:69.

Important Words:

الیھود (the Jews) signifies the followers of Moses or of what is known as Judaism. The word as already explained is either derived from ھاد which means, he turned to God or to the truth with repentance (Aqrab); or it is derived from یھودا (Judah) who was one of the sons of Jacob. As the descendants of یھودا formed an independent kingdom at Jerusalem which became the religious centre of the Jews, therefore the Jewish religion came to be known as Judaism and the people professing that religion as یھود or Jews (Enc. Brit. under the word Jews. See also 2:63 and 2:112).

یتلون (they read) is derived from تلا which means: (1) he followed; (2) he read or recited (Aqrab). The Quran says والقمراذا تلاھاi.e. by the moon when it follows the sun; and again یتلوا علیھم آیاته i.e. the Prophet reads or recites to them God’s Signs. In the present verse the word یتلون may be taken to signify either of these two senses, i.e. they both read the same Book or they both follow the same Book. See also 2:103.

Commentary:

Nothing is more foreign to the spirit of Islam than opposition to truth, wherever it may happen to be. Islam teaches that all faiths possess certain truths and the true religion is so called not because it has a monopoly of truth, but because it possesses all truth and is free from all defects. While, therefore, claiming to be a perfect and complete religion, Islam does not denounce other faiths but frankly acknowledges the truths and the virtues they possess. If this golden principle of Islam be properly understood and appreciated, much existing religious rancour and bitterness would disappear. But unfortunately, there is a general tendency among the followers of different religious systems to refuse to acknowledge the truth found in faiths, other than their own. The Quran declares this attitude of mind to be the result of lack of knowledge and wisdom, and this verse strongly condemns Jews and Christians for refusing to see any good whatever in the rival faith, in spite of the fact that they have a good deal in common, being the followers of the same Book—the Bible.

6:125.

Commentary:

It is customary with disbelievers in the time of every Prophet that they demand from him signs and miracles which had been shown by a previous Prophet, while the disbelievers of that very Prophet had also rejected him in spite of the fact that he had shown the same miracles which disbelievers in the time of the later Prophet demanded. The verse exposes the absurdity of this worn out demand of disbelievers and purports to say that they demand from the Holy Prophet the same teachings which were given to Moses while the spiritual needs and requirements of the Holy Prophet’s time are different from those of Moses and, therefore, their demand is foolish. Yet when they are told that prophecies which were made by Moses have been fulfilled in the person of the Holy Prophet and that the teachings of the Quran in many respects support and corroborate the teachings of Torah, they say that both the Quran and the Torah are two pieces of magic that support each other.

Commentary:

Commentators differ as to whether the incident of the raven mentioned in the present verse was an actual fact or whether it is merely meant as a parable. It is not at all improbable that an incident of this nature might have actually occurred. The study of the ways and habits of birds has led to many useful discoveries. For the Biblical story of the two sons of Adam see Gen. 4:1-15 also the Jerusalem Targum.

13:19; 39:48.

5:37; 10:55; 13:19.

Commentary:

The expression "Day of Resurrection" in the verse may apply both to the last Judgement Day and the day of the final triumph of Islam. That great event took place before the very eyes of disbelievers, when idolatry departed from Arabia never to return. The disbelievers could never conceive of such an event taking place. This may be the significance of the words, but there shall appear unto them from Allah that which they never thought. Or the words may mean that evil consequences of the evil deeds which disbelievers did in this life will appear before them in an embodied form in the life to come, and of that eventuality they had no idea.

6:22; 7:38; 10:18; 11:19; 61:8.

46:21.

Commentary:

The verse gives another reason of the fact that the Quran is the revealed Word of God. If this Book, says the verse, is not the Word of God, then he who has forged this lie against God is the most guilty of men and cannot escape Divine punishment. But the verse also reminds deniers or rejecters that if the Quran is not a forged Book but the Word of God, as it actually is, then they are as great offenders as the one who forges a lie against God. In this case, it will be they who will be visited with Divine punishment.

The second sentence, i.e. or says, It has been revealed to me while nothing has been revealed to him, may be taken as an explanation or elaboration of the first sentence, i.e. who forges a lie against Allah; or the first sentence is general, while the second is particular. For instance, falsely to ascribe any teaching to God will come under the first category, and to claim falsely that God has spoken to him particular words will come under the second.

By saying, I will send down the like of that which Allah has sent down, a disbeliever only borrows the phraseology of those whom he addresses, viz. believers. Being a disbeliever in Divine revelation, he does not believe that God sends down anything, so he only quotes the expression made use of by believers concerning Divine revelation. Another instance of such usage is to be met with in 5:44.

The words, if thou couldst only see, signify that if anyone should witness the torment which the deniers of Prophets undergo when their souls leave their bodies, he would at once realize how severe is the torment of those who reject a Divine Messenger. This torment is not to be identified with the ordinary agonies of death, which are shared, under the general law of nature, by righteous and unrighteous alike, but to the specific punishment that clings to the rejecters of Prophets from the very moment of their death. The "punishment of disgrace" mentioned in the latter part of the verse refers, as the words "this day" indicate, not to the punishment of Hell but to the punishment which sinners begin to undergo immediately after death and before the Day of Resurrection. This is known as عذاب القبر (‘Adhabul-Qabr), i.e. punishment in the grave, in Islamic religious terminology, قبر or grave being the name given to the place where souls are kept after death but before Resurrection. Says the Holy Prophet: "When anyone dies, a window is opened out for him in the grave facing Heaven or Hell as the case may be" (Majah, ch. on Qabr). This is, of course, not the final retribution but only preparatory to it.

28:49.

Commentary:

The verse embodies the last argument or the last excuse of disbelievers in the present discussion. They say, "We will never believe in Divine revelation until we also receive revelation like unto the revelation of the Messengers of God. If God speaks to them, let Him speak to us also."

God answers this foolish objection by saying: "It is not to every man that God speaks; He speaks only to him whom He finds worthy of it and whom He selects for the purpose." As for those who make themselves deserving of humiliation and abasement, they cannot be honoured with messages from God. Their doom is only "humiliation and a severe punishment."

4:41; 27:90; 28:85.

Commentary:

The verse beautifully illustrates how the mercy of God transcends and predominates over His wrath or punishment. A good deed is like a good seed that brings forth a produce ten times its number and even more, (2:262; 4:41; 10:27-28; also Tirmidhi, ch. on, Fasting), whereas an evil deed is counted as only one deed. The verse also throws light on the fact that where there are to be rewards and punishments, there must be a law and a system. There can be no rewarding or punishing without a law.

6:26; 68:16; 83:14.

Commentary:

The disbelievers alleged that they could produce a composition like that of the Quran. It was, however, nothing but an empty boast on their part, which they never attempted to carry into effect; and the challenge of the Quran, which declared that they would never be able to produce even a short chapter like any chapter of the Quran, has ever remained unanswered. The disbelievers also thought that the Quran contained nothing but the tales of the ancients. The verse under comment contradicts this assertion by drawing their attention to the powerful prophecies contained in the Quran which unmistakably prove it to be the Word of God, it being beyond the power of man to produce a composition containing such powerful prophecies. The Battle of Badr, for instance, fulfilled many a mighty prophecy, foretold by the Quran (e.g 54:45-47; 34:30, 31)—a fact which rendered it impossible for man to imitate a production like it, and which fully exposed the absurdity of the assertion that the Quran was nothing but tales of the ancients.