نَّارُ

3:25; 5:19.

54:44.

Important Words:

النار (the Fire) means fire both as a source of light and of heat, the latter aspect being more dominant. Another word derived from the same root is نور meaning light, which is used without reference to the element of heat. The word النار (the Fire) has come to be used about "Hell", the punishment of which will consist of fire (Aqrab). It is significant that whereas the blessings of Heaven have been metaphorically spoken of as "streams of water", the punishment of Hell has been called "fire".

Commentary:

After recounting some malpractices of the Jews, the Quran proceeds to explain the root cause of their arrogance and hard-heartedness. These evil practices of the Jews, the Quran points out, are due to the wrong notion that they were immune from punishment (Jew. Enc. under Gehenna), or if they will at all be punished, the punishment will be very slight. It is recorded that at the time of the Holy Prophet, a section of the Jews thought that the punishment of the Jews would not last more than forty days (Jarir, under 2:81). Others regarded even this as too long, and reduced it to seven days (Jarir, ibid). As for modern Jews, Sale says: "It is a received opinion among the Jews at present, that no person (from among the Jews), be he ever so wicked, or of whatever sect, shall remain in Hell above eleven months or at most a year, except Dathan and Abiram and atheists (from among the Jews) who will be tormented there to all eternity" (Wherry, i. 318).

The concluding portion of the verse, i.e. have you taken a promise from Allah…? has been added to point out that the matter of salvation does not rest on the wish of a person or people but only on the grace and mercy of Allah Who has prescribed a law for it. This law the Quran proceeds to explain in the following two verses.

2:81; 5:19.

Commentary:

Both Jews and Christians persuaded themselves to believe that they would be safe against the punishment of the Hereafter, the Jews thinking themselves immune owing to their being the favoured ones of God on account of their being the descendants of His Prophets, and the Christians deluding themselves with the idea that Jesus, "the son of God", had washed away their sins with his supposed death on the cross. The false notion of each proved their ruin.

16:87.

Commentary:

The expression مودة بینکم may be interpreted as follows:

(1) Social relations or the desire to win each other’s love and not reason or sound arguments are the basis of your idolatrous ideals and practices; or

(2) you have made your idolatrous beliefs and practices the foundation of your love with each other, i.e. you have made the identity of your idolatrous beliefs the means to preserve the homogeneity of your community; or

(3) your idolatrous practices have proceeded from your love of each other, i.e. first you conceived love and affection for some persons and then let that love degenerate into their worship.

8:13; 59:3.

Commentary:

The words, because they associate partners with Allah, signify that he who associates gods with Allah can never be truly brave, for he lacks complete devotion to anyone. It is only complete devotion that can inspire a person to make sacrifices. As a believer is completely devoted to the One God, therefore, he is ever ready to make every kind of sacrifice in His cause.

Moreover, it is through lack of perseverance that idolaters go from one god to another, and perseverance is an essential concomitant of bravery. Where there is no perseverance, there is no bravery. Again, idolaters are rebels in setting up gods with Allah and a rebel’s heart is never at rest; and a heart that is not at ease cannot be brave. Yet again, polytheism springs from superstitious fear and one possessed of that sort of fear can never be truly brave.

It should, however, be remembered that it is only relative bravery that is meant here; otherwise, even among idolaters and polytheists, there are men who possess bravery and courage, but their courage and bravery is inferior to that of true believers who put faith in One God and believe in His great powers and in the life after death.

5:33; 14:10; 40:84.

Commentary:

The enemies of truth never admit their defeat. They continue to seek new pretexts for refusing to believe in it. When the Jews were told that they had opposed the Prophets of God through covetousness (3:181-182), they retorted by saying that they did not oppose Muslims through covetousness but because, animals unlike them, the Muslims devoured even that which they offered as sacrifices, instead of burning them at the altar according to the Jewish Law (Lev. 1:11-17). Thus, it was not they but the Muslims who were greedy and covetous and they could not, therefore, consistently with the Law of Moses, accept the Prophet who did not observe that Law.

The Quran answers this objection by saying that the observance of the law about burnt offerings was no criterion to test the truth of a Prophet, because that could easily be done by an impostor. It was البینات (clear signs) only that demonstrated and established the truth of a claimant. But even if observance of burnt offerings was the criterion of a true Prophet, the Jews had no right to raise an objection; for in that case the question arose, why did they reject those Prophets who strictly conformed to that law? The fact that the Jewish demand referred to in the words, that which you speak of, has been mentioned in the verse separately from clear signs, shows that what the Jews spoke of was not a miracle, but that they were only referring to the law about burnt offerings, and not to the miracle of fire descending from heaven to consume a sacrifice, as is generally but wrongly believed.

4:172; 5:18; 9:30.

5:118; 19:37.

Commentary:

That Jesus taught the Israelites to worship God alone is apparent even from the Gospels in their present distorted form (e.g. Matt. 4:10; Luke 4:8). Also see 5:18.

7:39-40; 10:29; 34:32.

Important Words:

معشر (company) is derived from عشر. They say عشر المال i.e. he took one-tenth of the property. عشرھم means, he took one from among them, they being ten. عشرة and عشر mean, ten. معشر means, a company; a collective body; a community; a family. It is so called because a company or community consists of many individuals, the word عشرة (ten) being that large and perfect number after which there is no number but what is composed of the units comprised in it (Lane).

الجن (jinn) is derived from جن (janna). They say جنه i.e. he veiled, concealed, hid, covered or protected him or it. That is the primary significance which is retained in all the derivations of the word. Thus a garden is known as جنة (jannat) because its trees cover or conceal the ground. A child in its mother’s womb is known as جنن because it lies concealed in the womb. The heart is known as جنان because it lies concealed in the bosom. A grave is known as جنن because it conceals the dead body. The piece of cloth worn by a woman is known as جنة (junnah) because it covers her head and bosom. A shield is known مجنة as because it covers and protects the fighter. Madness or insanity is known as جنون because it obscures and, as it were, veils the faculty of reason. A serpent is known as جان because it generally lies concealed in holes or dark corners. Similarly, جن (jinn) are so called because they are considered to be invisible bodies concealed from human sight. جن also means the prime or first part of a thing, probably because it covers or conceals the main body that follows (Lisan & Taj). For a fuller discussion of the word and an explanation of the jinn see note on 15:28. See also 6:101.

استکثرتم (you sought to make subservient to yourselves a great many) is derived from کثر which means, it was or became much or abundant or many or numerous. استکثر من الشیء means, he desired or wished much of the thing; or he reckoned it much, abundant or many (Lane). استکثرتم منھم signifies, you have misled many of them; or you have made many of them follow you; or you have made them subservient to yourselves (Kashshaf).

مثوی (abode) is derived from ثوی. They say ثوی بالمکان i.e. he remained, stayed, or abode in the place; or he stayed or dwelt long in it; he settled in the place; he alighted at the place. So مثوی means, a place where one remains, stays, dwells or abides; an abode or a dwelling; a place of alighting (Lane).

Commentary:

The verse definitely proves that at least here the Quran does not use the word jinn to signify a species other than mankind. The very words and the only possible signification of the verse contradict that sense. The word as used in this verse, which thus holds a sort of key position, cannot but mean great and powerful men as opposed to the weak and poor classes. The word جن as shown under Important Words is derived from a root which means to hide or conceal. As the beings properly known as jinn are hidden from the eyes of men, therefore, they have been called جن. The great men have also been called jinn because they very rarely mix with the general public and remain, as it were, hidden from them.

The sentence قد استکثرتم من الانس (you have sought to make subservient to yourselves a great many from among men) has two meanings: (1) you have taken to yourselves many from among the masses, i.e. you have won them over to your side and made them follow you and have thus misled them; (2) you have reckoned the masses to be many (as against God), i.e. you have attached more importance to the masses than to God; you did not accept the truth out of fear of the masses, lest they should desert you and cease to hold you in honour. It is indeed strange that just as the weak do not sometimes accept the truth out of fear of the great, lest they should inflict loss or pain on them, similarly the great are sometimes afraid of their humbler followers and do not accept the truth, fearing lest the latter should turn away from them and desert them. Heraclius, for instance, was convinced of the truth of the Holy Prophet but did not openly acknowledge it out of the fear of his subjects who, he thought, were bitterly opposed to Islam and would rebel against him, if he declared his faith (Bukhari).

The words, we profited from one another, imply that the friendships of disbelievers are also transitory and that they will fall out among themselves on the Day of Judgement. The poor will say: "We led lives of humiliation in subjection to the big ones who derived profit from us. So, o Lord, inflict upon them a double punishment." This also shows that the word jinn, here, does not refer to any creatures separate from human beings but to a special class of men; for if taken in that sense the above-quoted words cannot apply to them, for human beings do not profit from the genii nor the genii from human beings. It is only one class of man that profits by the other, i.e. the great profit by the poor and vice versa.

The words, The Fire is your abode, are addressed to the humble class of people who pleaded that they were merely tools in the hands of the great. They are told that no pleading can do them any good now, and that they must enter the Fire and remain there until God is pleased to deliver them therefrom. Both the big and the poor are alike guilty.

5:38; 22:23.

Commentary:

The reference in the word "fire" in this verse seems to be to the punishment which the sinners suffer in this life, possibly the punishment of war. The words, "every time they desire to come forth therefrom, they will be turned back into it," support this inference. The whole of humanity, particularly the materialistic Western nations, have gone to rack and ruin by constant wars. Millions of lives have been lost in these wars and many more men have been maimed and mutilated, and property beyond calculation has been destroyed. And yet like the sword of Democles the dread of more terrible wars is constantly hanging over humanity’s head.

Commentary:

The verse uses the words یکسبون (they earn) and not یعملون (they do) to point to the philosophy of sin. Only a wrongful act done deliberately or repeatedly deserves to be punished. He is not a sinner, delaying punishment, who in a state of passing forgetfulness and with no deliberate intention is guilty of a temporary moral lapse, nor is that person a sinner in the true sense of the word who falters and commits a sin but is immediately after seized with sincere remorse and repents of his action, and at once sets about mending his conduct. The subject has also been dealt with in 53:33.

Speaking of the punishment of sinners, the verse says, It is these whose abode is Fire. The word ماوی (abode) is used to signify a place which a person repairs to for lodging and which he looks upon as a refuge and an asylum (see 79:42). It seems strange that "Fire" should be spoken of as a refuge and an asylum, but the Quran has used this word in order to point to the real significance and true nature and purpose of Divine punishment, which is that the punishment of God is not meant to inflict pain but to heal. According to Islam, Hell is not a place of torture but a sort of reformatory or hospital. And just as a man, though disliking the pain caused by a surgical operation, submits to it gladly because he sees his own good in it. Similarly when sinners come to realize the real purpose of Divine punishment, they will look upon it as a place of refuge, i.e. a means of deliverance from the real punishment which is the displeasure of God and estrangement from Him. Thus, by using the word ماوی (abode) with regard to the fire of Hell the Quran means to point out that it is not with the intent of torture but a necessary means of purification.

17:19.

Commentary:

Disbelievers are here told that if they do not embrace Islam, they will of course not be deprived of worldly goods which they might have earned by the sweat of their brow, but they will surely remain deprived of God’s blessings.

The pronoun ھا (this) in فیھا (in this) may refer to either the present life mentioned in the previous verse or the Hereafter in the verse under comment. In the former case, the clause, that which they wrought in this life shall come to naught, would mean that, as they had been rewarded in the present life for the works which they did for this life, therefore these works would prove of no avail to disbelievers in the life to come. In the latter case, the clause would mean that, as their deeds for the present life were in accordance with the laws of God, therefore, they got their reward for them; but as the deeds which they did for the next life were in defiance of Divine laws, therefore they would do them no good and would fail to serve the purpose for which they were apparently meant.