يَٰلَيْتَنِى

68:20.

68:32.

Important Words:

یقلب کفیه (began to wring his hands). یقلب is formed from قلب (qallaba) which is derived from قلب (qalaba). قلبه means, he turned it over or upside down. فاصبح یقلب کفیه means, And he began to turn his hands upside-down or to do so repeatedly in grief or regret; or he became in a state or condition of repenting or grieving, for تقلیب الکفین is the action of a man who is repenting or grieving, and therefore metonymically denotes repentance or grief (Lane). See also 2:145 & 9:48.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that all the efforts and endeavours of Christian peoples to add to their material wealth and power will fail to produce any wholesome results. These efforts will end in smoke and their power and prestige will speedily decline. In the hour of their misery and desolation the western Christian nations will lament that they had expended so much labour and money on the illusory things of this life.

The words, it had all fallen down on its trellises, show that these people will be given to erecting lofty and imposing buildings and that the calamities which will befall them in quick succession will raze their prosperous and rich cities to the ground and their eleventh-hour repentance will avail them nothing. The verse incidentally shows that the word 'garden' used in these verses is not used literally because gardens do not fall down upon their trellises.

Important Words:

مخاض (pains of childbirth) is derived from مخض. They say مخض اللبن i.e. he churned the milk and took the butter out of it. مخض الشیء means, he violently agitated the thing.مخضت المرأة means, the woman suffered the pains of childbirth. مخاض means, the pains of childbirth (Lane & Aqrab).

منسیاً(a thing forgotten) is derived from نسی (nasiya). نسیا لشیء means, he forgot the thing. نسیاًmeans, anything forgotten or worthy of being forgotten or anything that must be forgotten. It also means, one who is counted for nothing, who is despised; a thing which the members of a caravan leave behind as worthless or of little use or importance. منسیاً also means, a thing that is forgotten or neglected. The use of these two words together in this verse denoting the same sense is intended to intensify the sense of forgetting or neglect (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

As it appears from the Gospels there was no room in the inn in which Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary must have stayed in the open field and Mary might have betaken herself to the trunk of a palm-tree in order to take rest under its shade and possibly also to find some support in her throes of childbirth.

The words, 'had become a thing quite forgotten' indicate the extreme severity of the pains of childbirth. In the case of first delivery the throes of childbirth ordinarily are extremely severe and in the intensity of pain women generally give utterance to some such words as those spoken by Mary.

33:67; 67:11.

Important Words:

لیتنی (would that I). لیت is a word denoting a wish (signifying would that...; I wish that...), generally relating to a thing that is impossible, rarely possible; governing the subject in the accusative case and the predicate in the nominative case. They say لیت زیدا ذاھب i.e. would that Zaid were going. Sometimes it is used as doubly transitive, putting both the subject and the predicate in the accusative case. They say لیت زیداً قائما i.e. would that Zaid were standing. It is used to give intensiveness to the meaning. لیتنی فعلت کذا و کذا means, would that I had done so and so (Lane).

Commentary:

This and the following two verses depict the feeling of humiliation and regret that overwhelmed the disbelievers on the day of Badr. These verses may have general application also.

56:42-43; 84:11-13.

Commentary:

To be given one’s record in one’s left hand, in Quranic terminology represents failure in a test. Elsewhere in the Quran (56:42) the guilty have been described as "fellows of the left hand."

4:43.

Commentary:

"The punishment which is near at hand," seems to refer to the punishment which is meted out to the sinful disbelievers in this world. Elsewhere in the Quran (32:22) this punishment has been described as العذاب الادنی (nearer punishment) as against العذاب الاکبر (the greater punishment) which is punishment in the Hereafter. This nearer punishment took the form of the defeats which the disbelievers suffered at the hands of Muslims, and finally that of the Fall of Mecca when the cup of their utter mortification and humiliation became full to the brim. The verse gives a befitting picture of the state of mind of the Quraish leaders on that day.