عَلَىَّ

Commentary:

Solomon’s letter constitutes a beautiful specimen of how great and comprehensive meaning can be condensed in a few brief words devoid of all useless bombast and verbosity. The letter was at once a warning against the futility of revolt which seemed to be then raising its head in some parts of the country and an invitation to the Queen to submit to Solomon to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and also to give up idolatry and accept the true faith.

Commentary:

The verse shows Moses as saying, "My Lord! Thou hast always been Gracious to me, so in my gratitude to Thee for Thy favour, I promise that I will always help the oppressed as I did on the last occasion, and will never take sides with the oppressors." Or it may mean, "My Lord, since Thou hast given me an opportunity to help an oppressed man and thus hast done me a great favour, so in gratitude for Thy favour I will always help the poor and the oppressed." Or the verse may mean, "My Lord, since Thou hast been always kind and gracious to me, how can I be a helper and supporter of the oppressors?"

Commentary:

The verse shows that Solomon was seeing a horse parade and in order to show his admiration for his horses he stroked their necks and legs.

Important Words:

لیبطئن (tarries behind) is derived from بطؤ meaning, he was or became slow, late or backward. بطأ means, it made him slow, late or backward. But بطأ is also used intransitively, as in the tradition من بطأبه عمله i.e. he whom his evil deeds hold back (lit. he whose evil deeds keep back along with him). So بطأ would mean, (1) he held back or tarried behind, and (2) he made others hold back and tarry behind (Aqrab, Lane, Mufradat & Kashshaf).

Commentary:

This verse refers to the internal enemies of Islam. It gives two characteristics of hypocrites: (1) they fail to march out with Muslims and are glad to do so; (2) they do not share with Muslims their joys and sorrows. They are more anxious about their own selves than about the success of Islam. If Muslims meet with trouble, they rejoice that they themselves escaped it by remaining behind, and exultingly remind Muslims of the advice which they gave them and by acting against which the Muslims came to grief, as they did after the Battle of Uhud.

It is worthy of note here that though in connection with the Battle of Uhud, the Holy Prophet himself was at first in favour of fighting the enemy by staying in Medina, he did not rebuke the Muslims when they suffered a reverse by telling them that they had met with a disaster by going against his wish. But the hypocrites did taunt the Muslims that they had suffered defeat by defying their advice. It is for this taunting that the hypocrites have been reprimanded in this verse, because such a course, if allowed, is calculated to prove detrimental to the cause of communal unity and concord.

Commentary:

The present verse explains the preceding verse in which it is said that Satan would not succeed in seducing God’s chosen servants. It tells us how men can become God’s "chosen servants" spoken of in the preceding verse and thereby become safe from satanic seduction. It lies on God, the verse purports to say, to show to men "His path" by revelation, and when they have seen this path, they proceed straight to God by treading it and Satan can then have no access to them. According to this sense of the verse the words صراط علی rendered in the text as, "a path to Me," would mean صراط بیانه علی i.e. a path the showing of which lies on Me. Indeed the chosen servants of God do not seek to find God’s path by the help of their intellect alone, but invoke His help at every step. He then comes to their aid and, consequently, they become safe against the seduction of Satan. The second meaning of the verse is obtained when the word علی (to Me) is read with the word مستقیم (straight) as rendered in the text. In this case, the verse would mean that the chosen servants of God proceed straight to God, i.e. they have immediate access to Him. They have not to spend their lives in bootless search after God. Their search for Him meets with immediate success and they spend the remainder of their lives in comprehending and realizing His attributes and in traversing the path that leads to that highest stage of spiritual development where they are wholly lost in God and become united with Him. Indeed, it is not possible for Satan to have access to the chosen servants of God because the risk of the holy pilgrim’s being misled by Satan remains only so long as he is in search of God. Once he has found access to Him, he is free from dangers and there remains for him only the gradual realization of God’s infinite attributes, at the end of which lies the stage when he sees God face to face and becomes His manifestation.

7:13; 15:34; 38:77.

7:17-18; 15:40.

Important Words:

ارءیتک (what thinkest thou?) is derived from رای i.e. he saw with the eyes and means, hast thou considered? tell thou me, tell me; thinkest thou? or what thinkest thou? (Lane). See also 10:51.

لاحتنکن (I will most surely bring under my sway) is derived from حنک. They say حنک الفرس i.e. he put a rope in the mouth of the horse. احتنک الجراد الارض means, the locusts ate what was upon the land and consumed its herbage. احتنکه means, (1) he put a rope in his mouth and led him; (2) he took the whole of his property; and (3) he gained the mastery over him. The Quranic expression لاحتنکن ذریته means, I will assuredly extirpate his progeny; or I will assuredly incline his progeny to obey me, or I will assuredly gain the mastery over his progeny (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

By "resurrection" is here meant not the great Resurrection that is to take place after death but the time when believers will have achieved success and disbelievers met with discomfiture.

It may also mean the spiritual resurrection which is experienced by every believer when his faith becomes perfect and Satan ceases to exercise control over him.

Whether or not Satan has succeeded in carrying out his threat in leading astray a vast majority of mankind is an important question which calls for an answer. A hurried and thoughtless glance over the state of good and evil in the world may lead one to the wrong conclusion that evil predominates in the world. But the truth is quite the reverse. If all the utterances of the greatest of liars were to be critically examined, the number of his truthful utterances will be found to be far exceeding his lies. So is the case with other evils. A great majority of people in the world are disposed to be good and virtuous. They commit moral excesses only in the heat of passion. Similarly, the number of the wicked people in the world is much smaller than that of the good and the virtuous. The fact that wickedness attracts such wide notice in itself constitutes proof positive of the fact that human nature is innately good and recoils at even a slight touch of evil. It is therefore wrong to suppose that Satan has succeeded in carrying his threat into actual fact.

The dialogue described here and in other verses of the Quran as having taken place between God and Satan never actually took place. It is only a representation of the state of things existing in the world. See also 2:35; 7:13-19 & 15:28-29.

3:41, 48; 19:22; 51:31.

Commentary:

The words, and indeed I created thee before, when thou wast nothing, primarily refer to the spiritual creation of Zachariah rather than to his physical creation. There seems to be no point in referring to an ordinary everyday physical phenomenon of the creation of one individual. If God had intended to refer to the phenomenon of physical creation, He would have referred to the creation of the whole universe and not to the creation of Zachariah alone. In fact, the present verse is an answer to the surprise of Zachariah expressed in the previous verses. Zachariah was promised the birth of a son in his extreme old age. The son was not to be an ordinary one but was to be possessed of great spiritual powers and to be peerless in respect of certain spiritual qualities. So the reference here is to the spiritual birth of Zachariah and to his great moral qualities.

The word "he" in the expression "he said", refers to the angel who brought the glad tidings to Zachariah. In verse 8 Zachariah is mentioned as having been addressed by God; in the present verse, however, he is described as having been addressed by one angel while in 3:40 it is stated that several angels called to him. These three statements seem to be mutually contradictory and the critics of Islam like Wherry have not failed to represent this fact as such. But in reality there is no such contradiction. According to the Quran when a Divine revelation of exceptional importance descends upon a Prophet of God, a number of angels, in accordance with the nature of its importance, are made to accompany it for its safeguarding (35:2) but only one angel representing all of them and on their behalf is entrusted with the duty to convey the Divine revelation to the Prophet. Thus the speaking of one angel means the speaking of all of them and therefore to say that one or many angels spoke to a Prophet makes no difference. Similarly, there is no contradiction in the words "God said" or "the angels said", because angels only speak to a Prophet as God’s representatives and as His servants convey to him the Divine Message.

3:41, 48; 19:22; 51:31.

Important Words:

مقضیا (decreed) is derived from قضی. They say قضی امراً i.e. he decreed or ordained or commanded the thing (Lane). See also 15:67.

Commentary:

The words, It is easy for Me, signify that a most unusual and apparently impossible thing such as to cause a child to be born without the instrumentality of a father is quite easy for God to bring about. The expression, that We may make him a Sign unto men, implies the fatherless birth of Jesus. That birth was indeed a great Sign for the Israelites. It pointed to the impending transition of prophethood from the House of Israel to that of Ishmael. It also constituted a warning to the Israelites in the sense that they had become spiritually so corrupt and morally so degenerate that no male among them was fit enough to become the father of a Prophet of God. So God decreed to bring about Jesus’ birth independently of a father. Jesus had an Israelite mother only and had no father. As the final step in the process of transition, however, the Great and Noble Messenger who was to follow him was to have neither an Israelite father nor an Israelite mother. He was to appear from another people, from among the Ishmaelites, the brethren of the Israelites, in accordance with the Divine promise made to Moses (Deut. 18:18). It is in this sense that Jesus has been spoken of as 'a Sign of the Hour' in the Quran (43:62), i.e. a Sign of the time when prophethood was to have passed from the Israelites to the Ishmaelites. See also Introduction to this Surah.

Jesus has also been spoken of 'as a mercy from Us.' He was a mercy from God in the sense that he taught meekness and humility to the Jews who had become hard-hearted and conceited to the core. He was also a mercy in the sense that he came as a forerunner of the Holy Prophet who himself 'was sent as a mercy for all the worlds' (21:108). Again Jesus was a divine mercy inasmuch as he paved the way for the revelation of the Quran which has also been referred to as 'a mercy from the Lord' (29:52; 43:33). But this use of the words, 'That We may make him a Sign unto men and a mercy from Us' should not be understood to entitle Jesus to any special spiritual status. Other persons and prophets of God have also been styled 'as a mercy and a Sign from God' in the Quran (2:260; 7:74; 10:93; 21:108).

The expression, and it is a thing decreed, means that God had decreed that a fatherless son would be born to Mary and that this Divine decree was irrevocable. The Quran has used two words قدر and قضا to express the sense of Divine decree. They are sometimes erroneously taken one for the other. But while قدر means designing or determining, قضی means decreeing. When a scheme or plan is only designed to be put into execution, it is called قدر but when it is decreed by God that it should be carried into actual effect, it is named قضاء. The fatherless birth of Jesus was a قضاء (Divine decree) of God and not a قدر.

19:16.

Commentary:

The words, and peace there will be on me the day I shall die, show that Jesus did not die on the cross, for death on the cross, according to the Bible, is an accursed death (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13). It cannot be said about a person who died an accursed death that he died a blessed and peaceful death. But the mere fact of a person being put on the cross or meeting a violent end does not conflict with the idea of peace and blessedness to which this verse refers. It is an accepted fact of history that the Prophet Yahya was murdered while in jail but the words "peace was on him the day he died" have also been used about him in v. 16 above. So these words have been used about Jesus and Yahya to show that both these Prophets succeeded in their missions, and a person who succeeds in his mission and whose work is carried on after his death and who is remembered with love and respect cannot be said to have suffered death or to have been deprived of "peace". Jesus has left behind him a large community of followers and Yahya’s name is remembered with love and respect. Thus both Jesus and Yahya died a blessed death and enjoy everlasting peace.

The words, peace was on me the day I was born may also be understood as containing a hint that the birth of Jesus was out of the ordinary. These words have also been used about Yahya in verse 16 above because his birth, too, took place in extraordinary circumstances. He was born when his father had reached an extremely old age and his mother was barren.

The expression, the day I shall be raised up to life again, may also imply: "The day when I shall be raised again in the form of another Prophet who will testify to my truth." The implied reference may be to the Holy Prophet who bore witness to the truth of Jesus.

28:34.

Important Words:

For ذنب see 3:17. According to Imam Raghib any error or fault which produces a harmful result and for which one is liable to account is ذنب. It may be deliberate or committed through inadvertence.

Commentary:

The words "they have a charge against me" show that the people of Pharaoh had charged Moses with the murder of an Egyptian, not that Moses was actually guilty of a deliberate murder.

The incident referred to here is mentioned in Exod. 2:11-15. In the Quran it is referred to in 28:16-21, where it is stated that it was not intentional murder. Moses was defending an Israelite whom an Egyptian was beating and in the scuffle the latter happened to be killed. The words "I fear that they may kill me", should not be understood to mean that Moses was afraid of death. He was afraid lest the Egyptians should kill him on the charge of his having killed an Egyptian, before he should have delivered his message and have fulfilled his mission which was dearer to him than life itself.

Commentary:

When Moses presented to Pharaoh the Divine Message and called upon him to accept it, Pharaoh began to recount the supposed evil deeds of Moses and accused him of ingratitude for the manifold favours which, he said, he had done to his people. The present verse constitutes a crushing reply from Moses’ mouth to Pharaoh’s impudent remark. Moses is described as saying to Pharaoh that he should be ashamed of referring to any good that he thinks he had done to his people as he (Pharaoh) had kept them for generations under the most debasing and degrading form of bondage which had killed in them all sense of dignity, initiative and ambition to rise to their full stature.

Important Words:

ضاحکا (laughed) is derived from ضحک which means, he laughed; he wondered; he was frightened. ضحکت المرأة means, the woman menstruated. ضحکت الطریق means, the way became clear. ضحکت الارض عن النبات means, the land brought forth its herbage (Lane & Aqrab). See also 11:72.

Commentary:

The entire wording of the verse shows that Solomon was extremely pleased with the good opinion a Namlite expressed about his own and that of his army’s power and piety. The implication in this account of Solomon is that rising from quite insignificant beginnings, the Holy Prophet will attain such prestige and power that he would be feared far and wide. The Prophet himself is reported to have said: نصرت بالرعب مسیرة شھر i.e. I have been helped with such prestige that people fear me from a distance of one month’s journey (Bukhari, Kitabul-Jihad).

6:152; 19:33; 29:9.

27:20.

Important Words:

أشد (full maturity) is derived from شد. They say شد الشیء i.e. he made the thing hard, firm, compact, strong, or he bound it fast. أشد (ashudd) means, physical and intellectual and also spiritual maturity as gives evidence of rectitude of conduct or course of life; firmness or soundness of judgement produced by experience. (Lane).

Commentary:

The word seems to have been used in the sense of spiritual maturity in the present verse and in 12:23; and in the sense of intellectual and physical maturity in 6:153 and 18:83. Generally, Divine Messengers are invested with their divine mission at the age of forty. The belief that Jesus was made a Prophet at the age of 33 seems to be an historical anachronism, as recent research into Christian history has proved his birth to have taken place about six years earlier than generally understood (Enc. Brit. under "Chronicle").

أوزعنی (grant me the power) is derived from وزع. They say وزع فلاناً او بفلان i.e. he hindered or led or drove forth such a one and restrained him; he urged or incited such a one. أوزع اللّٰه فلانا means, God inspired or granted such a one the power to do a thing. See also 27:18.

In verse 13 above a brief reference has been made to محسنین (doers of good). The present verse enjoins a believer to do good (احسان) to all his fellow beings, irrespective of caste, colour or clime, starting, however, with his parents, the mother having secured a special mention, as also in 31:15 because "she bears him with pain, and brings him forth with pain".

In 31:15, it was stated that the weaning of a child takes two years, but in the verse under comment the combined period of pregnancy and suckling is given as thirty months which leaves six months as the period of gestation, and that seems to be the period during which a pregnant woman feels the burden of pregnancy, the fourth month being the time when she begins to have such a feeling.

3:165.

Commentary:

True and sincere faith is the most precious possession of a Muslim. By accepting Islam he does no favour to anybody; on the contrary, it is a favour of God that one is guided to the Truth.