جَآءَكُم

2:52; 4:154; 7:149, 153; 20:98.

See note on 2:55.

7:158; 64:9.

Commentary:

The word برھان (manifest proof) may either refer to the Quran with its great and manifest Signs, or to the person of the Holy Prophet who, by his personal example, demonstrated to the world that the Quranic teachings were a great blessing for mankind.

The words نورا مبینا (a clear light) may also either refer to the Holy Prophet or to the Quran which supplies the clearest of light for all spiritual wayfarers. The verse thus also incidentally constitutes a repudiation of the Christian dictum that the Shari‘ah is a curse.

5:20.

Important Words:

یعفو (passes over) is derived from عفا which gives a number of meanings for which see 2:110. Among others the word عفاmeans, it became effaced or obliterated; or He (God) effaced or obliterated (a sin, etc.), i.e. forgave and pardoned. عفوت عن الحق means, I have relinquished or given up my right or what was due to me. The word العفو is also used in the sense of التركi.e. the act of giving up or abandoning or leaving off or passing over (Taj).

Commentary:

The verse refers to the suppression of many noble teachings and great truths by the People of the Book and draws their attention to the fact that not only are many of the truths contained in the older Books being re-taught by the Holy Prophet of Islam but also many more are being revealed and new and wider avenues of guidance have been opened, though at the same time some laws and ordinances which proved burdensome to the previous peoples or were meant only for a specific period have not been embodied in the teachings of the new Faith.

The word "Light" at the end of the verse refers to the Holy Prophet, who elsewhere in the Quran has been called "a Bright Lamp" (33:47), because from him later Reformers were to receive the light of divine knowledge. It may also contain a reference to the fact that the Holy Prophet was the "Seal of the Prophets" (33:41) in the sense that he who followed him in the most perfect manner could receive even the gift of prophethood from God—a great truth laid bare by the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement. The Holy Prophet was, thus, a great spiritual light that could kindle other similar lights. But it must be clearly understood that since the Law of Islam is perfect in all respects and is meant for all ages to come, no other Book of Law can come after the Quran.

5:16.

Important Words:

فترة (interval) is the noun-infinitive from فتر. They say فترالشیء i.e. the thing remitted or became allayed or abated or still after vehemence; or it became gentle after violence. They say فترعن عمله i.e. he flagged or became remiss or languid in his work. فترالحر means, the heat abated or flagged after being intense and vehement. فترة means, languor or remissness; weakness or feebleness; an interval of time between two things; an interval of time between two Prophets during which there is a cessation of prophetic revelation (Aqrab & Lane).

Commentary:

As generally believed, no Prophet appeared among Jews and Christians after Jesus. According to some historians, however, three Prophets did appear after Jesus, and according to Kalbi, Jesus was followed by four Prophets, one of them, Khalid bin Salam, appearing in Arabia. It was with regard to Khalid bin Salam that the Holy Prophet is reported to have said, "He was a Prophet to whose message his people paid no heed" (Muhit). Whatever the truth, the Holy Prophet was preceded by a period of فترة or cessation of Prophethood, no Prophet of God having appeared immediately before him.

The expression, lest you say, there has come to us no bearer of glad tidings and no warner, points to the important truth that God never visits a people with punishment unless He first sends a Messenger to them (17:16), because if punishment overtakes men without the appearance of a Messenger, they can justifiably say that they are being punished without being told what their offence is and without being given the opportunity to repent and mend their ways. In the present age too the world has been visited with calamities of diverse kinds on an extraordinary scale. A Messenger, therefore, must have come. He has indeed come in the fulness of the time in the person of Ahmad, the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement.

7:204.

Commentary:

The word بصائر (proofs) also helps to explain the words, He reaches the eyes, occurring in the preceding verse and signifies that God reveals proofs by means of which man becomes able to know Him. By "proofs" is here meant the divine signs and evidences sent by God.

The words, whoever sees, mean, whoever makes use of his reason after proofs have been revealed to him by God. Similarly the words, whoever becomes blind, refer to such persons as shut their eyes to all truth and virtually make themselves blind.

The duty of the Holy Prophet described in the words, I am not a guardian over you, is only to convey what is revealed by God; it is not his responsibility to compel people to believe in God. Thus, the verse also provides a refutation of the baseless charge that Islam countenances compulsion in the propagation of religion.

35:43.

6:22; 7:38; 10:18.

Commentary:

The words, better guided, are either intended to express a possible idea on the part of the Arabs that the "two peoples" mentioned above did not faithfully act on Divine teachings or they merely express a possible feeling of regret that whereas others were granted Divine guidance, they were not. It must be said to the credit of the Arabs that when the Quran was revealed to the Holy Prophet, those of them that accepted it did follow it much more faithfully than the "two peoples" referred to above or for that matter any other people. Thus, when the Holy Prophet was attacked by the Quraish of Mecca at Badr and he summoned a council of his followers to consult them, the latter told him without demur that they would not, like the companions of Moses, say to him, Go, thou and thy Lord, and fight and here we sit (5:25), but would fight in his front and fight at his back and fight on his right and fight on his left, meaning that the enemy would not be permitted to reach him except over their dead bodies (Bukhari, ch. on Maghazi).

7:40; 14:22; 28:64; 40:49.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that Prophets have been coming in the world from time immemorial but men are so constituted that whenever a Prophet came they rejected and opposed him and when he died they said that no more Prophets would come and that the door of revelation was shut forever. This attitude of disbelievers has led to the rejection of every Prophet.

69:45, 47.

Commentary:

It seems that under the influence of Pharaoh’s wife who was a very righteous woman (66:12) some other members of his household had also believed in Moses and the "believing man" might have been one of them. The good man kept his faith concealed in order to give expression to it on a suitable occasion. The bold manner in which he expressed his belief and spoke to the people of Pharaoh shows that the concealment was not due to fear.

The verse also embodies an infallible criterion to test the truth of the claim of a Divine Reformer viz. that (1) a forger of lies is never allowed to grow and prosper and that (2) the opponents of a Divine Reformer do not go unpunished.

3:119; 4:145; 5:58.

17:77.

Commentary:

The prohibitory injunction contained in the verse is of a very strict character. Muslims are not to have friendly relations with the avowed enemies of God—those who drove out the Prophet and the Muslims from their hearths and homes and sought to destroy Islam. The prohibition is all-comprehensive in this respect that no consideration of bonds or ties of even the nearest blood relationships is allowed to interfere with it. The enemy of Islam is God’s enemy, whosoever he may be.

The immediate occasion of the revelation of the verse under comment was that when the Quraish did not honour the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah, and the Holy Prophet had to take stern punitive action against them, Hatib bin Abi Balta‘h had written a secret letter to the Meccans informing them of the Holy Prophet’s intended march on Mecca. The Prophet, informed by revelation about it sent ‘Ali, Zubair and Miqdad, in search of the bearer of the letter. They overtook the messenger—she was a woman—on the way to Mecca and the letter was brought back to Medina. Hatib’s offence was extremely grave. He had sought to divulge an important State secret. He deserved exemplary punishment. Incidentally, the episode of the letter fixes the date of revelation of the Surah.