كَانُوا۟ يَكْسِبُونَ

Commentary:

The verse signifies that actually both the poor and the great are wrongdoers and it is on account of their sins that the poor become tools in the hands of the great.

This verse provides another proof of the fact that by the word جن (jinn) is here meant only a class of human beings, viz. the great and the powerful, for it is only one class of men that is set over the other. jinn as beings different from men have never been set over men, nor men over jinn.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the attitude of conceit and self-praise to which reference has been made in the previous verse has also proved the undoing of many a people in the past.

2:104; 5:66.

Commentary:

In this verse the words, the people of those towns, refer to all the different peoples mentioned in the foregoing verses. The verse is thus intended to sum up the given narration with a view to introducing the case of the people of the Holy Prophet’s time.

The words لفتحنا الخ rendered as, We would have surely opened for them blessings from heaven and earth, may signify: "We would have taught them wisdom or granted them knowledge from heaven as well as from earth". By earthly wisdom or knowledge is meant that wisdom or knowledge which a person acquires from personal observation or from his fellowmen; but the wisdom or knowledge from Heaven is that wisdom or knowledge which comes directly from God. The word "blessings" may also be taken in the physical sense. In this case blessings from heaven would mean, for example, timely rains, extraordinary success, the removal of diseases, etc., while blessings from the earth would signify, for example, abundant produce of land, peace and order, etc.

Commentary:

The word عمی (blindness) has been used here in the sense of blindness of the heart or mind.

Commentary:

The verse obviously does not contain a commandment. It only embodies a prophecy that the time was soon coming when the hypocrites would laugh little and weep much. This was meant as retribution for their evil deeds.

Commentary:

The words لتعرضوا عنھم (that you may leave them alone) mean, that you may pardon them and not call them to account, whereas the expression فاعرضوا عنھم (so leave them alone) means, turn yourselves away from them and have nothing to do with them. So the same word اعراض (leaving alone and turning away) has been used here in two different senses.

On his way back from Tabuk, one of those men, who had remained behind, met the Holy Prophet and offered excuses for not being able to go with him, but the Holy Prophet refused to listen to him. On the other hand, it is on record that in the case of some, he did accept their excuses on his return to Medina. This apparent disparity in the attitude of the Holy Prophet with regard to different persons may be explained by the fact that those who had stayed behind (hypocrites as well as believers) were of various types. The hypocrites were of three classes: (a) ‘Abdullah bin Ubayy and his party; (b) the hypocrites among the Arabs of the desert (9:90 above); and (c) the hypocrites who had built the Masjid Dirar with the intention of making it the centre of their activities against Islam (9:107 below). Similarly, the believers who had stayed behind were also of three classes: (1) those to whom the Quran has referred to in 9:91 above, i.e. the weak, the sick and the poor; (2) those who were not wholly inexcusable but who possessed no excuse valid enough to justify their staying behind (9:102 below); and (3) those who possessed no excuse at all. As these laggards belonged to different categories, therefore, they were treated differently.

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.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that though the people of Salih built big houses and huge buildings and felt themselves secure, yet actually these very buildings proved the means of their destruction, for the Divine punishment came upon them in the form of an earthquake, and so the hugeness of their buildings added to the severity of their calamity. The verse thus implies a strong warning for the enemies of the Holy Prophet to the effect that they should not rely on their wealth and possessions as a means of protection against the wrath of God, because when Divine punishment comes, material means and resources, instead of being a protection, actually prove the ruin of those who possess them.

17:37; 24:25; 41:21-23.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that when the guilt of disbelievers will be established and proved to the hilt they will become dumbfounded, their mouths will, as it were, become sealed and they will not be able to say anything in their defence and in extenuation of their guilt, and their hands and feet will also bear witness against them—these being the principal instruments of man’s actions, good or bad. Elsewhere the Quran says: "Their ears and their eyes and their skins will bear witness against them" 41:21.

Scientific research has established the fact that every action, even every spoken word, leaves its impression and is preserved in the atmosphere. Instruments are increasingly being invented which reveal and reproduce the nature and form of action or of spoken word. The speech and movements of a person can now be exactly reproduced by the tape-recorder and even on the screen by television, thousands of miles away. This is how the tongue and limbs of man even in this world have begun to bear witness for or against him.

16:37; 27:70; 30:43.

Commentary:

After having been reminded, in the last three verses, of the many Divine blessings and favours, the greatest of which is that God has revealed His will to mankind and has sent His Messengers to guide them, the disbelievers are warned in the present verse that if they refused to accept God’s Message and opposed His Messenger, they will be visited with Heavenly punishment as disbelievers were punished in the past.

Important Words:

لایرجون (fear not) is formed from رجا. They say رجا الشیء i.e. he hoped to get the thing; he feared the thing. The word رجا is used in the sense of hoping to get a thing when the thing hoped for is good and pleasant and fearing a thing that should be feared (Aqrab & Mufradat). See also 10:8.

ایام الله (days of Allah) means, the favours and punishment of God (Aqrab). See also 14:6.

Commentary:

The Surah under comment was revealed at Mecca in the early period of the Holy Prophet’s ministry when Islam was in a very weak state and Muslims were being persecuted. It was at that time that Muslims were enjoined to forgive those who persecuted them and who did not fear the punishment of God. The verse clearly embodied a great prophecy that the time was fast approaching when the persecutors of the poor and defenceless Muslims would be at the latter’s mercy. So Muslims were told in advance that in such an eventuality they should forgive their persecutors and forget the wrongs done to them, and leave them to God to deal with them as He, in His infallible wisdom, deemed fit.

The words ایام الله signify the days when God helped the Muslims against their enemies and punished the latter.

Important Words:

ران (has rusted). ران الثوب means, the garment was or became rusty or covered with rust, dust, or filth. ران ھواہ علی قلبه means, his evil desire covered or overcame his heart. رین means, rust that overspreads the sword; dirt, filth or soil (Lane & Aqrab).