كَذَّبَ

16:36; 24:55; 36:18.

Commentary:

After citing the cases of Noah and Abraham, the Surah proceeds to comfort the Holy Prophet that if he has been rejected and accused of falsehood, great Prophets before him like Noah and Abraham were also rejected.

6:22; 10:18; 39:33.

18:103; 33:9; 48:14.

Commentary:

This verse reverts to the central theme of the Surah, viz. the truth of the claim of the Holy Prophet as a Divine Messenger, and sums up the argument to support and substantiate it. The argument is to the effect, (1) that a false claimant must eventually come to a sad end, and (2) that the rejecters and deniers of Divine Messengers never thrive and prosper.

6:94; 7:38; 10:18; 11:19; 61:8.

Commentary:

This verse mentions the third way by means of which God bears witness. This kind of testimony is based on human reason. Every sane man will testify that if a person claims to speak in the name of God while God has not spoken to him, and he forges lies against Him, such a person is one of the greatest culprits and God must bring him to naught; for if impostors are allowed to prosper like true Prophets, there will remain no criterion to distinguish the true from the false, and the truth will be lost. So, in order to distinguish between the true and the false, God must bring to naught the false claimant. Thus the hard fact that God is helping the Prophet of Islam and causing him to prosper in the teeth of all opposition and against heavy odds is a clear testimony from God to his being a true Prophet.

On the other hand, those who reject true Prophets and treat them as impostors are also among the greatest culprits who, by reason of their opposing God’s Messengers and leaving no stone unturned to bring to naught the movement set on foot by them, must incur God’s anger; and, instead of being permitted to destroy the heavenly movement, must themselves be destroyed. Thus, not only by granting success to the Holy Prophet but also by bringing about the destruction of his enemies God is bearing witness to his truth.

16:36; 43:21

Commentary:

Being unable to answer the arguments given against idolatry and man-made laws in the foregoing passage, idolatrous Arabs had recourse to the trite plea in support of idol-worship: If Allah had pleased, we could not have joined gods with Him. From this they inferred that attributing co-partners to God was in accordance with God’s will. The Quran gives four answers to this plea, two in the present verse and two in the next. The first answer is contained in the words: In like manner did those who were before them accuse God’s Messengers of falsehood, until they tasted of Our wrath. These words signify that this plea of theirs is not a new one. The same plea was brought forward by those gone before. If this plea was true, and the act of setting up associate with God was in accordance with God’s will, why should He have punished the previous peoples? The very fact that God punished them for their associating gods with Him shows that this act of theirs was not in accordance with His will. The second answer is contained in the words: Have you any knowledge? Then produce it for us. You follow nothing but mere conjecture. And you do nothing but lie, i.e. you possess no argument based on true knowledge to support your assertion; what you say is mere conjecture. The remaining two answers are given in the next verse.

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).

6:22; 10:18; 11:19; 61:8.

6:23; 40:74-75.

6:131.

Commentary:

The verse gives the reasons why the rejecters of Divine Messengers deserve severe punishment. People incur the wrath of God because they treat His Messenger as a liar and reject the heavenly signs he brings with him. Indeed, impostors and the rejecters of true Messengers are equally doomed and can never escape the punishment ordained for them.

The words, who shall have their lot as ordained, mean that the rejecters of God’s Messengers will see before their very eyes the fulfilment of the prophecies foretelling their defeat and discomfiture and shall taste of the punishment promised to them for opposing God’s Messengers.

6:22; 11:19; 61:8.

Commentary:

This verse brings to light two eternal truths. The first of these is that both those who fabricate lies against God and those who reject and oppose His Messengers are highly unjust and can never escape God’s punishment. The second is that impostors and false prophets cannot succeed in fulfilling the object of their mission. It is indeed possible that a false prophet may temporarily succeed in securing a number of followers or in amassing wealth. But even in this case he will not be regarded as having succeeded in fulfilling his mission, because the amassing of wealth or the securing of a number of followers has never been the mission of a Prophet of God. The true mission of a Divine Messenger is either to introduce and establish a new Law or to strengthen the old one, and unless he succeeds in achieving this object, he cannot be said to have been successful in his mission. This is a criterion the truth of which cannot legitimately be disputed or denied. The apparent failure of a true Prophet like John the Baptist or the apparent success of a claimant like Baha’ullah can be fully explained with the help of this touchstone. John came with the mission of announcing the coming of the Messiah, which was in the nature of strengthening the old Law, and he was successful in that mission. On the other hand, Baha’ullah, even if he be taken to have come only as a Divine Messenger and not as God’s incarnation as he declared himself to be, claimed to have brought a new law that was to replace the Quranic Dispensation and therein he utterly failed, for his law has not been truly established even in a single household, not to speak of a whole people or country.

27:85.

Commentary:

The verse means that it is no wonder that disbelievers look upon the Quran as a fabrication (see the preceding verse). When a man does not understand a thing fully, he is prone to deny it. As disbelievers did not comprehend the Quranic teaching and found it to be contradictory to many of their confirmed views and cherished notions, they rejected it forthwith. The words, they have rejected that the knowledge of which they did not compass, may also mean, "they hastened to reject the Quran before even trying to understand it or knowing its true significance."

The words, nor has the true significance thereof yet come to them, may lead some to think that if a long period must elapse before the reality and true significance of some of the things promised by the Prophets could be known, then it would not be wrong to disbelieve in them in the beginning when that reality could not yet be known. But such an inference would be manifestly wrong. The verse does not mean that in the beginning the Prophets do not possess those proofs and arguments which can help seekers after truth to know and recognize their truth. What it means is that those who, in spite of witnessing signs which go to establish the truth of a Prophet, attach importance to certain other matters to which they wrongly give undue weight, should not be in a hurry to deny the truth of the Prophet on that score only but should wait till those matters about which they entertain doubts are clarified.

The Rev. Mr. Wherry, quoting Brinkman, says that on the basis of this verse no blame could attach to the Meccans for rejecting the Quran, because, according to the Quran itself, they were not yet in full possession of the required knowledge. But the reverend gentleman did not trouble to consider that it is one thing to be unable to possess full knowledge about a certain thing and quite another not to try to acquire such knowledge. The Quran does not say that disbelievers were unable to get sufficient knowledge by which they could know the truth of the Holy Prophet, but that they never tried to acquire such knowledge and rejected him on the ground that he was a common man like themselves.

Important Words:

اصحاب الحجر (People of the Hijr). حجر is derived from حجر (hajara) which means, he prevented or hindered or interdicted. See also 2:75. حجر (Hijr) means, forbidden, unlawful, inviolable or sacred; garden or walled garden of palm-trees prohibited to the public; a fortress; a wall of stones built round a house; the place round which such a wall is made; relationship that prohibits marriage; understanding or intelligence, because it forbids that which it does not behove one to do; bosom or breast; figuratively also protection. The word also means, the country or land of Thamud (Lane, Aqrab & Mufradat).

Commentary:

Hijr lay between Tabuk and Medina. Here lived the people of Thamud to whom Salih was sent as a Warner. The city of this tribe appears to have been largely built of stones. It was surrounded by a stone wall and ramparts. Hence this name.

It is worthy of note that though only one Prophet, Salih appears to have been sent to these people, in the verse under comment they are condemned as having rejected the Messengers of God. The same expression has been used in 26:106, 124, 142, 161 & 177 where the tribes mentioned are said to have rejected all Prophets, while as a matter of fact each one of these different tribes rejected only a particular Prophet who was sent to them. This shows that in the sight of God the rejection of one Prophet means the rejection of all because, first, the basic teachings of all Divine Messengers are the same and so the rejection of one Prophet implies the rejection of all others, and, secondly, the rejection of a Prophet implies rejection of God, Who is the Sender of all Prophets. This is why Jesus warned the Jews that by rejecting him they were rejecting Moses; for if they had really believed in Moses, they should not have hesitated to accept him (John 5:46). This is true of all Prophets and Messengers of God. He who rejects the Prophet of his own day shows by his act of rejection, that if he had lived in the time of any other Prophet, he would have rejected him also. Hence it is that the rejection of one Prophet, according to the Quran, is tantamount to the rejection of all Prophets and the acceptance of one is tantamount to the acceptance of all of them. See also 2:137, 286; 3:85 & 4:153.

The next few verses of the present Surah and some opening verses of the following Surah embody mighty prophecies and deal with subjects of very great import.

17:95; 18:56.

Important Words:

ظلموا بھا (unjustly rejected it). The word ظلم means, (1) he did wrong; or acted wrongfully, unjustly or tyrannically, (2) he put a thing in a wrong place or in a place not its own. They say من اشبه اباہ فما ظلم i.e. whoso resembles his father, he has not put the likeness in a wrong place; (3) he made him suffer loss as in وما ظلمونا ولکن کانوا انفسھم یظلمون i.e. and they made not Us to suffer loss or detriment but it was themselves they made to suffer loss or detriment. ظلم الارض means, he dug the ground in what was not the place of digging. ظلمه also means, he imposed upon him a thing that was above his power or ability. The word is also used transitively by means of ب as in the Quranic words فظلموا بھا i.e. and they disbelieved in them (the Signs) or unjustly rejected them (Lane & Aqrab). See also 2:36, 52.

Commentary:

The verse beautifully states that heavenly signs will never cease to appear. It warns Muslims not to entertain such a foolish belief and proceeds to refute and demolish the only possible objection against the appearance of heavenly signs. The objection is: When the people to whom the signs were first shown did not profit by them, where was the warrant that their successors would do so? The arguments given in refutation of this objection are: (a) If the rejection of heavenly signs had been a reasonable ground, no Prophet after the very first Prophet—Adam––would have appeared. But this did not happen and fresh Prophets continued to appear in all ages and fresh signs continued to be shown at their hands, which showed that the rejection of signs never proved a barrier in the way of the appearance of new signs. (b) Prophets are sent in the world in order to warn wrongdoers of their transgressions and iniquities and of the impending Divine punishment in consequence of those iniquities. Any such punishment without a previous warning and without showing signs would be contrary to Divine mercy.

As an illustration of the claim that wrongdoers never go unpunished if they do not repent, special mention has been made of the tribe of Thamud because the Thamud were an Arab tribe and their history was a matter of common knowledge with pagan Arabs as well as with the Jews of Arabia.

6:35; 22:43; 40:6; 54:10.

16:45.

Commentary:

The verse continues the theme of the preceding verses and consoles and comforts the Holy Prophet by saying that it is a tragedy of human affairs that the very people who are called to God by their Prophets reject and persecute such Prophets, and that the Holy Prophet is not an exception to this rule. Like them he will receive mockery and abuse from his people.

Commentary:

The verse continuing the theme of the previous verse purports to say that whereas the believers are decreed to achieve eminence and glory, a dreadful punishment is in store for disbelievers. Their punishment is impending; nay it is at their very doors; but they do not see it and therefore refuse to believe it.

The word الساعة (the Hour) in the verse signifies the complete triumph of the cause of truth and the failure and frustration of disbelief. In fact the time of every Prophet has been called الساعة in the Quran, as at that time the old order dies and from its ruins emerges a new one.

16:27; 59:3.

15:79; 38:14; 50:15.

Important Words:

الایکة (the wood) is derived from the verb أیک (ayika). أیک الشجر means, the trees grew thick and formed a wood. الایکةmeans, a collection of numerous tangled or dense trees of the kind of lotus and wild berries; a thicket (Lane & Aqrab). See also 15:79.

Commentary:

The word الایکة seems to refer to Midian in the neighbourhood of which there existed tangled and luxuriant trees after which these people or a section thereof were called اصحاب الایکة. Midian lay in the Sinai Peninsula, a few miles from the sea. It was originally the name of a tribe who were descended from Abraham through Katurah and who had settled in the locality known after their ancestor Midian, son of Katurah.

The fact that according to the Quran the Prophet Shu‘aib was sent both to اصحاب الایکة i.e. People of the Wood and اصحاب مدین i.e. People of Midian (7:86 & 11:85) shows that both these were the names of two sections of the same people, Shu‘aib particularly belonging to the section known as مدین, because where in the Quran he is stated as having been sent to صدین he is described as "their brother" and where he is mentioned as having been sent to اصحاب الایکة the words "their brother" are omitted.

Further evidence of the close relationship of the "People of the Wood" with the "People of Midian" is furnished by the fact that identical faults have been ascribed in the Quran to both. Compare 26:182-184, 7:86 & 11:85-86. It may further be noted that Midian was both the name of the tribe and the town in which they lived. It was situated at the head of the gulf of Aqaba and near it was the wilderness or Aikah abounding in dwarf trees of the species of wild plumbs and affording shelter to camels, sheep and goats. See also 15:79.

15:80; 26:190; 50:15.

Commentary:

The Meccan disbelievers are here warned that people wealthier and much stronger than they had lived before them. They rejected and opposed their Prophets with the result that they were destroyed. If they (the Meccans) opposed the Holy Prophet they also will meet a similar fate.

15:79; 26:177; 38:14.

15:80; 26:140; 38:15.

Commentary:

For اصحاب الأیکة (Dwellers of the Wood) see 15:79 and for the People of Tubba‘ 44:38. The verse purports to say that the above-mentioned peoples were warned by their respective Prophets that if they rejected them, they would be punished in this world and would also have to account for their sins in the next. The first warning was literally fulfilled and, therefore, the second one is also bound to be fulfilled.

74:47.

20:49.

Commentary:

کذب (rejects the truth) signifies that the sinful disbeliever holds wrong beliefs and تولی implies that he does not make use of right feeling, right thinking and right actions. Thus he is deprived of these qualities.

Commentary:

کذب (rejects) relates to beliefs and تولی (turns his back) to actions and deeds, meaning that his beliefs are wrong and his deeds bad.