["Blessed is He[1] in Whose Hand is the dominion of the Universe,[2] and Who has power over everything;[3]###[1] Tabaraka is a superlative from barkat. Barkat comprehends the meanings of exaltation and greatness, abundance and plentiful, permanence and multiplicity of virtues and excellences. When the superlative tabaraka is formed from it, it gives the meaning that Allah is infinitely noble and great. He is superior to everything beside Himself in His essence and attributes and works. His beneficence is infinite, and His excellences are permanent and everlasting. (For further explanation, see ( E.N. 43 of Surah Al-Aaraf);  (E.N. 1-4 of Surah Al-Muminoon); (E.Ns 1 and 19 of Surah Al-Furqan). \t [2] As the word al-Mulk has been used, it cannot be taken in any limited meaning. Inevitably, it would imply sovereignty over everything that exists in the universe. In Whose hand is the dominion does not mean that He has physical hands, but that He is possessor of all power and authority and no one else has any share in it. \t [3] That is, He can do whatever He wills, nothing can frustrate or hinder Him from doing what He pleases.","Who created death and life that He might try you as to which of you is better in deed.[1] He is the Most Mighty, the Most Forgiving;[2]###[1] That is, the object of giving life to man in the world and causing his death is to test him to see which of them is best in deeds. Allusion has been made in this brief sentence to a number of truths: \t [2] (1) That life and death are given by Allah, no one else can grant life nor cause death.","Who created the seven heavens one upon another.[1] You will see no incongruity in the Merciful One's creation.[2] Turn your vision again, can you see any flaw?[3]###[1] For explanation, see( E.N. 34 of Surah Al-Baqarah); ( E.N. 2 of Surah Ar-Raad); ( E.N. 8 of Surah Al-Hijr); ( E.N. 113 of Surah Al-Hajj);(E.N. 15 of Surah Al-Muminoon); (E.N. 5 of Surah As-Saaffat); (E.N. 90 of Surah Al-Mumin). \t [2] Literally, tafawut is disproportion: two things being out of accord and in disagreement with each other. So, the divine words mean: You will not see any indiscipline, any disorder and discordance anywhere in the universe, there is nothing disjointed and out of proportion in this world created by Allah: all its parts are well connected and in perfect harmony and coordination. \t [3] The word futoor means a crack, rift, fissure, or a thing’s being split and broken. The verse means to say that the whole universe is so closely well-knit and everything in it, from a particle on the earth to the huge galaxies, so well connected and coherent that the continuity of the system of the universe seems to break nowhere, however hard one may try to probe and investigate. (For further explanation, see (E.N. 8 of Surah Qaf).","Then turn your vision again, and then again; in the end your vision will come back to you, worn out and frustrated.","We have adorned the lower heaven[1] with lamps,[2] and have made them a means to drive away the satans.[3] We have prepared for them the chastisement of the Blazing Fire.###[1] The world’s heaven: the heaven the stars and planets of which can be seen with the naked eye; the objects beyond that which can be seen only through telescopes are the distant heaven; and the heavens still farther away are those which have not yet been seen even with telescopes. \t [2] The word masabih in the original has been used as a common noun, and therefore, automatically gives the meaning of the lamp’s being splendid and glorious. It means: We have not created this universe dark, dismal and desolate, but have beautified and decorated it with stars, the glory and grandeur of which at night strike man with amazement. \t [3] This does not mean that the stars themselves are pelted at the Satans, nor that the meteorites shoot out only to drive away the Satans, but it means that the countless meteorites which originate from the stars and wander in space at tremendous speeds and which also fall to the earth in a continuous shower prevent the Satans of the earth from ascending to the heavens. Even if they try to ascend heavenward these meteorites drive them away. This thing has been mentioned here because the Arabs believed about the soothsayers, and this also was the claim made by the soothsayers themselves, that the Satans were under their control, or that they had a close contact with them, and through them they received news of the unseen, and thus, could foretell the destinies of the people. That is why at several places in the Quran, it has been stated that there is absolutely no possibility for the Satans ascending to the heavens and bringing news of the unseen. (For explanation, see (E.Ns 9-12 of Surah Al-Hijr), (E.Ns 6, 7 of Surah As- Saaffat).","The chastisement of Hell awaits those who disbelieve in their Lord.[1] What a wretched destination!###[1] That is, the fate of all those, whether men or Satans, who disbelieve in their Lord. (For the explanation of the meaning of disbelieving in the Lord (Rabb), see( E.N 161 of Surah Al-Baqarah);(E.N. 178 of Surah An-Nisa);(E.N. 39 of Surah Al-Kahf);(E.N. 3 of Surah Al-Momin).","When they will be cast into it, they will hear it roar as it boils,[1]###[1] The word shahiq is used for producing a cry like the donkey’s braying. The sentence may also mean that it could be the sound of Hell itself, as well as that it would be the sound coming from Hell, where the people already flung into it would be screaming and crying. This second meaning is supported by(Surah Houd, Ayat 106), where it has been said: Therein they will pant and hiss (because of thirst), and the first meaning is confirmed by (Surah Al- Furqan, Ayat 12), which says: When the Hell will see them from afar, they will hear the sounds of its raging and roaring. On this basis, the correct meaning is that it would be the noise made both by Hell and by the dwellers of Hell.","as though it will burst with rage. Every time a multitude is cast into it, its keepers will ask them: “Did no warner come to you?”[1]###[1] The real nature of this question will not be of a question that the keepers of Hell would like to ask them whether a warner from Allah had come to them or not, but the object would be to make them realize that no injustice had been done to them by casting them into Hell. They would try to make them confess that Allah had not kept them uninformed and unwarned. He had sent the Prophets to them. He had informed them of the truth and of the right way. He had warned them that if they followed a way other than the right way, it would lead them to Hell, in which they had been cast. But they had not listened to the Prophets. Hence, they rightly deserved the punishment which was being meted out to them at that time.","They will say: “Yes, a warner came to us, but we gave the lie to him and said: 'Allah has revealed nothing. You are surely in huge error.'[1]###[1] That is, not only you but the people who have believed in and followed you also are misguided and lost in grave error.","They will say: 'If we had only listened and understood,[1] we would not be among the inmates of the Blazing Fire.'”###[1] If we had listened or understood: If we had listened to the Prophets with attention as seekers after truth or used our intellect to understand what actually was the message they were presenting before us. Here listening has been given priority over understanding, the reason being that the pre-requisite of obtaining guidance is to listen to what the Prophet teaches, or to read if it is in the written form, like a seeker after truth. To ponder over it in an attempt to understand the truth is secondary. Without the Prophet’s guidance man cannot by himself reach the truth directly by using his intellect and common sense.","Thus will they confess their sins.[1] Damned are these inmates of the Blazing Fire.###[1] The word dhanb (sin) has been used in the singular. It means that the real sin because of which they became worthy of Hell was to belie the Messengers and refuse to obey them. All other sins are its consequences.","Surely forgiveness and a mighty reward[1] await those who fear Allah without seeing Him.[2]###[1] That is, there are two inevitable results of fearing God unseen. \t [2] (1) That whatever errors and sins one will have committed because of human weaknesses, will be forgiven provided these were not committed because of fearlessness of God.","Whether you speak in secrecy or aloud, (it is all the same to Allah). He even knows the secrets that lie hidden in the breasts of people.[1]###[1] The address is to all human beings, whether they are believers or unbelievers. For the believer, it contains the admonition that while living his life in the world he should always remember that not only his open and hidden deeds but even his secret intentions and innermost thoughts are not hidden from Allah. And for the unbeliever, the warning that he may do whatever he may please fearless of God, but nothing that he does can remain un-noticed and unseen by Him.","Would He not know, He Who has created,[1] when He is All-Subtle,[2] All-Aware?###[1] Another translation can be: Would He not know His own creatures? In the original text khalaqa has been used, which may mean: Who has created as well as whom He has created, In both cases the meaning remains the same. This is the argument for what has been said in the preceding sentence. That is, how is it possible that the Creator should be unaware of His creation? The creation may remain unaware of itself, but the Creator cannot be unaware of it. He has made every vein of your body, every fiber of your heart and brain. You breathe because He enables you to breathe, your limbs function because He enables them to function, How then can anything of yours remain hidden from Him. \t [2] The word Latif as used in the original means the One Who works in imperceptible ways as well as the One Who knows the hidden truths and realities.","He it is Who made the earth subservient to you. So traverse in its tracks and partake of the sustenance[1] He has provided. To Him will you be resurrected.[2]###[1] That is, this earth has not become subdued for you of its own accord, and the provisions also that you are eating have not become available here by themselves, but Allah has so arranged it by His wisdom and power that your life became possible here and this splendid globe became so peaceful that you are moving about on it with full peace of mind, and it has become such a vast table spread with food that it contains endless and limitless provisions for your sustenance. If you are not lost in heedlessness and look about yourself intelligently, you will find how much wisdom underlies in the making of this earth habitable for you and arranging in it immeasurable stores of provisions for you. (For explanation, see (E.Ns 73, 74, 81 of Surah An-Naml);(E.Ns 29, 32 of Surah YaSeen); (E.Ns 90, 91 of Al-Momin), (E.N. 7 of Surah Az-Zukhruf), (E.N. 7 of Surah Al-Jathiyah), (E.N. 18 of Surah Qaf). \t [2] That is, while you move about on the earth and eat of what Allah has provided for you here, you should not forget that ultimately you have to appear before God one day.","Do you feel secure that He Who is in the heaven[1] will not cause the earth to cave in with you, and then suddenly it will begin to rock violently?###[1] This does not mean that Allah lives in the heavens, but it has been so said because man naturally looks up to the heaven whenever he wants to turn to Allah, raises his hands heavenward in prayer and implores Allah turning his eyes up to heaven whenever he finds himself helpless in an affliction. Then whenever a calamity befalls him suddenly, he says it has descended from heaven; whenever something unusual happens, he says it has come from heaven; and he calls the Books revealed by Allah as heavenly Books. Accordingly to a tradition in Abu Daud, a person came before the Prophet (peace be upon him) with a black slavegirl and said: It has become obligatory on me to set a slave free; can I set this slave-girl free? Prophet (peace be upon him) asked the slave-girl: Where is Allah? She pointed heavenward with her forger. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked: Who am I? She first pointed towards him and then towards the heaven, by which she obviously meant to say: You have come from Allah. Thereupon the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Set her free; she is a believer. (A story closely resembling this has been narrated in Muwatta, Muslim and Nasai also). About Khawla bint Thaibah, Umar once said to the people: She is the lady whose complaint was heard above the seven heavens. (In(E.N. 2 of Surah al-Mujadalah), we have given full details concerning this). All this clearly shows that it is natural with man that whenever he thinks of God, his mind turns to the heaven above and not to the earth below. In view of this very thing the words man fis-samaa (He Who is in the heaven) have been used about Allah. There is no room here for any doubt that the Quran regards Allah Almighty as living in the heaven. In fact, there cannot be any basis for this doubt, for in the very beginning of this Surah Al-Mulk, it has been stated: He Who created seven heavens, one above the other, and in Surah Al-Baqarah it has been said: You will face Allah in whatever direction you turn your face. (verse 115).","Do you feel secure that He Who is in the heaven will not let loose upon you a storm of stones?[1] Then shall you know what My warning is like![2]###[1] The object is to impress this: Your very survival and well-being on the earth are at all times dependent upon Allah Almighty’s grace and bounty: you are not strutting about on this earth at will by your own power: you are under obligation only to Allah’s protection for each moment of your life that you are passing here, otherwise Allah at any moment may cause such an earthquake to occur as may make this very earth to become your grave instead of the cradle that it is, or may cause a windstorm to blow razing all your towns and settlements to the ground. \t [2] My warning: the warning that was being given through the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the Quran to the disbelievers of Makkah to the effect: If you do not refrain from your disbelief and polytheism and do not accept the message of Tauhid being given to you, you will be overtaken by the scourge of God.","Those who came before them also gave the lie (to the Messengers): then how awesome was My chastisement![1]###[1] The allusion is to the communities who had belied the Messengers, who had come to them previously and consequently been afflicted with divine punishment.","Have they not seen birds above them spreading and closing their wings, with none holding them except the Merciful One?[1] He oversees everything.[2]###[1] That is, each bird that flies in the air, does so in the protection of the All-Merciful God. He it is Who has given to each bird the form and structure by which it became able to fly. He it is Who has taught each bird the method to fly. He it is Who has made the air obey the laws by which it became possible for the heavier than air bodies to fly in it, and He it is Who upholds every bird in the air, otherwise the moment Allah withdraws His protection from it, it drops to the ground. \t [2] That is, this is not confined only to birds, but whatever exists in the world, exists because of Allah’s keeping and guardianship. He alone provides the means necessary for the existence of everything, and He alone keeps watch that everything created by Him is provided with the necessities of life.","Which is your army that will come to your aid against the Merciful Lord?[1] But the unbelievers are in utter delusion.###[1] Another translation can be: Who is there beside the Merciful, who comes to your rescue as your army? The translation that we have adopted in the text above has relevance to the following sentence, and this second to the preceding discourse.","Who shall provide for you if He withholds His sustenance? Nay; but they persist in rebellion and aversion.","Who is better guided: he who walks grovelling on his face,[1] or he who walks upright on a Straight Path?###[1] Walking fallen on his face: walking with face turned down like the cattle on the same track on which someone put him.","Say: “He it is Who has brought you into being, and has given you hearing and sight, and has given you hearts to think and understand. How seldom do you give thanks!”[1]###[1] That is, Allah had made you men, not cattle. You were not meant to follow blindly whatever error and deviation you found prevailing in the world, without considering for a moment whether the way you had adopted was right or wrong. You have not been given these ears that you may refuse to listen to the one who tries to distinguish the right from the wrong for you, and may persist in whatever false notions you already had in your mind. You have not been given these eyes that you may follow others like the blind and may not bother to see whether the signs scattered around you in the world testified to the unity of God, which the Messenger (peace be upon him) of God is preaching, or whether the system of the universe is Godless, or is being run by many gods simultaneously. Likewise, you have also not been given this knowledge and intelligence that you may give up thinking and understanding to others and may adopt every crooked way that was enforced by somebody in the world, and may not use your own intellect to see whether it was right or wrong. Allah has blessed you with knowledge and intelligence, sight and hearing, so that you may recognize the truth, but you are being ungrateful to Him in that you are employing these faculties for every other object than the one for which these had been granted. (For further explanation, see (E.Ns 72, 73 of Surah An- Naml);(E.Ns 75, 76 of Surah Al-Mominoon); (E.Ns 17, 18 of Surah As-Sajdah);(E.N. 31 of Surah Al-Ahqaf).","Say: “Allah it is Who multiplied you in the earth and to Him you will be mustered.”[1]###[1] That is, after being resurrected from death, you will be gathered together from every corner of the earth and presented before Allah.","They say: “If you are truthful, tell us when will this promise (of the Hereafter) be fulfilled?”[1]###[1] They did not ask this question in order to know the time and date of Resurrection so that if they were told the year, the month, the day and time of its occurrence, they would accept it. But, in fact, they thought that Resurrection was impossible, and its occurrence remote from reason, and they asked this question in order to have an excuse for denying it. They meant to say: When will this strange story of Resurrection and gathering together, that you are telling us, materialize? What for has it been put off? Why don’t you make it appear forthwith so that we are assured of it? In this connection, one should understand that one can be certain of Resurrection only by rational arguments, and these have been elaborated at many places in the Quran. As for the date of its occurrence only an ignorant person could raise such a question about it, for even if it is told, it does not make any difference. The unbeliever would say: Well, when it does occur on the date you tell, I shall then believe in it; how can I believe today that it will actually occur on that very day? (For further explanation, see (E.N. 63 of Surah Luqman); (E.N. 116 of Surah Al-Ahzab); (E.Ns 5, 48 of Surah Saba )(E.N. 45 of YaSeen).","Say: “Allah alone knows about that; and I am no more than a plain warner.”[1]###[1] That is, this I know that it will certainly come, and knowing this much only is enough for warning the people before its actual occurrence. As for the question when it will actually come, the knowledge of it is with Allah, not with me, and there is no need of this knowledge for administering the warning. This can be better understood by an example. As to the exact time when a person will die, it is only known to Allah; however, all know that everyone has to die one day. Our this knowledge is enough that we may warn a heedless friend of ours that he should look after himself and his interests before death. For this warning it is not necessary to know the exact day on which he will die.","When they will see it near at hand, the faces of all those who had denied it will be distraught,[1] and then they will be told: “This is the doom which you used to ask for.”###[1] That is, they will be in the same agony as is suffered by the criminal who is being taken to the gallows.","Say to them: “Did you ever consider: whether Allah destroys me and those that are with me, or shows mercy to us, who can protect the unbelievers from a grievous chastisement?”[1]###[1] When the Prophet (peace be upon him) started his mission in Makkah and the members of the different clans of Quraish began to embrace Islam, the people of every house started cursing him and his companions. They started practicing magic and charms on him to cause his death, even devising plots to kill him. At this, it was said: Say to them: what will it profit you whether we perish or we live by the grace of God? You should worry for yourselves as to how you will save yourselves from the punishment of Allah?","Say to them: “He is Merciful, and it is in Him that we believe, and it is in Him that we put all our trust.[1] Soon will you know who is in manifest error.”###[1] That is, we have believed in God, and you are denying Him; we have put our trust in Him, and you have put your trust in yourself, your own resources and false deities besides Allah; therefore, only we deserve to be shown mercy by Allah, not you.","Say to them: “Did you even consider: if all the water that you have (in the wells) were to sink down into the depths of the earth, who will produce for you clear, flowing water?”[1]###[1] That is, does anyone else another beside Allah have the power to restore these springs of water to you? If none else has this power, and you know well that none has it, then who is worthy of worship: God or your false deities, who do not have the power to restore them? Then ask your own selves as to who is misled and misguided, those who believe in One God or those who believe in many gods.","Nun. By the pen and what the scribes write.[1]###[1] The great commentator Mujahid says that by pen here is meant the pen with which the Quran was being written down. From this it automatically follows that that which was being written implies the Quran itself.","By your Lord's Grace, you are not afflicted with madness,[1]###[1] That is, for which an oath has been sworn by the pen and by the Book. It means that this Quran which is being inscribed by the hands of the writers of revelation, is by itself enough to refute the slander of the disbelievers who say that the Prophet (peace be upon him) is, God forbid, a madman, Before his claim to the Prophethood, the people of Makkah looked upon him as the best of their men and trusted his honesty, intelligence and sagacity. But when he started reciting the Quran before them, they began to call him a madman. This meant that the Quran itself in their sight was the cause because of which they accused him of madness; Therefore, it was said: The Quran by itself is a sufficient proof for the refutation of this slander. The presentation of this highly eloquent revelation which consists of sublime themes, is an argument which proves that Muhammad (peace be upon him) has been especially favored by Allah, and nor an argument which might be used to prove that he has, God forbid, gone mad. Here, one should remember that although the address apparently is directed to the Prophet (peace be upon him), yet the real object is to nail the calumny of the disbelievers. Therefore, no one should have the doubt that this verse was sent down only to assure the Prophet (peace be upon him) that he was not mad. Obviously, the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself had no such doubt for removing which he might have stood in need of such an assurance. The object was to tell the disbelievers, as if to say: The Quran because of which you are calling the one presenting it a madman, is by itself an argument that your accusation is false. (For further explanation see (E.N. 22 of Surah At-Toor).","and surely yours shall be a never-ending reward,[1]###[1] That is, you will get an unlimited and continuous reward, for although you have to hear discouraging and disturbing things in response to the efforts that you are making for the instruction and guidance of the people, yet you are steadfastly performing your mission of calling them to the right way.","and you are certainly on the most exalted standard of moral excellence.[1]###[1] Here, this sentence gives two meanings:","So you will soon see, and they too will see,","which of you is afflicted with madness.","Surely your Lord knows well those who have strayed from His Way just as He knows well those who are on the Right Way.","Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false;","they would wish you to be pliant so that they too may be pliant.[1]###[1] That is, if you slackened a little in your propagation of Islam, they also would slacken in their opposition to you. Or, if you became inclined to effect some changes in your faith to suit these people, they too would effect a compromise with you.","And do not yield to any contemptible swearer,[1]###[1] The word mahin is used for a contemptible, degraded and mean person. This is indeed a necessary quality of a person who swears many oaths. He swears an oath for every minor thing because he himself has the feeling that the people take him for a liar and would not believe him until he swore an oath. For this reason he is not only degraded in his own eyes but commands no respect in society either.","the fault-finder who goes around slandering,","the hinderer of good,[1] the transgressor, the sinful;[2]###[1] Khayr in Arabic is used both for wealth and for good. If it is taken in the meaning of wealth, the meaning would be that he is miserly and stingy; he would not even spend a farthing on anyone. And if khayr is taken in the meaning of goodness and virtue, it would mean that he creates a hindrance in every good work as well as that he is very active in hindering the people from accepting Islam. \t [2] The word utul is used for a person who is stout and strong and greedy in eating and drinking and is also illmannered, quarrelsome and cruel at the same time.","the coarse-grained, and above all mean and ignoble;[1]###[1] The word zanim is used to describe a person of illegitimate birth, who does not, in fact, belong to a family but has joined it. Saeed bin Jubair and Shabi say that this word is used for a person who is notorious among the people for his evildoing.","(who so acts) simply because he has wealth and sons,[1]###[1] This sentence may be connected with the preceding theme as well as with the following sentence. In the first case, it would mean: Do not yield to the influence of such a person just because he has plenty of wealth and children. In the second: He has become proud because he possesses abundance of wealth and children; so when Our revelations are recited to him, he says: These are tales of ancient times.","and whenever Our verses are rehearsed to him, he says: “These are fairy- tales of times gone by.”","Soon shall We brand him on his snout.[1]###[1] Because he thought he was a man of high prestige, his nose has been called a snout, and branding him on the snout means disgracing him. That is, We shall so disgrace him in the world and in the Hereafter that his mark of disgrace will become indelible.","We have put them [i.e., the Makkans] to test even as We put to test the owners of the orchard[1] when they vowed that they would gather the fruit of their orchard in the morning,###[1] Here, one should also keep (Surah Al-Kahf, Ayat 32-44 )in view, in which the parable of the owners of two gardens has been cited for teaching a lesson.","without making any allowance (for the will of Allah).[1]###[1] That is, they were so sure and confident of their power and authority that they swore they would surely pluck the fruit of their garden next morning, without feeling any need to say: We shall do so if Allah so willed.","Thereupon a calamity from your Lord passed over it while they were asleep,","and so by morning the orchard lay as though it had been fully harvested.","At daybreak they called out to one another:","“Hurry to your orchard[1] if you would gather its fruit.”###[1] The word tilth probably has been used because in the garden there were also fields of crops in between the trees.","So off they went, whispering to one another:","“No destitute person shall enter it today.”","They went forth early, believing that they had the power (to gather the fruit).[1]###[1] The word hurd in Arabic is used for hindering and withholding for a purpose and resolution and for making haste. Hence, the composite rendering adopted by us.","But as soon as they beheld the orchard, (they cried out): “We have certainly lost the way;","rather, we are utterly ruined.”[1]###[1] That is, on seeing the garden they didn’t believe it was their own garden, and they said: Perhaps we have lost our way and come to another place. But, when they considered it seriously and found it was their own garden, they cried out: Alas we are deprived.","The best among them said: “Did I not say to you: why do you not give glory to (your Lord)?”[1]###[1] This means that when they were saying on oath: We shall surely pluck the fruit of our garden tomorrow, this person had warned them at that time, saying: Have you forgotten God? Why don’t you say: If Allah so wills? But they did not listen to him. Then, while they were making up their mind not to give away anything to the needy, he again advised them to remember Allah and to desist from their evil intention, but they persisted in what they had resolved.","They cried out: “Glory be to our Lord! Certainly we were sinners.”","Then they began to reproach one another.[1]###[1] That is, each reproached and blamed the other that because of his wrong counsel they had forgotten God and resolved upon an evil course. 3","They said: “Woe to us! We had indeed transgressed.","Maybe our Lord will give us a better orchard in its place; to our Lord do we penitently turn.”","Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly even greater, if only they knew.","Surely[1] the God-fearing shall have Gardens of bliss with their Lord.###[1] This is, a rejoinder to the chiefs of Makkah, who argued with the Muslims, thus: The blessings that we are enjoying in the world are a sign that we are favorites of Allah, and the miserable lives that you are living are a proof that you are under the wrath of Allah. Therefore, even if there was any life after death, as you say, we shall have good time there too, and the torment would be imposed on you, not on us.","What! Shall We treat those who have submitted (to Our command) like those who have acted as criminals?","What is the matter with you? How ill do you judge![1]###[1] That is, it is against reason that God should not differentiate between the obedient servant and the guilty. How do you regard this as reasonable that the Creator of the universe should, like a blind ruler, not judge which people in the world obeyed His commands and refrained from evildoing, and which people committed every sin and crime and perpetrated every cruelty fearless of His punishment? You have seen the adversity of the believers and your own prosperity, but you have not appreciated the distinction between their good morals and your own evildoing, and have given your judgment without the thought that these obedient people will be treated like culprits by God and the guilty like you will be granted Paradise.","Or do you have a Book[1] wherein you read###[1] That is, the Book sent down by Allah.","that (in the Hereafter) you shall have all that you choose for yourselves?","Or have We sworn a covenant with you which We are bound to keep till the Day of Resurrection, (a covenant requiring that whatever you ordain for yourselves shall be yours)?","Ask them: “Which of them can guarantee that?[1]###[1] Zaeem in Arabic is used for a person who stands a surety on behalf of another, or is a spokesman of others. Thus, the verse means to ask: Which of you will come forward and say that he has made such and such a covenant with Allah on your behalf.","Or has something been guaranteed by any of those whom they associate with Allah in His Divinity?” If so, let them bring forth their associates, if they are truthful.[1]###[1] That is, the judgment you are passing concerning yourselves has no basis whatever. It is against reason and you cannot show any such thing written in any divine Book either. No one can make the claim that he has made Allah promise some such thing, and you cannot make any of your deities vouch that they would take the responsibility of securing Paradise for you from God. How then have you been involved in such a misunderstanding.","On the Day when the dreadful calamity will unfold,[1] when people will be summoned to prostrate themselves, and yet they will not be able to prostrate.###[1] Literally: The Day the Shin shall be uncovered. A section of the companions and their successors says that these words have been used idiomatically, for according to Arabic idiom, kashf-i-saq implies befalling of an affliction. Abdullah bin Abbas has also given this same meaning of this and has supported it by evidence from Arabic poetry. According to another saying that has been cited from Ibn Abbas and Rabi bin Anas, kashf-i-saq implies uncovering the facts and truths. In view of this interpretation, the meaning would be: The Day when all truths shall be bared and the people’s deeds shall become open and manifest.","Their eyes shall be downcast and ignominy shall overwhelm them. For when they were safe and sound, they were summoned to prostrate themselves, (and they refused).[1]###[1] It means: On the Resurrection Day it will be openly and publicly demonstrated as to who in the world had actually worshiped Allah and who was disinclined to do so. For this purpose the people will be called upon to prostrate themselves before Allah. Then, those who had been sincerely worshiping Allah in the world would prostrate themselves, and those who had declined to bow before Him in the world would be unable to do so. It will become impossible for them to put up a false show of being worshipers. Therefore, they will remain standing, degraded and downcast with shame.","So leave Me, (O Prophet), to deal with him who gives the lie to this Discourse.[1] We shall draw them little by little (to their undoing) in a way that they will not know.[2]###[1] That is, do not worry yourself as to how to deal with them, it is for Me to see how to chastise them. \t [2] A form of leading somebody to ruin in imperceptible ways is that an enemy of the truth and wicked person may be blessed in the world, and be granted health, wealth, children and worldly successes, by which he may be deluded into believing that whatever he is doing, he is doing well and right. There is nothing wrong with his acts and deeds. Thus, he may go on getting more and more deeply involved in enmity of the truth and wickedness and rebellious conduct and may not realize that the blessings he is being favored with are not a reward but, in fact, a means of his own ruin.","I am giving them a respite. Great is My scheme![1]###[1] The word kayd in the original means to devise a secret scheme against another. It is an evil only in case it is devised to harm somebody unjustly, otherwise there is nothing wrong with it, especially when such a scheme is adopted against a person who has made himself worthy of it.","Or are you asking them for some compensation so that they feel burdened with debt?[1]###[1] The question apparently is being asked of the Prophet (peace be upon him), but its real audience are the people, who were crossing all limits in their opposition to him. They are being asked: Is Our Messenger asking you for a reward which makes you feel so upset. You know that he is absolutely selfless in his invitation and is exerting himself only for your own benefit and well-being. If you do not want to believe in what he says, you may not, but why are you feeling so enraged at his this invitation to you. (For further explanation, see (E.N. 31 of Surah At-Toor).","Or do they have any knowledge of the Unseen which they are now writing down?[1]###[1] This second question also appears to be directed to the Prophet (peace be upon him), but, in fact, its audience are his opponents. It means: Have you, O people, peered behind the unseen and found that the Messenger, in fact, is not a Messenger sent by God, and the truth that he is presenting before you is also false. That is why you are being so stubborn in belying what he says (For explanation, see (E.N. 32 of Surah At-Toor).","So bear with patience until the Judgement of your Lord[1] comes, and do not belike the man in the fish (i.e., Jonah)[2] who called out, choking with grief:[3]###[1] That is, the time when Allah will issue His decree about your success and victory and your opponents’ defeat, is yet far off. Till then you should go on enduring with patience whatever hardships and afflictions you may have to face in the way of preaching the faith. \t [2] That is, do not behave impatiently as did the Prophet Jonah (peace be on him), who an account of his impatience was driven into the fish’s belly. Immediately after exhorting the Prophet (peace be upon him) to have patience until Allah issued forth His decree, to tell him not to behave like the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) by itself gives the meaning that the latter had shown some kind of impatience before Allah gave His decision and thus had incurred His wrath. (For explanation, see( Surah Yunus, Ayat 98, and E.N, 99);  (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayat 87-88 and E.Ns 82 to 85);  (Surah As-Saaffat, Ayat 139-148 and E.Ns 78 to 85). \t [3] In Surah Al-Anbiya it has been explained thus: From inside the fish’s belly and the darkness of the sea, the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) invoked Allah, saying: La ilaha ills anta subhanaka inni kuntu min-az-zalimin: There is no god but You; glory be to You: I had indeed committed a wrong. Thereupon Allah heard his prayer and delivered him from this affliction. (verses 87-88).","had his Lord not bestowed His favour upon him, he would have been cast upon that barren shore (and would have remained there) in disgrace.[1]###[1] When this verse is read with ( Surah As-Saaffat, Ayats 142-146), one learns that at the time the Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) was caused to be swallowed by the fish, he was blameworthy. But when he glorified Allah and confessed his fault, although he was thrown out from the belly of the fish on a bare beach in a state of sickness, he was not blameworthy at that time. Allah by His mercy caused a creeper to grow over him so that its leaves should provide him shade and its fruit food and drink.","But his Lord exalted him, and included him among His righteous servants.","When the unbelievers hear this Exhortation, they look at you as though they would knock you off your feet with their (hostile) glances.[1] They say: “Surely he is afflicted with madness”;###[1] Would make you slip: Would eat you up with their eyes. For a similar expression of the Makkan disbelievers’ rage and fury against the Prophet (peace be upon him), see also Surah Bani Israil, Aya","although this is nothing but an Exhortation (to goodness) for everyone in the world.","The indubitable event![1]###[1] The word al-Haaqqah as used in the text means an event which has inevitably to take place and the occurrence of which in the future is so certain as to admit of no doubt or suspicion. To use this word for Resurrection and to begin the discourse with it by itself shows that the people were denying its occurrence. They are being told: That which you are denying is inevitable: your denial will not prevent its occurrence.","And what is that indubitable event?","And what do you know what that indubitable event is?[1]###[1] These two questions, one after the other, have been put to arouse the listeners, to make them understand the importance of the theme and listen to what follows with full attention.","The Thamud[1] and the Ad denied the (possibility of a) sudden calamity,[2] calling it false.###[1] As the disbelievers of Makkah denied Resurrection and took the news of its coming lightly, they have been warned at the outset, as if to say: Resurrection is inevitable: whether you believe in it or not, it will in any case take place. Then, they are told: It is not a simple and ordinary thing that a person accepts the news of the coming of an event or not, but it has a deep relationship with the morals of the nations and with their future. The history of the nations, which lived before you, testifies that the nation which refused to believe in the Hereafter and thought this worldly life only to be the real life and denied that man would have ultimately to render an account of his deeds before God, corrupted itself morally until the punishment of God overtook it and eliminated it from the world. \t [2] The word al-qariah is derived from qar, which means to hammer, to beat, to knock and to strike one thing upon the other. This other word for Resurrection has been used to give an idea of its terror and dread.","Then the Thamud were destroyed by an awesome upheaval;[1]###[1] In Surah  (Al-Aaraf, Ayat 78), it has been called ar-rajfah (a terrible earthquake); in  (Surah Houd, Ayat 67) as-sayhah (a violent blast); in(Surah HaMim As-Sajdah, Ayat 17), it has been said: They were overtaken by saiqa-tul-adhab (a humiliating scourge); and here the same punishment has been described as at-taghiyah (a violent catastrophe). These words describe different aspects of the same calamity.","and the Ad were destroyed by a furiously raging wind-storm","which He let loose upon them for seven nights and eight days in succession; so that (if you had been there) you might have seen people lying prostrate, as though they were uprooted trunks of hollowed palm trees.","Do you now see any trace of them?","Pharaoh and those before him and the people of the overturned habitations[1] all engaged in the same great sin.###[1] The reference is to the towns and settlements of the people of the Prophet Lot (peace upon be him), about which it has been said in( Surah Houd, Ayat 82) and( Surah Al-Hijr, Ayat 74), We turned them upside down.","They did not follow the Messenger of their Lord, and so He seized them with a severe grip.","Verily when the water rose to great heights,[1] We bore you upon a floating vessel (i.e. the Ark)[2]###[1] The illusion is to the deluge of the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him), in which a whole nation was drowned because of this very crime, and only those people were saved, who had listened to and obeyed the Messenger of Allah. \t [2] We boarded you: Because the whole human race that exists today has descended from the people who were boarded in the Ark thousands of years ago and thus saved from the deluge. It means: You exist in the world today because in that deluge Allah had caused only the infidels to be drowned and had saved the believers.","so that We might make it an instructive event for you, and retentive ears might preserve its memory.[1]###[1] The conscious ears: the ears which may hear it consciously and take it in. Although the word ear has been used, it implies the hearers who may hear the event and always remember it, take heed from it, and may never forget what dreadful fate the deniers of the Hereafter and the disbelievers of the Messenger of God would ultimately suffer.","So[1] when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast###[1] While reading the following verses one should keep in mind that at some places in the Quran the three stages of Resurrection which will occur one after the other at different times have been mentioned separately, and at others all the three have been combined and mentioned as a single event. For example, in (Surah An-Naml, Ayat 87) the first blowing of the Trumpet has been mentioned, when everyone will be suddenly struck with terror. At that time they will witness the general confusion and the upsetting of the order of the universe, as described in (Surah Al-Hajj, Ayats 1-2); (Surah YaSeen, Ayats 49-50) and<br>(Surah At- Takweer, Ayats 1-6).<br>In (Surah Az-Zumar, Ayats 67-70), mention has been made of the second and third blowing of the Trumpet. On the second blowing of it everyone will fall down dead, and when it is blown for the third time, all dead men will rise back to life and present themselves before Allah. In(Surah TaHa, Ayats 102-112); (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayats 101-103);(Surah YaSeen, Ayats 51-53 )and (Surah Qaf, Ayats 20-22), only the third sounding of the Trumpet has been mentioned. (For explanation, see(E.N. 78 of Surah TaHa); (E.N. 1 of Surah Al-Hajj); (E.Ns 46, 47 of Surah YaSeen). But here and at many other places in the Quran all the events of Resurrection, from the blowing of the first Trumpet till the people’s entry into Heaven and Hell have been described as a single event.","and the earth and the mountains are carried aloft and are crushed to bits at one stroke,","on that Day shall that indubitable event come to pass;","when the sky will be rent asunder, the grip holding it together having loosened on that Day,","and the angels will stand on the sides, with eight of them bearing aloft the Throne[1] of your Lord on that Day.###[1] This is an ambiguous verse the meaning of which is difficult to determine. We can neither know what the Throne is nor can understand what will be the nature of the eight angels upholding it on the Day of Resurrection. It is, however inconceivable that Allah Almighty would be sitting on the Throne and the eight angels would be upholding it along with Him. The verse also does not say that Allah at that time would be sitting on the Throne. Besides, the conception of God that the Quran gives also prevents one from imagining that the Being Who is free from physical existence as to body, direction and place, should be residing somewhere and His creatures should sustain Him. Therefore, pursuing any research to determine its meaning would be tantamount to disbelief. However, one should understand that in order to give an idea of Allah Almighty’s rule and sovereignty, and of the matters associated with it, the same scene has been depicted by the Quran as of worldly kingship and the same terms have been used for it as are common for kingship and its accompaniments in order to enable us to understand matters pertaining to sovereignty of the universe to some extent only by means of this very scene and terms. All this is meant to bring the real Truth within human understanding; it is not, therefore, right to take it literally.","That will be the Day when you shall be brought forth (before Allah) and no secret of yours shall remain hidden.","On that Day, he whose Record is given to him in his right hand[1] will say: “Lo! Read my Record![2]###[1] The record’s being given in the right hand will by itself show that the concerned person’s account is clear and settled and he is appearing in the divine court as a righteous man and not as a culprit. It is probable that at the time the records are distributed the righteous man himself will extend his right hand forward to receive his record. For on account of the good treatment that he would have received right from the moment of death till his appearance in the Plain of Assembly at Resurrection would have given him the satisfaction that he was there to be blessed and not to be punished. At many a place in the Quran it has been explicitly stated that right at death itself it becomes clear to every man whether he is entering the next world in a blessed or wretched state. Then from the moment of death till Resurrection the righteous man is treated like a guest and the evil man as a culprit under custody. After this, from the time the second life starts on the Day of Resurrection, the condition and state of the righteous is entirely different from the condition and state of the disbelievers, hypocrites and culprits. (For details, see(Surah Al-Anfaal, Ayat 50);(Surah An-Nahl, Ayats 28-32); (Surah Bani Israil, Ayat 97);(Surah TaHa, Ayats 102, 103, 124-126);(Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayats 1-3);(Surah Al-Furqan, Ayat 24); (Surah An-Naml, Ayat 89);(Surah Saba, Ayat 51); (Surah YaSeen, Ayats 26-27);(Surah Al-Momin, Ayats 45-46); (Surah Muhammad, Ayat 27);(Surah Qaf, Ayats 19-23 )and the corresponding Notes. \t [2] That is, he will be overjoyed as soon as he receives his record and will show it to his companions. In( Surah Allnshiqaq, Ayat 9), it has been said: He will return to his kinsfolk rejoicing.","Verily I was sure that I would be handed over my account.”[1]###[1] That is, he was fortunate because he had been conscious of the Hereafter in the world and had lived his life with the belief that he would have to appear before God one day and render his account to Him.","Then he shall find himself in a life of bliss;","in a lofty Garden","the clusters of whose fruit will be hanging low to be within reach (of the inmates of Paradise).","(They will be told): “Eat and drink with good cheer as a reward for the good deeds you did in the days that have passed by.”","As for him whose Record will be given to him in his left hand,[1] he will exclaim: “Would that I had never been given my Record,[2]###[1] In Surah Al-Inshiqaq it has been said: And the one whose record is given him behind his back. Probably it will be like this: As the culprit would already be knowing that he was a culprit, and would be aware of what his record contained, he would dejectedly extend his left hand forward to receive it, and then would immediately hide it behind his back so that no one else saw what he had received. \t [2] That is, I should not have been given this record in the Plain of Assembly and thus publicly disgraced before all mankind, but should have been awarded secretly whatever punishment I deserved.","and had not known my account.[1]###[1] That is, I should not have been told what I had done in the world. Another meaning of this verse can also be: I never knew what an account was: I never had imagined that one day I would also have to render my account and that all my deeds would be presented before me.\"","Oh! Would that the death that came to me in the world had made an end of me![1]###[1] That is, I should have become extinct after death in the world and should have experienced no other life after death.","My riches have not availed me,","and my authority has vanished.”[1]###[1] The word sultan of the text is used both for an argument and for power and authority. If it is taken in the sense of an argument, the meaning would be: The arguments that I used to give would not work here. Here, I have no argument which I can present in self-defense. And if it is taken in the sense of power, it would imply: The power of which I was so proud in the world is no more. I have no army here and there is none to obey me. I stand as a miserable helpless creature, who can do nothing to defend himself.","(A command will be issued): “Seize him and shackle him,","then cast him in the Fire,","then fasten him with a chain, seventy cubits long.","He would not believe in Allah, the Most Great;","nor would he urge the feeding of the poor.[1]###[1] That is, not to speak of feeding a poor man himself, he did not even like to say to others that they should feed the hungry.","Today he has been left here friendless;","and has no food except the filth from the washing of wounds,","which only the sinners will eat.”","But no;[1] I swear by what you see,###[1] That is, the truth is not as you think it to be.","and by what you do not see,","that this is the speech of an honourable Messenger,[1]###[1] Here, “a noble Messenger” implies the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and in( Surah At- Takweer, Ayat 19). the angel Gabriel, the argument being that after describing the Quran as the word of an honorable Messenger, it has been said: It is not the word of a poet nor of a soothsayer, and obviously the disbelievers of Makkah branded the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and not Gabriel as a poet and soothsayer. On the contrary, in Surah At-Takweer, after describing the Quran as the word of “a noble messenger” it has been said: That Messenger has great power, and has high ranks with the Owner of the Throne: there he is obeyed and held as trustworthy. And Muhammad (peace be upon him) has seen him on the bright horizon. (verses 20-23). Almost the same thing has been stated in (Surah An-Najm, Ayats 5-10) about Gabriel.","not the speech of a poet. Little do you believe![1]###[1] One meaning of “little it is that you believe”, according to Arabic idiom, can be: You do not believe it at all. Another meaning also can be: Hearing the Quran your heart sometimes itself cries out: This cannot be mortal word. Yet you behave stubbornly and refuse to believe in it.","Nor is this the speech of a soothsayer. Little do you reflect!","It has been revealed by the Lord of the Universe.[1]###[1] In short: I swear by whatever you see and by whatever you do not see that this Quran is not the word of a poet or a soothsayer, but it is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds, which is being presented by the Messenger (peace be upon him) who is noble and gentle. Let us now consider in what sense this oath has been sworn. That which was visible to the people was.","And if he [i.e., the Prophets] had forged this Discourse and thereafter ascribed it to Us,","We would surely have seized him by the right hand,","and then severed his life vein;","and not one of you would have been able to withhold Us from doing so.[1]###[1] The object is to impress the point that the Prophet (peace be upon him) has no authority whatsoever to make any change in the revelation. If he did so, he would be severely punished. The style depicts the prompt and quick action of a king who strikes off the head of an official, holding him by the hand, if he commits a forgery in his name. Some people have misconstrued this verse to mean that if the heart-vein or neck-vein of an impostor is not immediately severed by Allah, it would be a proof that he was a true prophet, whereas in this verse what has been said is about a true prophet and not about the impostors. Same impostors have even claimed to be God and have thrived and lived long lives in the world, so it could not be a proof of the truth of their claim. For a full discussion of this question, see( E.N. 23 of Surah Younus).","Surely it is a Good Counsel for the God-fearing.[1]###[1] That is, the Quran is an admonition for those who wish to avoid wrongdoing and its evil consequences. (For explanation, see( E.N. 3 of Surah Al-Baqarah).","We certainly know that some among you will give the lie to it,","and surely it will be a cause of regret for the unbelievers.[1]###[1] That is, they will ultimately have to despair and regret as to why they had rejected this","Certainly it is a Truth of absolute certainty.","So glorify the name of your Lord Most Great.","A beseecher besought the visitation of chastisement,[1]###[1] Some commentators have taken the verb saala in the text in the meaning of asking, and have interpreted the verse to mean: The asker has asked: whom will the torment with which we are being threatened befall. And Allah has answered it, saying: It will befall the disbelievers. But most of the commentators have taken saala here in the meaning of demanding. Nasai and other traditionists have related a tradition from Ibn Abbas, and Hakim hold it as authentic, that Nadr bin al-Harith Kaladah had said: O God, if it is really the truth sent dawn by You, then rain down stones on us from the heavens, or send down any other painful torment on us. (Surah Al-Anfaal, Ayat 32). Apart from this, at several places in the Quran the disbelievers’ this challenge has been related: Why don’t you bring down on us the torment that you threaten us with? For instance, see  (Surah Younus, Ayats 46-48);   (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayats 36-41);(  Surah An-Naml, Ayats 67-72); ( Surah Saba, Ayats 26-30); ( Surah YaSeen, Ayats 45-52);  ( Surah Al-Mulk, Ayats 24-27).","(a chastisement meant) for the unbelievers, one which none can avert;","a chastisement from Allah, the Lord of the ascending steps,[1]###[1] Maarij is plural of Miraj, which means a stairway, or a ladder, or something by which one may go up. To call Allah dhil-Maaij (Owner of the ways of ascent) means that He is Most High and in order to go up into His Presence the angels have to ascend many heights, one above the other, as has been stated in the following verses.","by which the angels and the Spirit[1] ascend to Him[2] in one Day the duration of which is fifty thousand years.[3]###[1] “The Spirit”: the Angel Gabriel, who has been mentioned separately from the angels in order to impress his unique glory and greatness. In Surah Ash-Shuara it has been said: The trustworthy Spirit has come down with this Quran upon your heart, (verse 193), and in Surah Al- Baqarah, say to them: Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel, should understand that he has, by Allah’s command, revealed upon your heart this Quran. (verse 97). These verses when read together show that Ar-Rooh (the Spirit) implies the Angel Gabriel. \t [2] This is an ambiguous theme the meaning of which cannot be determined precisely. We neither have any knowledge of the reality of the angels, nor can understand the nature of their ascent, nor can conceive the stairways on which they ascend. Besides, about Allah also it cannot be imagined that He lives in a particular place, for He is exalted and free from the restrictions of space and time. \t [3] In (Surah Al-Hajj, Ayat 47), it has been said: These people are demanding of you to hasten the torment. Allah will never fail to fulfill His threat, but a day with your Lord is equal to a thousand years as you reckon. In( Surah As- Sajdah, Ayat 5), it has been said: He administers the affairs of the world from the heavens to the earth, and the report of this administration ascends (to be presented) before Him in a Day whose length, according to your reckoning, is a thousand years. And here, in response to the demand for the torment, the measure of Allah’s one day has been stated to be fifty thousand years. Then the Prophet (peace be upon him) has been consoled, saying: Have patience at the demand for the torment which the people make out of jest and fun, and then it is said: They think it is far off, but We see it as near at hand. When all these verses are read together, what becomes obvious is: The people, because of their narrow and restricted outlook, measure the time of Allah’s decrees by their own scales of time and, therefore, consider a hundred years or so to be a very lengthy period, whereas in the divine conduct of affairs there are schemes spreading over a thousand years each, or fifty thousand years each, as you reckon, and this measure also is only by way of example; otherwise schemes in the universe may extend over millions and billions of years as well. Of these one is the scheme under which mankind has been created on the earth, and a time limit has been set during which it has been allowed to function here. No man can know when this scheme began, what time-limit has been decreed for its completion, what hour has been appointed for bringing it to an end, when Resurrection will take place, and what time has been fixed for raising all men, born since the beginning of creation till Resurrection, from death simultaneously and calling them to account for their deeds. We only know to some extent that part of the scheme which is passing before us, or a partial history of the past ages which exists with us. As for its beginning and end, to say nothing of knowing it, we do not even have the power to understand it, not to speak of understanding the wisdom which works behind and underlies it. Now the people who demand that the scheme be cut short and its conclusion be brought immediately before them, and if this is not done, they use it for an argument to prove that the universe has no end and conclusion. They, in fact, present a proof of their own ignorance and folly. (For further explanation, see  (E.Ns 92, 93 of Surah Al-Hajj);  (E.N. 9 of Surah As-Sajdah).","So, (O Prophet), persevere with gracious perseverance.[1]###[1] A gracious patience: A kind of patience that behooves a magnanimous person like you.","Verily they think that the chastisement is far off,","while We think that it is near at hand.[1]###[1] This can have two meanings:","It shall befall on a Day[1] whereon the sky will become like molten brass,[2]###[1] A section of the commentators regard this sentence as related to “a day whose measure is fifty thousand years”; they say that the day whose measure has been stated to be fifty thousand years is the Day of Resurrection. In Musnad Ahmad and in the Tafsir by Ibn Jarir, a tradition has been related on the authority of Abu Saeed Khudri, saying: When wonder and amusement was expressed before the Prophet (peace be upon him) about the length of this Day with reference to this verse, he replied: By Him in Whose hand is my life, the believer will find the Day even lighter (of shorter duration) than the time he takes in performing an obligatory Prayer in the world. Had this tradition been reported through authentic channels, this verse could not be interpreted in any other way, but two of its transmitters, Darraj and his teacher Abul Haytham, are both weak and untrustworthy. \t [2] That is, it will change its color over and over again.","and the mountains will become like dyed tufts of wool,[1]###[1] As the colors of the mountains are different, when they are uprooted and they drift about weightless, they will appear like flakes of carded wool of different colors.","and no bosom friend will enquire about any of his bosom friends","although they shall be within sight of one another.[1] The guilty one would fain ransom himself from the torment of that Day by offering his children,###[1] Not so that they will not see each other, therefore they will not ask after each other’s welfare, but each will be seeing the other in agony and distress, yet will ignore him, being wholly preoccupied with his own torment.","and his spouse and his brother,","and his kinsfolk who had stood by him,","and all persons of the earth, if only he could thus save himself.","By no means! It will be the fierce flame","that will strip off the scalp.","It shall insistently summon him who turned his back and retreated,","and amassed wealth and covetously hoarded it.[1]###[1] Here also, as in  (Surah Al-Haqqah, Ayats 33-34), two causes have been mentioned of a person’s evil end in the Hereafter:","Verily man is impatient by nature:[1]###[1] “Man has been created impatient”: It is man’s nature or his natural weakness to be impatient. Here, one should keep in view that at many places in the Quran, after making mention of mankind’s common moral weaknesses, those who believe and adopted righteousness have been made an exception; the same theme is being expressed in the following verses. This by itself explains the truth that these hereditary weaknesses are not unalterable. If man accepts the guidance sent down by God and tries to reform himself practically, he can remove them, and if he gives a free rope to his self, these become ingrained in him deeply. (For further explanation,  (see E.N. 41 of Surah Al-Anbiya), (E.Ns 23-28 of Surah Az-Zumar);  (E.N. 75 of Surah Ash- Shura).","bewailing when evil befalls him,","and tight-fisted when good fortune visits him,","except those that pray,[1]###[1] A person’s performing the salat necessarily implies that he believes in Allah, His Messenger (peace be upon him), His Book and the Hereafter as well as tries to act according to his belief.","and are constant in their Prayer;[1]###[1] That is, no laziness or love of ease and comfort, no occupation or interest hinders them from being punctual and regular at the prayer. When the Prayer time comes, they abandon every occupation and activity and stand up to perform worship of their God. Another meaning which Uqbah bin Amir has given of ala salat-i-him daaimun is that they perform the Prayer with full peace of mind, tranquility and humility; they do not try to offer the Prayer in a hurry in order to get rid of it somehow, nor think irrelevant things during the Prayer.","and those in whose wealth there is a known right","for those that ask and those that are dispossessed,[1]###[1] In ( Surah Adh-Dhariyat, Ayat 19), it has been said: In their wealth there is a right of the beggar and the needy, and here: In their wealth there is a due share of the beggar and the needy. Some people have understood this to mean that the due share implies the obligatory zakat, for in the zakat both the exemption limit and the rate have been fixed. But this commentary cannot be accepted on the ground that the Surah Al-Maarij is unanimously a Makkan Revelation, and the zakat with its specific exemption limit and rate was enjoined at Al-Madinah. Therefore, the correct meaning of the due share is that they have of their own accord set aside a share in their possessions of the beggar and needy, which they discharge regularly and honestly. This same meaning of this verse has been given by Abdullah bin Abbas, Abdullah bin Umar, Mujahid, Shabi and Ibrahim Nakhai.","those who firmly believe in the Day of Recompense,[1]###[1] “Who believe in the Day of Recompense”: Who do not think they are irresponsible but believe that one Day they will have to appear before their God and render to Him an account of their deeds.","and fear the chastisement of their Lord[1]–###[1] In other words, they are not like the disbelievers, who do not fear God even after they have committed every heinous sin and crime and perpetrated every cruelty in the world, but they, in spite of having adopted a righteous attitude in morals and deeds as best as they could, fear God and continue to remain in constant awe lest their shortcomings should exceed their good works before Him and they should be declared as worthy of punishment. (For further explanation, see(E.N. 54 of Surah Al-Mominoon), (E.N. 19 of Surah Adh-Dhariyat).","surely the chastisement of their Lord is a thing none can feel secure from –","and those who guard their private parts,[1]###[1] “Who guard their private parts”: Who abstain from adultery as well as from nudity and exposing their private parts before others. (For explanation, see( E.N. 6 of Surah Al-Mominoon),(E.Ns 30, 32 of Surah An-Noor) and (E.N. 62 of Surah Al-Ahzab).","except in regard to their spouses and those whom their right hands possess, for in regard to them they are not reproachable,[1]###[1] For explanation, see (E.N. 7 of Surah Al-Mominoon).","but any who seeks to go beyond that, it is indeed they who are the transgressors,","and those who fulfil their trusts and their covenants,[1]###[1] “Trusts” imply those trusts which Allah has entrusted to men as well as those which one man entrusts to another because of faith and confidence. Likewise, “promises” imply those promises which man makes with his God as well as those which one man makes with another. Keeping and fulfilling both these kinds of trusts and promises is a necessary characteristic of a believer. In a Hadith Anas has reported that whenever the Prophet (peace be upon him) addressed his companions, he would always give them the instruction: Beware, the one who does not keep his trust has no faith, and one who does not fulfill his pledges, has no religion. (Baihaqi, Ash-Shuab al-Imam).","and those who are upright in their testimonies;[1]###[1] That is, they neither conceal evidence nor change it in any way for selfish motives.","and who take due care of their Prayer:[1]###[1] This gives an idea of the importance of the Prayer (salat). The description of the merits of the high and sublime character of those who have been declared as worthy of Paradise, began with the Prayer and has been concluded with it. To be a performer of the Prayer is their first characteristic, to be steadfast and ever constant with regard to the Prayer is their second characteristic, and to guard their Prayer is their last characteristic. Guarding the Prayer implies many things: to perform the Prayer at its right time, to make sure before the Prayer that one’s body and clothes are clean and pure, to have performed the ablutions and to have washed the limbs well, to perform the basic elements of the Prayer with its obligatory and desirable parts with due care and attention, to observe the requisite rites of the Prayer carefully, to avoid disobedience of God, which is destructive of the Prayer. All these are included in the guarding of the Prayer.","all these shall live honourably in the Gardens.","But what is the matter with the unbelievers who are hurrying towards you","in crowds, both on the right and on the left?[1]###[1] This refers to those disbelievers who would rush in towards the Prophet (peace be upon him) from every side to mock and ridicule him when they heard him preach Islam and recite the Quran.","Does everyone of them wish to enter the Garden of Bliss?[1]###[1] It means that God’s Paradise is only for those righteous people whose characteristics have just been described above, Now, can these people who are not at all inclined to listen to the truth and who are rushing in towards the Prophet (peace be upon him) in order to suppress every invitation to the truth, be the candidates for Paradise? Has God prepared His Paradise only for such people as these. Here, one should also keep in view (verses 34-41 of Surah Al-Qalam )in which an answer has been given to this saying of the disbelievers of Makkah: Even if there is any life after death, we shall have good time there too, as we are having in the world, and the torment would befall Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his followers and not us.","By no means! They know that which We have created them from.[1]###[1] Here, this sentence can have two meanings:","I swear[1] by the Lord of the easts and the wests[2] that We have the power###[1] That is, the truth is not that which these people think it is. \t [2] Here, Allah has sworn an oath by Himself. The words Easts and Wests have been used because the sun rises and sets at a new angle every day during the year, and goes on rising and setting successively at different times around the globe. Thus considered the Easts and the Wests are not one but many. From another point of view as against the north and the south there is a direction of east and a direction of west. On this basis in( Surah Ash-Shuara, Ayat 28) and( Surah Al-Muzzammi1, Ayat 19 )the words Rabb-ulrnashriqi wal-maghrib have been used. From still another view-point the earth has two easts and two wests, for when the sun sets on one hemisphere, it rises on the other. On this basis the words Rabb-ul-mashriqayn wa Rabb-ulmaghribayn (Lord of two easts and two wests) have been used in (Surah Ar-Rahman, Ayat 17). (For further explanation, see (E.N. 17 of Surah Ar-Rahman).","to replace them by others who would be better than they; and We shall certainly not be overpowered.[1]###[1] This is that for which Allah Almighty has sworn an oath of His being Lord of the Easts and Wests. It means: As We are Owners of the Easts and Wests, the whole earth is under Our control and power, and you have no power to escape Our punishment: We can destroy you as and when We like and can create another people that may be better than you.","So leave them to engage in vain talk and to amuse themselves until they come face to face with the Day which they are promised,","the Day on which they will hastily come forth from their graves, as though they were hurrying on to the altars of their deities.[1]###[1] There is a difference of opinion among the commentators about the meaning of the word nusub. Some have interpreted it to mean idols, according to which the meaning would be: They would be racing towards the place appointed by the Lord of Resurrection as they race today towards the shrines of their idols; and some others have taken nusub to mean the goal signs which are set for the competitors in a race, so that each tries to reach and touch the appointed post before the","Their eyes will be downcast and disgrace will overwhelm them. Such is the Day that they were promised.","We sent Noah to his people (and directed him): “Warn your people before a grievous chastisement[1] comes upon them.”###[1] “Warn your people”: Warn them that the errors and moral evils that they were involved in would only earn them Allah’s punishment if they did not desist from them, and tell them what way they should adopt in order to ward off that punishment.","Noah said: “My people, I have certainly been sent as a clear warner to you,","that you serve Allah and fear Him, and follow me;[1]###[1] The three things which the Prophet Noah presented before his people at the outset of his mission of Prophethood were:","He will forgive your sins[1] and will grant you respite until an appointed term.[2] Indeed when Allah's appointed term comes, it cannot be deferred;[3] if you only knew!”[4]###[1] The sentence yaghfir la-kum min dhunub-i-kum in the original does not mean that Allah will forgive some of their sins, but its correct meaning is: If you accept and acknowledge the three things which are being presented before you, He will forgive all the sins that you have committed in the past. \t [2] That is, if you accepted these three things, you would be given respite to live in the world until the time that Allah has appointed for your natural death. \t [3] “A term appointed”: The time fixed by Allah for sending down a torment on a people. In this regard the Quran has at several places stated explicitly that when Allah’s torment has been decreed for a certain people, they are not pardoned even if they affirm the faith after it. \t [4] That is, if you come to know that the time which is now passing after you have received Allah’s message through me is, in fact, a period of respite that has been granted to you for affirming the faith and there is no chance of escape from Allah’s torment after the term of respite has elapsed, you would testify to the faith without delay and would not like to postpone it until the torment actually started descending on you.","He said:[1] “My Lord, I called my people by night and by day,###[1] Omitting the history of a long period of preaching, now the Prophet Noah’s petition that he made to Allah in the last stage of his worldly mission is being related.","but the more I called, the farther they fled.[1]###[1] That is, as I went on calling them towards You, they went on fleeing farther and farther away from You.","And every time I called them so that You might forgive them,[1] they thrust their fingers into their ears and wrapped up their faces with their garments[2] and obstinately clung to their attitude, and waxed very proud.[3]###[1] “That you may forgive them”: That they might give up their attitude of disobedience and beg forgiveness of Allah, for in that way alone they could be forgiven by Allah. \t [2] They covered their faces either because they did not even like to have a look at Prophet Noah’s (peace be upon him) face, not to speak of listening to what he said, or they did so in order to hide their own faces from him as they passed by him so that he could not recognize and address them. This precisely was the attitude and conduct which the disbelievers of Makkah were adopting towards the Prophet (peace be upon him). In (Surah Houd, Ayat 5), their attitude has been described thus: Behold, they turn aside their chests in order to hide themselves from him: Beware, even when they cover themselves up with their garments, Allah knows alike what they hide and what they show. He indeed knows even the secrets they conceal in their breasts. (For explanation, see (E.Ns 5, 6 of Surah Houd). \t [3] Arrogance implies that they thought it was below their dignity to bow before the truth and accept the admonition of Allah’s Messenger. As for example, if a gentleman admonishes a perverted person and he, in response, shakes his head and walks away haughtily, this would amount to rejecting the admonition with arrogance.","Then I summoned them openly,","and preached to them in public, and also addressed them in secret.","I said to them: “Ask forgiveness from your Lord; surely He is Most Forgiving.","He will shower upon you torrents from heaven,","and will provide you with wealth and children, and will bestow upon you gardens and rivers.[1]###[1] This theme has been expressed at several places in the Quran that the rebellious attitude against God causes man to lead a wretched life not only in the Hereafter but also in this world, Contrary to this, if a nation adopts the way of faith and piety and obedience to divine commands, instead of disobedience, it benefits it not only in the Hereafter but also in the world; it is favored with every kind of blessing. In Surah TaHa it has been said: And whoever turns away from My admonition, will have a wretched life in the world, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Resurrection. (verse 124). In Surah Al-Maidah it has been said: Had the people of the Book observed the Torah and the Gospel and the other Books which had been sent down by their Lord, abundance of provisions would have been given to them from above and from beneath.(verse 66). In Surah Al-Aaraf: Had the people of the settlements believed and adopted the way of piety, We would have opened on them doors of blessings from the heavens and the earth. (verse 96). In Surah Houd, the Prophet Houd (peace be upon him) addressed his people, saying: And O my people, beg forgiveness of your Lord, then turn to Him in penitence, and He will open the gates of heavens for you and add more strength to your present strength.(verse 52). Through the Prophet (peace be upon him) himself in this very Surah Houd, the people of Makkah have been admonished to the effect: And you should beg forgiveness of your Lord, then return to Him, and He will provide you with good provisions of life till an appointed term. (verse 3). According to the Hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to the Quraish: There is a word which if you accept, would enable you to rule over the Arab as well as the non- Arab world. (For explanation, see (E.N. 96 of Surah Al- Maidah);(E.Ns 3, 57 of Surah Houd);(E.N. 105 of TaHa); Introduction to Surah Suad).","What is amiss with you that you do not look forward to the majesty of Allah[1]###[1] It means: as for the petty chiefs of the world, you think it would be dangerous to do anything against their dignity, but as for the Creator and Lord of the universe, you do not expect that He would also be a Being endowed with dignity. You rebel against Him, associate others in His Divinity, disobey His commands, and yet you are not at all afraid that He would punish you for your misconduct.","when He has created you in stages?[1]###[1] That is, He has brought you to the present stage after passing you through different stages of creation and phases of development. In the beginning you lay in the form of","Do you not see how Allah has created seven heavens, one upon the other,","and has placed the moon in them as a light, and the sun as a radiant lamp?","And Allah has caused you to grow out of the earth so wondrously,[1]###[1] Here, the creation of man out of the substances of the earth has been compared to the growth of vegetation. Just as at one time there was no vegetation on the earth, then Allah caused it to grow, so at one time man did not exist, then Allah created him.","and He will later cause you to return to it and will then again bring you out of it.","Allah has made the earth a wide expanse for you","so that you may tread its spacious paths.”","Noah said: “My Lord, they did not pay heed to what I said, and followed those (nobles) whose possession of wealth and children has led them to an even greater loss.","They contrived a plot of great magnitude.[1]###[1] “Mighty plot”: All those deceits, deceptions and frauds which the chiefs and religious guides were employing in an attempt to mislead the common people against the teachings of the Prophet Noah. For example, they said: Noah is no more than a mere man like yourselves. How can one believe that Allah sends down Revelations to him? (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 63);(Surah Houd, Ayat 27). We also see that only the meanest of us have become his followers without due thought. Had there been some weight in what he says, the elders of the people would have believed in him.(Surah Houd, Ayat 27). Had Allah willed, He would have sent down angels. (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 24). Had he been sent by Allah, he would possess treasures, he would know the unseen, and he would be free from all human needs, like the angels (Surah Houd, Ayat 31). We find nothing in him that might give him superiority over us. (Surah Houd, Ayat 27). He merely intends to obtain superiority over you. (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 24). Obviously, this man is possessed. (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 25). Similar were the things that the Quraish chiefs said to mislead the people against the Prophet (peace be upon him).","They said: “Do not abandon your deities; do not abandon Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaghuth, nor Yauq, nor Nasr.[1]###[1] Of the gods of the Prophet Noah’s people only those gods have been mentioned whom later the people of Arabia had also started worshipping and whose shrines were found all over the country at the advent of Islam. It is not impossible that the later generations heard the names of the ancient gods of Noah’s people from the people who were saved from the flood, and when ignorance once again spread among their children, they made idols of the same gods and started worshipping them again.","They have misled many. So do not enable these evildoers to increase in anything except straying (from the Right Way).”[1]###[1] As we have explained in the introduction to this Surah, the Prophet Noah (peace be upon him) did not invoke this curse out of impatience but he invoked it when, after doing full justice to the preaching of his mission for many centuries, he became totally despaired of any success with his people. Similar were the conditions under which the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) had also cursed Pharaoh and his people, thus: Lord, destroy their wealth and harden their hearts in a manner so that they do not believe until they see the painful torment. And Allah, in response, had said: The prayer of you both has been granted(Surah Younus, Ayats 88-89). Like the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), the Prophet Noah’s (peace be upon him) curse was also in complete conformity with divine will. Thus, in Surah Houd, it has been said: And it was revealed to Noah (peace be upon him): No more of your people will believe in you now than those who have already believed. So, do not grieve at their misdeeds. (verse 36).","And so they were drowned on account of their sins, and then cast into the Fire,[1] and did not find any other than Allah,[2] to come forth to their help.###[1] That is, drowning was not their end, but after death their souls were immediately subjected to the punishment of the Fire. This precisely was the treatment that was meted out to Pharaoh and his people, as has been stated in (Surah Al-Momin, Ayats 45-46). (For explanation, (see E.N. 63 of Surah Al-Momin). This verse also is of those verses which prove the punishment of barzakh (intermediary stage between death and Resurrection). \t [2] That is, none of the gods whom they looked upon as their supporters and helpers came to their rescue. This, in fact, was a warning to the people of Makkah, as if to say: If you too are subjected to the torment of Allah, these gods on whom you have placed all your reliance, will avail you absolutely nothing.","Noah said: “My Lord, do not leave out of these unbelievers even a single dweller on earth,","for certainly if You should leave them (alive), they will mislead Your servants, and will beget none but sinners and utter unbelievers.","My Lord, forgive me and my parents, and whoever enters my house as a believer, and forgive all believers, both men and women, and do not increase the wrong-doers in anything except perdition.”","Say, (O Prophet), it was revealed to me that a band of jinn attentively listened[1] to (the recitation of the Qur'an) and then (went back to their people) and said:###[1] This shows that the jinn at that time were not visible to the Prophet (peace be upon him), nor he knew that they were hearing the Quran being recited, but Allah informed him of the incident afterwards by revelation. Abdullah bin Abbas has also, in connection with this incident, stated: The Messenger (peace be upon him) of Allah had not recited the Quran before the jinn, nor did he see them. (Muslim, Tirmidhi, Musnad Ahmad, Ibn Jarir).","“We have indeed heard a wonderful Qur'an[1] which guides to the Right Way; so we have come to believe in it, and we will not associate aught with Our Lord in His Divinity”;[2]###[1] The words in the original are: Quran-un-ajaba, which means “something which is read again and again”, and the jinn probably used this word in this very meaning, for they were introduced to this divine revelation for the first time, and they did not perhaps know then that what they were hearing, was the Quran itself. Ajab is a superlative, which is used in Arabic for a wonderful thing. So, what the jinn said means: We have heard such a wonderful recital which is unique both in its language and in its subject-matter. \t [2] This also shows that the jinn not only hear what human beings say but also understand their language, although it is not necessary that all the jinn might know all the human languages. It is possible that those of them who live in a particular region of the earth might know the language of the people of that region. But in any case this statement of the Quran clearly shows that the jinn who listened to the Quran at that time were so conversant with the Arabic language that they not only appreciated the matchless eloquence of the divine word but also understood its sublime subject-matter.","and that “He – exalted be His Majesty – has not taken to Himself either a wife or a son”;[1]###[1] From this we know two things:","and that “the foolish among us[1] have been wont to say outrageous things about Allah”;###[1] The word safihuna as used in the text can be spoken for an individual as well as for a group. If it is taken for a foolish individual, it would imply Iblis and if for a group, it would imply a group of foolish jinn who said such things.","and that “we had thought that men and jinn would never speak a lie about Allah”,[1]###[1] That is, we were misled by those falsehoods because we could never think that the men or the jinn could ever dare forge a lie about Allah, but having heard this Quran we now know that they were, in fact, liars.","and that “some from among the humans used to seek protection of some among the jinn, and thus they increased the arrogance[1] of the jinn”;###[1] Ibn Abbas says that in the pre-Islamic days of ignorance when the Arabs had to spend a night in some uninhabited, desolate valley, they would shout out: We seek refuge of the jinn, who is owner of this valley. In other traditions of the pre-Islamic ignorance also the same thing has been reported frequently. For example, if in a place they ran short of water and fodder, the wandering Bedouins would send one of their men to some other place to see if water and fodder were available; and when they reached the new site under his direction, they would shout out before they halted to pitch the camp: We seek refuge of the sustainer of this valley so that we may live here in peace from every calamity. They believed that every un-inhabited place was under the control of one or another jinn and if someone stayed there without seeking his refuge, the jinn would either himself trouble the settlers, or would let others trouble them. These believing jinn are referring to this very thing. They meant that when man, the vicegerent of the earth, started fearing them without any reason, and started seeking their refuge instead of God’s, it caused their people to become even more arrogant, haughty and wicked, and they became even more fearless and bold in adopting error and disbelief.","and that “they thought, even as you thought, that Allah would never raise anyone (as a Messenger)”;[1]###[1] Another meaning of this sentence can be: Allah will not resurrect anyone after death. As the words are comprehensive, they can be taken to mean that, as among human beings, so among the jinn were those who denied both the Prophethood and the Hereafter. However, in view of the theme that follows, the meaning that we have given in the text above is preferable, for according to it these believing jinn tell the people of their community: Your view is proved wrong that Allah will not appoint anyone as a Messenger. In fact, the gates of heavens have been closed on us only because Allah has already appointed a Messenger.","and that “we tried to pry (the secrets of) the heaven, but we found it full of terrible guards and shooting meteors”;","and that “we would take up stations in the heaven to try to hear but anyone who now attempts to listen finds a shooting meteor in wait for him”;[1]###[1] This is the reason why these jinn were now out searching as to what particularly had happened or was going to happen on the earth, which had necessitated strict security measures against eavesdropping so that they were driven away from wherever they tried to eavesdrop in any way.","and that “we do not know whether evil is intended for those on the earth, or whether their Lord intends to direct them to the Right Way”;[1]###[1] This shows that such extraordinary measures were adopted in the heavens only on two kinds of occasions. First, when Allah might decide to inflict the dwellers of the earth with a torment, and the divine will might be that before it was actually inflicted the jinn might not know and convey its news to warn their friendly human beings of the impending disaster. Second, that Allah might appoint a Messenger on the earth, and strict security measures might be adopted so that neither the messages being conveyed to him be interfered with by the satans nor should they be able to know beforehand what instructions were being given to the Messenger. Thus, the saying of the jinn means: When we noticed that strict security measures had been adopted in the heavens for the safeguard of the news, and the meteorites were being showered profusely, we wanted to know which of the two things had happened: Whether Allah had caused a torment to descend suddenly on some people of the earth, or a Messenger had been raised somewhere on the earth. We were on the lookout for the same when we heard the wonderful revelation, which guides to the right path, and we came to know that Allah had not sent down a torment but had raised a Messenger to show the right way to the people. For further explanation,see( E.Ns 8 to 12 of Surah Al-Hijr); (E.N. 7 of Surah As- Saaffat )and (E.N. 11 of Surah Al-Mulk).","and that “some of us are upright and some of us are otherwise for we follow widely divergent paths”;[1]###[1] That is, morally there are also good and bad jinn among us, and from the viewpoint of creed as well, all do not follow one and the same religion, but we are divided into different groups. With these words the believing jinn want to convince the other jinn of their community that they certainly stood in need of finding out the right way and could not dispense with this need.","and that “we thought that we will neither be able to frustrate Allah on earth, nor frustrate Him by flight”;[1]###[1] That is, we were led by this very idea to the way of success. As we were not fearless of Allah and we believed that we would not be able to avoid His punishment if we disobeyed Him. So when we heard the divine revelation that had been sent to show the right way, we could not have the courage and boldness to persist in the beliefs that our foolish people had spread among us after we have known the truth.","and that “when we heard the teaching of the Right Way we came to believe in it; he who believes in His Lord shall have no fear of suffering loss or being subjected to any injustice”;[1]###[1] Fear of deprivation: Fear of being given a lesser reward than what one actually deserves for one’s good deeds. Injustice: That one may be deprived of the reward for the good deeds done but duly punished for the errors committed or punished innocent; no believer has any fear of such an injustice from Allah.","and that “among us some are Muslims (Those who have submitted to Allah), and some of us are deviant. So those who became Muslims found the Right Course;","but those who deviated from the Truth, will be the fuel for Hell.”[1]###[1] Here, one may ask: When, according to the Quran, the jinn have been created from the fire, what harm can the fire of Hell do them? The answer is: Even according to the Quran, man has been created out of the earth; why does then man feel hurt when a clod of earth is thrown at him? The truth is that although the whole body of man has been made from the earthly substances, when a living man of flesh and blood is molded from them he becomes an entirely different thing from those substances; then other things made from the same substances become a means of causing harm to him. Likewise, although the jinn have also been created from the fire, when a living and sentient creation has been made from it, the same fire becomes a means of causing harm and hurt for it. (For further explanation, see (E.N. 15 of Surah Ar-Rahman).","If[1] people were to keep firmly to the Right Way, We would have vouchsafed them abundant rain[2]###[1] The conversation of the jinn having come to an end, with this begins the speech of Allah. \t [2] This is the same thing as has been said in( Surah Nooh, Ayats 10-11). Seek forgiveness of Allah. He will send abundant rains for you from heaven. (For explanation, see( E.N. 12 of Surah Nooh). Abundance of water has been used for abundance of blessings metaphorically for human life, and habitations also depend on water. Without water there can be no human settlement, nor can man’s basic needs be fulfilled, nor his industries work and prosper.","so that We might try them through this bounty.[1] Whoso turns away from the remembrance of his Lord,[2] He will cause him to suffer a grievous chastisement;###[1] We might try them by that blessing: We might see whether they remain grateful after having received the blessing or not, and whether they put Our blessing to right use or not. \t [2] Turns away from the remembrance of his Lord, means that one may reject the advice and admonition sent down by Allah, or one may disdain giving ear to Allah’s remembrance, or one may turn away from His worship.","and that “mosques belong to Allah, so do not invoke anyone with Him”;[1]###[1] The commentators generally have taken mosques to mean the places of worship. Accordingly, the verse means: None should be associated in the worship of Allah in the places of worship. Hasan Basri says: The entire earth is a place of worship, and the verse means to say: Polytheism ought not to be committed anywhere on God’s earth, He has reasoned out this meaning from the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) Hadith: For me the entire earth has been made a place of worship and a means of obtaining purity. Saeed bin Jubair has interpreted masajid to imply the parts of the body on which one prostrates oneself, i.e. the hands, the knees, toes and forehead. According to this explanation, the verse means: These limbs have been made by Allah; no one should prostrate oneself on these before anyone other than Allah.","and when Allah's servant[1] stood up to call on Him, they well-nigh swarmed him.###[1] Servant of Allah: the Prophet (peace be upon him).","Say, (O Prophet): “I call on my Lord alone, and I do not associate aught with Him in His Divinity.”[1]###[1] That is, to call upon Allah is no objectionable thing, which may so provoke the people. The evil thing, however, is that one should associate another with Allah in His divinity, and this I never do; this is done by those who mob and surround me when they hear God mentioned by me.","Say: “Surely neither it is in my power to hurt you nor to bring you to the Right Way.”","Say: “None can protect me from Allah, nor can I find a refuge apart from Him.","(My task is no more than) to deliver Allah's proclamation and His messages.[1] And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger, surely the Fire of Hell awaits him; therein he will abide in perpetuity.”[2]###[1] That is, I do not claim to have any share or role in the Godhead of Allah, nor that I possess any power in making or marring the people’s destinies. I am only a Messenger and the mission that has been entrusted to me is no more than that I should convey the messages of Allah to you. As for the powers of Godhead, they wholly belong to Allah. Not to speak of benefiting or harming others, I do not have the power to cause good or harm even to myself. If I disobey Allah, I cannot seek and have refuge anywhere from His punishment, and I have no helper and protector beside Allah. (For further explanation, see(E.N. 7 of Surah Ash-Shura). \t [2] This does not mean that every sin and act of disobedience will cause one to live in Hell forever, but in view of the context in which this thing bas been said, the verse means: the one who does not accept the invitation to Tauhid given by Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) and does not refrain from polytheism will suffer in Hell forever.","(They shall not change their ways) until they see that against which they had been warned, and then they will know whose helpers are weaker and whose supporters are fewer in number.[1]###[1] The background of this verse is that those of the Quraish who used to mob and surround the Prophet (peace be upon him) as soon as they heard his invitation calling to Allah were under the delusion that they had a strong band at their back and that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had only a handful of men with him, and therefore, they would easily overwhelm him. At this it is being said: Today these people find the Messenger (peace be upon him) helpless and friendless and they themselves supported and strengthened by great hosts and, therefore, feel encouraged and emboldened to suppress the invitation to the truth. But when the evil time with which they are being threatened comes, they will know who in fact is helpless and friendless.","Say: “I know not whether what you are promised is near or whether my Lord will prolong its term.[1]###[1] The style itself shows that this is an answer which has been given without citing the question. Probably, hearing what has been said above, the opponents might have asked mockingly and tauntingly: When will the time come with which you are threatening us. In response, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was commanded to say: The time will certainly come, but I have not been told the date of its coming. Allah alone knows whether it will come soon or whether a distant term has been set for it.","He is the Knower of the Unseen, and He does not disclose His Unseen to anyone[1]###[1] That is, the knowledge of the unseen entirely rests with Allah: He does not give the whole of this knowledge to anyone.","other than to a Messenger whom He chooses[1] (for the bestowal of any part of the knowledge of the Unseen), whereafter He appoints guards who go before him and behind him,[2]###[1] That is, the Messenger (peace be upon him) by himself is no knower of the unseen, but when Allah chooses him to perform the mission of Prophethood, He grants him the knowledge of those of the unseen truths which He is pleased to grant. \t [2] Guards: Angels, that is, when Allah sends down the knowledge of the unseen realities to the Messenger (peace be upon him) by revelation, He appoints angels on every side to safeguard it so that the knowledge reaches the Messenger in a safe condition, free from any kind of adulteration. This is the same thing which has been expressed in verses 8-9 above, saying: After the appointment of the Messenger (peace be upon him) the jinn found that all the doors to the heavens had been closed, and they noticed that strict security measures had been adopted because of which no room had been left for them to eavesdrop.","so that He may know that they have delivered the messages of their Lord.[1] He encompasses in His knowledge their surroundings and keeps a count of all things.”[2]###[1] This can have three meanings: (1) That the Messenger (peace be upon him) may know that the angels have delivered the messages of Allah to him precisely and accurately. (2) That Allah may know that the angels have conveyed the messages of their Lord to His Messenger (peace be upon him) precisely and accurately. (3) That Allah may know that the Messenger (peace be upon him) has conveyed the messages of his Lord to His servants precisely and accurately. The words of the verse are comprehensive and may possibly imply all the three meanings. Besides, the verse also points out two other things. First, that the Messenger (peace be upon him) is given that knowledge of the unseen which is necessary for him to perform his mission of Prophethood. Second, that the angels keep watch that the revelation reaches the Messenger (peace be upon him) safely and also that the Messenger (peace be upon him) conveys the messages of his Lord to His servants precisely and accurately. \t [2] That is, Allah’s power so encompasses the Messenger (peace be upon him) as well as the angels that if they swerve even a little from His will, they can be detected immediately. Moreover, a complete record has been kept of each letter of the messages sent down by Allah. The Messengers (peace be upon him) and the angels cannot dare add or subtract even a letter from them.","O you the (sleeping) enwrapped one![1]###[1] To address the Prophet (peace be upon him) with these words and then to command him to rise and keep standing in the Prayer at night, shows that at the time he either lay asleep, or had wrapped himself up in a sheet in order to go to sleep. Here, to address him with: O you who sleeps wrapped up instead of with: O Prophet, or O Messenger, is a fine way of address, which by itself gives the meaning: Gone is the time when you used to enjoy peaceful sleep at will; now you lie under the burden of a great mission, whose demands and duties are different as well as onerous.","Stand up in Prayer by night, all but a small part of it;[1]###[1] This can have two meanings:","half of it, or reduce it a little;","or add to it a little;[1] and recite the Qur'an slowly and distinctly.[2]###[1] This is an explanation of the duration of time commanded to be spent in worship. In it the Prophet (peace be upon him) was given the option to spend half of the night in the Prayer, or a little less than that, or a little more than that. But the style shows that half the night has been regarded as preferable, for the measure is the same, which may be decreased or increased, as the people may like and choose. \t [2] Recite the Quran: Do not recite it quickly and in haste, but slowly and distinctly: pause at every verse so that the mind understands the meaning and purport of divine revelation well and takes effect from it. if it contains the mention of Allah’s Being and Attributes, it may awe-inspire the heart with His glory and majesty. If it expresses His mercy, the heart may be filled with feelings of gratitude to Him. If it mentions His wrath and His punishment, the heart may be overwhelmed by fear of Him. If it enjoins something or forbids something, one may understand what has been enjoined and what has been forbidden. In short, the recital does not only consist in uttering the words with the tongue, but it should involve thoughtful consideration of the meaning. When Anas was asked about the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) method of reciting the Quran, he replied: The Messenger (peace be upon him) stretched the words when reciting them. For example, when he recited Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim, he would stretch and prolong the sound of Allah, Rahman and Rahim (Bukhari). When Umm Salamah was asked the same question, she replied that the Prophet (peace be upon him) recited every verse separately and distinctly and observed a pause at the end of every verse. For instance, he recited Al-hamdu-lillahi Rabbil-alamin, and paused, then recited ar-Rahmanir- Rahim, and paused, and then recited Maliki-yaumid-din. (Musnad Ahmad, Abu Daud, Tirmidhi). In another tradition, Umm Salamah has stated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) recited each word distinctly and clearly. (Tirmidhi, Nasai). Hudhaifah bin Yaman says: Once I stood beside the Prophet (peace be upon him) in the night Prayer to see how he recited the Quran. I noticed that he glorified Allah where He should be glorified, invoked and supplicated Allah where He should be invoked and supplicated, and sought refuge of Allah where His refuge should be sought. (Muslim, Nasai). Abu Dharr has stated that once during the night Prayer when the Prophet (peace be upon him) came to the sentence: in-to-adhdhib-hum ... (If You punish them, then they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, then You are Almighty, All-Wise), he went on repeating it over and over again until it became dawn. (Musnad Ahmad, Bukhari).","Behold, We shall cast upon you a Weighty Word.[1]###[1] That is, you are being commanded to stand up in the night Prayer because We are going to send down on you a weighty word, to bear the burden of which you must develop necessary power in yourself, and you can develop this power only by abandoning your ease and comfort of the night and by standing up in the Prayer and passing half the night or thereabout in the worship of your Lord. The Quran has also been called a weighty word for the reason that acting on its commands, demonstrating its teaching practically, extending its invitation in the face of the whole world, and bringing about a revolution in the entire system of belief and thought, morals and manners, civilization and social life, according to it, is indeed the weightiest task any human being ever has been charged with. It has also been called a weighty word because bearing the burden of its revelation was a difficult and heavy duty. Zaid bin Thabit says: Once revelation came down upon the Prophet (peace be upon him) in a state when he was resting his head upon my knee. I felt such a pressure of the weight on my knee that I thought it would break. Aishah says: I have seen the state of the Prophet’s receiving revelation during intense cold, drops of perspiration started falling from his forehead. (Bukhari, Muslim, Malik, Tirmidhi, Nasai). In another tradition Aishah has stated: Whenever revelation came down on the Prophet (peace be upon him) while he was riding on his she-camel, the she-camel would be forced to rest her chest on the ground and could not move until the revelation was over. (Musnad Ahmad, Hakim, Ibn Jarir).","Surely getting up at night[1] is the best means of subduing the self[2] and is more suitable for uprightness in speech.[3]###[1] About the meaning of the word nashiat allail, as used in the original, the commentators and lexicographers have expressed four different viewpoints: \t [2] (1) That nashiat implies the person himself who rises at night. \t [3] (2) That it implies the hours of night.","You are indeed much occupied during the day with the affairs of the world.","So remember the name of your Lord[1] and devote yourself to Him with exclusive devotion.###[1] After making mention of the occupation of the daytime, the exhortation to remember the name of your Lord by itself gives the meaning: Never be heedless of the remembrance of your Lord even when you are deeply involved in your worldly occupations, and continue to commemorate His name in one way or another at all times. (For explanation, see  (E.N. 63 of Surah Al-Ahzab).","He is the Lord of the East and the West; there is no god but He. So take Him alone for your Guardian,[1]###[1] Wakil is a person in whom one has complete faith; so much so that one can entrust all his affairs to him with full satisfaction of the heart. Thus, the verse means: Do not feel distressed at the hardships that you are experiencing at the storm of opposition that has been provoked by your invitation to the faith. Your Lord is He Who is the Owner of the East and the West, (i.e. of the whole universe) besides Whom no one else possesses the powers of Godhead. Entrust your affair to Him and be satisfied that He will fight your case, He will deal with your opponents, and He will look after all your interests well.","And bear patiently the vain things they utter, and gracefully[1] forsake them.###[1] Depart from them does not mean break off all ties with them and stop preaching to them, but it means: Do not have intimate and friendly relations with them, disregard their foolish behavior and their nonsense. However, you should do so without showing any grief, anger or temper but gracefully like a noble person, who would disregard the abusive remarks of a mean person without minding them at all. This should not create the misunderstanding that the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) conduct was any different from it, therefore, Allah gave him this instruction. As a matter of fact, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was already following this very mode of conduct. This instruction was given in the Quran so as to tell the disbelievers: It is not due to any weakness on the part of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that he is not responding to what you are saying against him, but Allah Himself has taught His Messenger (peace be upon him) to adopt this noble way of conduct in response to your foolish behavior.","Leave it to Me to deal with the affluent ones who give the lie[1] (to the Truth), and bear with them for a while.###[1] These words clearly contain the sense that the people, who were actually denying the Prophet (peace be upon him) in Makkah and were inciting the common people to oppose and resist him by stirring up prejudices and by deceit and fraud, were the well-to-do, prosperous and affluent people, for it was their interests, which were being hit by the reforming message of Islam. The Quran tells us that this was not peculiar only to the Prophet’s case but in every age this very class of the people have been the main obstacle to every movement of reform. For example, see  (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayats 60, 66,75, 88);Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 33);(Surah Saba, Ayats 34, 35); (Surah Az-Zukhruf, Ayat 23).","We have heavy fetters[1] and a blazing Fire in store for them;###[1] Heavy shackles in Hell will not be put on the criminals’ feet to stop them from escape but in order that they are not able to stand up and move; these will not be used to prevent their escape but as an instrument of their torment.","and a food that chokes, and a grievous chastisement.","(They will come across all this) on the Day when the earth and the mountains shall tremble violently and the mountains shall crumble into heaps of scattered sand.[1]###[1] Since at that time the cohesive force to bind the parts of the mountains together will cease to work, first they will become like crumbling dunes of fine sand, then because of the earthquake which will be shaking the earth; the sand will scatter and shift and the whole earth will turn into an empty level plain. This last state has been described in (Surah TaHa, Ayats 105-107), thus: They ask you, where will the mountains go on that Day. Say: My Lord will reduce them to fine dust and scatter it away. He will turn the earth into an empty level plain, wherein you will neither see any curve no crease.","Surely[1] We have sent to you a Messenger as a witness over you,[2] just as We had sent a Messenger to Pharaoh.###[1] The address now turns to the disbelievers of Makkah, who were denying the Prophet (peace be upon him) and persecuting him relentlessly. \t [2] Sending the Prophet (peace be upon him) to be a witness over the people also means that he should testify to the truth by his word and deed before them in the world and also that in the Hereafter when Allah’s court is established, he will testify that he had presented the whole truth before the people in the world. (For further explanation, see ( E.N. 144 of Surah Al-Baqarah); (E.N. 64 of Surah An-Nisa);   (Surah An-Nahl, Ayats 84, 89);   (E.N. 82 of Surah Al-Azab);    (E.N. 14 of Surah Al-Fath).","But Pharaoh disobeyed Our Messenger, so We seized him with a terrible seizing.","If you persist in disbelieving, how will you guard yourself against the (woe of the) Day that will turn children grey-haired,[1]###[1] That is, in the first place, you should be afraid that if you do not accept the invitation of the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent by Us, you will have to meet the same evil end in this world, which the Pharaoh has already met in consequence of this very crime. But even if no torment is sent on you in the world, how will you save yourselves from the punishment of the Day of Resurrection.","the Day whose severity shall cause the heaven to split asunder? Allah's promise is ever bound to be fulfilled.","Indeed this is nothing but a Good Counsel; so let him who will take a way leading to his Lord.","(O Prophet),[1] your Lord knows that you sometimes stand up in Prayer nearly two-thirds of the night, and sometimes half or one-third of it,[2] and so does a party of those with you;[3] Allah measures the night and the day. He knows that you cannot keep an accurate count of it, so He has shown mercy to you. So now recite as much of the Qur'an as you can.[4] He knows that there are among you those who are sick and others who are journeying in the land in quest of Allah's bounty,[5] and still others who are fighting in the cause of Allah.[6] So recite as much of the Qur'an as you easily can, and establish Prayer, and pay Zakah,[7] and give Allah a goodly loan.[8] Whatever good you send forth for yourselves, you shall find it with Allah. That is better and its reward is greater.[9] And ask for Allah's forgiveness; surely He is Most Forgiving, Most Compassionate.###[1] About this verse in which reduction has been made in the injunction concerning the tahajjud Prayer, there are different traditions. Musnad Ahmad, Muslim and Abu Daud have related a tradition, on the authority of Aishah, saying that this second command was sent down one year after the first command, and the standing up in the Prayer at night was made voluntary instead of obligatory. Another tradition which Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim have related, again on the authority of Aishah, says that this command came down eight months after the first command, and a third tradition which Ibn Abi Hatim has related again from her, says that it came down sixteen months later. Abu Daud, Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim have cited the period of one year from Abdullah bin Abbas. But Saeed bin Jubair has stated that it was sent down ten years later. (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim). In our opinion this last view is most sound, for the subject matter of the first section clearly shows that it was sent down in Makkah and that too in the earliest stage when at the most four years might have passed since the advent of Prophethood. Contrary to this, this second section, in view of the express evidence of its subject matter, seems to have been revealed at Al-Madinah when fighting had started with the disbelievers and the zakat also had been enjoined as an obligatory duty. On this basis inevitably the two sections should have been sent down at an interval of at least ten years between them. \t [2] Although the initial command to the Prophet (peace be upon him) was to keep standing up in the Prayer for half the night, or thereabout, it was difficult to compute the time precisely in the absorption of the Prayer, especially when there were no watches either to measure time accurately; therefore, sometimes two thirds of the night passed in the prayer and sometimes only one-third of it. \t [3] In the initial command only the Prophet (peace be upon him) was addressed and only he was instructed to stand up in the Prayer by night. But since the Muslims at that time were ardently desirous of following him in everything he did and of earning more and more good and virtues, many of the companions also performed this night Prayer regularly. \t [4] As the Prayer is prolonged due mainly to a lengthy recital of the Quran, it is said: You may recite as much of the Quran as you easily can in the tahajjud Prayer This would automatically cause the Prayer to be shortened. Although the words here are apparently in the imperative mood, it is agreed by all that tahajjud is not an obligatory but a voluntary Prayer. In the Hadith, it has also been explained that on an enquiry by a person the Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: Five times Prayer in the day and night is obligatory on you. He asked: Is anything besides this is also binding on me. The Prophet said: No, unless you may like to offer something of your own accord. (Bukhari, Muslim). This verse also shows another thing. Just as the bowing (ruku) and prostration (sajdah) are obligatory in the Prayer, so is the recital of the Quran. For just as Allah at other places has used the words ruku and sajdah for the prayer, so here He has mentioned recital of the Quran, which implies its recital in the Prayer. If somebody objects to this conclusion, saying: When the tahajjud Prayer itself is voluntary, how can recital of the Quran in it be obligatory? The answer is: Even in case of the voluntary Prayer it is incumbent on one to fulfill all the pre-requisites of the Prayer and to perform all its basic elements and obligatory parts. No one can say that in case of the voluntary Prayer, purity of the garments and body, ablutions and concealment of the satar (minimal part of the body to be covered) are not obligatory, and the standing up and sitting and performance of ruku and sajdah in it are also only voluntary. \t [5] Travelling to earn one’s living by lawful and permissible methods has been described in many places in the Quran as the seeking of Allah’s bounty. \t [6] Here, the way Allah has made mention of seeking pure livelihood and fighting in the way of Allah together and declared these two, besides the compulsion on account of illness, as reasons for exemption from the tahajjud Prayer, or concession in it, shows how meritorious it is in Islam to earn one’s livelihood by lawful methods. In the Hadith, Abdullah bin Masud has reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: The person who came to a city of the Muslims with food grains and sold it at the rate of the day, will attain to a place nearest to Allah, and then the Prophet (peace be upon him) recited this very verse. (lbn Marduyah). Umar once said: Except for fighting in the way of Allah, the state in which I would love to be overtaken by death, is the state when I am overtaken by it while passing through a mountain pass in search of livelihood and then he recited this very verse. (Baihaqi, Shuab al-Iman). \t [7] Commentators agree that this implies observance of the obligatory Prayer five times a day and giving away of the obligatory zakat. \t [8] Ibn Zaid says this implies spending one’s wealth in the cause of Allah besides the zakat, whether it is in the cause of fighting in the way of Allah, or for helping the needy, or for public utilities, or other good works. The meaning of giving to Allah a good loan has been explained at several places above. See  (E.N. 267 of Surah Al-Baqarah); (E.N. 33 of Surah Al-Maidah);  (E.N. 16 of Surah Al-Hadid). \t [9] It means: Whatever you have sent forward for the good of your Hereafter is more beneficial for you than what you withheld in the world and did not spend in any good cause for the pleasure of Allah. According to a Hadith reported by Abdullah bin Masud the Prophet (peace be upon him) once asked: Which of you has a greater love for his own wealth than for the wealth of his heir. The people said: There is none among us, O Messenger of Allah, who would not have greater love for his own wealth than for the wealth of his heir. He said: Consider well what you are saying. The people submitted: This indeed is our considered opinion, O Messenger of Allah. Thereupon the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Your own property is only that which you have sent forward (for the good of your Hereafter), and whatever you held back, indeed belongs to the heir. (Bukhari. Nasai, Musnad Abu Yala).","O you enveloped in your cloak![1]###[1] A study of the background of the revelation of these verses given in the introduction above can help one understand why the Prophet (peace be upon him) on this occasion has been addressed with Ya ayyuhal-Muddaththiru instead of Ya ayyuhar-Rasulu (O Messenger), or Ya ayyuhan-Nabiyyu (O Prophet). As the Prophet (peace be upon him) had been terrified when he had suddenly seen the Angel Gabriel, sitting on a throne between heaven and earth, and had returned hastily home and asked the people of the house to cover him up, so Allah addressed him with Ya ayyuhal-Muddaththiru. From this fine way of address the meaning which automatically follows is: O My dear servant, why have you lain down thus enwrapped? You have been put under the burden of a great mission: you must now arise from your solitude to perform this mission with resolution and courage.","Arise, and warn,[1]###[1] A command of this very nature had been given to the prophet Noah (peace be upon him) while appointing him to the office of Prophethood: Warn the people of your nation before they are overtaken by a painful torment. (Surah Nooh, Ayat 1) The verse means: O you who lays enwrapped, stand up and arouse the people who live in heedlessness around you. Warn them of the fate which would certainly overtake them if they remained involved in the same heedlessness. Warn them that they are not living in a lawless kingdom where they are free to conduct themselves as they like and where they can do wherever they please without any fear or being called to account for it.","and magnify the glory of your Lord,[1]###[1] This is the primary duty of a Prophet (peace be upon him), which he has to perform in this world. His foremost duty is to refute the greatness of all those whom the ignorant people might be holding as great, and publicly proclaim that the greatness in this universe belongs to none but Allah alone. For this very reason the phrase Allahu Akbar has been held as of supreme importance in Islam. The adhan (call to prayer) begins with the proclamation of Allahu Akbar. The Muslim enters the Prayer itself with Allahu Akbar and repeats Allahu Akbar every time he sits or stands, He also pronounces Bismillahi Allahu Akbar when slaughtering an animal. The slogan of Allahu Akbar has become a most distinctive and prominent emblem of Muslims throughout the world today, for the Prophet (peace be upon him) of this ummah himself had embarked on his mission with the magnification and glorification of Almighty Allah.","and purify your robes,[1]###[1] These are very comprehensive words, which are full of meaning.","and shun uncleanness,[1]###[1] Un-cleanliness implies every kind of filth, whether of belief and thought, of morals and deeds, of the body, dress or mode of life. The verse means: Keep yourself free from the filth of evils which are prevalent in society around you: no one should ever impute to you the blame that your own life itself is stained in some degree with the evils that you tell others to avoid.","and bestow not favour in order to seek from others a greater return,[1]###[1] The words wala tamnun tastakthir in the original are so vast in meaning that no one sentence can convey their full sense in translation.","and persevere for your Lord's sake.[1]###[1] That is, the task that is being entrusted to you is full of hazards: you will meet with great hardships and difficulties and troubles on this way: even your own people will turn hostile against you and the whole of Arabia will become your enemy. Yet you should endure with patience, for the sake of your Lord, whatever you may have to face in this way, and carry out all your duties firmly and resolutely. Fear, greed, friendship, enmity, love, all these will hinder your way, but you should stand your ground firmly and steadfastly.","When the Trumpet shall be sounded,","that will surely be a hard day,[1]###[1] As already explained in the introduction, this part of the Surah was sent down a few months after the initial verses when at the beginning of the first ever Hajj season, after the advent of Islam, the Quraish chiefs decided in a conference to start a powerful propaganda campaign to dissuade the outsiders, who came to visit the Kabah, from the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). In these verses, this very scheming of the Quraish has been reviewed, and the review has begun with the words, as if to say: You may act as you please, but even if you succeed in achieving your object by these devices in the world, how will you save yourselves from your evil end on the Day when the Trumpet will be sounded and Resurrection will be established. (For explanation of the Trumpet, see(E.N. 47 of Surah Al-Anaam); (E.N. 57 of Surah Ibrahim); (E.N. 78 of Surah TaHa);(E.N. 1 of Surah Al-Hajj); (E.Ns 46, 47 of Surah YaSin), (E.N. 79 of Surah Az-Zumar); (E.N. 52 of Surah Qaf).","not an easy day for the unbelievers.[1]###[1] These words by themselves support the conclusion that that Day will be light for the believers, and its hardships will be specially intended only for the deniers of the truth. Moreover, these words also contain the meaning that the severity of that Day will be of an enduring and permanent nature for disbelievers, it will not be a severity which might be expected to become mild with the passage of time.","Leave Me with him[1] whom I alone have created,[2]###[1] The address is directed to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and it means: O Prophet, leave the case of the person (Walid bin al-Mughirah) to Me, who in the disbelievers’ conference proposed that you should be branded as a sorcerer among the pilgrims coming from different parts of Arabia; it is now for Me to deal with him; you need not bother yourself about it at all. \t [2] This sentence can have two meanings and both are correct:","whom I have endowed with abundant riches,","and sons ever present with him,[1]###[1] Walid bin al-Mughirah had ten or twelve sons of whom Khalid bin Walid became most famous. For these sons the word shuhud has been used, which can have several meanings:","and for whom I have smoothed the way (to power and riches),","and who still greedily desires that I should bestow upon him more.[1]###[1] Its one meaning is that there is still no end to his greed. In spite of having all this he still desires that he should be granted every good thing of the world. Another meaning which Hasan Basri, and some other scholars have given is: He used to say: If what Muhammad (peace be upon him) says is really true that there is another life after death, and there will be a Paradise also in it, then that Paradise too has been prepared for me.","By no means; he is stubbornly opposed to Our Signs.","I shall soon constrain him to a hard ascent.","He reflected and then hatched a scheme.","Ruin seize him, how did he hatch a scheme?","Again, ruin seize him, how did he hatch a scheme?","He looked (at others);","then frowned and scowled;","then he retreated and waxed proud,","and said: “This (Qur'an) is merely a sorcery of yore;","this is nothing but the word of a mere mortal!”[1]###[1] The reference is to what happened in the conference of the disbelievers of Makkah. From the details of it that we have given in the introduction, it becomes obvious that this man in his heart had become fully convinced of the Quran’s being divine word, but in order to save his position as a chief of his people, he was not prepared to affirm faith. When in the conference he himself turned down all the accusations that the Quraish chiefs were proposing against the Prophet (peace be upon him), he was compelled to devise an accusation from himself, which could be spread among the Arabs in order to bring a bad name to the Prophet (peace be upon him). Then, the way he struggled against his conscience, and the way he devised an accusation at last after a prolonged mental conflict, has been vividly depicted here.","Him shall I soon roast in Hell.","And what do you know what Hell is?","It spares nothing; it leaves nothing intact;[1]###[1] This can have two meanings: first, that it will burn to ashes whoever is cast into it, but even after death he will not escape from punishment: he will be given life once again and burnt once again, This very subject has been treated at another place thus: He will neither die in it nor live. (Surah Al-Aala, Ayat 13). Another meaning can also be: It will leave none who has deserved the punishment and it will spare none from being punished.","it scorches (even) the skin.[1]###[1] After saying that it will leave nothing of the body unconsumed, making mention of scorching of the skin separately seems to be somewhat unnecessary. But this form of the punishment has been mentioned separately in particular because it is the skin of a man’s face and body which actually makes his personality prominent, and it is its ugliness which makes him feel most ill at ease. He is not so grieved at the internal troubles of his body as, for instance, at his face being ugly, or that there should be spots on the skin of the exposed parts of his body, abhorrent to others. That is why it has been said: If the people who feel proud of their personalities in the world because of having handsome faces and splendid bodies, treat the revelations of Allah mockingly, as did Walid bin al-Mughirah, their faces will be scorched and their skins will be burned black.","Over it are nineteen keepers.","We[1] have appointed none but angels as the keepers of the Fire,[2] and We have not made their number but as a trial for the unbelievers[3] so that those who have been endowed with the Book will be convinced[4] and the believers' faith will increase,[5] and neither those who have been endowed with the Book nor the believers will fall into any doubt. As for those in whose hearts there is a sickness[6] as well as the unbelievers, they will say: “What did Allah aim at by this strange parable?”[7] Thus does Allah let whomsoever He pleases to go astray, and directs whomsoever He pleases[8] to the Right Way. And none knows the hosts of your Lord but He.[9] (And Hell has only been mentioned here) that people may take heed.[10]###[1] The whole passage from here to “none knows the hosts of your Lord but He Himself”, is a parenthetical sentence, which has been inserted here to answer an objection of the disbelievers, who had started mocking it when they heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) say that 19 keepers had been appointed over Hell. \t [2] Their objection was: How strange that, on the one hand, we are told that all human beings, from the time of the Prophet Adam till Resurrection, who disbelieved and committed evil, will be cast into Hell, and, on the other hand, that there will be only 19 keepers, who will administer punishment to the countless numbers of men in such a huge Hell. \t [3] This caused a huge laughter among the chiefs of Quraish. Abu Jahl said: Brothers, are you so powerless that even as many as ten of you at a time will not be able to overpower a single policeman of Hell. At this a wrestler of the Bani Jumha said: Well I will deal with and overpower at least 17 of them by myself; as for the remaining two, you all together can tackle them. In response these sentences have been inserted as a parenthetical clause. \t [4] That is, it is foolish on your part to compare the angelic powers to human powers. They will be angels, not men, and you cannot imagine what tremendous powers Allah has granted to the angels He has created. \t [5] That is, although apparently there was no need to mention the number of the keepers of Hell, yet We have mentioned it so that it becomes a trial for every such person who may be concealing any kind of unbelief in his heart. Such a man may be making a great display of his faith but if he conceals even a tinge of the doubt about the Godhead and supreme powers of God, or about revelation and Prophethood, anywhere in his heart, his disbelief would immediately be exposed as soon as he would hear that only 19 policemen would control countless numbers of the culprits from among the jinn and men in such a huge jail and would also administer punishment to each of them individually. \t [6] Some commentators have explained it thus: As in the scriptures of the Jews and Christians, the same number of the angels has also been mentioned as keepers of Hell, they would be convinced of this thing’s being truly from Allah as soon as they heard it. But in our opinion this commentary is not correct for two reasons. First, we have not been able to see anywhere in the existing scriptures of the Jews and Christians in spite of search that the number of the angels appointed over Hell is 19. Second, there are many things in the Quran, which have also been mentioned in the scriptures of the Jews and Christians, yet they explain them away, saying that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has plagiarized these from their books. For these reasons the correct meaning of this statement in our opinion is: The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) knew that he would be ridiculed as soon as the disbelievers heard that 19 angels had been appointed over Hell, but in spite of this, he presented without the least hesitation and fear publicly before the people what had been revealed to him from Allah, and did not at all mind the jesting and mocking by the people. The pagans of Arabia were unaware of the unique distinction of the Prophets, but the followers of the earlier scriptures were fully aware that the Prophets in every age used to convey to their people intact whatever they received from God, whether it pleased them or displeased them. On this very basis it was to be expected of the Jews and the Christians that they would be convinced of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) truth for only a Prophet could present an apparently strange thing without any hesitation before the people in an environment charged with antagonism and hostility. This is also evident that such a thing was shown by the Prophet (peace be upon him) on many other occasions. Its most prominent example is the event of the miraj (ascension) which he related openly before a general assembly of the disbelievers and did not at all care how his opponents would behave and react after they had heard the story of the wonderful event. \t [7] It has been explained at several places in the Quran that on the occasion of every trial when a believer remains steadfast to his faith, and forsaking the way of doubt and denial, disobedience or disloyalty to the faith, adopts the way of faith, obedience and loyalty to it, it increases and strengthens him all the more in faith and resignation (For explanation, see(Surah Aal-Imran, Ayat 173);( Surah Al- Anfal, Ayat 2); (Surah At-Taubah, Ayats 124-125);(Surah Al- Ahzab, Ayat 22);(Surah Al-Fath, Ayat 4 and the corresponding E.Ns). \t [8] As sickness of the heart in the Quran is generally understood to imply hypocrisy, seeing this word here some commentators have expressed the view that this verse was revealed at Al-Madinah, for the hypocrites appeared at Al- Madinah. But this view is not correct for several reasons. In the first place, the assertion itself that there were no hypocrites at Makkah is false, and its falsehood has been exposed in the Introduction to the (Surah Al-Ankabut and in its verses 10-11). \t [9] Secondly, in our opinion it is not a correct way of writing commentary that in respect of a certain sentence occurring in a particular discourse which was revealed on a particular occasion, under particular circumstances, one should declare that it had been sent down on another occasion but has been inserted here without any relevance. The historical background of this part of Surah Al-Muddaththir is well known to us from authentic traditions. This was revealed in connection with a particular event of the early period of the life at Makkah. The whole context bears full relevance to the event. What could, therefore, be the occasion in this context that this one sentence, if it was revealed many years later at Al- Madinah, should have been inserted here? \t [10] As for the question what is implied by the disease of the heart here, its answer is that it implies the disease of doubt. Not only in Makkah but in the entire world there have been, and are, very few such people, who might deny God, Hereafter, Revelation, Prophethood, Heaven, Hell, etc. absolutely. In every age the greater majority by far has been of those people, who have been involved in the doubt whether there is God, or no God, Hereafter or no Hereafter, whether Heaven and Hell really exist, or are mere figments of the imagination, and whether the Messengers did really come and receive revelation or not. This same doubt has led most people to unbelief, otherwise the number of such people in the world who denied these truths absolutely has never been great. For a person who has any common sense knows that there is no rational ground whatever for denying the possibility of the existence of these things, or of declaring them absolutely impossible.","Nay,[1] by the moon,###[1] That is, it is not a hollow thing which may be mocked like that.","and by the night when it recedes,","and by the day when it dawns (with its radiance),","surely (Hell) is one of the greatest Signs,[1]###[1] That is, just as the moon and the night and the day are the great signs of the powers of Allah, so also is Hell a great sign of His powers. If the existence of the moon and the alternation of the night and day so regularly were not impossible, why should the existence of Hell be impossible as you think it is. You see these phenomena day and night; therefore, they do not surprise you: otherwise these things in themselves also are great marvels of the powers of Allah. If you had not observed them and somebody were to tell you that there is also such a thing as the moon in the world, or, there is a sun which leaves the world dark when it hides and makes the world shine forth with light when it appears, then the people like you would have made jests of it too as you make jests of Hell.","a warning to humankind,","a warning to everyone of you whether he would like to come forward or lag behind.[1]###[1] That is, the people have been warned to this effect. Now, let him who heeds the warning go forward on the right way, and let him who wills still lag behind.","Each one is a hostage to one's deeds,[1]###[1] For explanation, see( E.N. 16 of Surah At-Toor).","save the People of the Right Hand","who shall be in the Gardens,[1] and shall ask###[1] In other words, the people of the left hand will be seized in consequence of their misdeeds, but the people of the right hand will have their debts settled. (For explanation of the people of the right hand and the left hand, see (E.Ns 5, 6 of Surah Al-Waqiah).","about the guilty ones:[1]###[1] At several places in the Quran, it has been stated that the dwellers of Paradise and the dwellers of Hell will be able to see and communicate with each other directly without the agency of any instrument whenever they will so desire, although they will be living hundreds of thousands of miles away from each other. For instance, see( Surah Al- Aaraf, Ayats 44-50 and E.N. 35);(Surah As-Saaffat, Ayats 50-57 and E.N. 32) on it.","“What drove you to Hell?”","They will answer: “We were not among those who observed Prayer,[1]###[1] That is, we were not of those who after having believed in Allah and His Messenger and His Book, performed the foremost duty imposed by Allah, i.e. the Prayer. Here, it should be understood well that unless a person has believed he cannot offer the Prayer at all. Therefore, one’s being of those who performed the Prayer, by itself implies that one is a believer. But by attributing one’s going to Hell to his not being of those who performed their Prayer, it has been made explicit that one cannot escape Hell even after having believed if he does not perform his Prayers regularly.","and we did not feed the poor,[1]###[1] This shows how grave a sin it is in Islam to see a hungry man and fail to feed him even if one can, for this has been particularly mentioned as one of the causes of going to Hell.","and we indulged in vain talk with those who indulged in vain talk,","and we gave the lie to the Day of Judgement","until the inevitable event overtook us.”[1]###[1] Until the inevitable certainty overtakes: Until death came upon us. Here, the inevitable implies death as well as the Hereafter.","The intercession of the intercessors shall then be of no avail to them.[1]###[1] That is, even if an intercessor interceded for a person who persisted in this way of life till death, he would not be forgiven. The question of intercession has been fully explained at many places in the Quran that no one can have any difficulty in knowing and understanding as to who can intercede and who cannot, when one can intercede and when one cannot, for whom one can intercede and for whom one cannot, and for whom intercession is beneficial and for whom it is not. As one of the major causes of the people’s deviation in the world is their false concept about intercession, it has been explained at such length in the Quran as to leave no room for any doubt and ambiguity. For example, see( Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 255); (Surah Al- Anaam, Ayat 94); (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 53); (Surah Younus, Ayats 3-18);(Surah Maryam, Ayat 87);(Surah TaHa, Ayat 109);(Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayat 28);(Surah Saba, Ayat 23);(Surah Az-Zumar, Ayats 43-44);(Surah Al-Momin, Ayat 18);(Surah Ad-Dukhan, Ayat 86); (Surah An-Najm, Ayat 26); (Surah An-Naba, Ayat 37-38).","What is the matter with people that they are turning away from this Exhortation,","as though they were frightened wild asses,","fleeing from a lion?[1]###[1] This is an idiomatic expression in Arabic which depicts the character of wild donkeys who flee stupefied and stunned as soon as they smell a lion or hear a hunter.","No indeed; each one of them desires that open letters be sent to each of them.[1]###[1] That is, they desire that if Allah really has appointed Muhammad (peace be upon him) as His Prophet, He should send a letter to each one of the chiefs and elders of Makkah telling him that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is Allah’s Prophet; therefore he should obey and follow him. And these letters should be such as may convince them that they have been written by Allah Himself. At another place in the Quran, this saying of the disbelievers of Makkah has been cited: We will not believe in it unless we are given the like of what has been given to the Messengers of Allah. (Al- Anaam, Ayat 124). At still another place their this demand has been cited: Or you ascend the sky ... and bring down to us a writing that we may read. (Surah Bani lsrail, Ayat 93).","No indeed; the truth is that they have no fear of the Hereafter.[1]###[1] That is, the real cause of their failure to affirm the faith is not that their demands are not fulfilled, but the real cause is that they are fearless of the Hereafter. They think that this world is an end in itself and they do not have any idea that there is another life after this worldly life in which they will have to render an account of their deeds. This very thing has made them careless and irresponsible in the world. They regard the question of truth and falsehood as utterly meaningless, for they do not see any truth following which may have necessarily led to a good result in the world, nor do they see any falsehood which might have always led to an evil result in the world. Therefore, they think it is useless merely to consider as to what is really true and what is false. This question can be worthy of serious consideration only for the person who regards the present life of the world as transitory and admits that the real and everlasting life is the life hereafter, where the truth will necessarily lead to a good result and falsehood necessarily to an evil result. Such a person will certainly believe when he sees the rational arguments and the pure teachings presented in the Quran and will use his common sense to understand what is actually wrong with the beliefs and deeds which the Quran calls wrong. But the denier of the Hereafter who is not at all serious in his search for the truth, will present ever new demands every day for not believing, and will present a new excuse for his denial even if all his demands are fulfilled. This same thing has been expressed in (Surah Al-Anaam, Ayat 7) thus: O Prophet, even if We had sent down to you a Book written on paper, and even if they had touched it with their own hands, the disbelievers would have said: This is nothing but manifest sorcery.","Nay;[1] this is an Exhortation.###[1] That is, no such demand of theirs will ever be fulfilled.","So, whoever wills may benefit from it.","But they will not benefit from it unless Allah Himself so wills.[1] He is worthy to be feared;[2] and He is worthy to forgive (those that fear Him).[3]###[1] That is, a person’s taking heed does not wholly depend upon his own will, but he takes heed only when Allah also wills to grant him the grace to take heed. In other words, the truth that has been expressed here is that no act of man takes a concrete shape solely by his own will, but each act is implemented only when the will of God combines with the will of the man. This is a very delicate question, failure to understand which has often made human thought falter. Briefly it can be understood thus: If in this world every man had the power to accomplish whatever he wanted to accomplish, the system of the world would be disturbed. This system continues to hold only because the will of Allah is dominant over all other wills. Man can accomplish whatever he wants to accomplish only when Allah also wills that he be allowed to accomplish it. The same is also the case with guidance and error. Only man’s own desiring to have guidance is not enough for him to have guidance; he receives guidance only when Allah also takes a decision to fulfill his desire. Likewise, only man’s desiring to go astray by itself is also not enough, but when Allah in view of his desire decides that he be allowed to wander into evil ways, then he wanders into the evil ways in which Allah allows him to wander. As for example, if a person wants to become a thief, only his desire is not enough that he may enter into any house he likes and walk away with whatever he likes, but he can fulfill his desire only at the time and to the extent and in the form that Allah allows him to fulfill it, according to His supreme wisdom and expedience. \t [2] That is, the admonition being given to you to avoid Allah’s displeasure is not for the reason that Allah needs it, and if you did not take it, Allah would be harmed, but you are being so admonished because it is Allah’s right that His servants should seek His pleasure and good will and should avoid doing anything against His will. \t [3] That is, it behooves only Allah that He should receive into His mercy whoever desists from evil no matter how many acts of disobedience he might have committed in the past. Allah is not vengeful to His servants so that He may refuse to forgive their errors and be bent upon punishing them in any case.","Nay,[1] I swear by the Day of Resurrection;###[1] To begin the discourse with ‘Nay’ by itself indicates that the Surah was sent down to refute some argument which was already in progress. The theme that follows shows that the argument was about Resurrection and life after death, which the people of Makkah were denying and also mocking at it at the same time. This can be understood by an example. If a person only wants to affirm the truth of the Messenger, he will say: By God, the Messenger has come with the truth. But if some people might be denying the truth of the Messenger, he in response would rejoin, thus: Nay, by God, the Messenger has come with the truth. It would mean: That which you say is not true. I swear that the truth is this and this.","and nay, I swear by the self-reproaching soul![1]###[1] The Quran has mentioned three kinds of human self:","Does man imagine that We will not be able to bring his bones together again?[1]###[1] The above two arguments, which have been presented in the form of the oaths, only prove two things. First, that the end of the world (i.e. the first stage of Resurrection) is a certainty; and second, that another life after death is necessary, for without it the logical and natural demands of man’s being a moral being cannot be fulfilled; and this will certainly happen, for the existence of the conscience in man testifies to it. Now, this third argument has been given to prove that life after death is possible. The people of Makkah who denied it, said again and again: How can it be that the people who died hundreds of thousands of years ago, whose bodies have disintegrated into particles and mixed in the dust, whose bones decayed and were scattered away by the winds, some of whom were burnt to ashes, others devoured by the beasts of prey, still others drowned in the seas and swallowed by fish, the material constituents of their bodies should re-assemble and every man should rise up as the same person that he once was ten or twenty thousand years before? Allah has given its very rational and highly forceful reply in the form of this brief question: Does man think that We shall not be able to put his bones together? That is, If you had been told that the scattered particles of your body would reunite of their own accord some time in the future, and you would come back to life by yourself with this very body, you would no doubt have been justified in regarding it as impossible. But what you have actually been told is that such a thing will not happen by itself, but Allah Almighty will do this. Now, do you really think that the Creator of the universe, Whom you yourself also regard as the Creator, would be powerless to do so? This was such a question in answer to which nobody who believed in God to be the Creator of the universe; could say, neither then nor today, that even God Himself could not do this even if He so willed. And if a disbeliever says such a thing, he can be asked: How did God in the first instance make the body in which you at present exist, by gathering its countless particles together from the air, water and earth and many other places you do not know. How, then, can you say that the same God cannot gather its constituent parts together once again.","Yes indeed; We have the power to remould even his finger-tips.[1]###[1] That is, not to speak of building up your skeleton once again by gathering together the major bones? We are able to make whole the most delicate parts of your body, even your finger tips, as they used to be before.","But man desires to persist in his evil ways.[1]###[1] In this brief sentence the real disease of the deniers of the Hereafter has been clearly diagnosed. What makes them deny the Hereafter is not, in fact, their regarding the Resurrection and Hereafter as impossible but they deny it because acceptance of the Hereafter inevitably imposes certain moral restrictions on them, which they detest. They desire that they should continue roaming in the world at will as they have been roaming before. They should have full freedom to go on committing whatever injustice, dishonesty, sin and wickedness that they have been committing before, and there should be no deterrent to obstruct their freedom and to warn them that one day they will have to appear and render an account of their deeds before their God. Therefore, it is not their intellect which is hindering them from believing in the Hereafter but their desires of the self.","He asks: “When will the Day of Resurrection be?”[1]###[1] This question was not put as a question but derisively and to deny Resurrection, That is, they did not want to ask when Resurrection would take place but asked mockingly: What has happened to the day with which you are threatening us. When will it come.","When the sight is dazed,[1]###[1] Literally, the words bariq al-basaru mean dazzling of the eyes by lightning, but in the Arabic idiom these words do not specifically carry this meaning only but are also used for man’s being terror-stricken and amazed, or his being confounded on meeting with an accident suddenly and his eyes being dazed at some distressing sight before him. This subject has been expressed at another place in the Quran, thus: Allah is only deferring their case to the Day when the eyes shall stare with consternation. (Surah Ibrahim, Ayat 42).","and the moon is eclipsed,","and the sun and the moon are joined together,[1]###[1] This is a brief description of the chaotic condition of the system of the universe that will prevail in the first stage of Resurrection. The darkening of the moon and the joining of the moon and the sun together can also mean that not only will the moon lose its light, which is borrowed from the sun, but the sun itself will become dark and both will become devoid of light similarly. Another meaning can be that the earth will suddenly start rotating in the reverse order and on that day both the moon and the sun will rise simultaneously in the west. And a third meaning can be that the moon will suddenly shoot out of the earth’s sphere of influence and will fall into the sun. There may possibly be some other meaning also of this which we cannot understand today.","on that Day will man say: “Whither the refuge?”","No, there is no refuge.","With your Lord alone will be the retreat that Day.","On that Day will man be apprised of his deeds, both the earlier and the later.[1]###[1] Bima qaddama wa akhkhara is a very comprehensive sentence, which can have several meanings and probably all are implied:","But lo, man is well aware of himself,","even though he might make up excuses.[1]###[1] That is, the object of placing man’s record before him will not be to inform the culprit of his crimes, but this will be done because the demands of justice are not fulfilled unless the proof of the crime is produced before the court; otherwise everyman fully knows what he actually is. For the sake of self-knowledge he does not need that another one should tell him what he is. A liar can deceive the whole world but he himself knows that he lies. A thief can devise a thousand devices to conceal his crime but he himself is aware that he is a thief. A person involved in error can present a thousand arguments to assure the people that he is honestly convinced of the disbelief, atheism or polytheism, which he professes and follows, but his own conscience is never unaware of why he persists in that creed and what, in fact, prevents him from understanding and admitting its error and falsity. An unjust, wicked, dishonest, unmoral and corrupt person can even suppress the voice of his own conscience by inventing one or another excuse so that it may stop reproaching him and should be satisfied that he is doing whatever he is doing only because of certain compulsions, expediencies and genuine needs, but despite this he has in any case the knowledge of what wrong he has committed against a certain person, how he has deprived another of his rights, how he deceived still another and that unlawful methods he used to gain what he has gained. Therefore, at the time when one appears in the court of the Hereafter, every disbeliever, every hypocrite, every wicked person and culprit will himself be knowing what he has done in the world and for what crime he stands before his God.","(O Prophet),[1] do not stir your tongue hastily (to commit the Revelation to memory).###[1] The whole passage from here to “Then, indeed, it is upon Us its clarification” is a parenthesis, which has been interposed here as an address to the Prophet (peace be upon him). As we have explained in the introduction above, in the initial stages of the Prophethood when the Prophet (peace be upon him) was not yet fully used to receiving the revelation, he was afraid when revelation came down to him whether he would be able to remember exactly what the Angel Gabriel was reciting to him or not. Therefore, he would try to commit to memory rapidly what he heard from the Angel simultaneously. The same thing happened when Gabriel was reciting these verses of Surah Al- Qiyamah. Therefore, interrupting what was being revealed, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was instructed to the effect: Do not try to memorize the words of the revelation, but listen to it attentively and carefully. It is Our responsibility to enable you to remember it by heart and then to recite it accurately. Rest assured that you will not forget even a word of this revelation, nor ever commit a mistake in reciting it.","Surely it is for Us to have you commit it to memory and to recite it.","And so when We recite it,[1] follow its recitation attentively;###[1] Although it was Angel Gabriel who recited the Quran to the Prophet (peace be upon him), since he recited it on behalf of Allah and not on his own behalf, Allah said: When We have recited it.","then it will be for Us to explain it.[1]###[1] This gives the feeling, and some early commentators have also given expression to the same, that probably in the beginning the Messenger (peace be upon him) of Allah used to ask of the Angel Gabriel the meaning of a verse or a word or a command of the Quran even in the very midst of the revelation itself. Therefore, the Prophet (peace be upon him) was not only given the instruction that he should listen quietly to revelation when it came down to him, and assured that its each word would be preserved in his memory precisely, and he would be enabled to recite the Quran exactly as it was revealed, but at the same time it was also promised that he would be made to understand the meaning and intention of each command and each instruction of divine revelation.","Nay;[1] the truth is that you love ardently (the good of this world) that can be obtained hastily,###[1] The theme is again resumed from where it was interrupted by the parenthesis. Nay implies: You deny the Hereafter not because you regard the Creator of the universe as helpless to bring about Resurrection and raise the dead, but because of this and this other reason.","and are oblivious of the Hereafter.[1]###[1] This is the second reason for denying the Hereafter, the first being the one mentioned in verse 5 above, saying: Since man wants to avoid the moral restrictions which are inevitably imposed by the belief in the Hereafter, his selfish motives, in fact, urge him to deny the Hereafter, and then he tries to present arguments in order to rationalize his denial. Now, the second reason being presented is that the deniers of the Hereafter are narrow-minded and shortsighted; for them only those results are all important, which appear in this world, and they do not give any importance to those effects which will appear in the Hereafter. They think that they should spend all their labor and effort in attaining whatever benefits, pleasures or joys they can attain here, for if one attained this, one attained everything, no matter what evil end this might lead to in the Hereafter. Likewise, they think that the loss or trouble or grief that can afflict one here is a thing that one must avoid, no matter how great a reward it might earn one in the Hereafter if one endured it here. They are only interested in the cash bargain. For the sake of as remote a thing as the Hereafter they can neither abandon a profit nor suffer a loss today. With this mode of thought when they discuss the question of the Hereafter rationally, it is not true rationalism but a mode of thinking because of which they are resolved not to acknowledge the Hereafter in any case even if their conscience might be crying froth within that the arguments for the possible occurrence and necessity of the Hereafter given in the Quran are highly rational and their own reasoning against it is very weak.","Some faces on that Day will be fresh and resplendent,[1]###[1] Some faces shall be radiant; will be beaming with joy and delight, for the Hereafter which they had believed in, will be before them precisely accordingly to their belief. Thus, when they see the Hereafter for the sake of which they had given up the unlawful benefits of the world and suffered the lawful losses, actually established before their very eyes, they will have the satisfaction that they had made the correct decision about their way of life, and the time had come when they would enjoy its best and plentiful fruits.","and will be looking towards their Lord;[1]###[1] Some commentators have understood this allegorically. They say that the words looking towards someone are used idiomatically for having expectations from some one, awaiting his decision and hoping for his mercy and kindness: so much so that even a blind person also says that he is looking towards some one in the hope to see how he helps him. But in a large number of the Ahadith the commentary that has been reported of it from the Prophet (peace be upon him) is that in the Hereafter the illustrious servants of Allah will be blessed with the vision of their Lord. According to a tradition in Bukhari: You will openly see your Lord. Muslim and Tirmidhi have related on the authority of Suhaib that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: When the righteous people enter Paradise, Allah will ask them: Do you want that I should bless you with something more? They will answer: Have You not made our faces bright: Have You not admitted us into Paradise and saved us from Hell? Thereupon, Allah will remove the curtain and none of the blessings that they had been blessed with until then will be dearer to them than that they should be blessed with the vision of their Lord. And this very reward is the additional reward about which the Quran says: Those who have done excellent works, will get excellent rewards, and even something in addition to that. (Surah Younus, Ayat 26). Bukhari and Muslim have related, on the authority of Abu Saeed Khudri and Abu Hurairah: The people asked: O Messenger of Allah, shall we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection. The Messenger (peace be upon him) replied: Do you find any difficulty in seeing the sun and the moon when there is no cloud in between? They said that they did not. The Messenger (peace be upon him) said: Likewise, you will see you Lord. Another tradition bearing almost on the same subject has been reported in Bukhari and Muslim from Jarir bin Abdullah, Imam Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Daraqutni, lbn Jarir, Ibn AlMundhir, Tabarani, Baihaqi, Ibn Abi Shaibah and some other traditionists have related, with a little variation in wordings a tradition from Abdullah bin Umar, saying: The man of the lowest rank among the dwellers of Paradise will see the vastness of his kingdom up to a distance covered in two thousand years, and the people of the highest rank among them will see their Lord twice daily. Then, the Prophet (peace be upon him) recited this verse: On that Day some faces shall be radiant, looking towards their Lord. A tradition in Ibn Majah from Jabir bin Abdullah is to the effect: AIIah will look towards them, and they will look towards Allah. Then, until Allah hides Himself from them, they will not pay attention to any other blessing of Paradise, and will continue to look towards Him. On the basis of this and many other traditions, the followers of the sunnah almost unanimously understand this verse in the meaning that in the Hereafter the dwellers of Paradise will be blessed with the vision of Allah, and this is supported by this verse of the Quran too: Nay, surely on that Day they (the sinners) shall be kept away from their Lord's vision. (Surah Al-Mutaffifin, Ayat 15). From this one can automatically conclude that this deprivation will be the lot of the sinners, not of the righteous.","and some faces on that Day will be gloomy,","believing that a crushing calamity is about to strike them.","Nay;[1] when a man's soul reaches up to the throat,###[1] The word Nay relates to the context, and means: You are wrong in thinking that you will be annihilated after death and you will not return to your Lord.","and it is said: “Is there any enchanter who can step forward and help (by his chanting)?”[1]###[1] The word raqin in the original may he derived from ruqayyah, which means resort to charming, enchanting and exercising, and also from raqi, which means ascending. In the first case, the meaning would be: At last, when the attendants of the patient are disappointed with every remedy and cure, they will say: Let us at least call in an enchanter, who may save him. In the second case, the meaning would be: At that time the angels will say: which angels are to take his soul: the angels of punishment or the angels of mercy? In other words, at that very time the question will be decided in what capacity the dying one is entering the Hereafter; if he is a righteous person, the angels of mercy will take him, and if he is wicked, the angels of mercy will keep away and the angels of punishment will seize him and take him away.","and he realises that the hour of parting is come,","and calf is inter-twined with calf.[1]###[1] Some commentators have taken the word saq (leg, shank) in its literal meaning, thereby implying that at death one lean leg will join the other lean leg; some others have taken it metaphorically in the sense of difficulty, vehemence and hardship so as to mean: At that time one affliction will be joined with another affliction, one of being separated from the world and all its enjoyments, and the other of being seized and taken to the Hereafter as a culprit, and this will be experienced by every disbeliever, hypocrite and sinner.","On that Day you will be driven to your Lord.","But he did not verify the Truth, nor did he observe Prayer;","on the contrary, he gave the lie to the Truth and turned his back upon it,","then he went back to his kinsfolk, elated with pride.[1]###[1] It means that the one who was not prepared to believe in the Hereafter, heard all that has been described in the above verses; yet he persisted in his denial, and hearing these verses went back to his household, arrogantly. Mujahid, Qatadah and Ibn Zaid say that this person was Abu Jahl. The words of the verse also indicate that it was some particular person, who adopted such a conduct after having heard the above-mentioned verse of Surah Al- Qiyamah. The words, He neither affirmed the truth nor offered the Prayer, are particularly noteworthy. They clearly show that the first and necessary demand of acknowledging the truth about Allah and His Messenger and Book is that one should perform the Prayer, The occasion and time to carry out the other injunctions of the divine Shariah come later but the Prayer time approaches soon after one has affirmed the faith, and then it becomes known whether what one has affirmed with the tongue was really the voice of his heart, or it was only a puff of the wind which one sent out from his mouth in the form of words.","This (attitude) is worthy of you, altogether worthy;","again, it is worthy of you, altogether worthy.[1]###[1] The commentators have given several meanings of the word aula laka: shame on you, may you perish, woe to you, may you hasten to your doom. But in our opinion, in view of the context, the most appropriate meaning is that which Hafiz Ibn Kathir has given in his commentary: When you have had the boldness to disown your Creator, then it only behooves a person like you to persist in the sort of conduct you display. This is the same sort of sarcastic remark as occurred in(Surah Ad-Dukhan, Ayat 49). While meting out punishment to the culprit in Hell, it will be said: Taste this, a mighty and honorable man that you are.","Does man[1] think that he will be left alone, unquestioned?[2]###[1] Now, in conclusion, the same theme is being repeated with which the discourse began life-after-death is necessary as well as possible. \t [2] The word suda when used with regard to a camel implies a camel who is wandering aimlessly, grazing at will, without there being anybody to look after him. Thus, the verse means: Does man think that he has been left to himself to wander at will as if his Creator had laid no responsibility on him, had imposed no duty on him, had forbidden nothing to him, that at no time in future he would be required to account for his deeds. This same theme has been expressed in (Surah Al-Mominoon, Ayat 115) thus: On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will ask the disbelievers: Did you think that We had created you without any purpose, and that you would never be brought back to Us. At both these places the argument for the necessity of the life hereafter has been presented as a question. The question means: Do you really think that you are no more than mere animals? Don’t you see the manifest difference between yourself and the animal. The animal has been created without the power of choice and authority, but you have been blessed with the power of choice and authority; there is no question of morality about what the animal does, but your acts are necessarily characterized by good and evil. Then, how did you take it into your head that you had been created irresponsible and unanswerable as the animal has been? Why the animal will not be resurrected, is quite understandable. The animal only fulfilled the fixed demands of its instinct, it did not use its intellect to propound a philosophy; it did not invent a religion; it did not take anyone its god nor became a god for others; it did nothing that could be called good or bad; it did not enforce a good or bad way of life, which would influence others, generation after generation, so that it should deserve a reward or punishment for it. Hence, if it perished to annihilation, it would be understandable, for it could not be held responsible for any of its acts to account for which it might need to be resurrected. But how could you be excused from life-after-death when right till the time of your death you continued to perform moral acts, which your own intellect judged as good or bad and worthy of reward or punishment? Should a man who killed an innocent person, and then fell a victim to a sudden accident immediately after it, go off free and should never be punished for the crime of murder he committed? Do you really feel satisfied that a man, who sowed corruption and iniquity in the world, which entailed evil consequences for mankind for centuries after him, should himself perish like an insect; or a grasshopper, and should never be resurrected to account for his misdeeds, which corrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of human beings after him? Do you think that the man, who struggled throughout his life for the cause of truth and justice, goodness and peace, and suffered hardships for their sake, was a creation of the kind of an insect, and had no right to be rewarded for his good acts.","Was he not a drop of ejaculated semen,","then he became a clot, and then Allah made it into a living body and proportioned its parts,","and then He made of him a pair, male and female?","Does He, then, not have the power to bring back the dead to life?[1]###[1] This is an argument for the possibility of life-afterdeath. As for the people who believe that the whole act of creation, starting from the emission of a sperm-drop till its development into a perfect man, is only a manifestation of the power and wisdom of Allah, they cannot in fact refute this argument in any way, for their intellect however shamelessly and stubbornly they might behave, cannot refuse to admit that the God Who thus brings about man in the world, also has the power to bring the same man into being once again. As for those who regard this expressly wise act only as a result of accident, do not in fact have any explanation to offer, unless they are bent upon stubbornness, how in every part and in every nation of the world, from the beginning of creation till today, the birth of boys and girls has continuously been taking place in such proportion that at no time it has so happened that in some human population only males or only females might have been born and there might be no possibility of the continuation of the human race. Has this also been happening just accidentally. To make such an absurd claim one should at least be so shameless as to come out one day with the claim that London and New York, Moscow and Peking, have come into existence just accidentally. (For further explanation, see (E.Ns 27 to 30 of Surah Ar-Room);(E.N. 77 of Surah Ash-Shura).","Was there a period of time when man was not even worthy of a mention?[1]###[1] Most of the commentators and translators have taken<br>hal in the first sentence hal ata alal-insan-i, in the meaning<br>of qad. Accordingly, they interpret this sentence to mean;<br>“No doubt, there has indeed passed on man a time.” But, in<br>fact, the word hal in Arabic is used only as an interrogative<br>particle, and its object is not to ask a question in every case,<br>but this apparently interrogative particle is used in<br>different meanings on different occasions. For example,<br>sometimes, in order to find out whether a certain incident<br>has taken place or not, we ask: “Has this thing happened?”<br>Sometimes, we do not mean to ask a question but to deny<br>something and we express the denial, thus: “Can any other<br>also do this?” Sometimes, we want somebody to affirm<br>something and so ask him: “Have I paid what was due to<br>you?” And sometimes, we do not intend to have something<br>just affirmed but we put a question in order to make the<br>addressee pay particular attention to something which<br>follows his affirmation as a sequel. For example, we ask<br>someone: “Have I harmed you in any way?” The object is<br>not only to make him affirm that one has not done him any<br>harm, but also to make him think how far one is justified to<br>harm somebody who has not harmed him in any way. The<br>interrogative sentence in the verse before us illustrates this<br>last meaning. The object is not only to make man affirm<br>that there has indeed passed on him such a time but also to<br>make him think that the God Who developed and shaped<br>him into a perfect man from an insignificant, humble<br>beginning, would not be helpless to create him once again.","Verily We created man out of a drop of intermingled sperm[1] so that We might try him,[2] and We therefore endowed him with hearing and sight.[3]###[1] “From a mixed sperm drop”: From the intermingling of<br>the male sperm with the female ovum and not separately<br>from the sperm or the ovum. During sexual intercourse<br>normally 200-500 million sperms are deposited into the<br>female birth canal. The sperms swim and reach site of<br>mixing with ovum in 4-6 hours on an average time. Most of<br>the sperms are lost in this journey. Chemical changes occur<br>during this travel and sperms remove their protective<br>covering from their heads while getting ready to release<br>special chemicals from the heads in their attempts and<br>preparation to penetrate into the ovum. Usually, only one<br>sperm is allowed to fuse and mix with the ovum. (Ref.<br>Maternity and Gynecology Care, Mosby Year Book<br>Publishing Inc. St Louis Missouri USA Chapter 7, Page<br>). \t [2] This shows man’s real position in the world and the<br>position of the world for man. He is not like the trees and<br>animals that the object of his creation be fulfilled on the<br>earth itself, and he should die and perish here after he has<br>played his appointed role over a period of time according to<br>the law of nature. Furthermore, this world is neither a<br>place of punishment for him, as the monks think, nor a<br>place of rewards as the believers of the law of<br>transmigration think, nor a place of entertainment and<br>enjoyment, as the materialists think, nor a battlefield, as<br>the followers of atheists think, but in fact it is a place of test<br>and trial for him. That which he regards as his age, is in<br>fact the time given to him for the test. Whatever powers<br>and capabilities he has been given in the world, the things<br>that have been placed under his control and authority, the<br>various positions and capacities in which he functions, and<br>the relationships that he enjoys with other people, all these<br>are the countless manners of the test and this test continues<br>till the last breath of his life. The result is not to be<br>announced in this world but in the Hereafter when all his<br>answer books will have been assessed, decision will be given<br>whether he has come out successful or failed. And his<br>success or failure wholly depends on what he thought of<br>himself while he functioned here and how he answered the<br>questions that were given to him here. If he believed that he<br>had no God, or that he was the slave of many gods, and<br>while answering the questions he thought that he was not to<br>be held accountable before his Creator in the Hereafter, his<br>whole lifework went wrong. And if he regarded himself as<br>the slave of One God and worked in the way approved by<br>God, with the accountability of the Hereafter always in<br>view, he stood successful in the test. This theme has<br>occurred at many places in the Quran. \t [3] The words sami (hearing) and baseer (seeing) in the<br>original text actually imply being “sensible and intelligent”.<br>These words of the Arabic language are never used in<br>respect of the animal although it also hears and sees. Thus,<br>hearing and seeing here do not imply the powers of hearing<br>and seeing which have been given to the animals too, but<br>those means through which man obtains knowledge and<br>then draws conclusions from it. Besides, since hearing and<br>seeing are among the most important means of knowledge<br>for man, only these two have been mentioned briefly;<br>otherwise it actually implies giving man all those senses of<br>the body by which he gathers information. Then the senses<br>given to man are quite different in their nature from those<br>given to animals, for at the back of every sense he has a<br>thinking brain, which collects information gained through<br>the senses; arranges it, draws conclusions from it, forms<br>opinions, and then takes some decisions which become the<br>basis of his attitude and conduct in life. Hence, after saying,<br>“We created man in order to try him,” to say, “therefore,<br>We made him capable of hearing and seeing” actually<br>contains the meaning that Allah gave him the faculties of<br>knowledge and reason to enable him to take the test.<br>Obviously, if this were not the meaning and the meaning of<br>making man hearing and seeing just implied the one who<br>could hear and see, then a blind and deaf person would<br>stand exempted from the test, whereas unless a person is<br>utterly devoid of knowledge and reason, there can be no<br>question of his being exempted from the test.","Surely We showed him the Right Path, regardless of whether he chooses to be thankful or unthankful[1] (to his Lord).###[1] That is, We did not just leave him to himself after giving<br>him the powers of knowledge and reason, but We also<br>guided him so that he knows which is the path of<br>gratefulness and which of ungratefulness, so that whichever<br>path he chooses in his later life, he himself is responsible for<br>it. In Surah Al-Balad, the same subject has been expressed,<br>thus “And We showed him both the conspicuous ways (of<br>good and evil).” And in Surah Ash-Shams, thus: “By the<br>human self, and by Him Who balanced it (with all the<br>external and internal powers), then inspired it with its<br>wickedness and its piety.” When all these explanations are<br>kept in view, and also those detailed statements of the<br>Quran in which it has been stated what arrangements Allah<br>has made for man’s guidance in the world, it becomes<br>evident that in this verse “We guided him to the way” does<br>not imply any one form of guidance but many forms of it<br>which are limitless and countless. For example:","For the unbelievers, We have kept ready chains and fetters and a Blazing Fire.","The virtuous[1] shall drink from a cup tempered with camphor water.###[1] The word abrar as used in the original implies the people<br>who have done full justice to their Lord’s obedience, have<br>carried out the duties enjoined by Him and abstained from<br>the things forbidden by Him.","This will be a gushing spring[1] wherefrom Allah's servants[2] shall drink wine, a spring from which they will take out channels wherever they wish.[3]###[1] That is, it will not be camphor-mixed water but a<br>natural fountain, the purity, coolness and agreeable odor of<br>its water will resemble camphor. \t [2] Although the words ibad Allah (servants of Allah), or<br>ibad ar-Rehman (servants of ar-Rehman), can be used for<br>all men literally, for every human being is God’s servant,<br>yet wherever these words occur in the Quran they only<br>imply the righteous men. In other words, the wicked ones<br>who have excused themselves from Allah’s servitude do not<br>deserve that Allah should honor them with the honorable<br>title of ibad-Allah or ibad ar-Rehman, attributing them to<br>His own Holy Name. \t [3] It does not mean that they will use spades and picks to<br>dig out its channels and will take out its branches<br>whithersoever they please, but that their one single<br>command and desire will be enough to cause a fountain to<br>gush forth from wherever they please in Paradise.","These will be the ones who fulfil their vows[1] and dread the Day whose woe shall be spread far and wide;###[1] One meaning of fulfilling the vow is that one should<br>fulfill. The second, that one should fulfill what one has<br>pledged oneself to do. The third, that one should fulfill what<br>one has been enjoined; what is obligatory for one to do,<br>whether one has been enjoined it, or is self imposed. Of<br>these three the second meaning is the best known and<br>generally the same is implied by fulfilling the vow. In any<br>case, these righteous people have been regarded as<br>praiseworthy either because they carry out the duties<br>enjoined by Allah, or because if they vow to Allah to<br>perform certain good deeds which Allah has not enjoined<br>on them, they fulfill even those self imposed vows, not to<br>speak of showing any negligence in carrying out the duties<br>which Allah has actually enjoined on them.","those who, for the love of Him,[1] feed the needy, and the orphan, and the captive,[2]###[1] Most of the commentators hold the view that the<br>pronoun in hubbi-hi refers to food. Accordingly, they<br>interpret the sentence to mean: “In spite of the food’s being<br>agreeable and tasty and that they need it, they give it away<br>to others.” Ibn Abbas and Mujahid say: They do so because<br>of their fondness for feeding the poor (ala hubb-il-it am);<br>and Fudail bin Iyad and Abu Suleman ad-Darani say: They<br>do so out of love for Allah. In our opinion the sentence in<br>the next Ayat “We feed you only for the sake of Allah”<br>supports the last meaning. \t [2] The custom in the ancient days was that the prisoners were put in fetters and shackles and taken out daily to go about the streets begging food. Later the Islamic government abolished this custom. In this verse, the captive implies every such person who is in bondage, whether he is an unbeliever, a Muslim, a war prisoner, or imprisoned in consequence of a crime, and whether he is provided food in that state, or made to beg for it. In any case, to feed a helpless person who cannot do anything to earn a living is an act of great virtue.","(saying):[1] “We feed you only for Allah's sake; we do not seek of you any recompense or thanks,[2]###[1] Although feeding a poor man is in itself a great virtue,<br>yet fulfilling the other needs of an indigent person is no less<br>virtuous. For example, to clothe a poor man, to arrange<br>treatment for a sick person, or to help a debtor who is<br>harassed by his creditor, is an act of equally great virtue.<br>Here, a particular kind of virtue in view of its importance<br>has been presented only as an example, but the real object<br>is to stress giving help to the needy. \t [2] It is not necessary that this may be said in so many<br>words while feeding the poor man. It may be said in the<br>heart; in the sight of Allah this is as meritorious as saying it<br>with the tongue. But saying these words with the tongue has<br>been particularly mentioned so as to set the person being<br>helped at ease that no thanks or recompense is due from<br>him, so that he eats with full satisfaction and peace of mind.","we fear from our Lord a Day that shall be long and distressful.”","So Allah shall guard them against the woe of that Day, and will procure them freshness and joy,[1]###[1] Radiance and joy: radiance of the face and joy of the<br>heart. In other words, all the severities and terrors of the<br>Day of Resurrection will be meant only for the disbelievers<br>and the culprits. The righteous will on that Day remain<br>immune from every hardship and will be well pleased with<br>their lot. The same theme has been expressed in ( Surah<br>AlAnbiya: Ayat 103), thus: The time of great fright will not<br>trouble them at all; the angels will rush forth to receive<br>them, saying: this is the Day that you were promised; and<br>in  (Surah An-Naml: Ayat 89) thus: He who brings good<br>deeds, will have a reward better than that, and such people<br>shall be secure from the terror of that Day.","and will reward them for their steadfastness[1] with Paradise and robes of silk.###[1] Here the word sabr (patience) has been used in a very comprehensive sense. The whole worldly life of the righteous believers in fact has been described as a life of patience. From the time a man attains discretion, or believes, till death; his suppressing of unlawful desires, adhering to the bounds set by Allah, carrying out the duties enjoined by Him, sacrificing his time, his wealth, his effort, powers and abilities, even his life if so required, ignoring every greed and temptation, which might turn him away from Allah’s way, meeting every danger and enduring every hardship faced on the way of the truth, giving up every gain and pleasure accruing from unlawful ways and means, bearing every loss and suffering and affliction incurred on account of his love for truth, and doing all this with full faith in the promise of Allah that He will bless the doer with the fruits of this righteous conduct not in this world but in the second life after death, turns the whole life of a believer into a life of patience, eternal and perpetual patience, all pervasive and life long patience.","There they will recline on elevated couches and will be subjected neither to the burning heat of the sun nor to bitter cold.","The shades of Paradise will bend over them, and its fruits will be brought within their easy reach;","and there shall be passed around them vessels of silver[1] and goblets of crystal,[2]###[1] According to  (Surah Az-Zukhruf: Ayat 71), vessels of<br>gold shall be passed round to them, but here of silver. This<br>shows that vessels of gold as well as of silver shall be passed<br>round to them as required by the occasion. \t [2] That is, though silver, it will be as transparent as glass,<br>vessels of this kind of transparent, crystal like silver will be<br>the special characteristic of the vessels in which drinks will<br>be served to the people of Paradise.","goblets bright as crystal but made of silver, filled to exact measure.[1]###[1] “In due measure”: filled accurately according to the<br>desire of every person, neither over-filled nor under-filled.<br>In other words, the attendants of the dwellers of Paradise<br>will be so judicious and discerning that they will have<br>accurate judgment about everybody whom they serve wine<br>as to how much of it he wishes to drink. (For the<br>characteristics of the wine of Paradise, see <br>(Surah As-Saaffat: Ayats 45-47 and the E.Ns 24-27),<br>( Surah Muhammad: Ayat 15 and E.N. 22),<br>(Surah At-Tur: Ayat 23 and E.N. 18), <br>(Surah Al-Waqiah: Ayat 19 and E.N. 10).","Therein they shall be served a cup flavoured with ginger,","drawn from a spring (in Paradise) called Salsabil.[1]###[1] This is to suit the taste of the Arabs who liked the wine<br>flavored with ginger mixed water. But this flavoring will<br>not be achieved by adding ginger mixed water to it: it will<br>be a natural fountain which will have the flavor of ginger<br>but without its bitterness; Therefore, it will be called<br>Salsabil, which implies such water as flows gently and<br>pleasantly down the throat on account of its being sweet,<br>light and palatable. Most commentators think that the<br>word salsabil has been used here as an adjective of the<br>fountain and not as a name for it.","There boys of everlasting youth shall go about attending them: when you see them, you would think that they are scattered pearls.[1]###[1] For explanation, see(Surah As-Saaffat: E.N. 26), <br>(Surah At-Tur: E.N. 19), <br>(Surah Al-Waqiah: E.N. 9).","Whitherto you look around, you will see an abundance of bliss and the glories of a great kingdom.[1]###[1] Even if a person might have lived a pauper in the<br>world, in the Hereafter when he is admitted to Paradise, on<br>the basis of his good deeds, he will live as though he were<br>the owner of a splendid kingdom.","They [i.e., the virtuous] shall be attired in garments of fine green silk and rich brocade[1] and will be adorned with bracelets of silver.[2] Their Lord will give them a pure wine to drink.[3]###[1] The same theme has been expressed in<br>(Surah Al-Kahf:<br>Ayat 31), thus: “They (the dwellers of Paradise) will wear<br>colored robes of silk and rich brocade and will be reclining<br>upon raised thrones.” On this basis, the opinion of the<br>commentators who have expressed the view that this<br>implies the sheets of cloth which will be hanging over their<br>thrones or bedsteads or that this would be the dress of the<br>boys who would be moving about serving them does not<br>seem to be correct. \t [2] In (Surah Al-Kahf: Ayat 31), it has been said: “They will<br>be adorned with bracelets of gold.” This same theme has<br>also occurred in(Surah Al-Hajj: Ayat 23) and<br>(Surah Fatir:Ayat 33) above. When all these verses are read together,<br>three possibilities become obvious. \t [3] (1) That sometimes they<br>would like to wear bracelets of gold and sometimes<br>bracelets of silver, both kinds of the ornaments being<br>available for use as and when required;","Behold, this is your recompense and your endeavour has been appreciated.[1]###[1] In the original, kana sayu kum mashkura: “your<br>endeavors have been accepted and recognized.” Saii<br>implies the entire lifework that a person accomplished in<br>the world, the works and objectives to which he applied his<br>energies and abilities; and its being mashkur means that<br>Allah has appreciated it. Shukr when expressed by the<br>servant to God implies his gratefulness to Him for His<br>blessings, and when it is expressed by God for the servant,<br>it means that He has appreciated his services. It is indeed<br>the kindness of the Master that He should appreciate the<br>endeavors of the servant when the servant has only carried<br>out his duties according to the Master’s will.","(O Prophet), indeed We have revealed the Qur'an to you in portions.[1]###[1] Though the addressee here apparently is the Prophet<br>(peace be upon him), the discourse is directed to the<br>disbelievers who said, “Muhammad (peace be upon him)<br>composes the Quran deliberately by himself piece by piece;<br>had it been from Allah, it would be revealed all at once. At<br>some places on the Quran this objection bas been cited and<br>answered see(E.Ns 102, 104, 105, 106 of Surah An-Nahl)<br>and (E.N. 119 of Surah Bani Israil), but here Allah has<br>answered it without citing it, saying emphatically: “It is We<br>Who are sending it down, it is not the composition of<br>Muhammad, and it is We Who are sending it gradually.<br>That is, it is the requirement of Our wisdom that We<br>should not send down Our message all together in a book<br>form, but should send it piece by piece.”","So persevere with the command of your Lord[1] and do not pay any heed to the wicked and the unbelieving,[2]###[1] “Be patient”: Face patiently the hardships and<br>difficulties of the great Mission your Lord has entrusted to<br>upon you; endure firmly and steadfastly whatever comes to<br>pass, without showing any weakness in this regard. \t [2] “Do not obey”: Do not yield to any one of them so as to<br>give up preaching of the true faith; do not be inclined to<br>make even the least change in the religious beliefs for the<br>sake of any denier of the truth, or in the moral teachings<br>for the sake of a wicked person. Proclaim whatever is<br>unlawful and forbidden to be so openly even if an immoral<br>person might press you hard to show some lenience in this<br>condemnation, and proclaim whatever is false as false and<br>whatever is true as true publicly even if the disbelievers<br>might use all their influence to silence you, or to make you<br>adopt a little lenience in this regard.","and remember the name of your Lord, morning and evening;","and prostrate yourself before Him at night, and extol His Glory during the long watches of the night.[1]###[1] The rule followed in the Quran is that wherever the<br>Muslims have been exhorted to show patience against the<br>disbelievers, immediately after it they have been<br>commanded to remember Allah much and to observe the<br>Prayer, which automatically implies that the power needed<br>to meet the resistance of the enemies of the truth in the way<br>of true faith can be obtained only by this means. To<br>remember Allah morning and evening may also imply<br>remembering Allah always but when the command to<br>remember Allah at specific times is given, it implies the<br>salat (Prayer). In this verse, bukrah means the morning and<br>asil the time from the sun’s decline till sunset, which<br>obviously covers the Zuhr and the Asr times. Night starts<br>after sunset; therefore, the command “to prostrate yourself<br>in the night” would apply to both the Maghrib and the Isha<br>Prayers. Then, the command “to glorify Allah in the long<br>hours of night”, clearly points to the time of the Tahajjud<br>Prayer. see (E.Ns 92-97 of Surah Bani Israil),<br>(E.N. 2 of Surah Al-Muzzammil). This also shows that these have<br>been the Prayer times in Islam from the beginning.<br>However, the command making the Prayer obligatory five<br>times a day with fixed times and number of rakahs was<br>given on the occasion of miraj (ascension).","Verily they love (the good of this world) that is hastily obtainable and are oblivious of the burdensome Day ahead of them.[1]###[1] That is, the reason why the disbelieving Quraish still<br>persist in the errors and deviations of belief and morality<br>and why they turn a deaf ear to your invitation to the truth<br>is, in fact, their worship of the world and their heedlessness<br>of the Hereafter. Therefore, the way being followed by a<br>true God-worshipper is so different from and opposed to<br>their way that there can be no question of any compromise<br>between them.","We created them and strengthened their joints; and whenever We wish, We can change their faces entirely.[1]###[1] The sentence, “And when We will, We can replace<br>with others like them with a complete replacement” can<br>have several meanings:","Verily this is an Exhortation; so let him who so will take a way to his Lord.","But your willing shall be of no avail until Allah Himself so wills.[1] Surely Allah is All-Knowing, Most Wise.###[1] Three things have been said in these verses:","He admits to His Mercy whomsoever He pleases. As for the wrong-doers, He has prepared for them a grievous chastisement.[1]###[1] In this verse “wrongdoers” imply the people whom the<br>revelations of Allah and the teachings of His Prophet (peace<br>be upon him) may reach, yet they deliberately and<br>consciously decide that they would not obey and follow<br>them. This also includes those unjust people who may<br>plainly say that they do not accept the revelation as God’s<br>revelation and the Prophet as God’s Prophet, or that they<br>do not believe in God at all, and also those wicked people<br>who may not refuse to believe in God and the Prophet and<br>the Quran, but they are resolved not to obey and follow<br>them. As a matter of fact, both these groups are unjust and<br>wicked. As regards the first group, their case is clear and<br>obvious; but the second group is no less wicked; it is also<br>hypocritical and treacherous. Verbally, they say that they<br>believe in God and the Messenger and the Quran, but in<br>their hearts and minds they are resolved not to follow them,<br>and their practical conduct of life is also opposed to it.<br>About both Allah has declared that He has prepared for<br>them a painful torment. They might strut about in the<br>world, enjoy life as they like, boast and brag of their<br>superiority, but ultimately they will be subjected to a<br>disgraceful punishment; they cannot enter and enjoy<br>Allah’s mercy in any way.","By the (winds) sent forth in quick succession,","which then blow tempestuously","and raise (clouds) and scatter them around,","then winnow them thoroughly,","and then cast (Allah's) remembrance (in people's hearts),","to serve as an excuse or a warning.[1]###[1] That is, sometimes the failure of winds causes the people to be alarmed at the prospect of a famine, and they turn to Allah to repent of their sins. Sometimes they bring a lot of rain and the people turn to Allah in gratitude, and sometimes their blowing violently causes dread in the hearts and the people turn to Allah from fear of destruction.","Surely what you are promised[1] shall come to pass.[2]###[1] Another meaning can be: That which you are being threatened with, i.e. the Resurrection and Hereafter. \t [2] Here an oath has been sworn by five things on the inevitability of the Resurrection:","So when the stars are extinguished,[1]###[1] That is, when they lose their light and luster.","and the sky is rent asunder,[1]###[1] When the heaven is rent asunder: when the system and discipline of the heavens under which every star and planet is established and moving in its orbit and everything in the universe is adhering to the bounds set for it, is broken.","and the mountains are blown away,","and the appointed time to bring the Messengers together arrives,(then shall the promised event come to pass).[1]###[1] At several places in the Quran it has been stated that when the case of mankind will be presented before Allah on the Day of Resurrection, the Messenger of every nation will be called upon to testify that he had conveyed Allah’s messages intact to his people. This will be Allah’s first and major argument against the culprits and the wicked people to prove that they were themselves responsible for their wrong attitude and conduct in life, for there had been no negligence on the part of Allah to show guidance and administer warnings . For instance, see (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayats 172, 173 and E.Ns 134, 135);<br>(Surah Az-Zumar, Ayat 69 and E.N. 80); <br>(Surah Al-Mulk, Ayat 8 and E.N. 14).","To which Day has this task been deferred?","To the Day of Judgement.","What do you know what the Day of Judgement is?","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth![1]###[1] Deniers: those people who took the news of the coming of Resurrection as a lie, and spent their lives in the world under the delusion that the time would never come when they would have to present themselves before their God and render an account of their deeds.","Did We not destroy many a nation of the earlier times?[1]###[1] This is an argument from history for the Hereafter, It means: Consider your own history in the world. Whichever nations denied the Hereafter and took this worldly life to be real life and based their moral attitude on the results appearing here regarding them as the criterion of good and evil, ultimately went to their doom without exception. This is a proof of the fact that the Hereafter is a reality overlooking and ignoring which causes the same kind of harm to a person which is caused when he chooses to close his eyes to the hard facts of life.” (For further explanation, see (E.N. 12 of Yunus),<br>(E.N. 86 of An-Naml), (E.N. 8 of Ar- Rum), (E.N. 25 of Saba).","And We shall cause those of later times[1] to follow them.###[1] That is, this is a permanent law with Us. Just as denial of the Hereafter has proved disastrous for the nations of the past so it will always prove disastrous also for the nations of the future. No nation has been an exception to it before nor will any be so in the future.","Thus do We deal with the guilty.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth![1]###[1] This sentence in the present context means: The fate they have met or will meet in the world, is not their real punishment; their real doom will descend on them on the Day of Decision. The punishment here is only in the nature of a person’s being arrested when he commits one crime after the other fearlessly and is not inclined to mend and change his ways. The court where his case is to be decided and he is to be punished for all his misdeeds, will not be established in this world but in the Hereafter, and that indeed will be the real day of his ruin and disaster. (For further explanation, (see E.Ns 5, 6 of Surah Al-Aaraf);  (E.N. 105 of Surah Houd).","Did We not create you of a mean fluid,","which We then placed in a secure repository[1]###[1] A secure place: The mother’s womb in which the child is so firmly lodged as soon as it has been conceived and where such arrangements are made for its security and nourishment that abortion cannot take place unless there is a disaster, and even for artificial abortion extraordinary devices have to be adopted, which are both risky and harmful in spite of modern developments in medical science.","until an appointed time?[1]###[1] The words qadar im-malum do not only mean that the term is appointed and fixed but they also contain the sense that it is known to Allah alone. About child, no one knows by any means how many months, days, hours, minutes and seconds it will remain in the mothers womb and what will be its exact and precise time of birth. Allah alone has fixed a specific term for every child and He alone knows it. 2","See that We had the power to do so. Great indeed is Our power to do what We will.[1]###[1] This is an express argument for the possibility of the life-after-death What is meant to be said is: When We had the power to shape and develop you into a perfect and complete man from an insignificant sperm-drop, how shall We be helpless to re-create you in some other way? Our this creation in consequence of which you exist as a living being, is a proof that We are excellent Possessors of power; We cannot be so helpless as to be unable to re-create you after having created you in the first instance.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth![1]###[1] This sentence here gives the meaning that in spite of the express argument for the possibility of life-after-death, the people who are denying it, may mock it as they may and look down upon its believers as people of antiquated ideas and whims, but when the Day comes which they are denying today, they will themselves know that it is a day of their own ruin and disaster.","Did We not make the earth a receptacle,","for the living and the dead,","and did We not firmly fix towering mountains on it and give you sweet water to drink?[1]###[1] This is yet another argument for the possibility and reasonableness of the Hereafter. It is this very earth which since millions and millions of years has been sustaining and providing for countless different kinds of creatures. Every kind of vegetation and every kind of animal and man are living on it. To meet the requirements of all unmeasureable treasures of provisions of different kinds are coming out of its belly. Then it is on this very earth that countless members of all kinds of creatures die every day, but there exists a wonderful arrangement in that the dead bodies of all creatures are deposited in the same earth, and it again becomes ready for sustaining life and providing home to the new members of every species. This earth has not been shaped like a smooth-surfaced ball either, but here and there on it there have been set high mountains and mountain-ranges, which play an important role in causing the change of seasons and rainfall, the birth of rivers, creation of fertile valleys, growth of trees which supply timber, and provisions of a variety of minerals and stones. Then in the interior of this very earth, sweet water has been stored and on its surface rivers of sweet water have been arranged and also from the saline waters of the sea vapors of pure water are raised and caused to fall as rain from the sky. Is not all this an argument to prove that an All- Powerful Sovereign has created all this and He is not only All-Powerful but All-Knowing and All-Wise as well? Now, if this earth has been thus equipped and provisioned only by His power and wisdom, why should an intelligent man find it difficult to understand that the same Sovereign by His power can wind up this world and create another world on a new pattern, and the demand of His wisdom is that he should create another world after it so that He may call man to account for the deeds he has done in this world?","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth![1]###[1] Here, this sentence signifies that the people who deny the coming of the Hereafter and regard it as impossible and irrational in spite of seeing these manifest signs of Allah’s power and wisdom, may remain lost in their vain imaginations if they so like. But the day when all this takes place against their expectations, they will realize that they have earned ruin on account of their own folly.","Proceed[1] now towards that which you were wont to deny as false;###[1] After giving proofs of the coming of the Hereafter, now it is being stated how the deniers will be dealt with when it has actually taken place.","proceed towards the three-pronged shadow,[1]###[1] Shadow: Shadow of smoke; three columns: Because when a big smoke arises, it is divided into several parts at the top.","which neither provides (cooling) shade nor protection against the flames;","it indeed throws up sparks like castles,","which seem as though they are yellow-coloured camels.[1]###[1] That is, each spark will be like a castle, and when these huge sparks will rise and burst and fly about in all directions it will seem as though they were yellow camels running and jumping about ceaselessly.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth!","That will be the Day on which they will not (be able to) utter a word,","nor will they be allowed to proffer excuses.[1]###[1] This will be their ultimate state at the time they will be entering Hell. Before this in the plain of Resurrection they will be offering all sorts of excuses, blaming others for their errors and proving their own selves to be innocent, abusing their leaders and guides who led them astray; so much so that some of them will even disown their crimes shamelessly, as has been stated at several places in the Quran. But when their being criminals will have been established by every kind of evidence, and when their own hands and feet and limbs will have borne witness against them to prove their guilt fully, and when after fulfilling all requirements of justice rightly and truly, the sentence will be passed on them, they will be dumbfounded and no room will be left for them to offer any excuse. To refuse an opportunity or permission to offer an excuse, does not mean that judgment will be passed against them without giving them a chance for self defense, but it means that their guilt and crime will be proved to the fullest and they will not be able to offer any excuse after it.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth!","That is the Day of Judgement on which We have assembled you as well as all those who went before you.","So if you have any ploy, try it against Me![1]###[1] That is, in the world you used every kind of deception and trick in self-interest. Now, if you have any trick to escape My punishment, you may use it to defeat Me and My plan.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth!","Behold, today the God-fearing[1] will be amidst shades and springs,###[1] As this world has been used here in contrast to the deniers; the righteous here implies the people who refrained from denying the Hereafter and accepted it and passed their life in the world with the belief that in the Hereafter they would have to render an account of their word and deed and their conduct and character.","and the fruits that they desire (will be ready at hand).","Eat and drink and may every joy attend you as a reward for your deeds.","Thus do We reward those that do good.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth![1]###[1] Here this sentence means that one of their afflictions. as mentioned above, will be that they will be standing as culprits in the plain of Resurrection. Their crimes will have been proved and established openly and they will not be in a position even to open their mouths to put forward a plea in self defense, and shall ultimately become fuel of Hell. Their other affliction, and by far the worse will be that they will see the same believers enjoying themselves in Paradise, whom they had been opposing and resisting and mocking throughout their lives as foolish, narrow-minded, mean and old fashioned people.","Eat[1] and enjoy yourselves for a while.[2] Surely you are evil-doers.###[1] In conclusion, these words are being addressed not only to the disbelievers of Makkah but to all disbelievers of the world. \t [2] For a while: In their brief life of the world.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth!","When it is said to them: “Bow down (before Allah),” they do not bow down.[1]###[1] Bowing before Allah: does not only imply worshipping Him but also means believing in the Messenger (peace be upon him) sent by Allah and in the Book revealed by Him and following and obeying His commands.","Woe on that Day to those that give the lie to the Truth!","In what discourse after this (Qur'an) will they, then, believe?[1]###[1] That is, the greatest message that could distinguish the truth from falsehood for man and show him right guidance, has been sent down in the shape of the Quran. If a person does not believe even after reading it or hearing it read, what else after this can show him the correct guidance?"]