Surah 45. Al-Jathiya, Ayah 18

Lit., "thereafter" or "in the end" (thumma) - i.e., after the failure of the earlier communities to realize the ideal purpose of faith in their actual mode of life.

Lit., "on a way of the purpose [of faith]": see note [15] above. It is to be borne in mind that the literal meaning of the term shariah is "the way to a watering-place", and since water is indispensable for all organic life, this term has in time come to denote a "system of laws", both moral and practical, which shows man the way towards spiritual fulfilment and social welfare: hence, "religious law" in the widest sense of the term. (See in this connection note [66] on the second part of 5:48 .

I.e., who are not - or not primarily - motivated by God-consciousness and, hence, are swayed only by what they themselves regard as "right" in accordance with worldly, changing circumstances.

Shari'at is best translated the "right Way of Religion", which is wider than the mere formal rites and legal provisions, which mostly came in the Madinah period, long after this Makkan verse had been revealed.