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Read again n. 1912 above. Having prayed for his progeny, Abraham now prays for Allah's grace on himself, his parents, and the whole Brotherhood of Faith, irrespective of family or race or time, to be perfected in the ideal of Islam.
For the shades of meaning in the different words for Forgiveness, see n. 110 to ii. 109.
My parents. Abraham's father was an idolater (xliii. 26; vi. 74). Not only that, but he persecuted the Faith of Unity and threatened Abraham with stoning and exile (xix. 46); and he and his people cast him into the Fire to be burned (xxi. 52, 68). Yet Abraham's heart was tender, and he prayed for forgiveness for his father because of a promise which he had made (ix. 114), though he renounced the land of his fathers (Chaldea).
At the final Reckoning, all that may seem inequality or injustice in this world will be redressed. But the merits of the best of us will need Allah's Grace to establish us in that lasting Felicity which is promised to the righteous. And Abraham, as the father of Prophecy, prayed for all,-for the Universal Faith perfected in Islam.
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This verse connects with the last sentence of Abraham's prayer, namely, his reference to "the Day on which the [last] reckoning will come to pass". The wrongdoers mentioned here are those who indulge in the belief "that there are other powers that can rival God" (cf. verse {30} above), and thus commit the unforgivable sin of shirk. As regards the "respite" granted to them, see the first clause of 11:20 and the corresponding note [39].
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Lit., "their gaze will not revert to them".
A picture of horror. The evil ones, when they realise the situation, will be dazed; their eyes will stare without expression, and never move back; their necks will be outstretched; their heads uplifted in terror of the Judgment from on High; and their hearts become empty of all hope or intelligence as the physical heart might become empty of blood when the circulation stops. In this state they will press forward to Judgment.
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Cf. 6:27 .
Lit., "that there would be no going down [or "no removal"] whatever for you" - i.e., no passing-over from earthly life to a life in the hereafter, attended by God's retribution of sins: a reference to many people's refusal, often mentioned in the Qur'an, to believe in life after death and. hence. in God's ultimate judgment.
Zawal = decline from the zenith, as that of the sun, decline from the highest point reached by a heavenly body in its course through the sky. The ungodly are apt to think that their power will remain in the ascendant, on account of some material advantages given them temporarily by Allah, but they are constantly receiving warnings in history and revelation and from the example of others before them. There is a warning to the contemporary Pagan Makkans here; but the warning is perfectly general, and for all time.
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I.e., "you lived on the same earth, and in basically the same human environment, as those earlier generations who offended against all ethical values and thereby brought destruction upon themselves: hence, their tragic fate should have been a warning to you".
Lit., "the parables", i.e., the parables in the Qur'an which illuminate the idea of resurrection and of God's final judgment (Razi). See also note [37] above.
Arab traders used to pass by the homes of some destroyed nations on their journeys to Syria and Yemen (such as ’Ȃd and Thamûd, respectively), stopping shortly for rest.
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Lit., "they devised their devising", i.e., their blasphemous belief in the existence of other "divine powers" side by side with God: this is the interpretation given by Tabari towards the end of his long commentary on this verse. For my rendering of the term makr, in this context, as "false imagery", see surah {13}, note [62].
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I.e., the promise of resurrection and recompense on the Day of Judgment. This relates specifically to the "respite" occasionally granted to evildoers for the duration of their lifetime (cf. verse {42} above).
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This is an allusion to the total, cataclysmic change, on the Last Day, of all natural phenomena, and thus of the universe as known to man (cf. {20:105-107} and the corresponding note [90]). Since that change will be beyond anything that man has ever experienced or what the human mind can conceive, all the Qur'anic descriptions - in the next two verses as well as in many other places - of what is to happen on that Last Day are, of necessity, expressed in allegorical terms: and this applies also to all descriptions of man's condition, good or bad, in the life to come. (Cf. note [37] above, relating to the term "parable" often used in the Qur'an.)
"A new earth and a new heaven" refers to the entirely changed conditions at the end of things as we know them. Cf. xx. 105-107, xxxix. 67, 69, lxxiii. 14, lxxxii. 1, lxxxiv. 3.
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In his commentary on this passage, Razi expresses the view that the reference to the sinners' being "linked together in fetters" is a metaphor of their own evil deeds and inclinations and, consequently, of the utter despair which will be common to all of them in the hereafter. To my mind, it may also be an allusion to the chain-reaction which every evil deed is bound to set in motion on earth, one evil unavoidably begetting another.
Cf. xxxvi. 8, Ix. 71, lxix. 30.
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According to Razi, the "garments of black pitch (qatiran)" and the "fire veiling their faces" are metaphors of the inexpressible suffering and loathsome horror which will enwrap the sinners' souls on the Day of Judgment. (See also surah {73}, note [7]
Sirbal,- plural, Sarabil,- a garment or coat of mail, breast plate; something covering the most vital parts of the body; like the shirt or the Indian kurta.
Qatiran: black pitch, a resinous substance exuding from certain kinds of trees like the terebinth or the pines, or distilled from wood or coal. It catches fire readily. Issuing from the upper garments (Sarabil) the flames soon cover the face, the most expressive part of man's essence or being. The metaphor of fetters (n. 1926) is now changed to that of pitch, which darkens and sets on fire the soul of man.
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Its deserts: i.e., according to what it earned by its own acts, good or evil, in its life of probation.
Swift in calling to account: We can understand this in two significations. (1) Let not the wicked think that because Allah, out of His infinite grace and mercy, grants respite, therefore the retribution will be slow in coming. When the time comes in accordance with Allah's Plan and Wisdom, the retribution will come so swiftly that the ungodly will be surprised and they will wish they could get more respite (xiv. 44). (2) On the great Day of Reckoning, let it not be supposed that, because there will be millions of souls to be judged, there will be any delay in judgment as in a human tribunal. It will be a new world and beyond the flight of Time. Or if a metaphor from time as we conceive it in this world can be taken, it will all be as it were in the twinkling of an eye (xvi. 77).
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Here is another aspect of the Truth of Unity. Allah being One, all justice is of one standard, for Truth is one, and we see it as one as soon as the scales of phenomenal diversity fall from our eyes. The one true Reality then emerges. Blessed are those who treasured this Truth in their souls already in their life of probation.
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