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I.e., the reality of all creation.
I.e., if the universe - and, especially, human life - had been as devoid of meaning and purpose as they imagine, nothing could have endured, and everything would have long since perished in chaos.
For this rendering of the term dhikr, see note [13] on 21:10 .
Their desire that the universe has more than one God. See 21:22.
Allah is All-Wise and All-Good, and His architecture of the universe is on a perfect Plan. If these poor, low, selfish, ignorant creatures were to plan it according to their hearts' desires, it would be a dreadful world, full of confusion and corruption.
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The terms kharj and kharaj which occur in the above verse are more or less synonymous, both of them denoting "recompense". According to Zamakhshari, however, there is a slight difference between these two expressions, kharj being more restricted in its meaning than kharaj: hence, the first has been rendered as "worldly recompense" and the second as "recompense" without any restrictive definition, implying that a recompense from God is unlimited, relating both.
This is the last of the questions, beginning with xxiii. 68 above, showing the absurdity of the position taken up by the Unbelievers. (1) The Message of Allah is as old as humanity: why do they fight shy of it? (2) They have known their Prophet to be true and righteous: why do they deny him? (3) Is it madness to bring the bitter Truth before them? (4) Does the Prophet ask any worldly reward from them? If not, why do they reject his unselfish efforts for their own good?
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Sc., "as it inevitably befalls all human beings": an oblique allusion to the fact that human life is never free from distress.
This refers to famine which affected the pagans of Mecca.
The reference is to a very severe famine felt in Makkah, which was attributed by the Unbelievers to the presence of the holy Prophet among them and his preaching against their gods. As this is a Makkan Sura, the famine referred to must be that described by Ibn Kathir as having occured in the 8th year of the Mission, say about four years before the Hijra. There was also a post-Hijra famine, which is referred to by Bukhari, but that was a later event.
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Lit., "We took them to task".
Some Commentators understand the battle of Badr to be meant here; if so, this particular verse would be of the Madinah period. But it is better to understand it as referring to the same "distress" as in the preceding verse, or to punishments in general, which obstinate sinners refuse to take as warnings given to them to mend their ways and turn in repentance to Allah.
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Or: "they will despair of all hope".
Cf. vi. 44. If the little trials in the present life will not open their eyes, will great trials do so? Unfortunately they only cause in the wicked a feeling of despair. In the final Punishment after the Judgment, it will be too late for them to repent, and despair will be their only lot.
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As elsewhere, "heart" is to be understood as the seat both of feeling and intelligence. 'All the means by which knowledge can be gathered, judgment formed, and goodness cultivated, are provided for you by Allah. If you were grateful, you would use those in My service, which is expressed in your service to your fellow men. But instead you ignore these gifts, question Allah's Providence, and blaspheme against Him!'
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The alternation of Night and Day stands here as a symbol for all the beneficent processes of Nature provided by Allah for the comfort and growth of man's outer and inner life.
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And they are the more culpable, as they have received a later and completer revelation. Why should they now stand on the primitive ideas of their ancestors?
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Lit., "and all who are on it".
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If their argument is that such things about a future life cannot be known or proved, they are referred to the things which are actually before them. The tangible things of the earth-can they postulate their order or government except by a Power or Force or Energy outside them? They will admit that there is such a Power or Force or Energy. We call it Allah. Go a step further. We see a sublime Universe in the heavens above, stretching far, far beyond our ken. They will admit its existence and its grandeur. We ask them to entertain a feeling of reverence for the Power behind it, and to understand their own littleness and their dependence upon that Power.
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