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They were a commercial people, but they were given to fraud, injustice, and wrongful mischief (by intermeddling with others). They are asked to fear Allah and follow His ways: it is He Who also created their predecessors among mankind, who never prospered by fraud and violent wrong-doing, but only justice and fair dealing.
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Cf. sBrah {7}, note [68].
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An allusion to the ephemeral character of man’s life on earth and, by implication, to God’s judgment.
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Lit., "that thou art indeed one of the liars".
They deny that he is a prophet or that they are doing wrong, or that any former generations behaved differently. They think they are the true exponents of human nature, and that such as he-idealists-are mere madmen.
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'If you really claim any real contact with Allah, let us see if you can bring down a piece of the sky to fall on us!'
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The challenge to bring down a piece of the sky was merely empty bravado, on the part of those who had called him a liar. But Shuaib does not insult them. He merely says: "Allah is the best judge of your conduct: what more can I say?" And Allah did punish them.
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This may refer either to the physical darkness which often accompanies volcanic eruptions and earthquakes (which, as shown in 7:91 , overtook the people of Madyan), or to the spiritual darkness and gloom which comes in the wake of belated regrets.
They were targeted by scorching heat, so they did not know where to go. Finally, a soothing cloud appeared in the sky, so they rushed to it for shade, then the cloud rained torment upon them, as they had requested.
Perhaps a shower of ashes and cinders accompanying a volcanic eruption. If these people were the same as the Midianites, there was also an earthquake. See vii. 91 and n. 1063.
It must have been a terrible day of wholesale destruction-earthquake, volcanic eruption, lava, cinders and ashes and rumbling noises to frighten those whose death was not instantaneous.
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With this refrain ends the cycle of seven stories showing that spiritual truth in all its manifestations - whether it relates to an intellectual realization of God’s existence, to a refusal to regard power, wealth or fame as real values, or to the virtues of compassion and kindness towards all that lives on earth - has at all times been unacceptable to the overwhelming majority of mankind, and has always been submerged under the average man’s blindness and deafness of heart. The very repetition of phrases, sentences and situations in all of the above stories - or, rather, in the above versions of these oft-narrated stories - tends to bring home to us the fact that the human situation as such never really changes, and that, in consequence, those who preach the truth must always struggle against human greed, power-hunger and proneness to self-adulation.
See above, n. 3193 to xxvi. 121.
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Thus the discourse returns to the theme enunciated at the beginning of this surah, namely, the phenomenon of divine revelation as exemplified in the Qur’an, and men’s reactions to it.
The hostile reception of some of the previous Messengers having been mentioned, the special characteristics of the Qur-an are now referred to, to show (1) that it is true, and (2) that its rejection by the Makkan Pagans was of a piece with previous experience in the history of man: vested interests resist Truth, but it conquers.
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Ruh-ul-amin, the epithet of Gabriel, who came with the inspired Messages to the holy Prophet, is difficult to render in a single epithet in translation. In n. 3187 to xxvi. 107 I have described some of the various shades of meaning attached to the adjective Amin as applied to a Prophet. A further signification as attached to the Spirit of Inspiration is that it is the very quintessence of Faith and Truth, unlike the lying spirits which delude men with falsehood. On the whole, I think "the Spirit of Faith and Truth" will represent the original best here.
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According to almost all the classical commentators, the expression ar-ruh al-amin (lit., "the faithful [or "trustworthy"] spirit") is a designation of Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation, who, by virtue of his purely spiritual, functional nature, is incapable of sinning and cannot, therefore, be other than utterly faithful to the trust reposed in him by God (cf. 16:50 ). On the other hand, since the term ruh is often used in the Qur'an in the sense of "divine inspiration" (see surah {2}, note [71], and surah {16}, note [2]), it may have this latter meaning in the above context as well, especially in view of the statement that it had "alighted from on high upon the heart" of the Prophet.
Qalb (Heart) signifies not only the seat of the affections, but also the seat of the memory and understanding. The process of inspiration is indicated by the impression of the divine Message on the inspired one's heart, memory, and understanding, from which it was promulgated in human speech to the world. In this case the human speech was the perspicuous Arabic tongue, which would be plainly intelligible to the audience who would immediately hear it and be through them transmitted to all the world.
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See 14:4 - "never have We sent forth any apostle otherwise than [with a message] in his own people’s tongue" - and the corresponding note [3]. That the message of the Qur'an is, nevertheless, universal has been stressed in many of its verses (e.g., in 7:158 or 25:1 ). The other prophets mentioned in the Qur'an who "preached in the Arabic tongue" were Ishmael, Hud, Salih and Shu'ayb, all of them Arabians. In addition, if we bear in mind that Hebrew and Aramaic are but ancient Arabic dialects, all the Hebrew prophets may be included among "those who preached in the Arabic tongue".
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