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I.e., "whom We shall reward in accordance with the best that they ever did": cf. 29:7 .
Cf. xxix. 7 and n. 3429.
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Sc., "without any indication that anyone has been or will be resurrected". This parabolical "dialogue" is not only meant to illustrate the ever-recurring - and perhaps natural - conflict between older and younger generations, but also points to the transmission of religious ideas as the most important function of parenthood, and thus, in a wider sense, as the basic element of all social continuity.
A godly man often has an ungodly son, who flouts all that the father held sacred, and looks upon his father himself as old-fashioned and unworthy of respect or regard. The contrast in an individual family may be matched by the contrast in the passing and the rising generations of mankind. All this happens as a passing phase in the nominal evolution of mankind, and there is nothing in this to be despondent about. What we have to do is for the mature generations to bring up their successors in godly ways, and for the younger generations to realise that age and experience count for something, especially in the understanding of spiritual matters and other matters of the highest moment to man.
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See Appendix III.
Cf. xli. 25 and n. 4494, Each individual, each generation, and each people is responsible for its own good deeds or misdeeds. The law of actions and their fruits applies: you cannot blame one for another. The only remedy lies in seeking for Allah's Grace and Mercy, not only for ourselves but for others in brotherly or fatherly love. This verse is in balanced contrast to verse 16 above.
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The particle li prefixed to the subsequent verb is evidently what the grammarians call a lam al-'aqibah: i.e., not an indication of intent ("so that") but simply of a causal sequence, which is best rendered as "and", "and so", or "hence".
There is fine grading in the Hereafter. Every deed, good or bad, is judged and weighed to the minutest degree, with its motives, intentions, results, and relevant circumstances. It is not a mere rough classification. The fruits of evil will be exactly according to the degree of evil. But, as stated in other passages (e.g., xxviii. 84), the reward of good deeds will be far beyond their merits, on account of the Mercy and unbounded Bounty of Allah.
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I.e., for having arrogantly, without any objective justification, asserted that there is no life after death.
"Squandered your good things" implies (in Arabic) grabbing at them, being greedy of them, seeking them as fleeting pleasures rather than the more serious things of life, sacrificing the spiritual for the material.
They will be told: 'You took your choice, and you must pay the price. You did wrong in a rebellious spirit, and prided yourselves on your wrong-doing, not occasionally, but of set purpose and constantly. Now you will be humbled in the dust, as a fitting punishment.'
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I.e., the Prophet Hud (see surah {7}, note [48]). The mention of Hud and the tribe of 'Ad connects with the last sentence of the preceding verse, inasmuch as this tribe "transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands" ( 89:11 ).
Lit., "from between his hands and from behind him". This idiomatic phrase (explained in note [247] on 2:255 ) is evidently an allusion to the many warning messages, in Hud's own time as well as in the almost forgotten past, which ought to have made - but did not make - the tribe of 'Ad conscious of how far astray they had gone. We have here a subtle, parenthetic reminder that, apart from the revelations which He bestows upon His prophets, God offers His guidance to man through the many signs and warnings apparent in all nature as well as in the changing conditions of human society.
The people of ’Ȃd were the residents of the hills in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Cf. vii. 65. and note 1040. The point is that the Warner who was raised among the 'Ad people-as among other peoples-was not a stranger, but one of their own brethren, even as the holy Prophet began his preaching with a call to his own brethren the Quraish.
Winding Sand-tracts: Ahqaf: see Introduction to this Sura. The very things, which, under irrigation and with Allah's Grace, gave them prosperity and power, were to be their undoing when they broke Allah's Law and defied His Grace. See verses 24-26 below.
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They were too much wedded to their evil ways-to the false gods that they worshipped-to appreciate the sincere advice of the prophet of Allah. They defied him and defied Allah Who had sent him. Mockingly they challenged him to bring on the threatened punishment! For they did not believe a word of what he said.
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The coming of the Punishment for evil was (and is always) certain. At what particular time it would come he could not tell. It is not for the prophet, but for Allah, to bring on the Penalty. But he saw that it was useless to appeal to them on account of the ignorance in which they were content to dwell.
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I.e., when they beheld, without recognizing it as such, the approach of their doom.
The Punishment came suddenly, and when they least expected it. They wanted rain, and they saw a cloud and rejoiced. Behold, it was coming towards their own tracts, winding through the hills. Their irrigation channels would be full, their fields would be green, and their season would be fruitful. But no! What is this? It is a tremendous hurricane, carrying destruction on its wings! A violent blast, with dust and sand! Its fury destroys everything in its wake! Lives lost! Fields covered with sand-hills! The morning dawns on a scene of desolation! Where were the men who boasted and defied their Lord! There are only the ruins of their houses to witness to the past!
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Lit., "then they became so that .. .", etc. See {69:6-8}, describing the sandstorm which destroyed the tribe of 'Ad without leaving any trace of them.
Here is the figure of speech known in rhetoric as aposiopesis, to heighten the effect of the suddenness and completeness of the calamity. In the Arabic text, the verb asbahu, in the third person plural, leads us to expect that we shall be told what they were doing in the morning. But no! They had been wiped out, and any small remnant had fled (see n. 1040 to vii. 65). Nothing was to be seen but the ruins of their houses.
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This relates in the first instance to the pagan contemporaries of the Prophet, but applies to later generations as well. - The tribe of 'Ad were the unchallenged lords in the vast region in which they lived (cf. 89:8 - "the like of whom has never been reared in all the land"). Moreover, the social conditions of their time were so simple and so free of the many uncertainties and dangers which beset people of higher civilizations that they could be regarded as more "securely established" on earth than people of later, more complex times.
I.e., intellect and feeling, both of which are comprised in the noun fu'ad.
Lit.. "enfolded".
The people of Hûd.
The 'Ad and their successors the Thamud were more richly endowed with the faculties of the arts, sciences, and culture than ever were the Quraish before Islam. "Hearing and seeing" refer to the experimental faculties; the word "heart" in Arabic includes intellect, or the rational faculties, as well as the instruments of feeling and emotion, the aesthetic faculties. The Second 'Ad, or Thamud, have left interesting traces of their architecture in the country round the Hijr: see n. 1043 to vii. 73, and notes 2002- 2003 to xv. 80-82.
The highest talents and faculties of this world are useless in the next world if we reject the laws of Allah and thus become outlaws in the Hereafter.
See n. 4770 to xlv. 33. They used to mock at Allah's Signs, but those were the very things which hemmed them in, and showed that they had more power and effectiveness than anything else.
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I.e., "close to you in space as well as in time". In its wider sense, this phrase denotes "all the rest of the world".
In Arabian history and tradition alone, to say nothing of Allah's Signs elsewhere, sin inevitably suffered its Punishment, and in various ways. Would not the later people take warning?
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This clause gives the meaning of the expression qurbanan, which contains an allusion not merely to false deities but also to the deification of saints,living or dead, who allegedly act as mediators between man and the transcendental Supreme Being.
Lit., "that was their lie and all that they were wont to invent .
The false things that they worshipped were figments of their imagination. If they had had any existence in fact, it was not of the kind they imagined.
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See surah {2}, note [21]. The connection between this passage and the preceding one apparently lies in the fact that whereas "those who are lost in sin" (of whom the tribe of 'Ad is given as an example) refuse to heed God's messages, the "unseen beings" spoken of in the sequence immediately perceived their truth and accepted them.
The term nafar signifies a group of more than three and up to ten persons. The occurrence mentioned in this passage - said to have taken place in the small oasis of Nakhlah, on the way leading from Mecca to Ta'if (Tabari) - is evidently identical with that described in {72:1-15}; for a tentative explanation, see note [1] on 72:1 .
Lit., "as soon as they attended to it", i.e., to its recitation by the Prophet.
I.e., as preachers of the Qur'anic creed. The expression "as warners" connects with the preceding references to "warning messages".
A company of Jinns. Nafar (company) may mean a group of from three to ten persons. For Jinns, see n. 929 to vi. 100. They listened to the reading of the Qur-an with great respect. The next verse shows that they had heard of the Jewish religion, but they were impressed with the Message of Islam, and they seem to have gone back to their people to share the Good News with them.
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For an explanation of this rendering of the phrase ma bayna yadayhi, see surah {3}, note [3]. - As pointed out in note [1] on 72:1 , this reference to the Qur'an as revealed "after Moses", omitting any mention of Jesus, seems to indicate that the speakers were followers of the Jewish faith; hence my interpolation of the words "of the Torah".
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