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Their attitude is the right one: to take ill-fortune with fortitude and good fortune with humility, and in either case go on persevering in good deeds to their fellow-creatures.
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Lit., "because thy bosom is constricted [for fear] lest they say". According to all available authorities, the expression la'alla (lit., "it may well be that") at the beginning of the above sentence denotes a wrong expectation on the part of the opponents of Muhammad's message; it is, therefore, best rendered in the form of a query which implies its own denial - thus: "Is it conceivable that...", etc. As regards the expectation that the Prophet might omit a part of what was being revealed to him, it has been reported by 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas and other Companions (see Razi's commentary on this verse) that the pagan Quraysh demanded of the Prophet, "Bring us a revelation (kitab) which does not contain a defamation of our deities, so that we could follow thee and believe in thee."
Explaining this verse, Ibn'Abbas mentions that some of the pagan chieftains of Mecca said "O Muhammad, cause the mountains of Mecca to be turned into gold, if thou art truly an apostle of God", while others exclaimed derisively, "Bring before us angels who would bear witness to thy being a prophet!" - whereupon the above verse was revealed (Razi). Cf. 6:8 and {17:90-93}.
Sc., "and so it is He who will cause the truth to prevail". Regarding the Prophet's denial of any ability on his part to perform miracles, see 6:50 and the corresponding note [38].
Every Prophet of Allah, when he not only encounters opposition, but is actually accused of falsehood and those very evils which he is protesting against, may feel inclined, in his human weakness, to ask himself the question. "Supposing I omit this little point, will Allah's Truth then be accepted more readily? Or he may think to himself, "If I had only more money to organise my campaign, or something which will draw people's attention, like the company of an angel, how much better can I push my Message?" He is told that truth must be delivered as it is revealed, even though portions of it may be unpalatable, and that resources and other means to draw people to him are beside the point. He must use just such resources and opportunities as he has, and leave the rest to Allah.
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For my rendering of the particle am at the beginning of this sentence as "and", see surah {10}, note [61].
I.e., that a divine writ like the Qur'an could have been "invented" by a human being. Cf. 2:23 , {10:37-38} and 17:88 , as well as the corresponding notes.
The Prophet (ﷺ).
Cf. ii. 23 and x. 38.
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Lit., "if they [i.e., your poets and wise men] do not respond to your call". Cf. 2:24 , where a similar challenge is followed by the words, "And if you cannot do it - and most certainly you cannot do it - then...", etc.
Lit., "only by God's knowledge".
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If worldly men desire the glitter of this world, they shall have it in full measure, but it is false glitter, and it involves the negation of that spiritual life which comes from the guidance of the inner light and from the revelation of Allah, as described in verse 17 below.
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I.e., although their good deeds will be taken fully into account on Judgment Day, they will be outweighed by their refusal to believe in resurrection and the life to come.
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This interpolation is based on the interpretation given by Baghawi, Zamakhshari and Razi.
Lit., "which a witness from Him recites", or "announces". According to Zamakhshari, Razi and other classical commentators, this phrase refers to the Qur'an; hence my rendering of shahid as "testimony". If, as some commentators believe, this term refers to the Prophet or, alternatively, to the Angel Gabriel who transmitted the revelation to him, shahid should be translated as "witness". Whichever interpretation one adopts, the meaning remains the same, for - as Ibn Kathir points out in his commentary on this verse - "the Qur'an was revealed through Gabriel to Muhammad, and was conveyed by the latter to the world".
Sc., "and shall, therefore, attain to happiness in the hereafter". The ijaz (elliptic mode of expression) employed in this passage is comparable in its subtlety to that in 10:103 .
I.e., in hostile, a-priori opposition to the message of the Qur'an, without really understanding its purport. The "historical" identification, by some of the commentators, of the ahzab with the pagan Arabs who leagued together in their hostility to the Prophet is definitely too narrow in this context.
Razi suggests that the conjunction fa ("And so") preceding this sentence (which is obviously addressed to man in general) connects with verses {12-14} above: a suggestion which is most convincing in view of the sequence.
Lit., "but" or "nevertheless".
"A witness from Himself': i.e., the Book which was given to Al-Mustafa, the Holy Qur-an, which is compared to the original Revelation given to Moses. We make no difference between one true and genuine Message and another, nor between one apostle and another,-for they all come from the One True God.
"Guide": the Arabic word here is Imam, a leader, a guide, one that directs to the true Path. Such a direction is an instance of the Mercy and Goodness of Allah to man. The Qur-an and the Prophet Muhammad are also called, each, a Guide and a Mercy, and so are these epithets applicable to previous Books and Prophets.
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This is a refutation of the contention of the unbelievers that the Qur'an was composed by Muhammad himself (cf. verse {13} above as well as 10:17 ) and thereupon blasphemously attributed to God.
Lit., "the witnesses". Most of the earliest authorities take this to mean the recording angels, while others (e.g., Ibn'Abbas, as quoted by Baghawi) relate it to the prophets, who, on the Day of Judgment, will be called upon to testify for or against the people to whom they were sent. The latter interpretation is supported by Ad-Dahhak (quoted by Tabari and Baghawi) on the basis of 16:84 , where witnesses "out of every community" are mentioned - an expression which can obviously refer only to human beings.
Or: "against their Sustainer".
The term la'nah - which is usually, but inexactly, translated as "curse" - is in its primary meaning synonymous with ib'ad ("alienation", "estrangement" or "banishment") in the moral sense, hence it denotes "rejection from all that is good" (Lisan al-'Arab) and, with reference to God, the sinner's "exclusion from His grace" (Manar II, 50).
i.e., the angels and the prophets.
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Cf. {7:44-45}, with which the above passage is almost identical, with only one difference: whereas in 7:45 the pronoun "they" occurs only once (and the phrase is, consequently, rendered as "and who refuse...", etc.), in the present verse this pronoun is repeated, to express both stress and causality ("since it is they, they who refuse...", etc.) - thus implying that their refusal to believe in a life after death is the ultimate cause of their wrongdoing. In other words, belief in resurrection, God's judgment and life in the hereafter is here postulated as the only valid and lasting source of human morality.
Cf. vii. 45.
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The above interpolation is, I believe, necessary in view of the highly elliptic character of this phrase. According to Tabari, Zamakhshari and Ibn Kathir. the meaning is that whereas God's punishment may befall the sinners referred to during their life on earth, it will certainly befall them in the hereafter. Cf. also 3:185 - "only on the Day of Resurrection will you be requited in full for whatever you have done."
For an explanation of the "double suffering, see surah {7}, note [29].
Lit., "they were unable to hear and they did not see": cf. 2:7 and the corresponding note [7], as well as 7:179 .
Cf. vii. 38. In this context, it is implied that they committed a two-fold wrong: (1) in inventing falsehoods against Allah, which deadened their own soul, and (2) in leading others astray or hindering them from Allah's path. Thus they lost the faculty of hearing, which they might have used to hear the Word of Allah, and they blinded the faculty of sight by shutting out Allah's light.
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Lit., "all that they were wont to invent": a phrase which implies not merely false imaginings regarding the existence of any real "power" apart from God (i.e., the existence of supposedly divine or semi-divine beings) but also deceptive ideas and "glittering half-truths meant to delude the mind" (see 6:112 and the corresponding note) - such as "luck", wealth, personal power, nationalism, deterministic materialism, etc. - all of which cause men to lose sight of spiritual values and thus to "squander their own selves".
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Note that the humility is to be "before their Lord," i.e., in Allah's sight. There is no virtue, quite the contrary, in rubbing our noses to the ground before men. We are not to be arrogant even before men because we are humble as in Allah's sight. Nor does true humility lose self-confidence; for that self-confidence arises from confidence in the support and help of Allah.
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Lit., "two groups" - i.e., the believers and those who reject the divine writ.
For my rendering, in this context, of mathal (lit., "likeness") as "nature", see the first part of note [47] on 3:59 .
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The conjunction "and" at the beginning of this sentence apparently connects with the opening verses of this surah, and stresses the fact that the fundamental message of the Qur'an is the same as that conveyed to man by the earlier prophets (Manar XII, 59 f.); hence my interpolation. See also surah {7}, note [45].
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