-->
Lit., "archetypes (a'immah) inviting to the fire". This is the pivotal sentence of the above fragment of the story of Moses. Just as verses {15-16} are meant to draw our attention to the sin of tribal or racial prejudice (see note [15]), the present reference to Pharaoh as an "archetype [of evil]" points to the fact that false pride (takabbur) and arrogance (istikbar) are truly "satanic" attitudes of mind, repeatedly exemplified in the Qur'an by Iblis's symbolic "revolt" against God (for the meaning of which see note [26] on 2:34 and note [31] on 15:41 ). Inasmuch as they are intrinsically evil these "satanic" impulses lead to evil actions and, consequently, to a weakening or even a total destruction of man's spiritual potential: which, in its turn, is bound to cause suffering in the hereafter.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
I.e., in the pejorative connotation universally given to the adjective "pharaonic". It is to be noted that the term la'nah, here rendered as "curse", primarily denotes "estrangement" (ib'ad), i.e., from all that is good and, hence, really desirable.
I.e., among those who by their own actions will have removed themselves from God's grace: a meaning given to the term maqbuh, in this context, by most of the classical commentators and philologists (cf. Lisan al-'Arab, Taj al-'Arus, etc.).
Power and patronage may be lauded by sycophants and selfish place-hunters; but when they are misused, and when their exposure causes their fall, they suffer ignominy even in this life. If they manage to escape exposure while alive, it often happens that they are found out after their death, and the curses of many generations follow those whose oppressions and wrong-doing spoiled the fair face of Allah's earth. But even this is nothing to the true Punishment that will come in the Hereafter. There, true values will be restored, and some of the highest and mightiest will be in the lowest depths of degradation.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
By virtue of its being the first instance of a divinely-inspired Law, the Torah inaugurated a new phase in mankind's religious history (cf. the reference to the children of Israel as "forerunners in faith" in verse {5} of this surah).
After the destruction of the Pharaonic Tyranny and other similar Tyrannies before them, Allah began a new age of Revelation, the age of Moses and his Book. Humanity began as it were with a clean slate again. It was a full Revelation (or Shari'at) which may be looked at from three points of view: (1) as Light or Insight for men, so that they should not grope in darkness; (2) as a Guide to show them the Way, so that they should not be misled into wrong Paths; and (3) as a Mercy from Allah, so that by following the Way they may receive Allah's Forgiveness and Grace. In vi. 91, we have a reference to Light and Guidance in connection with the Revelation of Moses, and in vi. 154 we have a reference to Guidance and Mercy in the same connection. Here all three are combined, with the substitution of Basair for Nur. Basair is the plural of Basirat, and may also be translated Proofs, as I have done in vi. 104 Cf. also vii. 203, n. 1175, where the word is translated "Lights".
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Implying that the story of Moses as narrated in the Qur'an could not have come to Muhammad's knowledge otherwise than through revelation: consequently, the Qur'an as such must obviously be a result of divine revelation. - The term al-amr, rendered above as "the Law", is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew word torah ("law" or "precept"), the commonly-accepted title of the revelation granted to Moses.
The pagans are reminded repeatedly in the Quran that the Prophet (ﷺ) did not witness any of these events that happened centuries before he was born. For example, the conspiracies that were made against Joseph (12:102), the dispute on who should be the guardian of young Mary (3:44), and the drowning of Noah’s son in the Flood (11:49). These details were not known to Arabs before the revelation of the Quran. So the only logical way that the Prophet (ﷺ) knew about these stories is through divine revelation.
The Sinai Peninsula is in the north-west corner of Arabia. But the reference here is, I think, to the western side of the valley of Tuwa. Mount Tur, where Moses received his prophetic commission, is on the western side of the valley.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
I.e., "thou art not the first of Our apostles, O Muhammad: We have sent thee to the people of thy time just as We sent Shu'ayb to the people of Madyan" (Ad-Dahhak, as quoted by Razi).
So they neglected the Commandments over time.
That is, there were many generations that passed between Moses and the holy Prophet. Yet he knew by inspiration of the events of those times. Even if he had lived then, he could not have known the events that took place among the Midianites, except by inspiration, as he did not dwell among them.
'Though thou wast not among the Midianites, Our inspiration has told thee of the momentous events that took place among them when Moses was with them. This is itself a Sign that should make thy people understand.'
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
According to some of the classical commentators, this second reference to "the slope of Mount Sinai" contains an allusion to the divine assurance mentioned in 7:156 : "My grace overspreads everything ..." (Tabari, Razi). This interpretation is most plausible in view of the subsequent reference to Muhammad's mission as "an act of thy Sustainer's grace (rahmah)".
This people was the Quraish. 'Though thou didst not see how Moses was invested with the prophetic office at Mount Tur, thou hast had similar experience thyself, and We have sent thee to the Quraish to warn them of all their sins, and to repent and come into the Faith'.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Now that a warner has come among them with all the authority that previous Messengers possessed and with all the knowledge which can only come by divine inspiration, they have no excuse left whatever. They cannot say, "No warner came to us." If any evil comes to them, as the inevitable result of their ill-deeds, they cannot blame Allah and say that they were not warned. Cf. xx. 134.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
As the Qur'an frequently points out, the basic ethical truths enunciated in it are the same as those of earlier revelations. It is this very statement which induced the opponents of Muhammad - in his own time as well as in later times - to question the authenticity of the Qur'an: "If it had really been revealed by God," they argue, "would so many of its propositions, especially its social laws, differ so radically from the laws promulgated in that earlier divine writ, the Torah?" By advancing this argument (and quite apart from the question of whether the text of the Bible as we know it today has or has not been corrupted in the course of time), the opponents of Muhammad's message deliberately overlook the fact, repeatedly stressed in the Qur'an, that the earlier systems of law were conditioned by the spiritual level of a particular people and the exigencies of a particular chapter of human history, and therefore had to be superseded by new laws at a higher stage of human development (see in this connection the second paragraph of 5:48 and the corresponding note [66]). However, as is evident from the immediate sequence - and especially from the last sentence of this verse - the above specious argument is not meant to uphold the authenticity of the Bible as against that of the Qur'an, but, rather, aims at discrediting both - and through them, the basic religious priciple against which the irreligious mind always revolts: namely, the idea of divine revelation and of man's absolute dependence on and responsibilty to God, the Ultimate Cause of all that exists.
A contemptuous allusion, on the one hand, to Old-Testament predictions of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad 9cf. surah {2}, note [33]), and, on the other, to the oft-repeated Qur'anic statement that this divine writ had been revealed to "confirm the truth of earlier revelations". As regards my rendering of the term sihr (lit., "magic" or "sorcery") as "delusion" - and occasionally as "spellbinding eloquence" - see note [12] on 74:24 .
The pagans of Mecca demanded that the Quran should have been revealed all at once like the Torah, and the Prophet (ﷺ) should have had some tangible signs like the staff of Moses.
Some Meccan pagans approached some Jewish authorities to inquire about the Prophet’s message and they were told that there are references of him in the Torah. So the pagans immediately rejected both the Torah and the Quran as two works of magic.
When a Revelation is sent to them, in the Qur-an, adapted to all their needs and the needs of the time they live in, they hark back to antiquity. The holy Prophet was in many respects like Moses, but the times in which he lived were different from the times of Moses, and his age did not suffer from the deceptions of sorcery, like that of Moses. The remedies which his age and future ages required (for his Message was universal) were different. His miracle of the Qur-an was different and most permanent than the Rod and the Radiant-White Hand of Moses. But supposing that the Quraish had been humoured in their insincere demands, would they have believed? Did they believe in Moses ? They were only put up by the Jews to make objections which they themselves did not believe in.
Moses was called a sorcerer by the Egyptians, and the wonderful words of the Qur-an were called sorcery by the Quraish. As the Qur-an confirmed the Message of Moses, the Quraish objectors said that they were in collusion. The Quraish did not believe in Allah's Revelation at all.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
I.e., the Torah and the Qur'an. The Gospel is not mentioned in this context because, as Jesus himself had stressed, his message was based on the Law of Moses, and was not meant to displace the latter.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Lit., "if they do not respond to thee", implying that they are unable to accept the above challenge.
They were challenged to produce something better, to be a guide in life. But as they could not, it was evident that their objections were fractious. They were only following their own selfish lusts of power, monopoly, and exploitation of the poor and ignorant. How can such people receive guidance?
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Lit., "We have caused this word to reach them gradually": this meaning is implied in the verbal form wassalna, which - like the grammatically identical form nazzalna - points to the gradual, step-by-step revelation of the Qur'an during the twenty-three years of Muhammad's prophetic ministry.
Before this the Quraish might have said that the Word of Allah had come to the Hebrews in their tongue or in Greek, which was used by the Hebrews in the time of Jesus. Now that Word is brought to their own doors, in their own Arabic tongue, by a man of their own race and family. Surely they have no excuse now for remaining strangers to the higher moral and spiritual law.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
This is both a statement of historical fact - alluding to conversions of Jews and Christians in Muhammad's lifetime - and a prophecy. It must, however, be understood that, in the above context, God's "vouchsafing" revelation implies a conscious, sincere acceptance of its teachings by those to whom it has been conveyed: for it is this sincerity that has enabled them - or will enable them-to realize that the Qur'an preaches the same ethical truths as those forthcoming from earlier revelations. (Cf. {26:196-197} and the corresponding notes [83-85].)
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
lit., ‘We had already been Muslims.’
There were Christians and Jews who recognised that Islam was a logical and natural development of Allah's revelations as given in earlier ages, and they not only welcomed and accepted Islam, but claimed, and rightly, that they had always been Muslims. In that sense Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus had all been Muslims.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
See note [44] on the identical phrase in 13:22 . In the present context, the reference to "patience in adversity" and "repelling evil with good" evidently relates to the loss of erstwhile communal links, social ostracism, and all manner of physical or moral persecution which is so often the lot of persons who accept religious tenets different from those of their own community.
Their credit is twofold, in that before they knew Islam, they followed the earlier Law in truth and sincerity, and when they were offered Islam, they readily recognised and accepted it, suffered in patient perseverance for its sake, and brought forth the fruits of righteousness.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
This obviously refers to attempts, based on prejudice, at deriding the spiritual reorientation of the person concerned.
The righteous do not encourage idle talk or foolish arguments about things sacred. If they find themselves in some company in which such things are fashionable, they leave politely. Their only rejoinder is: "We are responsible for our deeds, and you for yours; we have no ill-will against you; we wish you well, and that is why we wish you to know of the knowledge we have received; after that knowledge you cannot expect us to go back to the Ignorance which we have left."
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Or: "God guides whomever He wills" - either of these two renderings being syntactically correct. According to several extremely well-authenticated Traditions, the above verse relates to the Prophet's inability to induce his dying uncle Abu Talib, whom he loved dearly and who had loved and protected him throughout his life, to renounce the pagan beliefs of his ancestors and to profess faith in God's oneness. Influenced by Abu Jahl and other Meccan chieftains, Abu Talib died professing, in his own words, "the creed of 'Abd al-Muttalib" (Bukhari) or, according to another version (quoted by Tabari), "the creed of my ancestors (al-ashyakh)". However, the Qur'anic statement "thou canst not guide aright everyone whom thou lovest" has undoubtedly a timeless import as well: it stresses the inadequacy of all human endeavours to "convert" any other person, however loving and loved, to one's own beliefs, or to prevent him from falling into what one regards as error, unless that person wills to be so guided.
The above rendering of the expression al-muhtadin conforms to the interpretations offered in this context by many classical commentators - e.g., "those who accept guidance" (Zamakhshari), "everyone who in time would find the right way" (Razi), "those who are prepared (musta'iddin) for it" (Baydawi), "all who deserve guidance" (Ibn Kathir), and so forth. Thus, God's guidance is but the final act of His grace with which He rewards all who desire to be guided. For a further consideration of this problem, the reader is referred to Zamakhshari's illuminating remarks quoted in note [4] on 14:4 .her with thee, we would be snatched away from our land" (or "our soil").
The immediate occasion for this was the death of Abu Talib, an uncle whom the holy Prophet loved dearly and who had befriended and protected him. The Prophet was naturally anxious that he should die in the profession of the true Faith, but the pagan Quraish leaders persuaded him to remain true to the faith of his fathers. This was an occasion of disappointment and grief to the Prophet. We are told that in such circumstances we should not grieve. All whom we love do not necessarily share our views or beliefs. We must not judge. Allah will guide whom He pleases and as He pleases. He alone knows the true inwardness of things.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Lit., "If we were to follow the guidance together with thee, we would be snatched away from our land" (or "our soil"). This passage has obviously a twofold connotation. On the historical plane, it echoes an objection voiced by many pagan Meccans to Muhammad's preaching: "If we were to accept thy call, most of the other tribes would regard this as a betrayal of our common ancestral beliefs, and would drive us away from our land." In a more general, timeless sense it reflects the hesitation of so many people - of whatever period, environment or religious persuasion - who, while realizing the truth of a new spiritual call, are yet fearful of acknowledging it as true lest this acknowledgment cause a total breach between them and their community and thus, as it were, cut the ground from under their feet.
Like the preceding expression of fear, this Qur'anic answer, too, can be understood in two senses. In the limited, historical sense it is an allusion to Abraham's prayer that the land around the Ka'bah be made secure for all times and its natural barrenness be compensated by fruitful help from outside (cf. {14:35-41}; also 2:126 ), and to God's acceptance of this prayer: thus, the Prophet's Meccan contemporaries are reminded that they need not fear to be dispossessed of this holy land so long as they remain righteous and trust in God. In its purely spiritual connotation, on the other hand, the "sanctuary secure" is God's promise - referred to in verse {61} below - that all who have faith in Him and are conscious of their responsibility to Him shall be graced with a sense of inner peace in this world and with enduring bliss in the life to come; and since they are thus to be rewarded with the "fruits" of all their good deeds, "no fear need they have, and neither shall they grieve" (cf. 2:62 , 3:170 , 5:69 , 6:48 , 7:35 , 10:62 , 46:13 ). See also note [59] on 29:67 .
Some Quraish said: "We see the truth of Islam, but if we abandon our people, we shall lose our hold on the land, and other people will dispossess us." The answer is twofold, one literal and the other of deeper import. (1) 'Your land? Why, the sanctuary of Makkah is sacred and secure because Allah has made it so. If you obey Allah's Word, you will be strengthened, not weakened.' (2) 'Makkah is the symbol of the Fortress of Spiritual Well-being. The Fruit of every Deed comes or should come as a tribute to Spiritual Well-being. What are you afraid of? It is Allah's Fortress. The more you seek Allah, the stronger you are in the Fortress.'
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Lit., "We are indeed (kunna) the inheritors". For an explanation of my rendering of this phrase, see note [22] on 15:23 . The above passage stresses the insignificance and brittleness of all worldly "advantages" as compared with the imperishable good of divine guidance.
By travellers such as the Meccan pagans.
A life of ease and plenty is nothing to boast of. Yet peoples or cities or civilisations grow insolently proud of such things. There were many such in the past, which are now mere names! Their very sites are deserted in most cases, or buried in the debris of ages. India is full of such sites nearly everywhere. The sites of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro are the most ancient hitherto unearthed in India, and they are themselves in layers covering centuries of time! And how many more there may be, of which we do not know even names! Fatehpur-Sikri was a magnificent ruin within a single generation. And there are thousands of Qasbas once flourishing and now reduced to small villages or altogether deserted. But God is merciful and just. He does not destroy or degrade a people until they have had full opportunities of turning in repentance to Him and they have deliberately rejected His Law and continued in the practice of iniquity.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
Sc., "and thus make them aware of the meaning of right and wrong": cf. {6:130-132} and the corresponding notes [116] and [117].
Cf. in this connection 11:117 and note [149]. All the three passages referred to in this as well as the preceding note (i.e., {6:130-132}, 11:117 and 28:59 ) are interdependent and must, therefore, be read side by side. The present passage connect with verse {58} above and its reference to "wanton wealth and ease of life", for the sake of which people so often wrong one another.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.
The good things of this life have their uses and serve their convenience. But they are fleeting and their value is infinitely lower than that of Truth and Justice and Spiritual Well-being, the gifts which come as it were from Allah. No wise soul will be absorbed in the one and neglect the other, or will hesitate for a moment if it comes to be a choice between them.
No translation has been selected yet. Please click on the (Compare) link at the top and enable the translations of your choice.