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Meaning, a believer is always tested through the loss of wealth as well as sickness, injuries, and the loss of life.
Not wealth and possessions only (or want of them), are the means of our trial. All our personal talents, knowledge, opportunities, and their opposites,-in fact everything that happens to us and makes up our personality is a means of our testing. So is our Faith: we shall have to put up for it many insults from those who do not share it.
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This connects with verses {183-184}, where the Jews are spoken of as refusing to accept the message of the Qur'an. The implication of verse {187} above is that the advent of the Prophet Muhammad was predicted in both the Old and New Testaments, and that the followers of the Bible had been called upon to spread this prophecy and not - as they actually have done - to suppress it.
Lit., "that which they are buying" - an allusion to the belief of the Jews that they are "God's chosen people", and to the conviction of the Christians that their belief in Jesus' "vicarious atonement" automatically assures to them salvation: the "bargain" being, in both cases, an illusion of immunity in the life to come.
Truth-Allah's Message-comes to any man or nation as a matter of sacred trust. It should be broadcast and published and taught and made clear to all within reach. Privileged priesthood at once erects a barrier. But worse,-when such priesthood tampers with the truth, taking what suits it and ignoring the rest, it has sold Allah's gift for a miserable ephemeral profit; how miserable, it will learn when retributive justice comes.
Cf. ii. 101.
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I.e., they have not, in spite of all their claims, preserved the integrity of the Bible and of Abraham's faith (Razi).
A searching picture of the wordly wise! They may cause mischief and misery to others, but gloat over any glory it may bring them! They may trample down Allah's truths, and enthrone false standards of worship. They may take credit for virtues they do not possess and seeming successes that come in spite of their despicable deceptions.
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See ii. 164. The two items mentioned here are just brief symbols recalling the six or seven mentioned in the other passage. And those too are but brief symbols and reminders of the glorious majesty of Allah and His goodness to man.
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Lit., "and [lying] on their sides".
Lit., "in vain" (batilan): see note[11] on 10:5 .
That is, in all postures, which again is symbolical of all circumstances, personal, social, economic, historical and other.
It is the thought of Salvation that connects all these glories with man. Otherwise man would be a miserable, contemptible creature in these beauties and wonders of Nature. With his high destiny of Salvation he can be lifted even higher than these glories!
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I.e., the suffering which a sinner will have to undergo in the life to come will be a consequence of the spiritual disgrace which he has already brought upon himself by his actions in this world.
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Lit., "a caller".
The caller is Muḥammad (ﷺ).
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I.e., "you all are members of one and the same human race, and therefore equal to one another".
See surah {2}, note [203], and surah {4}, note [124].
In Islam the equal status of the sexes is not only recognised but insisted on. If sex distinction, which is a distinction in nature, does not count in spiritual matters, still less of course would count artificial distinctions, such as rank, wealth, position, race, colour, birth, etc,
Here, and in iii. 198 below, and in many places elsewhere, stress is laid on the fact that whatever gift, or bliss will come to the righteous, its chief merit will be that it proceeds from Allah Himself. "Nearness to Allah" expresses it better than any other term.
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Râbiṭo refers to watching over the borders of one’s homeland. It can also mean keeping up one’s prayers.
The full meaning of Sabr is to be understood here, viz.: Patience, perseverance, constancy, self-restraint, refusing to be cowed down. These virtues we are to exercise for ourselves and in relation to others; we are to set an example, so that others may vie with us, and we are to vie with them, lest we fall short; in this way we strengthen each other and bind our mutual relations closer, in our common service to Allah.
Prosperity (falah here and in other passages is to be understood in a wide sense, including prosperity in our mundane affairs as well as in spiritual progress. In both cases it implies happiness and the attainment of our wishes, purified by the love of Allah.
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