*52 It means this: "As to who will receive punishment in the trial before Allah on the day of Resurrection, you should note it well that the punishment inevitably will be inflicted on those wicked people who invented a false creed that there were other associates also with AIlah, who had a share in His Being, authority, powers and rights, and worse than that, when the truth was presented before them, they not only paid no heed to it, but, on the contrary, treated the one who presented it as an impostor. As far as the person who came with the truth, and those who affirmed faith in him, are concerned there can obviously be no question of their receiving any punishment from the Court of Allah. "
 

*53 One should note that the words used here are inch Rabbi-him (with their Lord) and not fil-jannah (in Paradise), and obviously man reaches in the presence of his Lord just after death. Therefore, the intention of the verse seems to be: Not only after entering Paradise but right from the time of death till his entry into Paradise also AIlah will treat the righteous believer in the same kind manner. The believer will certainly desire to be saved from the torment of barzakh. from the severities of the Day of Resurrection and Judgment, from the humiliation of the Plain of Gathering and from the punishment of his errors and shortcomings, and Allah Almighty will fulfil all his desires.
 

*54 The people who believed in the Holy Prophet had happened to commit most heinous sins, both ideological and moral, in the days of ignorance, and after affirmation of the faith the good that they did was not only that they gave up the falsehood they had been professing and accepted the Truth that the Holy Prophet had presented, but in addition, they had performed the best righteous acts in morality. devotion and in their dealing's with others, Allah says: The worst deeds that they had committed in the days of ignorance will be wiped off from their account, and they will be rewarded for the best of their deeds found in their conduct book.
 

*55 The disbelievers of Makkah used to say to the Holy Prophet, "You behave insolently in respect of our deities and utter rude words against them : you do not know how powerful they are and what miraculous powers they possess. Anybody who dishonoured them was ruined. If you also do not desist from what you say against them, you too will be annihilated. "
 

*56 That is, "This also is a result of their lack of guidance that the foolish people esteem highly the power and honour of their deities but they never think that Allah also is Almighty and they can also be punished for insulting Him by the shirk they are committing against Him. "
 

*57 Ibn Abi Hatim has related from Ibn `Abbas that the Holy Prophet said: 'The person who desires that he should become most powerful among men should repose his trust in Allah; and the person who desires that he should become the wealthiest among men should have more trust in that which is with Allah than that which is in his own hand; and the person who desires that he should become most honourable among men should fear Allah Almighty."
 

*58 That is, °You may go on doing what you can in order to harm me and do not give me any respite.
 

 

*59 That is, °It is not for you to bring them to the Right Path. Your only duty is to present the Right Path before them. If they prefer to remain astray after that, you are not responsible for it."
 

*60 "Taking the souls during sleep" implies the suspension of the powers of feeling and consciousness, understanding and will.
 

*61 By this Allah wants every man to realize how life and death are entirely in His own hand. No one has the guarantee that he will certainly get up alive in the morning when he goes to sleep at night. No one knows what disaster could befall him within a moment, and whether the next moment would be a moment of life for him or of death. At any time, while asleep or awake, in the house or outside it, some unforeseen calamity, from inside his body or from outside, can, suddenly cause his death: Thus, man who is so helpless in the hand of God, .would be foolish if he turned away from the same God or became heedless of Him.
*62 That is, "In the first place, these people have foolishly presumed that there are some beings who wield great influence with Allah, and whose intercession is never turned down, whereas there is no proof of their being intercessors at all, nor has Allah ever said that they hold such a position with Him, nor did these beings themselves ever claim that they would use their influence with Allah and help them out in every case. Another folly of these people is that they have ignored the real Master and have believed the imaginary beings to be allpowerful, who deserve to receive all their devotion and dedication. "
 

*63 That is, "Not to speak of getting his intercession granted, no one has the power to stand before Allah as an intercessor. The right to grant or not to grant anyone the permission to intercede with Him exclusively rests with Allah. Then He may allow intercession for whomever He may please and forbid for whomever He may please. " (For understanding the difference between the Islamic concept of intercession and the polytheistic concept, see Al-Baqarah: 255, Al-An`am: 51, Yunus: 3, 18, Hud: 105, Ar-Ra`d 11, An-Naml: 73, 84, Ta Ha: 109-110, Al-Anbiya': 23, Al-Hijr: 76, and the E.N.'s thereof and E.N. 40 of Saba.
 

*64 This evil is common to almost all polytheistic people of the world, and even some unfortunate Muslims also suffer from it, They profess with the tongue that they believe in Allah, but when One Allah alone is mentioned before them, their faces arc distorted, and they say, "This man certainly does not believe in the saints and holy men; that is why he talks of Allah and Allah alone. " And if others besides Allah arc mentioned, they are delighted, and their faces brighten up with joy. Their this attitude shows as to who is the actual object of their love and esteem. 'Allama Alusi, in his commentary Ruh al-Ma ani, has related his own experience here. He says: "One day I saw that a man was invoking the help of a dead saint in his affliction. I said; O bondsman of Allah, invoke Allah, for He Himself says: 'If My servants ask you, O Prophet, concerning Me, tell them I am quite near to them. I hear and answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls to Me," (AI-Baqarah: 186), Hearing this the man became angry, the people told me afterwards that he said: This man is a denier of the saints; and some others heard him also say: The saints answer the prayers more promptly than does Allah."
 

 

 

 

*65 "The man" : the one who has aversion to Allah and whose face is distorted on hearing Allah alone being mentioned.
*66 This sentence can have two meanings: (1) "That Allah knows that I stn worthy of this blessing; that is why He has given me All this, otherwise He would not have blessed me if I had been an evil and wicked person in His sight;" and (2) `that I have attained to this by virtue of my ability."
*67 People ignorantly think that whoever is being blessed by Allah in some way is being so blessed necessarily on account of his worth and ability and that the same is a sign or proof of his being a favourite in His sight; whereas the fact is that whoever is being given something here, is being given it for the sake of a trial by Allah. This is a means of the test, and not any reward for ability, otherwise many able and worthy people would not be living in poverty and many unworthy people would not be rolling in prosperity. Likewise, these worldly blessings arc not a sign of one's being a favourite with AIlah either. Everyone can see that many good people whose goodness is unquestionable arc living in hardships in the world, and many wicked people whose evil-doing is well known arc enjoying the pleasures of life, Now, can a sensible man take the affliction of the one and the life of ease and comfort of the other as an argument to say that Allah hates the good matt and prefers the bad man?
 

*68 That is, "When they were seized for evil-doing, the ability of which they were so proud, did not avail them anything, and this also became known that they were not Allah's favourites. Evidently, if their earning had been due to their capability and their being favourites with Allah, they would not have been seized for evil-doing at all."
 

 

*69 That is, "The Abundance or restriction of the provisions is based on another law of Allah, which has some other wisdom. The distribution of the provisions dces not at all depend on man's worthiness and ability, or on his being a favourite of Allah, or for being under His wrath. " (For details, see At-Taubah: 55, 69, 85; Yunus: 17; Hud: 3, 27; Ar-Ra`d: 26; Al-Kahf: 34-36; Ta Ha: 131-132; AI-Anbiya': 105; Al-Mu`min: Introductian and vv. 55-56; Ash-Shu'ara`: 111; AI-Qasas: 78, 89 and the E N. thereof. and E.N.'s 54 to 60 of Saba).
 

*70 Some commentators have given a strange interpretation to these words. They say that Allah Himself has commanded the Holy Prophet to address the people as "My servants" therefore, all men are the servants of the Holy Prophet. This interpretation is no interpretation at all but a worst distortion of the meaning of the Qur'an and indeed tampering with the Word of Allah. If this interpretation were correct, it would falsify and negate the whole Qur'an. For the Qur'an, from the beginning to the end, establishes the concept that men are the servants of Allah alone, and its whole message revolves around the point that they should serve none but One Allah alone. The Holy Prophet (upon whom be Allah's peace) himself was Allah's servant. Allah had sent him not as rabb (sustainer, providence) but as a Messenger so that he should himself serve Him and teach the other people also to serve Him alone. After all, how can a sensible person believe that the Holy Prophet might have one day stood up before the disbelieving Quraish of Makkah and made the sudden proclamation: "You are in fact the slaves of Muhammad and not of al- `Uzzah and ash-Shams." (We seek Allah's refuge from this)
*71 The address here is to all mankind. There is no weighty argument to regard only the believers as the addressees. As has been observed by 'Allama Ibn Kathir, to address such a thing to the common men does not mean that Allah forgives all sins without repentance, but Allah Himself has explained in the following verses that sins are forgiven only when the sinner turns to Allah's worship and service and adopts obedience to the message sent down by Him. As a matter of fact, this verse brought a message of hope for those people who had committed mortal sins like murder, adultery, theft, robbery, etc. in the days of ignorance, and had despaired whether they would ever be forgiven. To them it has been said: "Do not despair of Allah's mercy: whatever you might have done in the past, if you sincerely turn to your Lord's obedience, you will be forgiven every sin." The same interpretation of this verse has been given by Ibn `Abbas, Qatadah, Mujahid and Ibn Zaid. (Ibn Jarir, Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Da'ud, Tirmidhi). For further explanation, see AI-Furqan: 70-71 and the E.N.'s thereof.
 

 

*72 "To follow the best aspect of the Book of Allah" means that one should carry out the Commands Allah has given and refrain from what He has forbidden, and learn lessons from what He has brought out in the parables and narratives. As against this, the one who turns away from Allah's Commands, indulges in the forbidden things, and dces not heed His admonitions, follows the worst aspect of the Book of AIlah, i.e. that aspect which the Divine Book has declared as the most evil.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*73 That is, "He did not just create the world and then left it alone, but He is constantly guarding and watching over everything. Just as everything in the world came into being by His act of creation so everything is living and surviving by His leave, and flourishing and functioning only under His protection and care."
 

 

 

*74 That is, "No act which is performed along with shirk will be adjudged as a righteous act, and no one who, being a mushrik, performs many acts as good acts in his personal judgement, will deserve any reward for them, and his whole life work will be deemed to have gone waste."
 

 

*75 That is, "They have no conception of the greatness and glory of Allah; they have never tried to understand how high is the position of the Lord of the Universe and how insignificant arc the beings whom these foolish people have made associates in Godhead and worthy of their worship."
*76 This is a figurative way of describing the complete control and authority of AIlah over the earth and heavens. Just as a man encloses a small ball in the hollow of his hand with perfect ease, or a person rolls up an handkerchief in his hand without any difficulty, so will All men (who fail to conceive the greatness and glory of Allah) sec with their own eyes, on the Day of Resurrection, that the earth and the heavens arc like an ordinary ball and a small scroll in the hand of Allah. Traditions have been related in Musnad Ahmad, Bukhari, Muslim, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Ibn Jarir and others, on the authority of Hadrat 'Abdullah bin 'Umar and Hadrat Abu Hurairah, that once during a sermon the Holy Prophet recited this verse and then said: "Allah will hold the heavens and the earths (i.e. the planets) in His grasp and will roll them about in such a way as a child rolls a ball, and will say: 'I am God, the One: I am the King: I am the All-Mighty, Owner of glory: Where arc the kings of the world? Where are the tyrants? Where are the arrogant?" -Saying these words he started so shaking that we feared that he might topple over alongwith the pulpit."
*77 That is, there is no comparison whatever between Allah's greatness and glory and the insignificance of those who are associated with Him in Godhead.
 

*78 For the explanation of Sur (Trumpet), see AI-An`am: 73, Ibrahim: 48, AI-Kahf: 99, Ta Ha: 102-103, Al-Hajj: 1, AI-Mu'minun: 101. An-Naml: 87 and the E,N.'s thereof.
*79 Here, mention has been made of the Turmpet's being blown only twice. Besides, in Surah An-Naml there is the mention of another blowing of the Trumpet before these two, on hearing which everything in the earth and the heavens will be struck with terror (v. 87). On this very basis, the Ahadith mention that the Trumpet will be blown thrice: (1) Nafakhat al-Faza`on hearing which everything will be struck with terror, (2) nafakhat as-Sa `q, on which everyone will fall down dead, and (3) nafakhat al-qiyam li-Rabbit- alamin, i.e. the Trumpet on the blowing of which all dead men will return to life and arise from their graves to present themselves before their Lord.
 

*80 "The witnesses" : those who will bear witness to the effect that the Message of Allah had been conveyed to the people as well as those who will bear witness to the acts and deeds of the people. It is not necessary that these witnesses will be only human beings. The angels, the jinns, the beasts, men's own limbs, their dwelling places and the trees and stones, will all be included among the witnesses.
 

 

*81 That is, the gates of Hell will not have already been opened but will be opened on their arrival there just as the gate of a prison is opened on the arrival of the culprits and is closed as soon as they have entered it.
 

*82 For explanation, sec Ta Ha: 106-107, 124; Al-Anbiya': 106-107 and the E.N.'s thereof.
 

*83 That is, "The Paradise which has been granted to each of us, is now our property and we possess full rights over it."
 

*84 Maybe this is said by the dwellers of Paradise, or maybe this sentence is added by Allah to what the dwellers of Paradise will say.
 

*85 That is, the entire Universe will proclaim the praises of Allah Almighty.