Verse 24
The Cave • makkah
View Aspects
Commentary:
The verse refers to the time when Christian nations will have attained great power and predominance in the world. Muslims of that time—of the present time—are warned that it would be then suicidal on their part to try to fight Christian nations with material means, because the military might and material means of the latter would be too much for any single people or a combination of peoples to fight them successfully. It is to this all-powerfulness of Christian nations of the west in the Latter Days that the well-known hadith لایدان لاحد لقتالھم i.e. no one will have the power to fight them successfully (Muslim, vol. 4, Chap. on Dajjal) refers. Muslims are warned that in the days of their powerlessness before Christian nations they should not indulge in idle boasts of adopting one scheme or the other against them, but should respond to the call of one whom God would raise to take them out of the slough of despond into which they would have fallen. The verse may also mean that in the time of their decline and degradation Muslims will lose all initiative for any real and useful work and will indulge only in daydreaming and holding out impotent threats to their enemies. All their activities will then remain confined to talking about the future and they would do nothing to improve their miserable lot.
Some commentators of the Quran have given currency to the baseless legend that this verse admonishes the Holy Prophet that he should never fail to utter the formula انشاء اللّٰه i.e. " If God so wills it," while beginning to do any work, because on one occasion before doing a certain thing he had forgotten to utter this formula. There is no reference here to any such legend.
The verse may mean that in the time of their decline and degradation Muslims will lose all initiative for any real and useful work and will indulge only in daydreaming and all their activities will remain confined to talking about the future, and they will do nothing to improve their lot.