Verse 54
Explained in Detail • makkah
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سَنُرِيهِمْ ءَايَٰتِنَا فِى ٱلْءَافَاقِ وَفِىٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَهُمْ أَنَّهُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۗ أَوَلَمْ يَكْفِ بِرَبِّكَ أَنَّهُۥ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ شَهِيدٌ
51:21-22.
Important Words:
آفاق (farthest parts) is the plural of أفق which is derived from أفق (afaqa) which means, he went away at random or heedlessly. أفق (ufqun) means, a side; a remote side; a border or extremity of a land or of the earth and of the sky or the horizon of the sky and of the earth i.e. country, region; horizon, the wide world (Lane).
Commentary:
The verse repeats in most clear and emphatic terms the prophecy about the rapid spread of Islam which was made in the preceding verses. It purports to say that Islam would spread not only nearer home among the Arabs but in the remotest parts of the earth. The prophecy was made at a time (the present Surah was revealed early in Mecca) when Islam was struggling for its very existence and humanly speaking there was every likelihood of its tender plant being nipped in the bud. Yet within the brief space of a few years the whole of Arabia accepted Islam and before the dawn of the next century it had reached the farthest ends of the earth. The camel drivers of the Arabian desert became the teachers and leaders of mankind, spreading light and learning wherever they went.
51:21, 22.
The verse makes in most clear and emphatic terms the prophecy that Islam will spread not only nearer home among the Arabs but in the remotest parts of the earth, Afaq meaning remote regions (Lane).