Verse 76
The Inevitable • makkah
View Aspects
Important Words:
لا (nay) is generally used to impart emphasis to the oath, meaning that the thing which is going to be explained next is so self-evident that it does not need calling anything to bear witness to its truth. When the refutation of a certain hypothesis is intended لا is used to signify that which is said before is not correct but the right thing is that which follows.
أقسم (I swear). For the significance and philosophy of oaths see 37:2; 41:2 and 91:2.
مواقع (shooting) is the plural of موقع which is derived from وقع which means, it fell. موقع means, a place or time where and when a thing happens (Aqrab).
النجوم (stars) is the plural of نجم which among other things means, a portion of the Quran (Mufradat). See also 53:2.
Commentary:
In the foregoing verses it was pointed out that there lies hidden in the inmost recesses of the human heart a longing and yearning for eternity—death not being the end or goal of life—and that adequate provision has been made in nature for the preservation of man’s body. The next few verses deal with his moral and spiritual development and progress. For that purpose God has been sending His Prophets and Messengers and has been revealing to them teachings by acting upon which man could attain the object of his life, that is, continuous and eternal progress of his soul. The Quran is the Last and Complete and Perfect Divine Teaching. The verse swears by, and holds forth مواقع النجوم (portions of the Quran) as evidence to support and substantiate the claim that the Quran is eminently fitted to fulfil the grand object referred to above, as well as to establish its Divine origin. Taking مواقع النجوم as meaning, the place and time of the falling of stars, the verse signifies that it is an unfailing divine law that, at the time of the appearance of a great Divine Reformer or Prophet, stars fall in unusually large numbers, and that this happened in the time of the Holy Prophet. Before him it also happened in the time of Jesus, and, in our own time, when the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement announced his claim to be the Promised Reformer. النجوم may also mean those highly righteous persons among the followers of the Holy Prophet whom God favours with His special love and nearness. In this sense of the expression, the verse signifies that the treasures of divine knowledge and mysteries that are revealed to the Divinely-favoured ones constitute an irrefutable proof of the Quran being God’s own revealed Word.
The particle la is generally used to impart emphasis to an oath, meaning that the thing which is going to be explained next is so self-evident that it does not need calling anything else to bear witness to its truth. When the refutation of a certain hypothesis is intended la is used to signify that which is said before is not correct and the right thing is that which follows.
The verse swears by, and holds forth, Nujum which means, portions of the Qur’an (Lane), as evidence to support the claim that the Qur’an is eminently fitted to fulfil the grand object of man’s creation, as well as to establish its own Divine origin. Taking the word Mawaqi‘ as meaning, the places and times of the falling of stars, the verse signifies that it is an unfailing Divine Law that, at the time of the appearance of a great Divine Reformer or Prophet, stars fall in unusually large numbers, and that this has happened in the time of the Holy Prophet also.