رَءَا

Important Words:

جن (darkened) means, it covered up. They say جن اللیل الشیء or جن اللیل علی الشیء i.e. the night covered the thing up; or the night threw its covering of darkness over the thing. جن اللیل means, the night grew dark. See also 2:26 & 6:129.

Commentary:

See collective note under 6:80 below.

Commentary:

See collective note under 6:80 below.

Commentary:

See collective note under 6:80 below.

51:28-29.

Important Words:

لوط (Lot) may etymologically be taken to have been derived from لاط. They sayلاط الشیء i.e. he concealed the thing. لاط بهmeans, it (the thing) stuck or adhered to it. لوطه بالطیب (lawwata-hu) means, he smeared him or it with much perfume. The Prophet Lot, who was the contemporary of Prophet Abraham, was the ancestor of the Palestinian peoples, Moab and Ammon. As the son of Haran and the grandson of Terah, he was Abraham’s nephew. He joined Abraham in the land of Canaan and in the time of famine went with him to Egypt. He preached to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah but they refused to listen to him and ridiculed and persecuted him; and though Abraham, to whom Lot was a junior and subordinate Prophet prayed for these wicked people and interceded with God on their behalf, they were destroyed on account of their iniquities and transgression (Lane, Enc. Bri. & Jew. Enc.).

Commentary:

Abraham at first took the "messengers" to be ordinary way-farers, but when they refrained from eating of the roasted calf he had placed before them (see the preceding verse), he realized that they were on some special mission which he had failed to understand. He knew that as ordinary wayfarers they could not refuse his hospitality, for wayfarers in that arid land entirely depended on the hospitality of the inhabitants for their food.

The words, conceived a fear of them, do not mean that Abraham was afraid of the strangers but that, when they did not partake of the food, he feared that he might have done something against the etiquette of hospitality and thus had displeased them. He did not, however, express his fear, for such an expression would have implied that he perhaps took them to be mean and greedy. The guests, it appears, read Abraham’s perturbed state of mind from the uneasy expression of his face, so they at once removed his anxiety by telling him that they were in no way displeased and that the reason why they did not partake of food was that their dreadful mission had made them disinclined to eat.

This answer of the visitors also shows that they were not angels; for had they been angels, they would have said that being not human they could not partake of the food.

Commentary:

The pronoun "he" in the clause, when he saw his shirt, stands for the master of the house and not for the man who bore witness.

The words, Your device is indeed mighty, will thus be taken to have been spoken by Joseph’s master, and the pronoun "your" refers to "women" generally. In his endeavour to screen his wife as far as possible, he appears to accuse the whole of the fair sex of cunning and guile. But cunning is no characteristic of women; only those women who are oppressed and tyrannized over and whose rights are trampled upon generally develop a tendency to conspiring and adopting wily and cunning ways to avenge themselves on their oppressors. Moreover, the words of a man spoken casually cannot be regarded as an established truth and must be treated with reserve.

30:14.

Commentary:

It is indeed strange that disbelievers who in this life oppose Divine Messengers for the sake of their false gods will on the Day of Judgement, inveigh against those very false gods and request that they be severely punished because they led them to disbelief and ruin. In return the false gods will denounce their erstwhile followers with the quick and emphatic retort, "Surely, you are liars". This altercation between the false gods and their followers before God shows that friendships based on sin and the denial of truth never endure.

The words القوا الیھم القول mean, (a) they would say emphatically; (b) they would reply quickly. The words, it will not be made light for them, occurring in the preceding verse show that the excuses of disbelievers will not be accepted and they will be sternly told that if their false gods had tempted and inveigled them they should have resisted that temptation.

2:166.

Commentary:

The punishment referred to in this verse relates to the next life.

21:40; 38:60; 52:14.

Commentary:

The word نار signifies war (5:65) and the verse means that the disbelieving nations of the West will see a most destructive war approaching. They will try all possible means to avoid it but all their plans and efforts to this end will prove futile. The west has already passed through the ordeal of two most destructive wars which have almost destroyed its political domination and prestige in the world and have shaken its civilization to its foundations. Now a third world-war is staring it in the face.

27:8; 28:30.

Important Words:

آنست (I perceived) is derived from انس (anisa). They say انس به i.e. he became familiar with him. آنسه (anasa-hu) means, he perceived it; he saw him or it and looked at him or it; he heard it, namely a sound; he felt it; he was sensible of it; he knew it; he had certain knowledge of it; he was acquainted with آنست منه الرشد means, I knew him to be characterised by maturity of intelligence and rectitude of actions and good management of affairs (Lane & Aqrab).

قبس (brand). They say قبس منه ناراً he took fire from him. قبس النار means, he lighted or kindled the fire. قبس means fire, or live coal; a brand or a firebrand; a piece of fire which one takes upon the end of a stick (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

Opinions differ as to what it was that Moses actually saw. In fact it was a vision that he had seen. The language of metaphor which has been used in this account of Moses also lends support to the view that he had only seen a vision and that he himself was conscious of the fact that he had seen no fire of wood or coal. If he had actually seen a material fire of wood, Moses would have used the words "I perceive the fire" and not the words "I perceive a fire", as he did.

Visions, however, are of two kinds: (a) those that concern only an individual. In such visions the Divine manifestation which is called ولایت (manifestation shown to God’s beloved other than the Prophets) in the spiritual terminology remains confined to the concerned individual. (b) Visions in which جلوهٔ نبوت (manifestation shown to the Prophets) is shown, the Divine manifestation extends also to the Prophet’s people.

By the words, "perhaps I may bring you a brand therefrom or find guidance at the fire", Moses meant to say that if it were جلوۂ نبوت that he had seen, then he would be given a new Shari‘ah for his people but if it were only جلوۂ ولایت he would receive some guidance for his own spiritual advancement.

It may be of interest to note that fire is of three kinds; (a) that which has light and also burns; (b) that which has no light but it burns; and (c) that which has light but does not burn. The fire which Moses had seen seemed to belong to the last category.

The word "tarry" implies that Moses wanted privacy for communion with God, therefore he asked his family to remain behind.

According to the Quran the incident to which reference has been made in this verse took place after Moses had completed his ten years of service with Shu‘aib in Midian and was actually on his way to Egypt with his wife and not as the Bible says that it occurred before he left for Egypt and was staying with Shu‘aib and that when one day he led the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush" (Exod. 3:1-3). Consideration of all the relevant facts of geography contradicts this Biblical account as the Lord appeared to Moses on mount Horeb which is in the desert of Sinai hundreds of miles away from Midian; and Moses after having had this experience could not possibly have gone back to Jethro, with the flock to apprise him of it the same evening as the Biblical account implies. Thus the Quranic account, is more in accordance with reason and facts of geography than the Biblical account. According to it the incident occurred after Moses had left Midian for good.

25:42.

13:31.

Commentary:

The words, "Is this the one who makes an evil mention of your gods," are expressive of contempt and contumely for the Holy Prophet on the part of disbelievers. They think it presumptuous on the Prophet’s part to speak slightingly of their gods. To this contemptuous expression of disbelievers the Quran replies by saying that if they think that it is presumptuous on the part of the Holy Prophetto speak disparagingly of their false gods, what do they think of their own contemptuous rejection of the very mention of the Gracious God?