مَّكْنُون

55:59.

Commentary:

History bears testimony to the fact that Muslims were endowed with all the blessings mentioned in the foregoing verses. They had gardens of bliss; they sat on thrones and enjoyed power and dominion; they had all the innocent pleasures of life; they had beautiful chaste women as their spouses and, over and above all this, "God was well pleased with them and they were well pleased with Him" (58:23). This was their greatest achievement.

56:18; 76:20.

Commentary:

غلمان (youths) is plural of غلام which means, youth; servant; son, etc. (Lane & Aqrab). The word has also been used in the Quran synonymously with ولد in the sense of 'son' (3:41; 15:54; 19:8; 37:102; 51:29). Elsewhere in the Quran (76:20) the word ولدان (sons) has been substituted for غلمان which shows that the youths who will move about in the company of the righteous in Paradise will be their own sons. The verse may also refer to the Divine promise of great wealth and power coming into the possession of the poor Muslims, and to the hosts of servants who were to wait upon them.

85:23.

Commentary:

That the Quran is a well-preserved and well-protected Divinely revealed Book is an open challenge to the whole world which has remained unaccepted during the past fourteen centuries. No effort has been spared by its hostile critics to find fault with the purity of its text. But all efforts in this direction have led to but one inevitable—albeit unpalatable for its enemies—result that the Book which the Holy Prophet Muhammad gave to the world fourteen hundred years back has come down to us without the change of a single vowel. The Quran stands unique in this respect among all revealed Scriptures. Books other than the Quran have been interpolated, mutilated and tampered with. And this was natural, because their teachings were meant for particular peoples and for limited periods of time. But the Quran, being the Last Divine Message for the whole of mankind, should naturally have been vouchsafed full, complete and eternal protection. Elsewhere, the Quran has made the firm assertion that it enjoys Divine protection: "Verily, We Ourself have sent down this Exhortation, and most surely We are its Guardian" (15:10). The verse under comment along with 15:10 constitutes not only a forceful challenge but also a mighty prophecy that the Quranic text shall remain intact, which prophecy has been remarkably fulfilled. What adds weight and force to the prophecy is the fact that it was made at a time when even the art of writing had not much developed and that it was addressed to a people who did not even know how to read and write. "There is probably in the world no other book", says William Muir, "which has remained twelve centuries with so pure a text...There is otherwise every security, internal and external, that we possess the text which Muhammad himself gave forth and used...To compare their pure text with the various readings of our Scriptures, is to compare things between which there is no analogy."

"Efforts of European scholars to prove the existence of later interpolations in the Quran have failed" (Enc. Brit.).

The verse may also signify that the ideals and principles embodied in the Quran are inscribed in the book of nature, i.e. they are in complete harmony with natural laws. Like the laws of nature they are immutable and unalterable and cannot be defied with impunity. Or it may mean that the Quran is preserved in "the nature which God has bestowed upon man" (30:31). Human nature is based upon fundamental truths and has been endowed with the faculty to arrive at true judgements. A person who honestly calls human nature into action can easily recognize the truth of the Quran.