ROOT م ز ق

3135

Important Words:

مزقتم (you are broken up) is derived from مزق which means, lie scattered or dispersed. مزق الثوب means, he tore the cloth in many places. مزق عرضه means, he rent or marred his honour or reputation. They say مزقھم کل مـمزق i.e. he dispersed them to all parts of the country. He (God) destroyed them thoroughly and completely (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

In verse 4 disbelievers were warned that the time of the triumph of Islam and their own destruction was fast approaching. The word used in that verse to convey this warning was الساعة (the Hour). In the verse under comment the disbelievers are shown as vainly seeking to divert the subject of their defeat by pretending to take the word الساعة (the Hour) in the sense of the Day of Resurrection when they shall be broken up into pieces and not in the sense in which it has been used in v. 4. viz. the day of their defeat and destruction in this world. The verse may also mean that disbelievers accuse the Holy Prophet of seeking to create a community of his own by causing discord and disharmony in their ranks, and implies the answer that these people who brag so much of their unity were never a united people. Their talk of unity is an empty talk and their charge that the Holy Prophet seeks to create disunity among them is altogether fake and unfounded.

3146

Commentary:

The words shown as spoken by the people of Saba’ in the verse were not actually spoken by them but are used to describe their actual condition when they defied and disobeyed Divine commandments and consequently fell on evil days. The prosperous and frequented route became deserted, and desolate. The words "place longer distances between the stages of our journey" signify that because many towns on the route fell into ruin, the distance between one stage to the other became much longer and less safe.

The expression "and so We made them by-words" means that the Sabaeans were so utterly destroyed that no sign or mark was left of them. They became only a subject for story-tellers.