عَمِلُوا۟

5:40; 16:120.

Commentary:

The addition in this verse of the word "believed" to the word "repented" is significant, because the Israelites had already believed, and so the addition of the word "believed" appears to be rather misplaced. This doubt is easily explained. Those who had taken part in calf-worship had, in fact, acted against their "belief." So they were asked not only to repent but to renew and strengthen their belief as well, for true belief alone is the source of all good actions. The words, repented and believed, are thus intended to show that only those, who not only feel sorry for their evil deeds but also make proper amends and inculcate true belief in God, can be forgiven by Him.

6:11; 21:42; 39:49; 45:34.

Commentary:

The words, So the evil result of what they did befell them, point to the great truth that the punishment of an evil deed is no extraneous thing, but is the natural consequence of the deed itself and is also proportionate to it. The expression, and that which they used to mock at encompassed them, means that disbelievers themselves become the object of the charges of which they accuse the Prophets and their followers.

3:31; 99:8-9.

39:70.

Commentary:

When Divine decree about the punishment of these iniquitous people comes into force, they will realize the baselessness of the misconception that their rule and dominion will last forever and they will begin to fear that the civilization and culture of which they were so proud will soon perish.

The words, What kind of a book is this. It leaves out nothing small or great but has recorded it, signify that disbelievers will be punished for all their past misdeeds. They will then know that God is the Lord and Ruler of heavens and earth and that He does not allow any action of man to go unrequited.

The clause, and thy Lord does not wrong any one, denotes that the punishment will be very severe and their end very bitter but it will all be the natural and inevitable consequence of their own evil doings; the Merciful God does not wrong any one.

4:18; 6:55.

Commentary:

The preceding verse said that Jews were punished for their disobedience. The present verse says if even now they repent and reform themselves, God will forgive them their past sins and once again shower upon them spiritual blessings of which they had become deprived on account of their disobedience. The expression بجھالة means both lack of knowledge and lack of spiritual realization. Here it is used in the second sense because there is no justification in punishing a person who does not possess knowledge of a commandment for the non-observance of which he is punished. The verse means to say that the Jews possessed requisite knowledge of the commandments which they were expected to observe but they broke those commandments not because of lack of knowledge, but because they did not fear God and were devoid of spiritual realization. This shows that the possession of both knowledge and spiritual realization is essential, for knowledge alone is no great help.

It may also be mentioned here that جھالة (ignorance) is of two kinds, viz. (a) permanent ignorance, the victim of which rushes headlong into sin and derives a sort of pleasure in indulging in it; such a one is completely

devoid of Divine realization; and (b) temporary ignorance, when his lapses are due to a temporary loss of true and living faith and to his realization being defective. See also 4:18, & 6:55.

Commentary:

The second foolish demand of disbelievers was that God Himself should speak to them, bearing witness to the truth of the Holy Prophet. This demand, the verse purports to say, will be met by all their works being totally rendered null and void and by their being destroyed and scattered into thin air like particles of dust.

9:121; 16:98.

2:285; 10:56; 31:27.

Commentary:

The verse means to say that the commandments and injunctions given above are meant for the social, moral and spiritual uplift of Muslims, and, as God is the sole Master of all that is in the heavens and the earth, therefore, no real and enduring progress is possible without giving unstinted and unconditional obedience to His commandments.

The words, "Allah knows everything full well," mean that God knows full well what particular commandment is needed for a community in a certain situation. So His commandments entail no real embarrassment to Muslims and cannot be disobeyed with impunity.

4:124; 6:161; 17:8; 41:47; 99:8-9.

Commentary:

The verse points to the divine law of compensation which in this life works in this way that whereas for good works God gives a reward many times greater than what the doer has earned, He punishes a bad deed with a punishment which is less than what the guilty person has incurred or at the most with a punishment proportionate to the evil deed which he has committed.

Commentary:

The main theme of the foregoing verses consisted in engendering and instilling in man belief in an Almighty and All-Powerful God, Who creates, regulates and guides all life. In the present verse we are told that when darkness enshrouds the face of the earth and man consigns God to oblivion and gives himself up to the worship of the false gods of his own conception and creation, God raises a Prophet to bring back "the erring flock into the Master’s fold." Such was the condition of mankind when the Holy Prophet Muhammad, humanity’s greatest Teacher, made his appearance. The following quotations support this contention:

"The beginning of the seventh century was an epoch of disintegration—national and social—and religion had become extinct as a moral force and had become reduced to mere ritual and ceremony and the great Faiths of the world had ceased to exert any healthy influence on the lives of their followers. The holy flames kindled by Zoroaster, Moses and Jesus had been quenched in the blood of man…Incessant war for supremacy, perpetual internecine strife, combined with the ceaseless wrangling of creeds and sects, had sucked the lifeblood out of the hearts of nations, and people of the earth, trodden under the iron heels of a lifeless sacerdotalism, were crying to God to deliver them from the misdeeds of their masters. Never in the history of the world was the need so great, the time so ripe for the appearance of a Deliverer ("Spirit of Islam").

In the fifth and sixth Centuries the civilized world stood on the verge of chaos. It seemed that the great civilization that it had taken four thousand years to construct was on the verge of disintegration, and that mankind was likely to return to that condition of barbarism where every tribe and sect was against the next and law and order were unknown. . .It was a time fraught with tragedy. Civilization like a gigantic tree whose foliage had overarched the world and whose branches had borne the golden fruits of art and science and literature, stood tottering, its trunk no longer alive with the flowing sap of devotion and reverence, but rotten to the core". (Emotion as the Basis of Civilization).

The words "land and sea," may signify: (a) such nations as had no experience of Divine revelation and those that believed in heavenly Scriptures; or (b) nations whose cultures and civilizations were based purely on reason and collective human experience and those whose cultures and civilizations were based on Divine revelation; (c) peoples living on the continents and those living in the islands.

The verse means to say that the nations of the world had become corrupt to the very core—politically, socially and morally, and their corruption was the result of "what their hands had wrought."

3:58; 6:49; 18:89; 19:61.

25:76.

Commentary:

The verse seeks to remove the assumption by disbelievers of fancied and false superiority based on wealth, power and position, referred to in v. 36 and means to say that these things are not the means of achieving nearness to God. On the contrary, they tend to keep man away from Him. It is right belief and good actions which are his real wealth and which can bring him salvation and God’s pleasure.

10:22; 11:11; 30:37; 42:49.

Commentary:

It is human nature that when man is in trouble he is despondent and despairing, but if he is in affluent circumstances, he is the very embodiment of conceit and arrogance, and behaves as if no affliction had ever touched him, and in his conceit he begins to attribute all his success to his own effort and ability.

16:98; 29:8.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that God covers up lapses, if any, of believers, and protects them against their evil consequences, while He rewards their good actions, of whatever degree and measure, as He would reward their best actions.

16:35; 21:42; 39:49.

17:109; 19:62; 73:19.

Important Words:

نتجاوز (We shall overlook) is derived from جاز.They say جاز المکان او جاوزہ i.e. he passed along the place and left it behind. جاوز الحدmeans, he exceeded the proper limit or became extravagant or exorbitant. تجاوز عن ذنبه means, he overlooked sin; he forgave him. (Lane).

6:133.

Commentary:

The verse purports to say that all the works, good or evil, of the two classes of men mentioned in vv. 16 and 18 above, will be properly judged and weighed, and, while being requited, their motives and intentions and all relevant circumstances, will be taken into consideration, as the Divine law of compensation works in this way that whereas the reward of a good deed is many times greater than the deed itself, the punishment of the evil deed is proportionate to the deed committed.

4:124-125; 6:161; 41:47.

Commentary:

The subject which was only indirectly introduced in v. 6 has been elaborated in this and the next few verses. The present verse refers to the secret plots and conspiracies against Islam of the Jews and hypocrites of Medina. It condemns this evil practice and warns them that their plots are not hidden from God. He has sent the Holy Prophet and He is his Guardian and Protector, and their conspiracies would do him no harm. They are further warned that they would be punished for their wicked designs. The expulsion of the three Jewish tribes from Medina was the result of their repeated acts of defection and infidelity and of their secret plots against Islam and against the life of the Holy Prophet.