Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 23 Al-Mu'minun, Ayat 33-34

وَقَالَ الۡمَلَاُ مِنۡ قَوۡمِهِ الَّذِيۡنَ كَفَرُوۡا وَكَذَّبُوۡا بِلِقَآءِ الۡاٰخِرَةِ وَاَتۡرَفۡنٰهُمۡ فِى الۡحَيٰوةِ الدُّنۡيَا ۙ مَا هٰذَاۤ اِلَّا بَشَرٌ مِّثۡلُكُمۡ ۙ يَاۡكُلُ مِمَّا تَاۡكُلُوۡنَ مِنۡهُ وَيَشۡرَبُ مِمَّا تَشۡرَبُوۡنَ ۙ‏ ﴿23:33﴾ وَلَـئِنۡ اَطَعۡتُمۡ بَشَرًا مِّثۡلَـكُمۡ اِنَّكُمۡ اِذًا لَّخٰسِرُوۡنَۙ‏  ﴿23:34﴾

(23:33) The notables among his people who had refused to believe and who denied the meeting of the Hereafter, and those whom We had endowed with ease and comfort in this life,35 cried out: "This is no other than a mortal like yourselves who eats what you eat and drinks what you drink. (23:34) If you were to obey a human being like yourselves, you will certainly be losers.36


Notes

35. It should be noted that all those people who opposed the Messengers had three common characteristics: (1) They were the chiefs of their people. (2) They denied life in the Hereafter. (3) They were prosperous in the worldly life. Obviously, they loved the life of this world and could never conceive that their way of life, which had made them chiefs and brought prosperity, could ever be wrong. Therefore they opposed their Messengers, who took away their peace of mind, by preaching that there was a life-after-death and they shall have to render an account to Allah of what they did in this world. And this was exactly what was happening at Makkah.

36. Some commentators have wrongly opined that the chiefs exchanged these remarks against the Messenger between themselves. These remarks in fact were addressed to the common people. When the chiefs felt that the message was spreading among the common people and there was a real danger that they would be influenced by the pure character of the Messenger and that their superiority then would automatically come to an end, they began to delude them by raising such objections against him. It is worth while to note that both the chiefs of the people of Noah and the chiefs of the people of Aad accused their Messengers of the lust for power but as regards to themselves, they thought that power and prosperity were their inherent rights and they were in every respect entitled to be the chiefs of their people.

36a These words show that the people of Aad were also not disbelievers in the existence of God. They too were involved in the sin of shirk. Refer to (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 70); (Surah Houd, Ayats 53-54); (Surah HaMim Sajdah, Ayat 14), and (Surah Al-Ahqaf, Ayats 21-22).