Surah Yunus 10:93-103 - Quran Translation Commentary

93. We settled the Bani Israil in good settlement¹⁴² and provided for them clean sustenance.¹⁴³ Then despite knowledge having come to them they disagreed themselves.¹⁴⁴ Verily , your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Judgment in what they have been differing.

94. And if you are in doubt concerning what We have sent down to you, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before you.¹⁴⁵ Indeed the Truth has come to you from your Lord. So do not be of the waverers.

95. And nor be of those who belied the revelations of Allah, otherwise you will be of those who are the losers.

96. Verily, those concerning whom the word of your Lord has been vindicated, will not believe.¹⁴⁶

97. And even if all the signs come to them, unless they see the painful punishment.

98. Then why was there not a single township, which believed, and its faith profited it, except the people of Yunus? When they believed We removed from them the punishment of disgrace¹⁴⁷ in the life of the world, and let them enjoy (life) for a period.

99. And had your Lord willed all the people or the earth would have believed in Him. Would you then compel mankind until they become Believers?¹⁴⁸

100. And no person can believe except by the will of Allah. He casts uncleanness on those who do not understand.¹⁴⁹

101. Say (to them): Behold what is in the heavens and the earth.¹⁵⁰ But signs and warnings do not profit those who do not believe.

102. What are they waiting for except the like of the days of those who passed away before them?¹⁵¹ Say: “Wait then! I am too waiting with you.”

103. Then do We save our messengers and those who believe. (We have been doing) like this. It is incumbent on Us to save the believers.¹⁵²

Commentary

142. By good settlement here is meant the lands of Syria and Palestine, and also the position of honour. For further explanation, please see Note Nos. 196 and 197, Surah A’raf.

143. Refers to those blessings and good things which they got in the land of Palestine. In the Bible at many places Palestine has been alluded to be the land of milk and honey. e.g. see Exodus —3:8.

144. Knowledge means knowledge of religion and the Shariah. The purpose is to clarify that there were disagreements and disputes among the Bani Israil, not because they were not imparted the correct knowledge of religious principles and practices. They were properly guided by the Torah and a number of prophets as to what was real religion, what were the Divine commandments, and on what thing their salvation depended. But inspite of this knowledge and the right teachings that they received they took the path of disputes and disagreements among themselves.

(For further explanation please refer to Note No. 137- A, Surah Al-i-Imran and Note No.7 Surah Bayyinah).

145. When this Surah was revealed, very few people were believing in Qur’an, and quite a large number of people were in a state of hesitancy. Since they belonged to a nation, which was not blessed with a revealed Book, they had their doubts as to whether Allah did really reveal a holy Book to the humans and that this Book. Qur’an is the word of Allah. To remove this doubt of theirs it is stated here that Qur’an is not the first Divine Book that has been revealed, before it other Books had also been revealed to people, and amidst them there were people of the Book who had been reading the Torah. The fact can be confirmed from them that Allah had been sending down His revealed Book to His slaves to guide them, and among the people of the Book. who may be truthful, would also testify to the Qur’an being a Divine Book, for those who are acquainted with the words of Allah can immediately recognise Qur’an to be that, on hearing it.

146. Means that command of Allah which appears in Ayah No.33 of this Surah, and which has been explained in Note No.60.

147. That is: In whatever settlement or township a divine messenger preached his divine message that township as a whole did not embrace his faith until it did not see the appearance of the divine punishment. But embracing the faith on the appearance of the punishment was useless, because at that time the respite given to do good acts had expired. However, in the whole history there is only one example, and that is of the community of Prophet Yunus that it embraced the divine faith before the appearance of the divine punishment, and therefore, it was spared the disgraceful punishment by Allah.

The name of prophet Yunus appears in the Bible as Prophet Jonah. He was an Israili Prophet and he was sent to Nineveh, which is situated near Mosul in Iraq on the side of the river Dajlah, and which was the capital of the Assyrians. This nation had gone astray, and to present before them the message of Truth, Prophet Yunus was sent among them. All this probably happened in the eighth century B.C.

148. For explanation, please see Note No.200, and No.201, Surah An’am, and Note No.159, Surah Maidah, and Note No.417 , Surah Baqarah.

149. That is: Faith is dependent on the guidance provided by God, and this guidance is made available to only those who use their common sense and try to understand. But those who do not use their intelligence, Allah throws filth (misguidance) on their heart and mind, and therefore, they give birth to filthy and wrong ideas. For this reason they do not feel any qualms in ascribing mean things to God or suggesting filthy ideas to their fellow human beings. The mythological concepts of the polytheistic religions, the immoral culture of the standard-bearers of modern civilization, the theory of the materialists about man being an economical animal, and the theory of sex of the promiscuous people are some clear examples of filthy and wrong mentality.

150. Qur’an invites everybody to observe the star-filled skies and the earth full of blessings and sunshine. This observation should not be with a view to acquiring mere knowledge but to acquiring the knowledge of truth, that is, basically its purpose should be to achieve a recognition of the Creator of the universe, and also to finding out whether the object of the creation of the world as stated by Qur’an and the message to which it invites mankind are confirmed by the manifestations in the universe or not. In this scientific time the scientists and the astronomers have discovered most astonishing things and placed heaps of information before the world, but they are totally ignorant of the Truth, because their approach to the study of the universe is not right.

151. That is: When in the past the previous nations refused to embrace the faith even after the message of Truth was duly conveyed to them by the Divine messengers, they were subjected to total destruction. Similarly, to these people also the Truth has been duly conveyed. If now they do not accept the true faith, then the natural result will be their destruction only.

152. Means to save them from the decisive punishment, that is: when a nation is duly conveyed the Divine message fully and clearly and the said nation is not prepared to give up its disbelief and transgression, then the punishment of Allah envelopes it in this very world. On such occasions Allah saves His messengers and those who believe in them from such a punishment. In the case of the previous nations Allah had commanded His messengers to go out of their townships and settlements. Thus He has been saving His messengers and their companions who were believers on every occasion of decisive punishment, because Allah has made it incumbent upon Himself to save them. Therefore, if the punishment were to visit the people of Makkah, then the messenger and the people of faith would essentially be spared. It should be noted that the polytheists of Arabia kept on embracing Islam gradually, therefore, they had not been confronted with the Divine punishment like the nations of A’d and Thamud, but those of them that had persisted in their disbelief were made to face destruction by means of the swords of the people of faith in the Battles of Badr and Hunain.