Surah Taha 20:129-135 - Quran Translation Commentary

129. Had it not been for the word¹⁵⁸ (of judgment) delivered before by your Lord, and a term ¹⁵⁹ which had been fixed, it (the punishment) would surely have overtaken them.

130. Therefore, bear¹⁶⁰with what they say, and ¹⁶¹ hallow your Lord with praise before sunrise and before sunset, and hallow Him in parts of the night and at the two ends of the day¹⁶², so that you may be pleased.¹⁶³

131. Do not strain your eyes towards that which We have given to some of the classes among them, of the splendour of the life of the world that We may try them. Your Lord’s Provision is better and lasting.¹⁶⁴

132. Enjoin salat (prayer) on your people, and be constant in its observance.¹⁶⁵ We ask you to provide no provision.¹⁶⁶ We provide you provision. And the good end is for piety (Taqwa).¹⁶⁷

133. And they say: “Why does he not bring any sign from his Lord ?” Has not the proof from the previous scriptures reached them?¹⁶⁸

134. Had We destroyed them before this, they would have said: “Lord ! Why sent you not to us a messenger, that we might have followed your revelation before we were humiliated ¹⁶⁹ and disgraced.”

135. Say: “Each one is waiting,¹⁷⁰ so you also wait. You will know who are the followers of the right path and who has been rightly guided.¹⁷¹

Commentary

158. Means reprieve for performing good acts.

159. That is: Period of reprieve.

160. That is: Do not pay any heed to their senseless charges, and keep a patience and bear with their insulting and pain causing talks.

161. Praise Him, glorify Him with His praises, that is praise Him in prayers. It should be done in such a devoted way that only Allah’s Immaculateness and Greatness is uttered by the tongue and this act should become an act of pure worship.

The examples of words glorifying Allah are: Subhanallah (Allah is Immaculate), and La ilaha illallah (There is no god, but Allah). And the examples of the words of praises are: Alhamdulillah (Praises are for Allah), and Allahu Akbar (Allah is the greatest). And the words which contain both the aspects are: Subhana Rabbiyal Azeem (Immaculate is my Lord, who is Magnificent), Subhanallahi Wa Bi Hamdihi (Immaculate is Allah and I sing His praises).

In the Sahih Bukhari, the last hadith which Imam Bukhari has recorded is this :

“Abu Hurairah narrates that the Prophet (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) has stated that there are two statements which are very much liked by Rahman, light on the tongue but heavy in the balance, they are Subhanallahi Wa Bi hamdihi and Subhanallahil Azeem.” -(Bukhari Kitabut Tawheed).

It amply clarifies that uttering of these words by a sincere Momin is very much liked and approved of by Allah, and their being repeated many times daily is the most desired thing.

Here it will not be out of place to point out that in the matter of remembering Allah different groups of Muslims have different ways of thinking and practice. One group in the matter of Allah insists on” merely repeating words of prayer without creating the night religious consciousness. According to this group the quantity or the number of repetitions is more important than the accompanying religious consciousness or the feeling of devotion (quality). The second group has adopted special forms and registering strikes in connection with remembering Allah. And the third group, whose way of thinking is modern, happens to be short-sighted, therefore, it does not make any arrangements for it in any appreciable way. Compared to this excessive approaches, the method which was adopted by the Prophet, Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam, is the right one and who can understand better the purport of the Qur’an than the Prophet?

162. For this remembrance two timings have been particularly mentioned, and they are before the sunset and before the sunrise that is, the times of the Fajr and Asr prayers, they are very important for worship. Then there are directions for remembering Allah during some parts of the night and the day. The part of the day is that when the sun has risen a little, which is called ‘Zuha’ and ‘Ishraq’. The second part is that of Zuhr, and the third is that of Asr.

These directives for remembering Allah were given before the salat was made compulsory. The command for the five times daily salat is given in Surah Bani Israil, ayah No.78, which was revealed a few years later than the Surah Taha. This was a general command for remembrance of Allah like the general command of spending for Allah given in Makkah. When Zakat was made compulsory, the general command for spending for Allah was not cancelled, but spending for Allah was divided in two kinds: One compulsory spending, for which the terminology of Zakat was used, and the other voluntary (nafil) spending, for which the persuasive directive still holds. Similarly the command for remembrance of Allah which was given in the beginning, its observance was required in two ways: one in the form of five-times daily prayers, and second in the form of nafil salat and nafil (voluntary) remembrances. Accordingly in the hadith also remembrances after the salat are recommended.

163. That is: The fruits of this worship you will get in the form of self-satisfaction and pleasant tranquillity.

It is thus learnt that a man whose heart is sincerely occupied in remembering Allah and praising Him, achieves the much sought after spiritual satisfaction ; and heart-felt pleasure, and in the Hereafter he will be overjoyed by the blissful favours of Allah.

164. That is: Do not look at the wealth and worldly splendour of the world-worshippers with envy, for it is a means of their trial. Compared to this the provision which Allah has already promised to give you is far superior and better and lasting, and that provision is the provision in the Paradise.

165. It is the duty of every Muslim to perform the daily five-times prayers and should also persuade his family members to regularly offer the daily prayers. And the right method is to start the reform from one’s own house. In the matter of observance of prayers by his family members no duty-conscious person can be willfully negligent.

It is also learnt from this ayah that the command to observe salat had come much earlier than the command for making the daily fivetimes prayers compulsory.

166. A similar statement is made in the Surah Al-Dhariyat :

“I demand no livelihood of them. nor do I ask that they should feed Me.” -(Al-Dhariyat 57).

It means that by giving the command of performing salat for Him no benefit is derived by Allah, but this demand is to create a sense of fear of God and obedience for Him.

167. That is: By salat the quality of fear of God (righteousness) is created in men, and the success in the Hereafter is reserved only for those who develop this attribute in themselves.

It should be noted that righteousness or God’s fear does not mean that man should avoid committing evil acts only but that they should also obey the divine commands. that is it consists of both the negative and the positive aspects. Accordingly Allama Taimiyah writes :

“Who says that ‘Taqwa’ (God’s fear) is merely the name of giving up the evil acts— as explained by the predecessors and the followers— it is obeying the commands as well as giving up the forbidden things.” - (Majmu’ Fatawa Ibn Taimiyah, Vol. 20, page 132).

168. The polytheists of Makkah used to say that if this man is really a divine messenger, then why does he not produce a tangible miracle. In reply they are asked: Did not what is stated in the earlier Scriptures reach them, which means that the coming of this divine messenger is exactly according to the prophecies that have been made in the divine Scriptures, the Torah and the Injeel, and this evidence is a convincing argument to prove that he is the true prophet. After this argument there is no need to have any perceptible miracle.

It may be noted that at the time of the revelations of the Qur’an, in the copies of the Torah and the Injeel that were available at that time there were various prophecies about the coming of the Arabian Prophet, but subsequently the Jews and Christians removed a number of such statements so that the weakness of their stand in comparison to Qur’an might not become manifest, and they have also translated some of the statements in such a way that nobody should understand anything. However in the presently available translations of the Torah and the Injeel some prophecies can still be found, about which we have already indicated previously. For example in the Torah this prophecy can be found :

“I will raise them up a Prophet among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” - (Deuteronomy - 18: 18).

In this prophecy one thing that is said is that ‘I will raise a prophet from among the brethren of the Bani Israil.’ The brethren of Bani Israil are Bani Ismail, and Prophet Muhammad (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) was of the clan of Bani Ismail. There has been no other prophet from among the Bani Ismail. except this Prophet. The second thing that is said in the prophecy is ‘He will be like thee, i.e. like Moosa.’ Prophet Muhammad was a prophet like Prophet Moosa. Accordingly the Qur’an says : “We have sent forth to you a messenger to testify against you, just as We sent one to Firaun before you.’ -(Muzzammil-15).

And the third statement is: ‘I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak unto them all that I shall command.’

This was the most distinguishing attribute of the Arabian Prophet. (Sallal Lahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) Accordingly Allah’s words were uttered through his tongue and the Qur’an was considered as his miracle. In other words this miracle is exactly in accordance with the prophecy that is narrated in the Torah, and this is the proof of his being the true Prophet. It may be noted that before the coming of the Arabian Prophet, the people of the Book were waiting for the arrival of this messenger, in view of these prophecies and they used to discuss this matter often. (See Surah Baqarah, ayah No.89). Therefore, the people of Arabia cannot be unaware of this.

169. Humbled in their own eyes and disgraced in the eyes of others.

170. That is: everyone was waiting to see what would be the result of the dawah of the Messenger.

171. That is: Soon you will see as to whether the message of the Prophet was the means of good and betterment or not and whether Allah’s help was with, the Prophet or with you. And on the Day of Resurrection it will be quite clear to you that the Messenger and his followers were on the right path and they alone reached the destination of success.