31. According to a report in Muslim, every individual has a Shaytan in his company (Shawkani). A Muslim, however, is able to overcome his incitation; but the unbelievers have no way to escape his prompting (Au.). Abu Sa`id al-Khudri said that the allusion is to the Devil who will meet the unbeliever as he emerges from the grave and will not part company until he leads him to the Fire (Qurtubi).

As Allah said elsewhere (41: 25):

وَقَيَّضْنَا لَهُمْ قُرَنَاءَ فَزَيَّنُوا لَهُمْ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَحَقَّ عَلَيْهِمُ الْقَوْلُ فِي أُمَمٍ قَدْ خَلَتْ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ مِنَ الْجِنِّ وَالْإِنْسِ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا خَاسِرِينَ [فصلت : 25]

“And We assigned to them close companions who decked out fair to them what was before them and what was behind them, and (thus) came true the Word against them (being) among the people who passed away before them of the Jinn and mankind. They were indeed the losers” (Ibn Kathir).

32. Yusuf Ali comments: “The downward course in evil is rapid. But the most tragic consequence is that evil persuades its victims to believe that they are pursuing good. They think evil to be their good. They go deeper and deeper into the mire, and become more and more callous. ‘Them’ and ‘they’ represent the generic plural of anyone who ‘withdraws himself from ... Allah’ (see last verse).”

33. That is, when he, who turned a blind eye to the remembrance of his Lord, and those of his close companion of previous life come together to Allah in the Hereafter, at that point the man will regret the company of the devil.

34. One opinion is that by the two Easts the allusion is to East and West. Just as they say, “the two Basras” meaning, Basra and Kufa, or “the two moons” for the sun and the moon (Ibn Jarir, Razi, Qurtubi and others). Yet another opinion is that it is to two Easts of summer and winter when the sun rises from two different directions - although both in the East (Ibn Jarir).

35. It is in human nature that when he sees others in the same kind of suffering, he feels his own suffering lightened. Said Khansa’ in a nice poetical piece:

فلولا كثرة الباكين حولي * على إخوانهم لقتلت نفسي

"If not for the numerous criers around me (crying) over their brothers, I would have surely killed myself" (Qurtubi, Shabbir).

36. There are two opinions: Hasan and Qatadah said that the allusion is to the evil happenings that took place among the Muslims after the Prophet’s death; so that, he departed and afflictions began to appear. In fact, there was never a Prophet but who witnessed afflictions striking his people during his life itself. But Allah spared our Prophet that he should see in his lifetime what would agonize him. Nevertheless, he was shown in vision the displeasing events that were to happen to his followers after him, which so affected him that he was not seen smiling thereafter (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

(There is a hadith related to this topic). The Prophet said, as in Muslim, narrated by Abu Burdah, quoting his father,

النجوم أمان لأهل السماء فإن طمست النجوم أتى السماء ما يوعدون و أنا أمان لأصحابي فإذا قبضت أتى أصحابي ما يوعدون و أهل بيتي أمان لأمتي فإذا ذهب أهل بيتي أتى أمتي ما يوعدون

“The stars are a security for the heavens. When the stars are gone, that will come upon the heavens which it has been promised. I am a security for my Companions. When I am gone, that will come upon my Companions which has been promised. And my Companions are a security for my Ummah. When my Companions are gone, that will come upon my Ummah which is being promised” (Ibn Kathir).

A second opinion is that the allusion is to those who rejected him. That was the opinion of Suddi, and is the preferred interpretation (Ibn Jarir).

37. Miur’s antagonism of Islam is almost proverbial, so the following, as quoted by Majid has some significance: “Mohammad thus holding his people at bay; waiting in the still expression of victory; to outward appearance defenceless, and with his little band as it were in the lion’s mouth; presents a spectacle of sublimity paralleled only by such scenes in the Sacred Records as that of the Prophet of Israel when he complained to his Master, ‘I, even I only, am left.’ Nay, the spectacle is in one point of view even more amazing … It is this which brings it possible into still bolder prominence the marvelous self-possession and enthusiasm which sustained Muhammad on his course” (Op. cit., p. 126).

38. This is how the word “dhikr” of this occurrence has been understood by Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Qatadah, Suddi and Ibn Zayd (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir); although, the “honor” is for anyone who will accept and live by the Message; while the top honors will go to the pious (Qurtubi). However, the two meanings, the apparent (of ‘remembrance’) and ‘honor’ are not, as Yusuf Ali points out, mutually exclusive.

Ibn `Adiyy and Ibn Marduwayh have reported that when the Prophet presented himself to the tribes for support to Islam, which he promised would overcome resistance, they would ask him about whose dominion it would be if it happened that way. He did not reply to them until this verse was revealed. After the revelation of this verse he would recite it in reply to whoever raised that question (Shawkani, Alusi). That is, he told them that it was honor enough that the Revelation had come to them (Au.).

39. “The meaning is that on the Day of Judgment all prophets will be asked, metaphorically, as to what response they received from their people (cf. 5: 109), and those who professed to follow them will be called to account for the spiritual and social use they made – or did not make – of the revelation conveyed to them: and thus, the ‘eminence’ promised to the followers of Muhammad will depend on their actual behavior and not on their mere profession of faith” (Asad).

40. One opinion is that the Prophet was supposed to ask the Messengers that were brought together at Jerusalem, the night of his Ascension, but he preferred not to ask. Another, and preferred opinion, is that he was to ask the followers of the previous Prophets, such as the Jews and Christians, but which also he did not feel the necessity to do (Ibn Jarir, Razi and others).