20. That is, maybe death will overtake him, or something else will happen to him.

Ibn `Abbas said that when the Quraysh gathered in Dar al-Nadwah to discuss the Prophet’s affair, one of them said, “Place him in house arrest, bind him up and wait until death overtakes him as it overtook the poets Zuhayr and Nabigha and so Allah revealed, “Or do they say, ‘A poet, for whom we await vicissitude of Time?” (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Ibn `Abbas has said that everywhere in the Qur’an “rayb” has been used in the sense of “shakk” except here, where the meaning is, “vicissitudes of time” (Qurtubi).

21. This is how "ahlam" of the text was understood by Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and others.

Qurtubi writes: The criticism leveled here is at the reasoning power of the mind (dhihn) and not the intellect (`aql). The pagan Arabs were quite intelligent, but lacked the power to reason properly, logically. The intellect (or mind) accepts all sorts of information. But, it is the ability to arrive at the right conclusion through proper reasoning that matters. It is reported of the Prophet that someone said to him,

???

“How intelligent that Christian is?!” He said, “Drop it. An unbeliever has no intellect. Have you not read (67: 10),

“And they said, ‘Had we heard, or could think, we would not have been companions of the Fire.’” According to another report, the Prophet said, “Drop it. Intelligent is he who obeys Allah’s commands.” The report is in Hakeem Tirmidhi’s collection.

22. “The meaning is: Have they any reasoned objection to the contents of this message – or do they simply reject the truth because their false pride in man’s supposed ‘self-sufficiency’ (cf. 96: 6-7) prevents them from accepting the notion of responsibility before a Supreme Being?” (Asad).

Yusuf Ali adds: “It may be that the persecutors of Truth are ignorant, and their deficient faculties of understanding mislead them, but it is more often the case that they are perverse rebels against the law of Allah, defending their own selfish interests, and preventing those whom they oppress, from getting justice.”

23. That man is created out of nothing is the claim of the scientists adopted to escape a Creator (Au.).

24. It reflects a universal truth. When the unbelievers give some serious thought to such thoughts as existence of God, and the evidences they see around them, their minds conclude that there has to be a creator. But this belief does not last long. After a while they are back either to paganism, atheism, agnosticism or skepticism (Au.).

25. By “treasures” the allusion is to prohethood (Qurtubi).

Or perhaps to knowledge, as Yusuf Ali suggests: “The Treasures of Allah’s Knowledge are infinite. But the doubters and unbelievers have no access to them, much less can the doubters and unbelievers manage the wonders of this world. Must they not therefore seek grace and revelation from Allah?”

26. In the manner of the Prophet, for example, who brought a Book which contains its evidence of its truth within itself (Ibn Jarir).

27. “This is addressed specifically to the pagan contemporaries of the Prophet, implying that ‘you not only blaspheme by ascribing progeny to God, but intensify your blasphemy by ascribing to Him something you yourselves despise, i.e., female offspring’…” (Asad).

28. One possibility is that the “kitabah” here is, as in one or two other places in the Qur’an, in the sense of “judgment,” meaning, “Do they have knowledge of the Unseen (in the Preserved Tablet) and so they judge thereby?” (Qurtubi).

29. “This is the final and decisive question: Is there really any god other than Allah the One True God? Every argument points to the negative. A series of questions has been asked above pointing to the negative of the superstitions of the godless. The gospel of Unity, Revelation, and the Hereafter has thus been preached by a searching examination of the position of the Unbelievers. And the Sura ends with an exhortation to leave alone those who will not believe because they wish not to believe, and to let Time work out the web and pattern of Allah’s Plan” (Yusuf Ali).

30. The pagans would ask the Prophet to bring down what he was threatening them with (17: 90-92),

“They said, ‘We shall never believe until you break open for us a spring from the ground; or you have an orchard of date trees and grapes, and cause rivers to gush forth abundantly in our midst; or make the heaven fall upon us in fragments, as you claim (will happen), or bring God and the angels face to face (with us.’”

So Allah revealed the verse in question (Ibn Jarir).

31. There are several opinions about what punishment could be alluded to by “chastisement beyond that;” i.e., beyond the punishment on the Day of Judgment. Some scholars have said that it refers to punishments in this world. But Ibn `Abbas said that the allusion is to the punishment in Barzakh (Ibn Jarir, Qurtubi).

32. The unbelievers are unable to figure out when calamities strike them as to why they strike them, leading them to the sense of helplessness and despair; as against a believer who, when struck by a calamity realizes that one of the few reasons could be responsible: (a) punishment for his deeds, (b) a trial, or (c) Allah’s wish to wipe off his sins. That puts his mind to rest. This is one of the factors leading to the glow of peace on the faces of the believers, noticed by the unbelievers (Au.).

The Prophet (saws) said as in a hadith of Abu Da’ud,

“When a hypocrite falls sick and then recovers he is like a camel whom its masters tied up and then freed it. It does not know why they tied it up nor why they freed it” (Ibn Kathir).

33. The translation follows the opinions of Ibn Jarir and Ibn Kathir. But the understanding of Dahhak and Qatadah will reflect better if it is translated as “when you stand forth;” that is, when you stand up for Prayers; and the injunction is to say the supplicatory words now being commonly said by the believers at the start of the Prayers, viz.

Ibn Kathir adds: A tradition in Muslim confirms that the Prophet used to say these words at the start of his Prayers.

These are also the words, with some modifications, that one might say at the end of every assembly. There are several ahadith to this effect, of various levels of authenticity, and hence, trustworthy as a whole. A hadith of Abu Da’ud says,

Abu Barzah al-Aslami stated that the Prophet used to say at the end of an assembly when he rose up from it: “Glory to you, O Allah, and by Your praises. I testify that there is no deity save You. I seek Your pardon and turn to You (in repentance).” Once someone asked him, “Messenger of Allah. You are saying now what you were not used to saying earlier?!” He replied, “These are words of expiation for whatever (wrong) that could happen in an assembly” (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Kalbi however explained that the allusion is to the supplicatory words one says when he rises up for Fajr Prayers. He quotes a hadith in support. It is in Bukhari:

The Prophet said, “Whoever rose up from his sleep in a night and said (the words as above), and then says, ‘O Allah forgive me,’ or supplicates, he is responded to. Then, if he makes ablution and offers Prayers, his Prayer is accepted” (Qurtubi).

34. There is consensus among the Salaf that the allusion here is to two cycles of Sunnah Prayers before the obligatory Fajr Prayer. In importance of these two raka`ah, a hadith can be quoted. It is on the authority of `A’isha.

“The Prophet (saws) said that the two cycles of Prayers before Fajr are better than this world and what it contains.”

`Ali, Ibn `Abbas and Qatadah had held the same opinion (Ibn Jarir).

The report is in the Sahihayn (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).