2. Al-Quddus: The one who is free of whatever the polytheist ascribe to Allah, ascribing such attributes as which do not belong to Him (Ibn Jarir). “Blessed” is another meaning (Razi).

3. Everything that exists whether animate or inanimate, whether an atom or the galaxies, whether an ameba or the human beings, exist to such amazing perfection, that by their very existence they sing the glory of Allah (Au.).

4. Ummi is someone who does not know how to read and write, though he need not be a “jaahil” (ignorant, or worse, ignoramus) for that reason. The Arabs were ummi in the original literary sense (Au.).

A second opinion is that the Arabs were called ummi because they had not received a Book earlier (Ibn Jarir).

That is, the Jews and Christians were not ummis, although they too did not know how to read and write, because they had a Revelation (Au.).

Asad comments: “The term ‘unlettered people (ummiyun) denotes a person or community who had not previously had a revealed scripture of their own (Razi). The designation of the Prophet as a man ‘from among themselves’ is meant, in this context, to stress the fact that he, too, was unlettered (ummi) in the primary sense of this word (cf. 7: 157 and 158), and could not, therefore, have ‘invented’ the message of the Qur’an or ‘derived’ its ideas from earlier scriptures.”

It might be added here, in passing, that had the Prophet been a lettered person, and attempted to derive ideas from earlier scriptures, he would have failed because firstly, many of the Qur’anic ideas are fresh and new which are not to be found in any other literature. And that stands true even to this date, despite the appearance of millions of books, and, secondly, because some of the ideas that the Jews and Christians allege he took from their Scriptures, are so well buried in unknown works, as to be foreign to the scholars even untill this date. How did the Prophet access them? (Au.).

Mawdudi looks into the three senses in which the word has been used in the Qur’an: (i) At one point the word ummi has been used for a people who do not possess a revealed scripture. E.g.,

“Ask those who possess the Book and those who do not know (the ummis): will you surrender?” (3: 20) Here the allusion is to Arab polytheists. (ii) In the sense of illiterates among the people of the Book:

“Among them are the illiterate ones who know anything about the Book but fanciful ideas” (2: 78). (iii) A term covering all non-Jews from Jewish point of view:

“There is no questioning us concerning the non-Jews” (3: 75).

(Back to the main theme), a narrative preserved in the Sahihayn and several other works reports the Prophet as having said,

“We are an unlettered people. We do not write nor do we know how to count: a month is like this and like this (signaling with the fingers).”

What he meant is that ‘we are a people who were never taught how to write, and have, consequently, remained in the natural state (Alusi).

The above said, the Qur’anic ayah is not restricting the Prophet’s mission to the Arabs. There are other verses of the Qur’an which speak of the universality of his mission, such as, e.g. (7: 158),

“Say, ‘O mankind! I am indeed Allah’s messenger to you all’” (Ibn Kathir).

Majid leads us to a historical fact with the help of a quote: “Before the days of Muhammad, Arabia was steeped in idolatry: female babies were buried alive as unwanted, and other hideous atrocities were committed. Truly can it be said of the Arabian Prophet that he accomplished nothing short of a miracle in raising the country from its slough of crime and ignorance to a united nation with a deep sense of its religious obligations and duties, a nation which was shortly after his death to conquer and lead the world in culture, knowledge and scientific attainments, while the faith of Islam spread from sea to sea.” (Lady Cabbold, op. cit. pp. 105, 106).

5. Being one of them, the Makkans knew all about him and his past. There was not a tribe among the Quraysh but to whom the Prophet was related, one way or another (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir), except for Banu Taghlib, among whom some were Christians (Qurtubi).

The Prophet was raised among the Arabs because the Children of Israel had proven, through their long history, during which numerous Prophets and Messengers were raised among them, that they could not be relied on for carrying on the burden of a new Revelation. As an ayah portrayed them in this Surah itself, they had become, with reference to Allah’s Revelations, like a donkey that carries a weight on its back without knowing what in reality it is. Torah and its interpretations, whether Talmud or Mishnah or whatever else, were no more than a donkey’s load for the Jewish scholars. Any new revelation would have meant no more than addition of weight upon weight. Those who entered Egypt, and those who left it with Musa, were two different people: differing in beliefs, practices, values, morals, outlook, and sincerity towards their Lord. When they left Egypt, they carried with them seeds, fruits and trees of corruption. They at them, planted themin Palestine and tended them until fresh fruition. With those fruits as their intellectual diets, they became more corrupt than the corrupt of other nations, other countries, other races, and other cultures. They were in the same state as Nuh (asws) remarked about his own nation:

“They will not give birth to any but flagrant transgressors, unbelievers.”

It was in this situation that the Arabs, untouched by any other faith, of the dozens of powerful and influential faith-systems, were chosen to bear the burden of a new revelation. There was not much to be done with the Arabs except to remove the loosely planted paganism from their hearts, minds, culture and moral system. That done, they were as raw as the first generation of Adam (asws): on the fitrah of Allah’s creation, as sincere, frank, honest, forthright, courageous and true to their words that any people could be (Au.).

Sayyid writes: Another factor in the choice of the Arabs was the answer to Ibrahim’s prayer. He had said, (in the very words that ayah 2 of this Surah repeats),

“O Our Lord, raise among them a Messenger from among themselves reciting to them Your Revelations, teaching them the Book and the Wisdom, purifying them..”

And, a well-reported hadith says:

Abu Umamah asked the Prophet, “What was it like at the start of your mission?” He answered, “(It was an) answer to Ibrahim’s supplication, glad tiding given by `Isa, and my mother’s dream that a Light emerged from her that set the palaces of Syria alight.”

6. That is, purifying them from shirk and its associated evils (Zamakhshari).

7. That is, the Book and the Sunnah (Zamakhshari). It has also been said that by the Book the allusion is to writing with the pen, and by wisdom to in-depth understanding of the religion (Shawkani).

8. This ayah leads us to the opinion that an unlettered can attain to the highest state in knowledge, if he receives proper instructions from a Master (Alusi, Thanwi).

With reference to the words, “although before that they were in clear misguidance” Sayyid writes: When `Amr b. al-`Aas was sent to Najashi to try and get back the Muslims from Abyssiniyyah, and Najashi asked the Muslims to explain what they were doing in his country, Ja`far b. Abi Talib answered, “O King.. We were an ignorant people. We worshipped idols, ate carrion, committed obscenities, severed blood relationships, mistreated the neighbors, and our strong devoured the weak. We were in that state when Allah raised a Messenger from amongst us. We know his lineage, his truthfulness, trustworthiness and his morality. He invited us to Allah, that we should believe in His oneness, should worship none but Him, and give up whatever we practiced of devotion to stones and idols. He ordered us to speak the truth, honor the trusts, treat the kin with generosity, do good to the neighbors, restrain ourselves from the unlawful and shedding of blood. He also prohibited that we should commit any obscenity or deceit, as he also prohibited us devouring of the orphan’s property, and slandering virtuous women. He also commanded us that we worship Allah alone without associating aught with Him, as he also ordered us to Pray, expend in charity, and fast.”

9. That is, the Messenger was sent to the Ummis of the Prophet’s time, in a particular geographical location, but ultimately to all the rest of the people who will ever join them until the Day of Judgment (Au.).

Mujahid is widely reported as having said that the allusion is to non-Arabs. This is supported by a hadith which says,

öAbu Hurayrah reported: “We were in a company with the Prophet when Surah al-Jumu`ah came down and he (Abu Hurayrah) asked thrice about who were meant by the words, ‘And others of them..’ but the Prophet did not answer. At the third asking he placed his hand on Salman al-Farsi’s shoulder and said, ‘If eiman (belief) was in Pleiades, men of his race will retrieve it’” (Ibn Jarir, Zamakhshari, Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Another report on the topic comes from Sahl b. Sa`d. He said,

“I heard the Prophet say, ‘Surely, from the loins of the loins of the loins of my Companions will appear men and women who will enter Paradise without undergoing reckoning.’ Then he recited, ‘And others of them who have not yet joined them. And He is the Mighty, the Wise’” (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir).

Haythami declared it trustworthy (Au.).

10. That is, did not live by its demands.

11. According to Dahhak, sifr (of which asfaar is the plural), is for “a book” in the Nabataean language (Ibn Jarir); but actually, add Razi and Shawkani, “sifr” is for a large-sized book.

The similitude is pretty close to the realities. The West produced hundreds of philosophical and even so-called scientific ideas that were not worth a donkey-load. A few poetical lines quoted by Qurtubi, apply to this situation:

Howl out whatever you wish, you will find supporters.

Bundle together any number of books, you will find a donkey,

To carry whatever you place of of the loads

Carrying it like a donkey burdened with a load.

12. Zamakhshari realizes that perhaps at one point in their history, the Children of Israel Judaized themselves, having been non-Jews earlier.

Majid comments: “’By a legal fiction persons not of the Hebrew blood were admitted to its union as members’ (JE. V. p.336). Judging by the names preserved most of the Jews in Arabia must have been Judaized Aramaens and Araians rather than descendants of Abraham’ (Hitti, op. cit. p. 101).

In Yusuf Ali’s words: “(To be) Of Jewry is a very different thing from following the Law and Will of Allah. An arrogant claim to be a chosen people, to be the exclusive possessors of divine teaching, to be exempt from any punishment for breaches of the divine law, (cf. ii. 88), is presumptuous blasphemy. It may be Judaism, but it is not in the spirit of Moses.”

13. In the words of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, and as quoted by Majid: “The whole Jewish thought may be summed up in this, that as surely there is only one God, so surely is there one sacred community” (ERE. VII. p.520).

The Jews said (and endlessly repeat with the approval of the Christian Zionist Armageddonists: Au.),

“We are Allah’s own children and His beloved ones” (Qurtubi).

Reports say that when the Prophet appeared, the Jews of Madinah wrote to the Jews of Khayber: “If you follow the Prophet, we shall follow him. If you oppose him, we shall oppose him.” The Khaybarite Jews wrote back: “We are God’s children. `Uzayr was raised among us, as were many other Prophets. Even if the Prophet was to appear in Arabia, he should have been of us. There is no way that we should follow him,” and so Allah revealed this verse (Alusi).

Asad writes: “Connecting the idea – implied in the preceding passage – that God’s revelation is a sacred trust as well as a bounty, the discourse turns now to the problem of man’s betrayal of his trust, exemplified by the Jews of post-Biblical times. They had been entrusted by God with the task of carrying the message of His oneness and uniqueness to all the world: but they failed in this task inasmuch as they came to believe that they were ‘God’s chosen people’ because of their descent from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that, therefore, the divine message was meant for them alone and not for people of other nations. Hence, too, they came to deny the possibility of prophethood being bestowed on anyone who did not belong to the children of Israel (cf. 2: 90 and 94), and so they summarily rejected the idea of Muhammad’s prophethood despite the clear predictions of his advent in the Torah itself.. By thus corrupting the innermost purport of the divine will bestowed on Moses, they themselves became unable to derive any real spiritual benefit from it, and to live up to its teachings.”

Sayyid adds: “The example of those who were burdened with the Torah, and then did not shoulder the burden – all those who were entrusted with the faith (in Allah) but did not honor it, the Muslims too who wear the dust of many generations, as well as those who live in the contemporary world, those who carry Muslim names but without living the way Muslims should live, especially those who read the Qur’an and other religious literature, but pay no attention to what is in them .. all of them, are like a donkey that carries a load of fat books on its back .. and they are aplenty, aplenty. This is not the question of books, carrying them forward, or teaching them to others. It is the question of understanding and putting to action what is in the books.

The Jews used to boast, as they boast even now, that they are a chosen race and that they are God’s friends, to the exclusion of others, that people other than them are ‘goyim’, or the unlettered ones, while they do not respond to the demands of their religion when it comes to dealing with non-Jews, saying, ‘There is no way against us for the unlettered ones’, to the last of the claims that are lies laid against Allah, they are being suggested that if they are true in their claims, then come out and meet the Prophet in mutual invocation of destruction. But, as we know, they refused.”

14. That is, if you find yourself in trouble after trouble, chastisement after chastisement descending on you, and, if you are true in your claim that you are Allah’s friends, then, why should you not wish for death, and die off to get rid of the troubles of this life and enter into the unlimited pleasures of the Next world? (Ibn Jarir).

15. Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and others comment: Had the Jews truly wished to die, they would have all met with their death. A report of Ahmad reports Ibn `Abbas as saying,

“Abu Jahl had said, ‘Were I to see the Prophet praying near the Ka`bah, I would surely go to him and place my foot on his neck.’ The Prophet remarked, ‘Had he attempted it, the angles would have openly seized him. And, had the Jews wished for death (sincerely) they would have died and seen their places in the Fire. And, had those who challenged to enter into mutual invocation of curse with Allah’s Messenger, come out, they would have returned to discover their folks and property gone‘” (Ibn Kathir).

Haythami remarked that the report is also in Bazzar and is trustworthy (Au.).

Kashshaf and Shabbir portray the contrasting picture of the Companions who greeted death with joy. For example, when Bilal was in his death bed, his wife said, “Woe unto me.” He replied, do not say that, but rather say,

“Tomorrow we shall meet the beloved

Muhammad and his party”

(Shabbir).

`Ammar b. Yasir said the same thing before his martyrdom during the battle of Siffin (Zamakhshari).

Ja`far b. Abi Talib said before his martyrdom in the battle of Yamamah:

“O my! Paradise and its closeness

Goodly, whose drinks are cold”

(Shabbir).

When Mu`adh b. Jabal was struck by plague in Syrian lands he said in the throes of death:

“Welcome to death, welcome to a dear one that arrives while he is starving” (Shabbir).

Hudhayfa (ra) uttered more or less the same words when his death arrived (Zamakhshari).

It is reported of `Ali that he said in the battle of Siffin addressing his son Hasan:

“My son! Your father does not mind whether he falls on death, or death falls on him” (Zamakhshari, Shabbir).

16. Sayyid presents the following in explanation of the uselessness of trying to escape death. Will the Western mind, which tires not searching for ways to lengthen lives, understand the beauty in this hadith?

The Prophet said, “The example of he who flees death is similar to a fox from whom the earth demands back its loan. So it began to run about until when it was tired and had done all it could, it entered into its hole. The earth told him, ‘O fox. My loan?’ So the fox left, farting, and kept (running about) until its neck broke and it died.”

Haythami remarked that one of the narrators may not be trusted when he takes his narration right up to the Prophet. That is, a narrator is missing in the chain (Au.).