279. As Allah said elsewhere (6: 44, 45):

فَلَمَّا نَسُوا مَا ذُكِّرُوا بِهِ فَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ أَبْوَابَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ حَتَّى إِذَا فَرِحُوا بِمَا أُوتُوا أَخَذْنَاهُمْ بَغْتَةً فَإِذَا هُمْ مُبْلِسُونَ (44) فَقُطِعَ دَابِرُ الْقَوْمِ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ [الأنعام : 44-45]

"When they had clean forgotten what they were reminded of, We opened unto them the gates of everything (of the nature of material prosperity) until, when they were mighty pleased with what they were given, We seized them suddenly and they slipped into a quiet despair. Uprooted thus were the last remnants of those who transgressed. And (it was said) ‘All praise to Allah, the Lord of the worlds'" (Ibn Kathir).

Also see note 70 of Surah al An`am.

280. The textual word for "scheme" is kayd. It is a contrivance aimed at something not perceptible to the eye. Here it means to say that Allah gives the unbelievers respite, providing, in the meanwhile, material means, which misleads them to believe that they are on the right course, until, they are trapped on a sudden as (a prey) in a net (based on Manar).

281. It is said that the Prophet (saws) once climbed Mount Safa and called out every Quraysh tribe by name to warn them. When it was over, they muttered: "This man seems to have gone mad." Allah (swt) revealed this verse.

Majid writes: "The Prophet's almost incredible achievements are still the wonder and admiration of an unbelieving world. ‘The success of Mahomet as a law giver, ... and the stability of his institutions during a long series of generations, and in every condition of social polity, proved that this extraordinary man was formed by the rare combination of the qualities both of a Lycurgus and Alexander.' (Finlay, p. 352) Savary, who as ‘an enlightened Westerner' of course, refused to ‘call Mohammed a prophet,' is ‘nevertheless forced to recognize him as one of the greatest men who ever lived,' and finds himself bound to concede that ‘his political and military ability and his capacity to governing men were extraordinary,' and to regard him ‘as one of those unusual personalities occasionally appearing in history, who remake their environment and enlist men in their triumphant train' (Andrae, pp. 245, 249).

Although we do not intend to present at this point, all that has been said by the more objective observers, concerning the Prophet and his achievements, one or two might be necessary. Back in the nineteenth century Lamartine had said: "If the greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? .. Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad... As regards all the standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?" (Historire de la Turquie, Paris 1954, pp. 276 77).

During the same century he was followed by Thomas Carlyle (d. 1881), who, in his famous lectures titled "On Heroes, Hero worship and the Heroic in History," evaluated Muhammad as the most influential of men in history. Finally, the twentieth century was not to pass without paying its own tribute to the Prophet. An American, Michael H. Hart, published a book on the lives of 100 great men entitled: "The 100: A Ranking of Most Influential Persons in History," (Carol Publishing Company, New York). Muhammad once again topped the list as the greatest ever (Au.).

The book has mysteriously disappeared from the shelves.

282. As Allah said elsewhere (34: 46):

قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَعِظُكُمْ بِوَاحِدَةٍ أَنْ تَقُومُوا لِلَّهِ مَثْنَى وَفُرَادَى ثُمَّ تَتَفَكَّرُوا مَا بِصَاحِبِكُمْ مِنْ جِنَّةٍ إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا نَذِيرٌ لَكُمْ بَيْنَ يَدَيْ عَذَابٍ شَدِيدٍ [سبأ : 46]

"Say, ‘I exhort you to one thing, that you should get together for the sake of God in twos and singles, and reflect, there is no madness in your Companion. He is no more than a plain warner before (your are overtaken by) an impeding severe chastisement" (Ibn Kathir).

283. This verse is connected with the passage that follows (verses 187 188) which reports the pagans enquiring about the end of the world. They are told here that there is no point in seeking its news, since they do not know when their own term will end, which, in fact, might be closer than that final event (with a point from Shabbir).

284. Asad writes: "Apart from a reminder of man's utter dependence on God, the implication of the above passage is this: Since everything in the observable or intellectually conceivable universe is obviously caused, it must have had a beginning and, therefore, must also have an end. Furthermore, since the universe is not eternal in the sense of having had no beginning, and since it cannot possibly have evolved "by itself" out of nothing, and since "nothingness" is a concept devoid of all reality, we are forced to predicate the existence of a Primary Cause which is beyond to the limits of our experience and, hence, beyond the categories of our thought that is, the existence of God."

285. Asad again: "As in verse 178 above and in many other places in the Qur'an the expression "he whom God lets [or "causes to"] go astray," indicates the natural law instituted by God (sunnat Allah), whereby a willful neglect of one's inborn, cognitive faculties results in the loss of all ethical orientation: that is, not an act of "predestination" but a result of one's own choice."

286. The use of the word "berth" (first employed in the translation by Arberry, although Pickthall is very close to it), for a moment which will bring all things - now on a mad run - to a halt (as a ship berths on the dock) a usage never before employed in the Arabic language embodies a high standard of rhetoric (with a point taken from Manar).

287. In answering why the information concerning the end of the world has been held back, Rashid Rida brings out a point: There was no point in giving the people the knowledge of when the world would end. They would have only made a jest of it, while the believers would have unnecessarily suffered anxiety.

288. The Prophet is reported to have said that the Hour will surprise the people. A man might be repairing his cistern, another husbanding his cattle, another selling his products in the market, and another with a scale in his hand" (Ibn Jarir).

A hadith in Bukhari of Abu Hurayra's narration says:

ولتقومن الساعة وقد نشر الرجلان ثوبهما (8) بينهما، فلا يتبايعانه ولا يطويانه. ولتقومَنّ الساعة وقد انصرف الرجل بلبن لقْحَته فلا يَطْعَمُه. ولتقومَنّ الساعة وهو يَلِيط حوضه فلا يسقي فيه. ولتقومَنّ الساعة والرجل قد رفع أكلته إلى فيه فلا يطعمها

"The Hour would be called even as two people would have stretched a piece of cloth between themselves, but they would not be able to complete the deal or fold up the cloth; the Hour would be struck when a man would have milked an animal but he would not be able to drink thereoft; the Hour would be struck when a man would have just repaired his cistern but before he would have watered thereof; and the Hour would be struck when a man would have raised food to his mouth but would not be able to put it in" (Ibn Kathir).

The above hadith is also in Bayhaqi’s Shu`ab al-Iman (Au.).

289. The use of the textual word "hafiyy" would imply that the inquirers had sought knowledge of the Hour as a kind of a right arising out of kinship with the Prophet or, as friends divulging secrets to each other, implying, in turn, that the Prophet knew all about it, and, being closely related to many of the Quraysh, he should, out of love, share the secret with them (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

Asad throws light on another aspect of the meaning: "The verb ahfa means ‘he did [a thing] in an excessive measure’ or ‘he exceeded the usual bounds in doing [something]’. In connection with an inquiry, and especially when followed by `anhu or `anha (‘about it’), it signifies ‘he tried hard to gain insight [into something] by persistently enquiring about it’. Thus, used as a participle, it means ‘one who has gained insight [into something] through persistent inquiry’. In the above context, the implication is that no amount of inquiry or speculation can reveal to man the prophets included the coming of the Last Hour before its actual manifestation."

290. Accordingly, whenever the Prophet was enquired about the Hour he always said he did not know when it would be. In the famous Hadith Jibril when he was asked when the Hour would be, he replied,

مَا الْمَسْئُولُ بِأَعْلَمَ بِهَا مِنَ السَّائِلِ

"The one enquired does not know any more than the one enquiring."

Once a bedouin addressed him in a harsh tone asking when the Hour would be.

ويحك أن الساعة آتية فما أعددت لها" قال ما أعددت لها كثير صلاة ولا صيام، ولكنني أحب الله ورسوله، فقال له رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "المرء مع من أحب" فما فرح المسلمون بشيء فرحهم

The Prophet also replied to him in the same tone: "Woe unto you man. The Hour has to strike. But what preparations have you made for it?" The man replied: "Well, not much by way of Prayers and fasts. But I love Allah and his Messenger." The Prophet told him: "A man will be with those he loved." It is said that the Companions were never pleased with anything before as with this statement. Recorded by the Sahihayn, the report is of mutawatir status.

At other times whenever visiting tribesmen enquired about the Hour, the Prophet would point to the youngest of them and say:

إِنْ يَعِشْ هَذَا لَمْ يُدْرِكْهُ الْهَرَمُ قَامَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ سَاعَتُكُمْ

"Well. If this boy lives up to his old age your Hour would have struck," meaning, by then you would be dead and that would be your Hour.

According to another report in Ahmad, reported by Abu Hudhayfah, when the Prophet was asked about the Hour, he replied:

"علمها عند ربي عز وجل لا يجليها لوقتها إلا هو، ولكن سأخبركم بمشاريطها وما يكون بين يديها، أن بين يديها فتنة وهرجاً" قالوا: يا رسول الله الفتنة قد عرفناها فما الهرج ؟ قال: "بلسان الحبشة القتل" قال: "ويلقى بين الناس التناكر، فلا يكاد أحد يعرف أحداً"

"My Lord has the knowledge of it. No one will make it appear at its time except He. However, let me tell you some of the signs and some of the conditions. Of its conditions is that you will experience a lot of tribulations and quite good amount of ‘haraj'. They asked, "We understand tribulations, but what is ‘haraj (an Abyssinian word)?'" He replied: "Lots of killings. And," (he continued), "a kind of estrangement, so that no one would seem to know any one else."

The Prophet also said:

بُعِثْتُ أَنَا وَالسَّاعَةَ كَهَاتَيْنِ

"I have been sent with the Hour as close to me as this," and demonstrated with his two fingers together in a V shape (Ibn Kathir).

Rashid Rida adds: It is not the closeness of the Hour that the Prophet meant by showing his two fingers. Rather, as Ibn Hajr has explained, he meant that there is not going to be a Prophet between him and the Day of Judgment, just as there was a gap between the two fingers. As for the statements in some of the reports that the total lifespan of this earth is 7000 years, none of them is trustworthy. Most of them are of Jewish origin.

The figure also figures in Hindu philosophy (Au.).

291. Shabbir comments: Despite the fact that the Prophet was endowed with great blessings, he did not know what was in the Unseen. How many days did he not wait for revelation to tell him the truth of the matter in the case of slander involving `A'isha? Similarly, during his Hajj he remarked: "Had I known what was going to happen, I would not have brought the sacrificial animal with me." The most glaring is the statement he made after the famous Hadith-Jibril. He said it was the first time that he failed to recognize Jibril until the very end. It was only after Jibril had left that he knew who he was speaking to, although, as the biographers have pointed out, this incident happened almost at the end of his mission. This of course does not apply to the Shari`ah, which he knew down to every detail.

292. Asad writes: "The repeated insistence in the Qur'an on the humanness of the Prophet is in tune with the doctrine that no created being has or could have any share, however small, in any of the Creator's qualities or powers. In logical continuation of this argument, the next passage (verses 189 198) stresses the uniqueness and exclusiveness of God's creative powers."