Surah Al-Jinn 72:20-28 - Quran Translation Commentary

(72:23) Save deliverance from Allah,¹⁹ and His Messages. And, whoso disobeyed Allah and His Messenger, he shall indeed have the Fire of Jahannum, abiding therein forever.’

(72:24) Until when they see that which they are promised, then they will surely know who is weaker in helpers and fewer in numbers.

(72:25) Say, ‘I know not whether what you are promised is nigh, or my Lord will appoint for it a distant term.²⁰

(72:26) Knower of the Unseen. He discloses not His Unseen to anyone.²¹

(72:27) Save only to such a Messenger as He approves, and is well-pleased with, in which case He sends before him and behind him watchers.’²²

(72:28) So that he may know they conveyed the messages of their Lord.²³ And He encompasses all that is with them, and He has enumerated all things in numbers.

Commentary

18. The newly witnessed Prayer amazed them, but when anger overtook them, they began to press on the Prophet to give up his mission and re-join them. This verse could be in response to that situation (Ibn Kathir, differently worded).

19. That is, “I have no power of good or evil for you, except that I am but able to deliver the messages of Allah (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

20. In this context we might quote a hadith preserved by Abu Da’ud:

On the authority of Sa`d b. Abi Waqqas, the Prophet used to say, “My Ummah is not weaker in the sight of my Lord, than that He should defer her by half a day.” When asked, Sa`d explained that the “half a day” allude to 500 years.

The above hadith has been explained (ref. Munawi) as referring to the Day of Judgment, where this Ummah will not be detained by 500 years. Some others have thought that it refers to the term allotted to this Ummah on this planet: 500 years.

Ibn Hajr remarked, however, that the hadith does not declare it unlikely that the deferment cannot be beyond half a day.

However, this report, which is also in other collections, has been declared weak by Haythami. But Hakim remarked, with Dhahabi agreeing with him, that this is trustworthy by the standards set by the Sheikhayn: Bukhari and Muslim. (Au).

In this connection we might mention another hadith recorded by Ahmad. It is of interest because it is in the context of the Last Hour and matches in its contents with other reports.

A narrator reports Abu Tha`labah al-Khushani, a Companion of the Prophet, as saying in Fustat during the caliphate of Mu`awiyyah, while the latter was planning an attack on Constantinople, “By Allah, this Ummah cannot be weaker (than that it should not be deferred) by half a day. So when you see in Syria that a single man’s food is (shared) by his whole family, then, that will be the time that Constantinople will fall.”

Some scholars have mooted that the time allotted to this Ummah is one day, which is 1000 years, over which another five hundred could be added. However, as Ibn Hajr notes, some scholars have thought that humans have been granted 50,000 years (i.e., one day by Allah’s count: Au.), out of which no one knows how much has passed and how much has remained.

Nonetheless, the above report matches with other reports which say that Muslims will be besieged in Syria by the (Western) Christians. Later, they will bring an army of a million, but would not be able to defeat the Muslims (Au.).

21. The above Qur’anic statement does not mean that Allah does not let anyone know any of the ghayb. A difference has to be made between “news of the ghayb (anba’ al-ghayb)”] and “al-ghayb” (the Unseen per se). Prophets are given some “news of the ghayb” such as, those pertaining to heaven and hell, angels, affairs of the Judgment Day, etc. (Thanwi, Ma`arif),

Imam Razi points out that it should not be surprising that Allah should inform something of the “news of the ghayb” to one of his slaves. (E.g., Fir`awn’s dream: Au.). However, Alusi points out, such passing of information is not revelation and not wholly dependable.

Qurtubi writes that when `Ali was about to start off for the battle (against the Khawarij), someone told him to delay his departure by three hours; otherwise he risked defeat. `Ali rebuked him saying that they did not need any fortune-teller after the Prophet’s appearance. Of course, he emerged victorious despite the prediction.

We may add that in our times while Abul Hasan Ali was in an airport waiting for his flight, a friend and follower whispered to him not to fly by that flight because he had dreamed that the craft had crashed. Abul Hasan Ali advised him not to mention his dream to anyone, and to just forget about it, because he was going fly by that aircraft anyway. Of course, he survied dozens of plane journeys after that (Au.).

22. Dahhak said that when Allah sent an angel carrying revelations, He also sent with him guards from among the angels, accompanying the Message-carrier, to ascertain that the devils do not introduce anything into the message (Ibn Jarir).

23. That is, this system of guard-angels accompanying the message was adopted in order that the Prophet would know that the messages were delivered correctly. Ibn `Abbas however explained that the system was adopted so that the pagans should feel assured that they – the carrier-angels – had delivered the messages intact (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir).

Another possibility is that the pronoun is for Allah, i.e., so that “Allah knows that the message was properly delivered,” where, “Allah knows” would be taken in the sense of “Allah took care.”

There are equivalents of this method of making a statement, e.g.,

“So that Allah may know those who were truthful, and may know the liars” (Razi, Ibn Kathir).