Verse:130 Commentary Mentioned in the second verse (130), is a question which will be asked of the Jinn and human beings on the plains of Resurrection.

They will be asked to show the reason why they chose to disbelieve and disobey Allah Ta` ala. They were told that they could not deny that Divinely ordained messengers from among them did reach them, messengers who recited to them the verses of Allah and warned them of that day of reckoning. In the reply to this question, mentioned there is their confession that the messengers did come, they did tell them the truth, and that they were involved with disbelief and disobedience. But, no reason for this wrongdoing was given from their side. Instead, Allah Ta` ala has Himself given its reason by saying: وَگَرَّتھُمُ الحَیاۃُ الدُنیُا (And the worldly life had deceived them). It means that the charms of their transitory life had put them on the wrong track. They thought that it was everything, which was really nothing, and that made them heedless to their end.

There is something noteworthy here. There are other verses in the Qur'an which say that the disbelievers will deny their Kufr and Shirk when asked to explain it on the day of Resurrection and before their Lord, they would lie by saying: وَاللَّـهِ رَ‌بِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِ‌كِي that is, ` we swear by Allah, our Lord, we were no mushriks (of those who ascribe partners to Him).' Now, this verse tells us that they would be ashamed of their Kufr and Shirk and will confess their error. On the outside, this seems to be contradictory. But, there are further explanations in other verses of the Qur'an that they would initially deny when asked, but, when Allah Ta` ala - in His perfect power - would make them speechless, witnesses will come from different parts of their own body. Then, Allah will give them their speech back and they will tell everything about their misdeed openly and clearly. Then, the Jinn and human beings will find out that all parts of their body were really the private eyes of the created system which finally produced the true evidence on every-thing about them. Then, left with no choice to deny, they will confess.

Are there messengers of Allah among the Jinn too?

Something else to be considered here is that, in this verse, Allah Ta` ala has addressed both Jinnkind and mankind and asked them about messengers (rusul) coming to them, messengers of Allah who were from among them. This shows that messengers have been sent to the Jinnkind from among their own kind - as is the case with human-kind among whom the messengers were sent from among them, that is, they were human beings.

On this question, the ` Ulama' of Tafsir and Hadith differ. Some say that Rasul (messenger) and Nabiyy (prophet) have always been human. There has been no Ras O appointed directly from among the Jinnkind. Instead, what has happened is that there have been Jinns charged with the mission of getting reports of the message of truth conveyed by human prophets and messengers and take it to their kind. They were really, in that way, couriers and message-bearers of a Rasul. Therefore, they too are called rasul or carrier of a message, within the literal sense of the word in Arabic. The proof of the position taken by these respected scholars comes from the verses of the Qur'an where sayings of the Jinn that they conveyed the Qur'an or the saying of the prophet to their kind have been mentioned, for example: وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِم مُّنذِرِ‌ينَ and they returned to their people to warn them - 46:29), and in the verse of Surah Al-Jinn: فَقَالُوا إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا قُرْ‌آنًا عَجَبًا ﴿1﴾ يَهْدِي إِلَى الرُّ‌شْدِ فَآمَنَّا بِهِ they said: Indeed, we have heard a wonderful Qur'an that leads to rectitude, so in it we believe - 72:1).

But, there is a group of ` Ulama' who, given the outward meaning of this verse, also believe that, before the appearance of the Last among Prophets (علیہم السلام) ، each of the two species had their messengers from among them. To human beings came messengers who were human beings, and to the different classes of the Jinn, messengers were sent from among their kind only. It is the distinction of the Last among Prophets صلى الله عليه وسلم that he was sent as the only Rasul for all human beings and the Jinn of the whole world - and that too was not limited for one given time - in fact, all human beings and the Jinn born right up to the Last Day of Qiyamah shall be his community and he alone shall be the Rasul and Nabiyy for them.

Related Notes on Hindu Autars

Leading scholars of Tafsir, Kalabi and Mujahid hold that the Au-tars of Hindus are generally from the Jinns. Qadi Thana'ullah of Panipat, in his Tafsir Mazhari, has followed this view. According to him, it proves that, before Sayyidna Adam (علیہ السلام) the messengers of the Jinn used to be from their kind only. Then, it is proved that the Jinn inhabited the earth thousands of years before human beings - and since they too are obligated to observe the percepts of the injunctions of the Shari'ah like human beings, it is necessary on the basis of reason and revelation that they too should have prophets and messengers among them in order to convey the commandments of Allah Ta` ala.

Qadi Thana'ullah Panipati has said that the Hindus of India claim the history of their Vedas as thousands of years old. According to them their religious deities they called Autar date back to the same early time. It is not far out to say that they may be these very prophets and messengers of the Jinnkind, and may be the instructions brought by them were put together in the form of some book. The images and idols of اوتار Autars of Hindus placed in temples have particular patterns. Some are represented with several faces, others with many hands and feet, while still others would have other features such as a trunk like that of an elephant. They are very different from common human shapes. That the Jinn could transform themselves into such shapes is not beyond the range of probability. Therefore, saying that their Autar might be the prophets, messengers or their deputies who came to serve the Jinnkind - and their book itself be the collection of their instructions - is not so far out either. Then, gradually, as there were alterations in other books, alterations were made here too and what was left of it was idolatry and Shirk.

However, even if that original book and the authentic instructions left by those messengers were present, they would have stood abrogated after the appearance of the Holy Prophet LI and the universal application of his prophethood. And that it would have become impossible to act in accordance with it after its having been deformed and altered is something evident by itself. Verse:131 Commentary The third verse (131) tells us that sending prophets and messengers among human beings and the Jinn is based on the dictate of justice and mercy of Allah Ta` ala for He does not send punishment over a people unless they have been awakened through His blessed messengers and provided with the light of guidance. Verse:132 Commentary The sense of the fourth verse (132) is fairly clear. It says that with Allah there are ranks for classes of people among human beings and the Jinn. These ranks have been assigned in terms of their deeds. When rewarded or punished, the measure used shall be that of their deeds. Verse:133 Commentary Commentary

Stated in previous verses was that Allah Ta` ala has always been sending His messengers and the rules of conduct required by Him to every set of people among the Jinn and the human beings and, unless they were fully warned through their messengers, punishment was never given to them for their disbelief and disobedience.

In the first (133) of the four verses cited above, it has been pointed out that the practice of sending needed our obediences and worthier because the Lord of the universe needed our obedience and worship, or some task of His depended on our obedience. No, this was never so. He is absolutely All-Independent, and need-free. But, alongwlth never so. He is absolutely All-Independent, and need-free. But His perfect freedom from dependence and need, there is that attribute of mercy in Him. See how He brings fulfilling all outward and, then He maintains it and keeps present and future needs of everyone and everything. The cause is this very attribute of mercy. Otherwise, human beings, being what they are, would have hardly been able to produce what they needed, not to say much about their lack of etiquette the very blessing of existence. need. This is particularly true about the very blessing of existence. That it has been bestowed without asking is all too clear. No human being anywhere has prayed to be born - nor can praying before coming into existence be imagined. Similarly, there are the limbs of the human body which go in the creation of a living body - the eyes, ears, hands, feet, the heart and the brain. Were they asked for by any human being? Or, did one of them had the consciousness and etiquette to ask for them? Nothing of the sort is true. The truth is: we were not there, we did not ask - it was His mercy hearing the unsaid!

Allah is All-Independent and His Creation is only a Mirror of His Mercy

In this verse, the words: رَبُّکَ الغَنِیُّ describe how absolutely free from and independent of need the Lord of all lords is. But, by adding the needs none, words: ذُوالرَّحمَۃِ soon after, it was it was pointed out that, though He needs none, depends on none, is independent of everyone and everything in the universe, and the universe itself, yet, along with all that, He is also the one who has mercy and dispenses it at will.

Allah, in His Wisdom, Made no Human Being Need-Free - If So, Man Turns To Tyranny

It is certainly a great blessing of Allah, otherwise human beings have their own ways of neglect. When they become free from needs and independent of circumstancial compulsions they stop caring for the benefit or loss and the sorrow or comfort of others. In fact, what usually happens under such situations is that one becomes all the more adamant on inflicting injustice and oppression against others. Says a verse of the Holy Qur'an: إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَيَطْغَىٰ ﴿6﴾ أَن رَّ‌آهُ اسْتَغْنَىٰ ﴿7﴾ (96:6), that is, when human beings find themselves need-free and independent, they are ready to rebel and transgress. Therefore, Allah Almighty has made man so tied up with needs which cannot be fulfilled without the help of others. A king needs his retinue of liveries, the wealthy man needs his help, the industrialist depends on his labour. The driver of a passenger vehicle comes out on the streets to earn his living of the day while one who can afford to pay for the ride has to hail for one. Nature has chained them together. Each needs the other and no one is doing any favour. Without this arrangement, no rich man will pay a dime to any-one and no handyman or porter would care to carry someone else's burden. So, all this is a manifestation of the most perfect attribute of Allah Ta ala who is All-Independent, yet the Master of Mercy. The text could have used a single word form such as Ar-Rahman (All-Merciful) or Ar-Rahim (Very-Merciful) and that would have served the purpose of describing the mercy of Allah. But, the choice of a compound form: ذُوالرَّحمۃِ (Dhur-Rahmah: The Master of Mercy) has been preferred because it shows the correlation between the two attributes of Allah Ta` ala de-scribed in the verse. He is All-Independent, yet He is the master-dispenser of mercy - an attribute which is the real cause of sending messengers and books for the good of human beings.

After that, it was also made clear that the way His mercy is universal and perfect, in the same way His power holds control over everything. If He wills, He could undo everyone in a moment - and even this undoing of the entire creation would not cause the slightest difference to the working of His power. Then, if He wills to undo the present system of the entire universe and replace it with another set of creation in the same manner and at the same time - He can certainly do that. An evidence of this possible happening always remains before human beings of all ages. Think of the millions of human beings who inhabit the near and far corners of the earth and run the business of their lives, then think of the time a hundred years earlier. You shall realize that the earth was inhabited as it is now, and things were going on as usual, but none of the present inhabitants of the earth, the movers and shakers of things, were there. What was there was a different set of people - and that different set of people lies buried under the earth with no traces to be found today. The people on the earth to-day are the descendants of the earlier generation of people. Says the Qur'an: إِن يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ وَيَسْتَخْلِفْ مِن بَعْدِكُم مَّا يَشَاءُ كَمَا أَنشَأَكُم مِّن ذُرِّ‌يَّةِ قَوْمٍ آخَرِ‌ينَ He wills, He shall take you away and shall bring after you whom He wills just as He has raised you from the progeny of other people -133). The sense of " يُذْهِبْكُمْ ": yudhhibkum, translated as ` take you away,' is to undo or make absent with no traces left behind. This is why there is no reference to destroying, killing or exterminating. The statement in the text restricts itself to ` taking' which denotes a state of unmaking, unbeing, loss of name, identity and trace. Verse:134 Commentary After having established in the first verse that Allah is All-Independent (Ghaniyy), Master of Mercy (Dhur-Rahmah) and All-Powerful too, the text carries a warning given to disobedient people: إِنَّ مَا تُوعَدُونَ لَآتٍ ۖ وَمَا أَنتُم بِمُعْجِزِينَ ﴿134﴾: Surely what you are promised [ that is, the Divine punishment ] is bound to come, and you cannot frustrate [ it ].'

Another method to awaken them from their heedlessness was adopted in the third verse (135) where it was said: قُلْ يَا قَوْمِ اعْمَلُوا عَلَىٰ مَكَانَتِكُمْ إِنِّي عَامِلٌ ۖ فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ مَن تَكُونُ لَهُ عَاقِبَةُ الدَّارِ‌ ۗ إِنَّهُ لَا يُفْلِحُ الظَّالِمُونَ ﴿135﴾ (Say, "0 my people, do at your place (whatever you do) I am to do (in my way). So, you will know for whom is the ultimate abode. Surely, the unjust shall not be successful). This is addressed to the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم . He is being asked to tell those people of his in Makkah that the choice of not accepting what he is saying is theirs. Let them not accept it, stay as they are and keep on doing what their belief and hostility tell them to do - and he too will keep on doing what his belief tells him to do. In that, there was no loss for him. But, very soon, they will be the ones to find out who will be blessed with the ultimate salvation and success of the Hereafter. And, in this, let them not forget that the Zalim, the unjust, the usurpers of rights, never succeed. Verse:135 Commentary Commenting on this verse, Tafsir authority, Ibn Kathir pointed out that the exact words of the text here are: مَن تَكُونُ لَهُ عَاقِبَةُ الدَّارِ‌ (for whom is the ultimate abode) and not: عَاقِبَةُ الدَّارِاَلآخِرَۃِ‌ (the ultimate abode of Akhirah), that is, the suffix of 'Akhirah or Hereafter is not there. This tells us that, much earlier than the abode of Akhirah, the ultimate success falls to the lot of the righteous servants of Allah alone even within the present abode of the world. This stands proved from the life and times of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and his blessed Companions ؓ . Not much time passed when all wielders of power and authority found themselves disgraced before them. Their countries were conquered at their hands. Within the period of prophethood, the whole Arabia came under his authority which soon extended to Yaman, Bahrain and the borders of Syria. Then, it was at the hands of his Khulafa' and the Sahabah that a major part of the known world of the time came under their aegis. Fullfilled stood the promise of Allah Ta` a1a: كَتَبَ اللَّـهُ لَأَغْلِبَنَّ أَنَا وَرُ‌سُلِي (Allah has written: I shall overcome, I, and My Messengers - 58:21). And again, it was said in another verse: إِنَّا لَنَنصُرُ‌ رُ‌سُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ يَقُومُ الْأَشْهَادُ ﴿51﴾ that is, ` We shall help Our Messengers, and those who have believed, in the present world, and on the Day of Qiyamah, when witnesses will stand to record their testimony on the reckoning of deeds - 40:51.' Verse:136 Commentary In the fourth verse (136), the disbelievers of Arabia have been admonished for a particular error in their behaviour. The custom was that they would take out from the produce of their lands and from the income of their businesses a portion for Allah and a portion for their idols. The portion taken out for Allah they would spend on the poor and the needy while the portion taken out in the name of their idols they would spend on the priests and keepers of the temple of idols.

To begin with, enough was their injustice in that everything was created by Allah Ta` ala, and the produce which came from them was bestowed by Him, yet they went ahead and made idols to share in what was given by Him. On top of this, they would add insult to injury when, should there be a drop in produce, they would apply this shortfall against the portion they meant for Allah saying that Allah was Independent and did not need their things. Thus, they would exact the portion of their idols in full, as well as that of their own. On some occasion, if it so happened that something from the portion taken out for the idols, or from that of their own, went into the portion reserved for Allah, they would pick it up and take it out of there to keep their accounting straight! And if came the occasion when things were the reverse of it, that is, if anything belonging to the portion of Allah was thrown in their own portion, or in the portion of their idols, it was left where it was saying that Allah is need-free, therefore, any shortage in His share will not make any difference! The Holy Qur'an, taking notice of this crooked conduct of theirs, has said: سَاءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ (Evil is what they judge -136). It means that their judgment is evil and crude because they are not realizing that it is Allah who created them and created everything that appears to belong to them, yet they go about equating others with Him, and to top it all, they find excuses to shift elsewhere what, according to their own intention, was supposed to belong to Allah.

The Admonition for Disbelievers - A Lesson for Muslims

This is an admonition directed against the waywardness of the disbelievers of Arabia. However, by implication, it holds a sharp lesson for Muslims as well - Muslims who devote their full potential, their life given by Allah, their body and mind, into different sections. They would reserve part of their years and time in life for Allah and His worship - though the right of Allah demanded that all time frames of their living years should have been reserved to obey and worship Him alone. May be, they could have taken out some time for themselves too to take care of human compulsions - and even then, the truth is that the right of Allah that we be grateful to Him would have still remained unfulfilled! But, here we are, in our time and in our places, doing unbelievable things. If, in the twenty four hours of a day and night of our lives, we do get around to fix some time to be devoted to remember Allah and engage ourselves in what we know as His essential ` Ibadah, then strange things start happening. There comes an urgent need, a call or an appointment or something like that, and we be-come pragmatic all of a sudden. The function, the business, the need comes first. No postponement is made in what is pragmatic or personal. The urgency of work stays. The inevitability of rest time stays. The axe falls on nothing but the time which had been fixed for devotion to Allah through prayers and recitation of the Qur'an. This happens most of the time - emergency, urgency, sickness or any other call - what is the first casualty in this rush is nothing but the time that we had ear-marked for our Dhikr and ` Ibadah. We just cannot say how wrong, how ungrateful and how right-compromising this attitude is. May Allah Ta` ala keep us and all Muslims protected from it. Verse:137 Commentary Linkage of Verses

Described in the previous verses were false beliefs of the mushriks of Arabia while the present verses recount their practical errors and ignorant customs. The customs of Jahiliyyah mentioned in these verses are: (1) They took out a portion in the name of Allah from grains and fruits, and some in the name of idols and Jinns. Then, if by chance, some part of what belonged to the portion of Allah got mixed up with the portion reserved for idols, they would let it stay mixed as it was. When the position was the reverse of it, they would take it out and make the portion set for idols even. The excuse was that Allah is need-free. A cut in His share does not harm Him while the partners need it - so, their share should not be decreased. This evil custom was mentioned earlier in verse 136.

(2) The second custom was that they would release animals they called Bahirah and Sa'ibah in the name of idols and said that they were doing it for the pleasure of Allah. Here too, the portion allotted to idols was that the act of worship was intended for them - and the portion allotted to Allah was that they aimed to please Allah.

(3) The third custom was that of killing their female children.

(4) The fourth custom was that they would endow some tillage in the name of idols saying that only men could use its produce. Giving or not giving a share from it to women depended on their will. Women had no right to demand.

(5) They would do the same thing with cattle when they would restrict their use for men only.

(6) They considered the quadruped animals they released in the name of idols as unlawful for purposes of riding or carrying loads.

(7) There were quadruped animals they would specify. Using them at any time, they would not pronounce the name of Allah, neither when milking, nor when riding and nor when slaughtering.

(8) The eighth custom was that they would release animals in the name of idols, naming them as Bahirah or Sa'ibah. When, at the time

of slaughter, the calf came out alive, they would slaughter it as well - but, would take it as lawful for men only; for women, they took it to be unlawful - and if the calf was born still, it was supposed to be lawful for everyone.

(9) Even milk from some animals was considered lawful for men and unlawful for women.

(10) They took reverence for four kinds of animals: Bahirah, Sa'ibah, Wasilah and Hami, as an act of worship.

[ All these narrations appear in Ad-Durr Al-Manthur and Ruh al-Mani from Sayyidna Ibn ` Abbas, Mujahid, Ibn Zayd and As-Suddiy with exegetic deductions of Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Abi Hatim, Ibn Abi Ash-Shaybah and Ibn Humayd) [ As in Bayn al-Qur'an of Maulana Thanavi ] Verse:138 Commentary - - - Verse:139 Commentary - - - Verse:140 Commentary - - -