11. That is, if you are grateful, you will appreciate Our favors and make right use of them, and will not rebel against Our commandments, but will surrender and submit to Us to show your gratitude to Us.
12. Deuteronomy (Bible) contains a long and detailed discourse to this effect. According to it, Prophet Moses (peace be upon him), on the eve of his death, reminded the Israelites of all important events from their history, and reiterated all the divine commandments of the Torah which Allah had sent to them through him. Then he told them in a long speech that if they obeyed their Lord, they would be given great rewards. But if they adopted the attitude of disobedience, they would get a terrible punishment. This discourse spreads over chapters 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 28, 30. Some of these passages are so impressive and instructive that it will be worthwhile to quote a few of them: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deut. 6: 47).
And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways; and to love him, and to serve the Lord Thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is thy Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. (Deut. 10: 12-14).
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee. And thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath. (28: 1-13).
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all those curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes. Therefore, shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other. (Deut: 28: 15-64).
13. It should be noted that a reference to Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) and his people has been made here to warn the people of Makkah of the consequences of their ingratitude towards this favor of Allah that He has raised Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from among them. This was a timely warning, for at that time they were showing ingratitude by rejecting that message. They were, therefore, warned to learn a lesson from the miserable condition of the Israelites, which was the result of their ingratitude to and rebellion against Allah’s favors.
As the Quraish themselves could see the consequences of that rebellious attitude of the Israelites, they were, so to say, asked this question: Do you also desire to meet with the same consequences by showing ingratitude towards the message which is a great favor to you?
Obviously, the great favor which was shown to the Quraish was that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was raised from among them with that message about which he assured them over and over again: Accept this Message of mine: all the Arabs and the non-Arabs will surrender and submit to you?
14. The speech of Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) ended with( Ayat 8). From here begins a direct address to the disbelievers of Makkah.
15. There has been a great deal of difference of opinion in regard to the meaning of the Arabic words of the text and different commentators have assigned different meanings to them. But we arc of the opinion that these express merely the intolerance and perplexity and a bit of anger that was being shown by the disbelievers towards the message and this is confirmed by the subsequent sentence.
16. They had a “grave doubt” about the message because it had taken away their peace of mind. This was because invitation to the message always makes the minds uneasy, for it becomes hard even for its opponents to reject it outright or oppose it with peace of mind. Howsoever they might give vent to their doubts about it and oppose it tooth and nail the force of its truth and its sound arguments, its frankness and candor and its winning manners of exposition produce a great agitation in the minds of its bitterest opponents. Then the pure and spotless character of the Messenger and the marked change for the better brought about in his followers produce such an accumulative effect on their minds that even their most bitter antagonists begin to feel uneasy about their own stand. Thus, those who try to disturb the peace of mind of the upholders of the truth are themselves deprived of their own peace of mind.
17. The Messengers posed this question to those who rejected the message in order to bring home to them the absurdity of their stand with regard to God. For though, the mushriks of every age believed in the existence of God and acknowledged that He was the Creator of the heavens and the earth, they did not accept the message, its logical result, that He alone was entitled to their worship. That is why the Messengers asked them: Do you have any doubt about the existence of Allah?
18. In the case of individuals, the appointed term may be either the time of one’s death or the doomsday. As regards the appointed term for the rise and fall of communities, it is determined by their collective behavior. For instance, if a capable community degenerates before the expiry of its term, the assigned period is shortened and it is deposed. On the other hand, if a degenerate community changes its ways for the better, its term is extended, so much so that it may extend even to the doomsday. This same thing is implied in (Ayat 11 of Surah Ar-Raad): The fact is that Allah does not change a people’s lot unless they themselves change their own characteristics.
19. The disbelievers meant to imply: You are a human being like us in every respect: you eat, drink and sleep like us and have wife and children like us. You feel hungry and thirsty, and suffer from heat and cold, disease and calamities like us. In short, you have every human limitation like us, and we see nothing unusual and extraordinary in you to induct us to accept you as a Prophet and believe that God communicates with you and sends His angels to you.
19. The disbelievers meant to imply: You are a human being like us in every respect: you eat, drink and sleep like us and have wife and children like us. You feel hungry and thirsty, and suffer from heat and cold, disease and calamities like us. In short, you have every human limitation like us, and we see nothing unusual and extraordinary in you to induct us to accept you as a Prophet and believe that God communicates with you and sends His angels to you.
20. That is, if you still insist that you are a Prophet, bring a tangible proof of your appointment so as to convince us that you have really been sent by God and your message is from Him.