14. That is, when the disbelievers will see on the Day of Resurrection that they had committed a grave folly by founding their entire life-work on polytheism and atheism, denial of the Hereafter and opposition to the Messenger. And due to that folly they were now doomed to that evil end. They will bite at their fingers and will curse themselves fretfully. At that time the angels will proclaim to them: Today you are being angry with yourselves, but in the world when the Prophets of Allah and the other good people invited you to the right path to save you from this evil end, you turned down their invitation, Allah’s wrath against you then was even greater.

15. This same thing has already been mentioned in (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 28). It implies this: How can you disbelieve in Allah? He granted you life when you were lifeless; then He will give you death and then will again raise you back to life. The disbelievers do not deny the first three of these conditions, because they are perceptible and therefore un-deniable. But they refuse to accept the occurrence of the fourth condition, for they have not yet experienced it, and only the Prophets have foretold it. On the Day of Resurrection when the fourth condition will also be practically experienced by them, then they will acknowledge that the same which the Prophets had foretold had actually happened.

16. That is, we confess that we made a grave mistake when we denied this after life; our life was filled with sins when we followed falsehood.

17. That is, is there any possibility now that our confession of sins be accepted and we be rescued from this state of torment in which we have been seized?

18. That is, the Judgment now rests entirely with that God alone, Whose Godhead you did not acknowledge, and those others whom you persistently regarded as associates and partners in the powers of Godhead, have no share whatsoever in the judgment. (For a full understanding of this point, please see (verse 45 of Surah Az-Zumar and its E.N. 64). This sentence by itself gives the meaning that there would be no possibility of any way out for the disbelievers from the state of torment, for they did not only deny the Hereafter but they had aversion to their Creator and Sustainer, and they were not satisfied until they had associated others with Him.

19. Signs imply those signs which point to the great truth that the Fashioner, Ruler and Administrator of the Universe is One and only One God.

20. Provision here implies the rain, for every kind of the sustenance that man gets in the world, depends ultimately on the rainfall. Allah presents this one single sign out of His countless signs, as if to draw the people’s attention to the fact: If you only consider and ponder over the arrangement of this one thing, you will understand that the concept being presented in the Quran of the administration of the Universe, is true. This arrangement could exist only if the Creator of the earth and its creatures and of water and air and the sun and the heat and cold was only One God, and this arrangement could continue to exist for millions and millions of years with perfect regularity only if the same Eternal God caused it to exist continually. And the One Who brought this arrangement into existence could only be an All-Wise and All-Merciful Lord, Who along with creating men, animals and vegetables in the earth, also created water precisely according to their needs and requirements, and then made these wonderful arrangements for transporting and spreading that water to different parts of the earth with perfect regularity. Now, who can be more unjust than the one who sees all this and yet denies God, or associates some other beings also with Him in Godhead?

21. That is, a person who has turned away from God and whose intellect has been clouded and corrupted by heedlessness or prejudice, cannot learn any lesson from any sign. He will see with his animal eyes that the winds blew, the clouds gathered, the lightning thundered and flashed and the rain fell; but his human eyes will never perceive why all this happened, who caused it, and what rights He has on him.

22. For the explanation of making one’s religion sincerely Allah’s, see (E.N. 3 of Surah Az-Zumar).

23. That is, He is exalted far above all the creations of the world. Anything that exists in the universe, whether an angel or a prophet or a saint, or borne other creation, may be very exalted and superior to other creations, but it cannot be imagined to have a station anywhere near the highest rank and position of Allah, not to speak of its being an associate in His attributes and powers and authority.

24. That is, He is King and Ruler of the whole universe, and Master of the Throne of the Kingdom of the universe. (For explanation, see (Surah Al-Aaraf, Ayat 54 and E.N. 41) thereof; (Surah Younus, Ayat 3); (Surah Ar-Raad, Ayat 2); (Surah TaHa, Ayat 5) and the E.Ns thereof).

25. “The inspiration” implies Revelation and Prophethood. (For explanation, see (Surah An-Nahl, Ayat 2); (Surah Bani- Israil, Ayat 85) and the E.Ns thereof). And the words: “He places the inspiration of His command upon whom He wills of His slaves” mean this: Nobody has a monopoly over the bounties of Allah. Just as no one has a right to object as to why was so and so given beauty, and so and so was given extraordinary powers of memory or intelligence, so also no one has the right to abject as to why so and so only was chosen to be a prophet and why a person of some one’s own choice was not made a prophet.

26. “The Day of Meeting”: The Day when all mankind, jinn and satans will be gathered together before their Lord simultaneously and the witnesses of their acts and deeds also will be present to bear the witness.

27. That is, though in the world many vain and selfconceited people publicly proclaimed to be the kings and sovereigns, whose, in fact, is the Kingdom today? Who is the Owner of the powers and authority and Whose is the command? If a person hears these words in his right senses, he will be filled with terror, no matter how mighty a king or dictator he might be posing himself to be, and will immediately come to his senses. Here the mention of an historical event will not be out of place. When the Samanid ruler, Nasr bin Ahmad (301-331 A.H.), entered Nishapur, he held a court and after ascending the throne desired that the proceedings be started with recitation from the Quran. At this an elderly pious man came forward and recited this very section of this Surah. When he came to this verse, Nasr was struck with awe; he descended the throne trembling, took off the crown and fell down in prostration, saying: O my Lord, Kingdom is Thine, not mine!

28. That is, none shall be wronged in any way whatsoever today. It should be noted that in respect of recompense, injustice can have several forms: (1) A person may deserve a reward but he is not given it. (2) He is given a lesser reward than what was due to him. (3) He is given a punishment although he is not liable to any punishment. (4) The one who is liable to punishment is not given any punishment. (5) The one who is liable to a lesser punishment is given a greater punishment. (6) The oppressor goes free. (7) One is seized for the sin committed by another. What Allah means to say is that none of these different kinds of injustices will be allowed to take place in His Court.

29. It means: it will take Allah no time to do the reckoning. Just as He is providing for every creature of the universe simultaneously and He is not so occupied in providing for one that He may have no time to provide for others, and just as He is seeing everything in the universe simultaneously, and hearing everything simultaneously, is managing every small and big affair simultaneously, and nothing absorbs His attention so completely that He may be unable to give attention to others, at the same time, so He will subject to reckoning every single individual simultaneously and the hearing of one case will not make Him so occupied as to render Him unable to hear other countless cases at the same time. Then in His Court no delay will also be allowed to take place due to any difficulty in the investigation of the facts of the case and the availability of the witnesses. The Judge of the Court will Himself be aware of all the facts directly. Each party in every case will stand completely exposed before Him and clear undeniable evidence of the events and deeds, with each minor detail, will come forward without any delay. Therefore, each case will be settled and decided instantaneously.

30. In the Quran the people have been made to realize again and again that Resurrection is not far off but has approached near at hand, and can take place any moment. In (Surah An-Nahal, Ayat 1), it has been said: Allah’s judgment has come, so do not clamor for hastening it. In (Surah Al-Anbiya, Ayat 1): The time of the reckoning of the people has drawn near, and yet they are turning away in heedlessness. In (Surah Al-Qamar, Ayat 1): The Hour of Resurrection has drawn near and the moon has split asunder. And in (Surah An-Najm, Ayat 57): That which is coming is near at hand, none but Allah can avert it. All this is meant to warn the people to the effect that they should not become fearless of Resurrection thinking it to be yet far away, but should mend their ways and reform themselves at once.

31. The word hameem as used in the original implies such a friend of a person as is aroused to action when he sees him being beaten, and rushes forward to protect and save Him.

32. This thing has been said to refute the concept of intercession held by the disbelievers. As a matter of fact, the wicked people will have no intercessor at all, for permission to intercede, if at all granted, can be granted only to the righteous servants of Allah, and Allah’s righteous servants can never make friends with the disbelievers, polytheists and sinners so that they should even think of intruding on their behalf to save them. But as the disbelievers have generally held, and still hold, the belief that the saints, whose disciples they are, will not allow that they go to Hell, but will see that they are forgiven. Therefore, it has been said: There will be no such intercessor there who may have to be listened to, and whose recommendation Allah may have to accept necessarily.

33. That is, He is not a blind and deaf god like your deities that He may be unaware of the misdeeds of a person about whom He is passing judgment.