56. That is, some people had believed in it and some others had made up their minds to oppose it.

57. It has two meanings:

(1) If Allah had not already decreed that the people would be given enough respite for consideration the disputants would have long been destroyed.

(2) If Allah had not already decreed that the disputes would finally be decided on the Day of Judgment, the reality would have been made plain as to who is in the right and who is in the wrong.

58. In this brief sentence the spiritual disease of the disbelievers of Makkah has been clearly diagnosed. It says that they are involved in doubt about the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and this doubt has caused them great anguish and confusion. That is, although apparently they deny the Quran as being Allah’s Word and the Prophet (peace be upon him) as being His Messenger very vehemently, yet this denial is not based on any conviction, but their minds are afflicted with great vacillation, and doubt. On the one hand, their selfish motives, their interests and their prejudices demand that they should belie the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and oppose them strongly. On the other hand, their hearts are convened from within, that the Quran is, in fact, a unique and un-paralleled Word the like of which has never been heard from any literary man or poet. Neither can the insane utter such things in their madness, nor can devils come to teach God-worship, piety and righteousness to the people. Likewise, when they say that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is a liar, their heaps from within put them to shame, and ask: Can such a person ever be a liar? When they brand him a madman, their hearts cry out from within and ask: Do you really think that he is mad? When they accuse that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is not interested in the truth but is working for selfish motives, their hearts from within curse them and ask: Do you call this virtuous man selfish, whom you have never seen striving for the sake of wealth and power and fame, whose life has been free from every tract of selfinterest, who has always been working to bring about goodness and piety, but has never acted from any selfish motives.

59. That is, your Lord can never be so unjust as to let go to waste the good deeds of a good man and fail to punish the evil-doers for their evil.

61. The Hour: the Hour of Resurrection, i.e. the Hour when the evildoers will be punished for their evil and the grievances of the oppressed good people will be redressed.

62. By this the listeners have been made to realize two things:

(1) That not only of Resurrection but the knowledge of all unseen things is reserved for Allah alone; there is no other knower of the unseen.

(2) That God Who possesses the detailed knowledge of the most minor things cannot remain unaware of the acts and deeds of anybody.

Therefore, no one in His kingdom should act fearlessly, with impunity. Only according to this second meaning the sentence becomes relevant to what follows. If one studies the following sentences, the theme that immediately becomes obvious is: Don’t concern yourselves about finding our the date of the coming of Resurrection; you should, however, be anxious about the consequences of your deviations you will have to bear when it comes. This same thing had the Prophet (peace be upon him) once said to a person, who asked him the date of the coming of Resurrection. All the major collections of Hadith contain a commonly reported tradition to the effect: Once when the Prophet (peace be upon him) was on a journey, a man on the way shouted his name from a distance. The Prophet (peace be upon him) asked what he wanted to say. He said: When will Resurrection come? The Prophet (peace be upon him) replied: It must come, in any case! What preparations have you made for it?

63. That is, now we have realized that what we had in our minds was absolutely wrong. Now none among us is of the view that there is another one who is also your associate in Godhead. The words “we announce” show that on the Day of Resurrection the disbelievers will be asked again and again, on every occasion: In the world you went on refusing to believe what the Messengers of God said: now say who was in the right: they or you? And the disbelievers will every time confess that the truth indeed was that which the Messengers preached and they themselves were in the wrong because they forsook the knowledge and persisted in their own ignorance.

64. That is, in their utter hopelessness they will look around to see if they could find any one of those whom they used to serve and worship in the world, who could come to their rescue and save them from God’s torment, or at least have their punishment reduced, but they will find no helper on any side.

64. That is, in their utter hopelessness they will look around to see if they could find any one of those whom they used to serve and worship in the world, who could come to their rescue and save them from God’s torment, or at least have their punishment reduced, but they will find no helper on any side.

65. “For good”: For prosperity, abundance of provisions, good health, well-being of children, etc. And man here does not imply every human being for it also includes the prophet and the righteous people, who are free from this weakness as is being mentioned below. But here it implies the mean and shallow person who starts imploring God humbly when touched by harm and is beside himself with joy when he receives the good things of life as most human beings are involved in this weakness, it has been called a weakness of man.

66. That is, I have gotten all this because of my being worthy of it. It is my right that I should receive all this.

67. That is, he turns away from Our obedience and worship, and thinks it is below his dignity to bow to Us.

68. For other verses on this subject, see (Surah Younus, Ayat 12); (Surah Bani Israil, Ayat 83); (Surah ArRoom, Ayat 33-36); (Surah Az-Zumar, Ayats 8-9, 49 )and the E.Ns.