Towards Understanding the Quran

From: http://www.islamicstudies.info/tafheem.php?sura=25

Towards Understanding the Quran
With kind permission: Islamic Foundation UK

English ◄ Chapter 25. Al-Furqan ► Intro. ◄ Verse 1-9 of 77 ► View Ar En Nt ► █ Font Email
تَبٰرَكَ الَّذِىۡ نَزَّلَ الۡـفُرۡقَانَ عَلٰى عَبۡدِهٖ لِيَكُوۡنَ لِلۡعٰلَمِيۡنَ نَذِيۡرَ ۨ اۙ‏ ﴿25:1﴾ الَّذِىۡ لَهٗ مُلۡكُ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضِ وَلَمۡ يَتَّخِذۡ وَلَدًا وَّلَمۡ يَكُنۡ لَّهٗ شَرِيۡكٌ فِىۡ الۡمُلۡكِ وَخَلَقَ كُلَّ شَىۡءٍ فَقَدَّرَهٗ تَقۡدِيۡرًا‏ ﴿25:2﴾ وَاتَّخَذُوۡا مِنۡ دُوۡنِهٖۤ اٰلِهَةً لَّا يَخۡلُقُوۡنَ شَيۡـًٔـا وَّهُمۡ يُخۡلَقُوۡنَ وَلَا يَمۡلِكُوۡنَ لِاَنۡفُسِهِمۡ ضَرًّا وَّلَا نَفۡعًا وَّلَا يَمۡلِكُوۡنَ مَوۡتًا وَّلَا حَيٰوةً وَّلَا نُشُوۡرًا‏ ﴿25:3﴾ وَقَالَ الَّذِيۡنَ كَفَرُوۡۤا اِنۡ هٰذَاۤ اِلَّاۤ اِفۡكٌ ۨافۡتَرٰٮهُ وَاَعَانَهٗ عَلَيۡهِ قَوۡمٌ اٰخَرُوۡنَ‌‌ ۛۚ فَقَدۡ جَآءُوۡ ظُلۡمًا وَّزُوۡرًا ‌ۛ‌ۚ‏ ﴿25:4﴾ وَقَالُوۡۤا اَسَاطِيۡرُ الۡاَوَّلِيۡنَ اكۡتَتَبَهَا فَهِىَ تُمۡلٰى عَلَيۡهِ بُكۡرَةً وَّاَصِيۡلاً‏ ﴿25:5﴾ قُلۡ اَنۡزَلَهُ الَّذِىۡ يَعۡلَمُ السِّرَّ فِىۡ السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضِ‌ؕ اِنَّهٗ كَانَ غَفُوۡرًا رَّحِيۡمًا‏ ﴿25:6﴾ وَقَالُوۡا مَالِ هٰذَا الرَّسُوۡلِ يَاۡكُلُ الطَّعَامَ وَيَمۡشِىۡ فِىۡ الۡاَسۡوَاقِ‌ؕ لَوۡلَاۤ اُنۡزِلَ اِلَيۡهِ مَلَكٌ فَيَكُوۡنَ مَعَهٗ نَذِيۡرًاۙ‏ ﴿25:7﴾ اَوۡ يُلۡقٰٓى اِلَيۡهِ كَنۡزٌ اَوۡ تَكُوۡنُ لَهٗ جَنَّةٌ يَّاۡكُلُ مِنۡهَا‌ؕ وَقَالَ الظّٰلِمُوۡنَ اِنۡ تَتَّبِعُوۡنَ اِلَّا رَجُلاً مَّسۡحُوۡرًا‏ ﴿25:8﴾ اُنْظُرۡ كَيۡفَ ضَرَبُوۡا لَـكَ الۡاَمۡثَالَ فَضَلُّوۡا فَلَا يَسۡتَطِيۡعُوۡنَ سَبِيۡلاً‏ ﴿25:9﴾

(25:1) Highly blessed1 is He, Who has sent down Al-Furqan (Quran)2 ,3 to His servant so that it may be a warner to all mankind :4

*1 The Arabic word tabaraka is very comprehensive, and cannot be understood fully and completely by "highly blessed", not even by a sentence. However, its meanings may be grasped by keeping in view the remaining portion

*2 Al-Furqan: The Criterion. The Qur'an has been called Al-Furqan because it is the Criterion for judging right and wrong virtue and vice, truth and falsehood.

*3 The word nazzala implies revelation of the Qur'an piecemeal by degrees. The wisdom of this introductory remark will be explained in the study of verse 32, where the objection of the disbelievers of Makkah -as to why the Qur'an has not been sent down all at once-has been dealt with

*4 “..... warner to all mankind": To warn all mankind of the evil consequences of their heedlessness and deviation. The warner may be AI-Furgan or the Holy Prophet to whom it was revealed. In fact, both were the warners because they were both sent for one and the same purpose. The message of the Qur'an and Prophethood of Muhammad (Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) were not meant for any particular country but for the whole world; and not for their own time, but for all times to come. This has been stated at several places in the Qur'an; for instance: "O Muhammad, say, O mankind, I am a Messenger to all of you from Allah ....." (Al-A`raf: 158); "..... and this Qur'an has been revealed to me so that I should thereby warn you all and whom it may reach." (Al An'am: 19); "We have sent you only as a bearer of good news and as a warner to all mankind." (Saba: 28); and "We have sent you as a mercy to all mankind." (Al Anbiya': 107) The Holy Prophet himself has stated this clearly in the Hadith; for instance, he said: "I have been sent to all men-the red and the black." "Before me a Prophet was sent only to his own people, but 1 have been sent to all mankind." (Bukhari, Muslim). "I have been sent to all mankind, and I am the Last of the Prophets." (Muslim).

(25:2) He to Whom belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth:5 Who has begotten no son:6 Who has no partner in His Sovereignty:7 Who created each and every thing and then ordained its destiny.8

*5 Another translation may be: "To Him belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth." That is, He alone has an exclusive right to it, and no one else has any right to it nor any share in it.

*6 That is, "He has neither any relation of direct parenthood to anyone, nor has He taken anyone as a son. Therefore, none else in the universe is entitled to worship. He is Unique and there can be no partner in His Godhead. Thus all those who associate with Him angels or jinns or saints as His offspring, are ignorant. Likewise, those who believe that some one, is His "son", are also ignorant. They have no true conception of the Greatness of Allah and consider Him to be weak and needy like human beings, who require some one to become their inheritor. It is sheer ignorance and folly." For further details, see E.N.'s 66 to G8 of Surah Yunus .

*7 The Arabic word mulk means Sovereignty, Supreme Authority, and Kingship. Thus the sentence will mean: "Allah is the Absolute Ruler of the whole universe and there is none other who may have any right to authority; therefore He alone is God." For whenever a man takes anything else as his lord, he does so under the presumption that his deity has the power to do good or bring harm and make or mar his fortune; nobody will like to worship a powerless deity. Now when it is recognized that none but Allah has the real power and authority in the universe, nobody will bow before anyone other than Him in worship, nor will sing anybody else's hymns, nor commit the folly of bowing in worship before any thing else except his real God, or recognize any other as his ruler, because "To Allah belongs the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and to Him alone."

*8 There may be other translations of this also: "He has ordained it in due proportion"; or "He has appointed an exact measure for everything." But no translation can convey its real meaning, which is: "Allah has not only created everything in the universe but also determined its shape, size, potentialities, characteristics, term of existence, the limitations and extent of its development and all other things concerning it. Then, He has created the means and provisions to enable it to function properly in its own separate sphere."

(25:3) Yet the people have set up, besides Him, deities, who do not create anything but are themselves created :9 who can neither harm nor help even themselves: who have no power over life or death, nor can they raise up the dead.10

*9 The words are comprehensive and cover all the false gods whom the mushriks worship whether they are angels, jinns, Prophets, saints, the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, rivers, animals etc., which have been created by Allah, or those which have been created by man, as the idols of stone, wood, etc.

*10 That is, "Allah has sent down Al-Furqan on His servant so that he may invite the people to the Truth, which they have forsaken due to heedlessness and waywardness, and warn them of the evil consequences of their folly. The Furqan is being revealed piecemeal so that he may distinguish right from wrong and the genuine from the counterfeit."

(25:4) Those who have rejected the Message of the Prophet, say, "This (A1-Furgan) is a forgery which this man himself has devised, and some others have helped him at it. " What a cruel injustice11 and an impudent lie!

*11 Another translation may be: "a great injustice."

(25:5) They say, "These things are the writings of the ancients which he has got copied down for himself, and then these are recited to him in the morning and evening.''

(25:6) O Muhammad, say to them, "This has been sent down by Him, Who knows the secret of the heavens and the earth."12 The fact is that He is very Forgiving and Merciful.13

*12 This is the same objection which the modern orientalists have raised against the Qur'an, but strange as it may seem, no contemporary of the Holy Prophet ever raised such an objection against him. Nobody, for instance, ever said that Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him) as a boy had met Buhairah, the monk, and had attained religious knowledge from him, nor did anybody claim that he had obtained all that information from the Christian monks and Jewish rabbis during the trade journeys in his youth. In fact, they knew that he had never traveled alone but in the caravans and if they said such a thing, it would be refuted by hundreds of their own people from the city.

*13 "... He is very Forgiving and Merciful" is very meaningful here. It means that Allah is giving full respite to the enemies of the Truth, for He is "Forgiving and Merciful"; otherwise He would have sent down a scourge to annihilate them because of the false charges they were bringing against the Messenger. It also contains an admonition, as if to say, "O unjust people! if even now you give up your enmity and obduracy and accept the Truth, We shall forgive your previous misdeeds. "

(25:7) They say, "What sort of a Messenger is he that he eats food and moves about in the streets?14 Why has not an angel been sent down to accompany him and threaten (the disbelievers)?15

*14 That is, "He cannot be a Messenger of Allah because he is a human being like us. Had Allah willed to send a Messenger, He would have sent an angel, and f at all a human being was to be sent, he should have been a king or a millionaire, who would have resided in a castle and been guarded by attendants. A Messenger could not be an ordinary person who has to move about in the market places like the common people, for it is obvious that such a human Messenger cannot attract the attention of the people. In other words, they thought that a Messenger was not meant to guide the people to the right path but to coerce them to obedience by show of worldly power and grandeur. For further details, see E.N. 26 of Al-Mu'minun.

*15 That is, "If a human being was to be sent as a Messenger, an angel should have been appointed to accompany him to proclaim: `If you do not believe in him, 1 will scourge you." But what son of a Messenger is he, who has to suffer from abuse and persecution?"

(25:8) Or why has not at least a treasure been sent down for him or a garden given to him for (easy) sustenance?"16 And the wicked people say, "You are following a man bewitched."17

*16 That is, "If nothing else, Allah should at least have made extraordinary arrangements for his livelihood. But this man has no treasure and no gardens; yet he claims to be a Messenger of the Lord of the universe."

*17 The disbelievers of Makkah made the false propaganda against the Holy Prophet that he had been bewitched by some jinn or by the sorcery of an enemy or by the curse of some god or goddess for his insolence. But it is strange that they also admitted that he was a clever man who could make use of extracts from the ancient writings for the sake of his "prophethood", could practice sorcery and was also a poet.

(25:9) Just see what strange arguments they bring forward with regard to you! They have gone so far astray that they cannot charge any thing against you.18

*18 As these objections were frivolous and meaningless like others, the Qur'an has ignored them, saying, "Your objections are irrelevant, unreasonable and void of sense. You bring no sound argument to prove your doctrine of shirk, or to refute the Doctrine of Tauhid put forward by him, whereas the Messenger gives such proofs of the Doctrine of Tauhid that you cannot refute them except by saying, 'He is bewitched'. The same is true of the doctrine of the life-after-death and of the moral system of the Qur'an, which has produced men of high character. You cannot deny these things; you reject them, saying, "He is a human being like us, etc.”

English ◄ Chapter 25. Al-Furqan ► Intro. ◄ Verse 1-9 of 77 ► View Ar En Nt Recite Font Email

Blogger Comment:
The same accusation of God to those who denied the prophethood to Muhammad (PBUH) is the same like it is today. They try to use every argument they can, which in many times the arguments contradict themselves. Thus they go in different directions and do not have only one clear way or direction to say he is not a prophet because of that, since they will have the right answer against each argument as was clear from the Quran. Nothing new under the sun, most prophets found very high resistance from humans second to envy, fear of loose of power, love of domination and so on.