Maryam

أَفَرَأيْتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ بِاَيَاتِنَا وَقَالَ لاُوتَيَنَّ مَالاً وَوَلَداً

أَطَّلَعَ الْغَيْبَ أَمِ اتَّخَذَ عِندَ الرَّحْمَنِ عَهْداً

كَلاَّ سَنَكْتُبُ مَا يَقُولُ وَنَمُدُّ لَهُ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ مَدّاً

وَنَرِثُهُ مَا يَقُولُ وَيَأْتِينَا فَرْداً

77. “Have you seen him who disbelieves in Our revelations and says: ‘I shall surely be given wealth and children (abundantly)?”
78. “Has he got the (knowledge of) Unseen, or has taken from the Beneficent (Allah) a promise?”
79. “No, We will write down what he says and We will prolong for him the chastisement.”
80. “And We will inherit what he talks of, and he shall come unto Us all alone.”

Leaving hold of Allah and refuging to wealth and children is a false and superstitious cogitation. Some people think that faith, sincerity, and piety are not favourable to them and they cause the world to set them a side, and when they live without Faith and piety the world will look upon them with favor so that their wealth will increase. This imagination, whether it can be as a result of simple-mindedness and following superstitions, or as a cover for fleeing from religious responsibilities and promises, whatever it may be, is a dangerous consideration.

Sometimes it happens that these superstitious persons have based the wealth of some faithless people and the poverty of a group of believers as an evidence to prove this superstition. But, we know that neither the properties gained by means of transgression, disbelief, and abandoning the foundations of piety are the source of honour, nor is the Faith, piety, and virtuousness a hinder on the way of legitimate and lawful activities. However, at the time of the Prophet (S), like our time, there were some ignorant people who had such a consideration or, at least, they pretended to have that sort of consideration.

In connection with the former discussion, stated about the fate of the disbelievers and transgressors, in these verses the Qur’an points to this kind of imagination and its end. In the first verse, it says:

Then, the Qur’an answers them as follows:

Only the one who has the knowledge of Unseen can predict such a thing and may introduce a relation between infidelity and having property and children, because we do not see any relation between these two. Or, that the one would have taken a promise from Allah in this regard. Such a statement is also meaningless. Then, with a serious and decisive tone, the Qur’an implies that it is not such, and never disbelief and infidelity causes the wealth and children of a person to be increased.

The verse says:

Yes, these baseless sayings, which may cause some simple-minded persons to go astray, will all be recorded in their file of deeds. The verse continues saying:

This part of the verse may be a hint to the continuous eternal chastisement of Hereafter. It may also be a hint to the punishments which encompass them in this world as a result of infidelity and faithlessness. This probability is also notable that the wealth and children, which are the source of their pride and aberration, may themselves be a continual punishment for them. The verse says:

Yes, at last, he will leave all these material facilities and pass away, and he will attend in that Divine court of Justice without any righteous work with him, while his book of deeds is recorded with sins wholly. It is in that place that he will see the fruit of his baseless sayings in the world.