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kam ʾahlaknā min qablihim min qarnin fa-nādaw wa-lāta ḥīna manāṣin
How many a generation We have destroyed before them! They cried out [for help], but gone was the time for escape.
— Ali Quli Qarai
38ṢādصVerse 3 of 88
Sad38. Ṣādص
Ṣād
Saad
MeccanVerse 3 of 88
Surah Sad - Verses 1-3
1. “Sad (s). By the Qur’an, full of admonition,”
2. “Nay, those who disbelieve are in false pride and opposition.”
3. “How many a generation We destroyed before them, then they cried, but time was none to escape.”
The Occasion of Revelation
There are some similar occasions of revelation for the beginning verses of this Surah recorded in the commentary and tradition books. Here we refer to one of them which is more detailed and more inclusive than others. It is the tradition that the Late Kulayni has narrated from Imam Baqir (as). Once Abujahl and a group of the members of Quraysh came to Abutalib, the Prophet’s uncle (S) and said:
“Your brother’s son has annoyed us and has made our gods inconvenient, too. Call him up and tell him to abandon our gods so that we may not abuse his God.”
Abutalib sent a person to the Prophet (S) to come. At the time when the Prophet (S) entered his uncle’s house and looked around the room, he saw that there was nobody beside Abutalib save the polytheists; then he said:
and then he sat down. Abutalib reiterated their words for the Prophet (S). In answer to him, the Prophet (S) said:
“Do they agree with me in a sentence and by it they precede all Arabs and they will govern?”
Abujahl said:
“Yes, we agree. What is that sentence?”
The Prophet (S) said:
“You may say: ‘There is no god but Allah’, (and send away these idols which are the source of your misery and disgrace).”
When the audience heard this sentence, they terrified so much that they put their fingers in their ears and quickly went out of the room while they were saying:
“We have not heard such a thing yet. This is a lie.”
It was here that the beginning verses of Surah Sad were revealed.2 In the first verse of this Surah again we encounter one of the abbreviated letters of the Qur’an, Sad (s), and so the former discussions about the commentary of these letters come forth that whether they point to the greatness of the Qur’an meaning that the Qur’an has been made up of some simple things such as alphabetical letters, or it contains something which changes the world of humanity.
And this is the great wonderful might of Allah that by those simple things He has provided such a surprising combination. Or it points to the secrets which had been between Allah and His Prophet and is a message from the side of a familiar One toward a familiar one. Or it is a hint to the Names of Allah, because many of the Names of Allah begin with the letter ‘Sad’, like: Sadiq (truthful), Samad, and Sani‘; or it points to the holy sentence: /sadaqallah/ (Allah is truthful) which has been abridged in one letter, Sad.
Some more detailed explanation about the commentary of the abbreviated letters can be studied at the beginning of Suras Al-Baqarah, ’Al-i-‘Imran, and Al-’A‘raf. The first verse indicates that by the Qur’an, which contains the admonition, you are on the truth and this Book is the miracle of Allah. It says:
The Qur’an is both itself remembrance and contains remembrance. The Qur’anic term /ŏikr/ means: ‘a reminder’ and ‘to remove the rust of negligence from the face of the heart’. The remembrance of Allah is the remembrance of His bounties, the remembrance of the Great Court in Hereafter, and the remembrance of the aim of the creation of man. Yes, the important and main factor of Man’s misery is his forgetfulness and negligence, and the Holy Qur’an wipes it out.
Concerning the hypocrites, the Qur’an says:
And in this very Surah, Sad, verse 26 talks about those who go astray:
Yes, the great pest of the aberrant people and sinners is that very forgetfulness, so much so that they forget the value of their own selves, and the Qur’an is a means for breaking these curtains of forgetfulness, and it is a light for removing the darkness of negligence. Its verses cause man to remember Allah and Resurrection, and its sentences make man acquainted with the values of his own self. The next holy verse implies that if you see that they do not surrender to the awakening verses of the Qur’an, it is not for the sake that there has been fallen a curtain over the words of truth, but the disbelievers have a kind of pride which hinders them from accepting the truth, and their enmity and disobedience prevent them to accept the invitation of the Prophet (S).
The verse says:
As Raqib says in Mufradat, the Arabic term /‘izzat/ is a state which hinders man to defeat, and originally it is derived from /‘izaz/ in the sense of a solid, firm, and impenetrable land. It is of two kinds: sometimes it is the acceptable and worthy honour like when we attribute the pure Essence of Allah with the word ‘Aziz (Mighty); and sometimes it is the blameworthy honour, and it is the impenetrable state against the Truth and being proud to accept the realities, and this honour is, in fact, an abasement.
The Arabic word /šiqaq/ from the point of etymology is derived from /šiq/ and originally means: ‘To cleave’, then it has also been used in the sense of ‘difference’, because difference causes that every group to be separated into a section. Here the Qur’an has counted the subject of impenetrability, pride, and paving the path of separation dispersion, and disunity as the factor of unhappiness of the pagans. Yes, these are some ugly and evil qualities which cast a curtain over the man’s eyes, ears, and understanding and take the sense of recognition from him.
How painful is that the eye and the ear of man are valid, yet he is blind and deaf. Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 206 says:
Then, in order to awaken these proud and negligent people, the Qur’an takes them to the past history of man and shows them the evil end of the proud, haughty and obstinate nations, perhaps they take a lesson. It says:
The day when the Divine prophets and the saints advised them and warned them of the evil end of their deeds, they not only did not hearken, but also mocked and hurt the believers and even they killed them. They lost their opportunities and all their future possibilities. So, at the time when the doors of repentance and returning were all shut for them the worldly sudden punishment came over them to destroy them and their shouts of asking for help remained useless.
The Arabic word /lat/ is used for negation and originally it has been /la/ as a negative sign in Arabic, and the letter /t/ is for emphasis added to it. The Arabic term /manas/ is derived from /nawasa/ in the sense of ‘shelter’ and ‘a reliever’. It is said that when a harsh and very horrible event had happened, specially in battles, it was customary that Arabs repeated this word and said / manas/. This word means: ‘where is shelters’. And since this word is accompanied with ‘escape’, it has also been used in the sense of ‘the place of escape’.4
However, when these proud negligent people had respite to refuge to the graceful mercy of Allah they did not use it, and later, when they lost their opportunities, and the worldly sudden punishment came to them, their shouts of asking help and their struggle for finding a shelter and a way of escape did not assist them. This Allah’s way of treatment had worked in all former nations and it will continue in future, too, because there is no change in Allah’s way of treatment.
There is a pity that a great deal of people are not ready to use the experiences of others, and they want to try on the bitter experiences of others themselves. They are the experiences that sometimes happen only once in the whole lifetime of a person and there will not be a turn for the second time.
Footnotes