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wa-dhkur ʿibādanā ʾibrāhīma wa-ʾisḥāqa wa-yaʿqūba ʾulī l-ʾaydī wa-l-ʾabṣāri
And remember Our servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, men of strength and insight.
— Ali Quli Qarai
38ṢādصVerse 45 of 88
Sad38. Ṣādص
Ṣād
Saad
MeccanVerse 45 of 88
38ṢādصVerse 45 of 88
Saad
And remember Our servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, men of strength and insight.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Sad - Verses 45-48
45. “And remember Our servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, men of might and insight.”
46. “Verily We purified them by a pure quality, the remembrance of the Abode.”
47. “And truly they are with Us of the elect, the good ones.”
48. “And remember Ishmael and Elisha and Zulkifl, they all were of the good ones.”
We must keep the history of the pure, the prophets, and the saints alive because the origin of all virtues of Divine prophets is servitude. Following the former verses which explained some details about the lives of David, Solomon, and a shorter explanation about the life of Job and the outstanding points of the life of this great Divine prophet, the verses under discussion mention the names of six other great Divine prophets and have briefly referred to their outstanding qualities which can be as examples for all human beings.
It is interesting that the Qur’an has mentioned six different specifications for these great prophets each of which contains a special meaning. At first, the verse addresses the Prophet of Islam (S) and says:
The rank of servitude is the first quality which has been mentioned for them and verily it contains everything. The servitude of Allah means having absolute dependence on Him. It means to have no will against His will, and obeying His command in all conditions. The servitude of Allah means to be self-sufficient from other than Him and being heedless to what is other than Allah and being hopeful to only His grace. This is the very summit of man’s perfection and it is his highest dignity and honour. Then, the Qur’an implies that they possessed some strong hands and mighty eyes.
It adds:
The Arabic word /’aidi/ is the plural form of /yad/, and /absar/ is the plural form of /basar/ in the sense of ‘eye’ and ‘insight’. For gaining his aims, man needs two powers: the power of discrimination, and the power of work and activity. In other words, he must get help from knowledge and strength so that he reaches his aim. Allah has qualified these prophets with having ‘the strong ability of comprehension, discrimination, and insight’ and ‘enough might for performing actions’.
They were not some unaware persons. The level of their religious knowledge was high. They had some considerable acknowledgment of the religion of Allah, the secrets of creation and the mysteries of life. From the points of will, decision, and the power of action, they were not some feeble, despicable, weak and unable persons, but they were some wilful and powerful persons with strong decisive decisions. This is an example for all those who pave the path of the truth that, after the rank of servitude of Allah, they must be equipped with these two effective arms.
It was made clear by what was said that the terms ‘hands’ and ‘eyes’ here do not mean the two particular limbs, because there are many people who have these two limbs, but they have neither an enough apprehension, nor power of making decision, nor ability of action. So, these two wards indicate to the two qualities of ‘knowledge’ and ‘power’. For their fourth quality, in the next verse, Allah says:
Yes, they were always in the remembrance of the next world. Their sight in the life was not limited to the few days of living in this world with its few pleasures. Beyond this temporary life, they saw the perpetual abode with its infinite bounties, and they always tried and struggled for it. Therefore, the real purpose of the Arabic term: /’ad-dar/ (abode), which has been mentioned absolutely, is the abode in the next world. It seems there is no abode other than that, and whatever exists other than that is a pass way towards Him.
Some of the commentators have suggested this probability that the purpose of the Qur’anic word /’ad-dar/ mentioned here is the abode of this world, and the application of the Qur’anic phrase: /ŏikr-ad-dar/ refers to the good name which has remained from these prophets in this world. But this probability seems very improbable specially regarding to the absoluteness of the term /’ad-dar/, and it does not so consistent with the word /ŏikra/ (remembrance), either.
However, others may sometimes remember the abode of the next world, specially when one of their friends passes away, or they attend in the ceremonies of funeral, or remembrance meeting, of one of their dear relatives, but this remembrance is not pure and sincere, it is mixed with the remembrance of the world. But the godly men have a sincere, deep, constant and continual attention to the next world, as if it is always present before their eyes, and the application of the Qur’anic word /xalisah/ in the verse refers to this very meaning.
In the third verse the words are about the fifth and sixth qualities of theirs which have been mentioned in the next verse, too. It says:
Their faith and righteous deeds have caused that Allah would elect them from among His servants and honoured them to the rank of prophecy. Their righteousness had reached to an extend that they earned the title of ‘’Akhyar’ (the goodness) in its absolute meaning. Their thoughts were good, their temper, behaviour, and programs throughout their lives were good. That is why some of the commentators have taken this meaning that Allah, without any condition, has called them /’axyar/ and used the rank of ‘innocence’ for the Divine prophets, because if a person is ‘absolute good’ he is certainly innocent.5
The application of the Arabic phrase /‘indana/ (with us) is a very expressive meaning. It points to this fact that their being elected and their goodness is not with only people who sometimes commit kinds of negligence and sparing in their assessments, but the qualification with these two qualities by the phrase ‘with us’ is certain that this assessment has been done with full accuracy and from their outward and inward. After pointing to the outstanding ranks of three prophets, the turn comes to other three prophets, and it says:
Each of these prophets had been the example of patience perseverance, and obedience to the command of Allah (s.w.t.), specially Ishmael who agreed to sacrifice his life in the way of Allah and that was why he was called /ŏabihallah/ (the sacrificed in the cause of Allah). He, accompanied with his father Abraham, helped in building the House of Ka‘bah and furnishing this great centre, which survives the spirit of piety, sacrifice, and donation in human beings, and makes them resisting against the difficulties and horrible events.
The application of the clause: ‘they all were of the good ones’, regarding that this very quality (good ones) was exactly used for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the last quality of theirs, may refer to this fact that these three prophets have had the whole qualities of the former three prophets, because ‘the absolute good’ has a vast meaning which envelops both prophethood, and attention to the next world, and the rank of servitude, knowledge and power.
Among these three prophets, Ishmael is the most famous and known. But Elisha, whose name has been mentioned two times in the Qur’an6 as the Qur’an indicates, is one of the great prophets of Allah, and he is among those about whom Allah says:
Some commentators believe that he (Al-Yasa‘) is the same as Yusha‘- Ibn-Nun, the famous prophet of the Children of Israel to whose name the Arabic ‘Alif’ and ‘Lam’ have been added and the letter Shin (š) has been changed into Sin (s), while adding ’Alif and Lam to a non-Arabic name (and here Hebrew) is not a new thing, in the same way that Arabs know ‘Alexander’ as ‘Al-Alexander’. Some others think that ‘Al-Yasa‘’ is an Arabic word which is derived from /yasa‘a/ (a verb in future tense taken from /wus‘at/), and after that it was used as a noun, the letters ’Alif and Lam, which an Arabic noun is qualified with, were added to it.
The verse No. 86 of Surah Al-’An‘am shows that Elisha was from the progeny of Abraham, but it does not make clear whether he had been one of the prophets of the children of Israel, or not. In Torah in the book ‘The Kings’ his name has been recorded ‘Al-Yasha‘’, the son of Shafat; and the word Al-Yasha‘ in the Hebrew language means: ‘deliverer’ and the word ‘Shafat’ means: ‘Judge’. Some commentators have taken him and Khidr the same, but there is not a clear evidence available for this meaning. Some others say that he is the same as Zulkifl but this contrast the explicit text of the verse under discussion because the word ‘Zulkifl’ has been added to Al-Yasa‘. However, he is a high-ranked and resisting prophet, and this is enough for us to take inspiration from his life.
It is known that Zulkifl had been one of the prophets and the existence of his name in Surah Al-’Anbiya’, No. 21, verse 85 in the row of the names of prophets after the names of Ishmael and Enoch (’Idris) is an evidence for this meaning. Some commentators believe that he is one of the prophets of the Children of Israel. It is said that he was Jacob’s son whose main name was ‘Bushr’, or Bashir, or Sharaf, while some others say that he is the same as Hizqil (Ezekiel) for whom Zulkifl has been chosen as nick name.8
That why he has been called Zulkifl, regarding to the fact that /kafl/ has been used in the sense of both ‘share’ and surety ship (to stand bail), there have been delivered different probabilities. Sometimes they have said: since Allah had given him a large share of rewards and of His mercy he has been called Zulkifl, the owner of sufficient share. Sometimes they have said: Since he had promised that he would get up for worship at nights, to be fast during the days, and would never be angry at the time of judgment, and kept this his promise, this nickname was given to him.
And sometimes they have said since he stood bail a group of the prophets of the children of Israel and protected their lives against the cruel king of the time he was called by this name. However, this very amount that we know about his life today is an evidence upon his steadfastness in the path of obedience and servitude of Allah and resistance against the tyrant which can be as an example for us now and our future, though because of long length of time we can not judge minutely about the details of their lives.
Footnotes