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ʾa-ʾunzila ʿalayhi dh-dhikru min bayninā bal hum fī shakkin min dhikrī bal lammā yadhūqū ʿadhābi
Has the Reminder been sent down to him out of [all of] us?’ Indeed, they are in doubt concerning My Reminder. Indeed, they have not yet tasted My punishment.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Sad - Verses 8-11
8. “Has the Reminder been sent down (only) on him out of us all? Nay, they are in doubt about My Reminder, nay, they have not yet tasted My chastisement.”
9. “Or have they the treasures of the Mercy of your Lord, the Mighty, the Greater Bestower?”
10. “Or is theirs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them? Then let them ascend by any means.”
11. “A defeated host are the factions that are there.”
The doubt of some of pagans in the prophecy of the Prophet of Islam (S) originates from the doubt in the principle of the possibility of revelation. Alike them are some of those who have pretext on the ordinances of the religion. They, in deed, do not accept the religion itself. The verse says:
When the pagans of Mecca saw that their own unlawful benefits were in danger, the fire of enmity and jealousy was lightened in their hearts, so in order to deceive people and also to satisfy themselves, as for opposition against the Prophet of Islam (S), they resorted to various logics, including with surprise and denial they said:
Was not anybody else among these many old men and the wealthy ones, the well known ones, except Muhammad, the poor and the orphan, that Allah sent His Qur’an to him? This logic was not allocated only to that time, but every time, and even in our age, too, when an important responsibility is given to someone, the mood of jealousy appears, the eyes become astonished, the ears become sharp to hear, and some grumbles, murmurs and seeking pretexts begin, and some persons say that was not there a proper man among people that this job was given to so and so who is from an unknown and poor family?
Yes, mammonism from one side, and jealousy from other side caused that the People of the Book (the Jews and the Christians), who were in common against the Muslims, to get distance with Islam and the Qur’an and to go to the idol worshippers and tell them that their way was better than the way of Muslims, as Surah An-Nisa’, No. 4, verse 51 says:
It is evident that these wonders and denials which, besides jealousy and mammonism had another source, that is mistake in ‘recognizing the values’, could never be a logical criterion for judgment. Is the personality of man found in name, wealth, rank, and his age? Has the mercy of Allah been divided among people according to these criterions? So, in the continuation of the verse, the Qur’an says:
The objection to Muhammad (S) personally was not more than a pretext, and this doubt of theirs in the matter was not for the sake of the existence of ambiguity in the Holy Qur’an, but its origin was mainly their low desires, mammonism and jealousies. And, finally, the Qur’an threatens them by this sentence, saying:
They have not tasted the chastisement of Allah that they have stood so boldly against the messenger of Allah, and by these vain words they go to fight against the revelation of Allah. Yes, there are always some persons whose ears do not hearken logical and proper statements and nothing dissuade them from pride save the lashes of punishment. They must be punished because their remedy is only Divine punishment. In answer to them, through the next verse the Holy Qur’an implicitly inquires whether the treasures of the mercy of your Lord, the Mighty, the Beneficent are with them so that whomever they desire appoint to be a prophet and whomever they do not like can deprive of it.
The verse says:
For the case that Allah is the Lord (and is the Owner and Cherisher of the world of existence and the whole humanity) will choose the one for His messengership that can train and lead people alongside the path of development; and for the case that He is Mighty, he does not overcome to the desire of anyone so that He gives the rank of Messengership to an ineligible and incompetent person. And, principally, the rank of prophethood is a rank so great that only Allah is able to give it to someone, and the case of His being the Bestower, He gives whatever He wants and to whomever He intends.
It is noteworthy that the Qur’anic term /wahhab/ in Arabic is an amplification form and means the All-giving. This points to the fact that prophethood is not only a mere merit, but it is a combination of numerous merits that come together so that a person can undertake that position, including the merits of knowledge, piety, infallibility, bravery, and manliness. Similar to this Qur’anic statement is also recited in Surah Az-Zukhruf, No. 43, verses 31-32, saying:
By the way, it is understood from the application of the word ‘mercy’ that prophecy is a mercy of Allah upon the world of mankind, and it is verily so, because if there were not prophets, human beings would lose both the way of hereafter and spirituality, and the path of this world; and those who are far of the school of Divine prophets have lost both of them. The third verse pursues the same meaning, where it says:
This statement, in fact, is a complement to the former discussion. In that occurrence it implicitly said that the treasures of the mercy of Allah are not in your hands to give them to anyone who is harmonious to your desires. Now it implies: now that these treasures are not in your hands and they are only in the power of Allah, the only way that you can choose is that you ascend to the heaven and hinder the revelation to come down to him; and you yourself also know that you can never do it.
Thus, neither ‘expedient’ is in your authority, nor you are able to create ‘a barrier’. Then what can you do? You may die because of jealousy and do whatever you are able to do. Therefore, as some commentators have said, these two verses do not reiterate a single matter, but each of them refers to one of the dimensions of the subject. The fourth verse, which is the last verse of this discussion, as a state of despising these proud feeble-minded persons, says:
The Arabic term /hunalika/ in the sense of ‘there’ is used for pointing to a distanced thing. That is why some of the commentators consider it as a hint to the defeat of the pagans in the Battle of Badr which happened in a rather far point from Mecca. The application of the Qur’anic word /’ahzab/ in the verse apparently points to all the groups who worked against the Divine prophets and Allah destroyed them. These pagans are a small group out of those groups who will have the same fate as theirs.
(The evidence for this statement is the coming verses which have mentioned this matter.) We should not forget that this Surah is one of the Meccan Suras, and the Qur’an stated this statement at the time when Muslims were in such a hard minority that pagans might destroy them easily.
That day there was not any sign of victory seen for the Muslims. On that day the great victories of the Battles of Badr, Ahzab, and Hunayn had not happened, but the Holy Qur’an decisively said that these violent enemies were a small army that would be defeated. Today, too, the Qur’an gives the same glad tiding to the Muslims of the world who are surrounded from every side by the powers of the cruel oppressors, saying that if they, like the early Muslims, stand firm on the covenant of Allah, He will also fulfil His Own promise concerning the defeat of the army of the disbelieving parties.
Therefore, in Surah ’Al-i-‘Imran the Qur’an says:
and the Qur’an has depended the help of Allah on patience, perseverance and piety.
Footnotes