Ibisobanuro bya qoran ntagatifu - Ibisobanuro bya Qur'an mu rurimi rw'icyongereza - Dr Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - Biracyasobanurwa.
وَبِٱلۡحَقِّ أَنزَلۡنَٰهُ وَبِٱلۡحَقِّ نَزَلَۗ وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَٰكَ إِلَّا مُبَشِّرٗا وَنَذِيرٗا
[3716] This final passage sums up the sura, given the ‘extreme Denial’ that has been showcased throughout, with some very important messages on what the conduct of the pious should be like when dealing with the Divine Message, which is in sharp contrast with the conduct of its sworn enemies.
[3717] The Qur’an, God Almighty’s final Message to His servants, is a revelation which is sent down for the greater good of creation; it encapsulates the Truth, contains truthful news and just rulings. Gabriel (عليه السلام), the strong and trustworthy, brought it down to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), safeguarded against the devils, free from additions or subtractions, unaltered on its way down, and preserved against change or modification throughout the times (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn ʿAṭiyyah, Ibn Kathīr): “Would I ˹then˺ want a judge apart from Allah, while He sent you the Book, detailed? Those to whom We gave the Book know that it ˹the Qur’an˺ is sent down from your Lord with the Truth—be not then among the doubters. *Your Lord’s Word ˹Muhammad˺ was perfected truthfully and justly; None can change His Words—He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (6: 114-115).
The ‘sending down’ of the Qur’an is repeated twice in a part of an aya here to assert in the face of the ardent Denial of the Makkan idolaters that the Qur’an is from God Almighty (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).
[3718] This statement both asserts the Messengership (cf. al-Jazā’irī) and simply outlines the role of the Noble Messenger and its nature in the face of those who demanded that he showed them miracles that only God Almighty could perform and who doubted his Messengership on the grounds that he was merely a human (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr, Darwīsh, Iʿrāb al-Qur’ān wa Bayānuhu, 5: 520).
Further, God Almighty is consoling Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and assuring him of the Truthfulness of his Message in the face of the fierce war he and his followers were up against on all fronts. “We have sent you ˹Muhammad˺ with the Truth, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner; and you will not be asked about the company of Hellfire” (2: 119).
وَقُرۡءَانٗا فَرَقۡنَٰهُ لِتَقۡرَأَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ عَلَىٰ مُكۡثٖ وَنَزَّلۡنَٰهُ تَنزِيلٗا
[3719] The lexical item faraqnāhu (We have elaborated it) is semantically complex. The verb farraqa/faraqa (to separate) could mean: detailed, thoroughly explained, elaborated (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī, al-Shinqīṭī) or sent down in separate segments (mufarraqan) to the Noble Messenger over the duration of his mission (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Qāsimī).
[3720] ʿAlā mukth (lit. with deliberation) derives from makatha, which denotes stopping and waiting (cf. Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah, Ibn al-Jawzī, Tadhkirat al-Arīb, Ibn al-Hā’im, al-Tibyān). Here it means that the Qur’an was sent down to Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) so that he may recite it to people unhurriedly and in a good performance. The Qur’an is not to be delivered to people in a hurry: this, so as to make it easier to be learnt by heart, understood and pondered upon, and for the knowledge, secrets and far-reaching goals embedded in it to be obtained (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz, al-Qāsimī, al-Saʿdī).
[3721] That is, in separate segments, one coming after another (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Qurṭubī, Ibn Kathīr).
قُلۡ ءَامِنُواْ بِهِۦٓ أَوۡ لَا تُؤۡمِنُوٓاْۚ إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ ٱلۡعِلۡمَ مِن قَبۡلِهِۦٓ إِذَا يُتۡلَىٰ عَلَيۡهِمۡ يَخِرُّونَۤ لِلۡأَذۡقَانِۤ سُجَّدٗاۤ
[3722] Through indicating the state of those who possess true knowledge upon hearing the Message, God Almighty cheers the Noble Messenger (ﷺ) and tells him not to mind how insolently the ignorant have received it (cf. Ibn al-Qayyim, Miftāḥ Dār al-Saʿādah, 1: 50).
Should the ignorant Qurayshites deny the Message, those who had been given knowledge before the Qur’an, who are the real authority on such an issue, because they readily realize the Truth of revelation and Prophethood, upon hearing it, swiftly fall prostrating, totally subdued (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah): “Indeed there are among the People of the Book those who Believe in Allah, what has been sent down to you and what had been sent down to them, humbling themselves before Allah” (3: 199).
[3723] Li-l-adhqān (lit. to their chins) indicates how hard they press their whole faces to the ground out of pious humbleness (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr). Chins are synecdochally used to indicate the whole face (cf. Abū Ḥayyān).
[3724] Prostrating (sujūd) is known in the Jewish and Christian faiths: Matthew 26: 39: “He ˹Jesus˺ went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying”; Genesis 17:3: “And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying…”; Numbers 14:5: “Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the Children of Israel”; Numbers 16:22: “And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh”.
وَيَقُولُونَ سُبۡحَٰنَ رَبِّنَآ إِن كَانَ وَعۡدُ رَبِّنَا لَمَفۡعُولٗا
[3725] This ‘Promise’ is the one they find in their Scriptures about the advent of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) and that the Qur’an would be sent down to him (cf. al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz, al-Zamakhsharī, Ibn al-Jawzī, al-Rāzī, Abū Ḥayyān, Ibn Kathīr, al-Qāsimī): “Those who follow the Messenger, ‘the unlettered Prophet’, whom they find with them written in the Torah and the Evangel. He enjoins them to virtue and advises them against what is unacceptable; makes lawful for them good provisions and makes unlawful for them what is deleterious; lays down their burden and the yokes that were ˹imposed˺ on them” (7: 157).
وَيَخِرُّونَ لِلۡأَذۡقَانِ يَبۡكُونَ وَيَزِيدُهُمۡ خُشُوعٗا۩
قُلِ ٱدۡعُواْ ٱللَّهَ أَوِ ٱدۡعُواْ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنَۖ أَيّٗا مَّا تَدۡعُواْ فَلَهُ ٱلۡأَسۡمَآءُ ٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰۚ وَلَا تَجۡهَرۡ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِتۡ بِهَا وَٱبۡتَغِ بَيۡنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلٗا
[3726] This could be understood differently depending on who the addressees are taken to be. Both al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Kathīr opine that these are the Makkan idolaters who deemed it unfit to ascribe the Attribute of Mercy to God Almighty, and thus they would not accept Him to be called al-Raḥmān (The Most Beneficent). Further, Ibn Taymiyyah (Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 14: 15) says that the Makkans heard the Noble Messenger (ﷺ) praying to God Almighty, once as Allah and on another occasion as al-Raḥmān and claimed that he was praying to two different gods.
On the other hand, this could be seen as an address to the Believers to turn away from the exhausting wrangles of the Deniers and occupy themselves with praying to God varying between His Most Magnificent Names (cf. al-Wāḥidī, al-Wajīz, al-Shirbīnī). Both being two Names for the Same, One and Only, God (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Saʿdī, Ibn ʿĀshūr).
[3727] The great exegete ʿAbdullāh Ibn ʿAbbās (رضي الله عنهما) reports the reason behind the revelation of this aya: “It came down when the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was lying low in Makkah. When he used to lead his Companions in Prayer and raise his voice and the Associators heard him, they would curse the Qur’an and He Who sent it down. So Allah ˹in effect˺ said to His Messenger: “Do not raise your voice is Prayer upon which the Associators would hear you, but do not be very quiet with that so that your Companions may hear you. Make them hear the Qur’an but do not raise your voice to that extent; seeking a middle way between them”” (al-Bukhārī: 4722; Muslim: 446).
وَقُلِ ٱلۡحَمۡدُ لِلَّهِ ٱلَّذِي لَمۡ يَتَّخِذۡ وَلَدٗا وَلَمۡ يَكُن لَّهُۥ شَرِيكٞ فِي ٱلۡمُلۡكِ وَلَمۡ يَكُن لَّهُۥ وَلِيّٞ مِّنَ ٱلذُّلِّۖ وَكَبِّرۡهُ تَكۡبِيرَۢا
[3728] This command is by way of teaching the Noble Messenger (ﷺ) and the Believers thereafter how to praise their Lord in Gratitude to Him (cf. al-Rāzī).
[3729] God Almighty is to be exalted over all and any form of imperfection (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī); being in no need of help from children, associates or allies.
[3730] “Indeed to Allah belongs all honour!” (10: 65).
