*25 From hero to vane 30, the jinn and the men have been informed of two realities; First, 'Neither you arc immortal nor the provisions that you arc enjoying in this world everlasting. Immortal and Everlasting is the Being of the High and Supreme God alone Whose greatness this Universe testifies, and by Whose grace and kindness you have been favoured with these bounties. Now, if some one among you behaves arrogantly, it would be due to his own meanness. If a foolish person assumes haughtiness in his tiny sphere of authority, or becomes god of a sew helpless men who fall into his hand, this farce would not last long. A godhead that lag: for a mere score or two score years in a corner of the earth whose size in this limitless Universe is not even equal to a pea seed, and then becomes a legend of the past, is not something of which one may feel proud and arrogant. " The other important truth of which both these creations have been warned is: 'None of those whom you have set up as deities and removers of hardships and fulfiller: of needs, apart from AIlah, whether they are angels or prophets or the moon and the sun, or some other creation, can fulfil any of your needs. These lulpless creatures and things themselves stand in need of Allah's help for their needs and requirements. They themselves pray to Him for help; when they are not nble to remove their own hardships how wIll they remove your hardships? Whatever Is happening In this limitless Universe, from the earth to the heavens, Is happening under rite Command of One God alone, No one else has any sham In His Godhead; no one therefore can lunfluence anyone else's destiny In any way
 

 

*26 Here, as the context itself shows, the word alaa' has been used in the sense of excellences and perfections. Whoever of the mortal creatures is involved in vanity and self-arrogance and struts about thinking that his false godhead is everlasting, disavows Lord of the world's glory and majesty by his conduct, if not by his tongue. His pride and arrogance by itself is a denial of AIlah Almighty's greatness and glory. Whatever claim he may make to an excellence by his tongue, or arrogate to himself such an excellence, it is indeed a disavowal of the rank and station of the real Possessor of excellences and perfections.
 

*27 That is, "He is continuously and endlessly fimctioning in this Universe and creating countless new things with new and yet new forms and designs and qualities, He is giving death to one and life to another, exalting one and debasing another, causing one to recover and another to remain ill, rescuing a drowning one and drowning a floating one. He is providing sustenance to countless creatures in a variety of ways, His world never stays In the same state: it is changing every moment and its Creator arranges it in a new state and fashion every time, which is different from every previous form and fashion and state, "
 

*28 Here, alaa seems to have been treed in the sense of qualities and glories Every person who commits polytheism of any kind, in fact, disavows one or the other of Allah's attributes, A person's saying that such and such a saint has removed his disease, in fact, amounts to saying that Allah is not the Remover of disease and Restorer of health but the saint, Another one's saying that such and such a holy one has got him a job, in fact, amounts to saying that AIIah is not the Sustainer and Lord but the particular holy person. Still another one's saying that his prayer has been answered at a particular shrine, in fact, amounts to saying that the command governing the world is not Allah's but the shrine's, In short, every polytheistic belief and utterance, in the final analysis, leads up to the disavowal of the Divine attributes. Polytheism is nothing but that one should ascribe the Divine attributes of being All-Hearing and AII-Seeing, Almighty and All-Powerful, etc.. to others than Allah, and should deny that AIIah alone is the Possessor of all these attributes.
 

*29 Thaqalan is derived from thiql which means a burden, and thaqal is the burden loaded on a conveyance. Thaqalan (dual) therefore would mean: "two loaded burdens". Here this word refers to the jinn and then; who are both loaded on the earth. As the addressees here are those jinn and men who have turned away from the service and obedience of their Lord and Sustainer, they have been addressed as: "0 burdens of the earth," In other words, the Creator is warning these two unworthy groups of His creation, saying; "® you who have become a burden for My earth, I am soon going to take you to task,"
*30 This dces not mean that AIIah at this time is too busy to call the disobedient servants to account, but it means that AIIah has arranged a special time-table according to which He will first bring into existence generation after generation of the jinn and men in the world till an appointed time, and will provide theist with an opportunity to work in this examination centre of the world; then at a specific Hour the examination will be suddenly brought to a close, and alI the jinn and men living at that time will be given death simultaneously. Then at another time which is preordained with Allah for calling the jinn and men to account, all the former and the latter generations of both the species will be resurrected and mustered at one and the same time. In view of this time-table the two species have been warned, as if to say: `We are yet busy with the work of the first period, and the time for the second period has not yet come, not to speak of embarking on the work of the third period. But you may rest assured. The time is fast approaching when We shall be free to take you to task." This lack of leisure does not mean that AIIah is too occupied with one kind of work to attend to another kind of work. But its nature is analogous to the occupation of a person who has set a time-table for different sorts of the works and in respect of a work whose time has not yet arrived according to the time-table, he may say that he at the moment is not free for it.
 

*31 Here, alaa' can also be taken in the meaning of powers. In view of the context, each meaning seems to be appropriate in its own way. According to the first meaning, it would mean: "Today you are being ungrateful for Our blessings and are being treacherous and disloyal by adopting the different attitudes of disbelief, polytheism, atheism, sin and disobedience, but tomorrow when the time comes for accountability, We shall sec which of Our blessings you prove to be the result of a mere accident, or the fruit of your own ability, or manifestation of the kindness of a god or goddess or saint." In the second case, the meaning would be: `Today you are mocking the doctrine of Resurrection and the gathering together of all mankind and jinn on the Day of Judgement and the accountability and the Heaven and Hell, and are harbouring the misunderstanding that such things arc not at all possible, but when We gather you together for accountability and all that you deny today will appear before you, then We shall see which of Our powers you deny."
 

*32 'The earth and the heavens": the Universe or the Kingdom of God. The verse means to impress this: `It is not in your power to escape Allah's grasp. When the time for the accountability of which you are being foretold comes, you will be seized and brought before God in any case wherever you may be. To go out of God's reach you will have to flee from the Universe of God for which you do trot have the required power. If you feel that you have the power, then you may use that power if you so will. "
 

 

*33 The word shuwaz, as used in the original, means the pure, smokeless dame, and nuhas is the gross smoke without a flame. These two things, one after the other, will be Iet loose upon the men and jinn, when they try to escape the accountability of AIIah.
 

 

*34 This refers to the Day of Resurrection. Bursting of the heavens implies loosening of the discipline of the heavens, scattering of the celestial bodies, upsetting of the system of the heavens. And the meaning of `reddening like red leather" is that during that great upheaval anyone who looks up towards the sky, will feel as though the entire heavens were on fire.
 

*35 That is, "Today you deem Resurrection impossible; you think Allah has no power to bring it about. But when it will have taken place and you see with your eyes aII that you are being foretold, which of the powers of Allah will you then deny ?
 

*36 This is being explained by the subsequent sentence: "The culprits there shall be recognized by their faces." It means that in that great assembly where aII the former and the latter generations will have gathered together, there will be no need to ask as to who are the culprits, nor will any man or jinn need be asked whether he is a culprit or not. The dejected faces of the culprits, their terror-stricken eyes, their disturbed and alarmed countenances will themselves be enough to expose the secret that they are the culprits. When a crowd comprising both the guilty and the innocent people, is encircled by the police, the calm and tranquil of the innocent people and the bewildered and disturbed state of the guilty ones tell at one glance as to who in the crowd is the culprit and who is innocent. This general rule is in most cases belied in the world, because the worldly police do not enjoy the reputation of being fair and just, rather on many an occasion they have turned out to be more bothersome for the gentle and innocent people than for the culprits. Therefore, here it is possible that when encircled by the police the gentle and innocent people might become even more terror-stricken than the criminals, but in the Hereafter, when every noble person will have complete faith in the justice of AIlah, bewilderment will afflict only those whose conscience will be conscious of their being the culprits themselves, and who on their very arrival in the Court of God will become certain of their doom, which they had regarded as impossible or doubtful in the world and so had been committing every heinous sin and crime.
 

*37 The real basis of the crime according to the Qur'an is that the servant who is benefiting by the Blessings of his Sustainer; should harbour the misunderstanding that the blessings have been bestowed by no one, but have reached him of their own accord, or that the blessings are not the gift of God but the fruit of his own ability or good fortune, or that they are the gift of God, but God has no right on His servants, or that God Himself has not done him those favours but some other being has got these done him. These are the wrong concepts on account of which man becomes independent of God and being free from His obedience and service performs acts which He has forbidden. and avoids acts which He has enjoined. Seen in this light every crime and every sin Is, in reality. o disavowal of the favours of AIIah whether a person denies them by the word of (mouth or not. But the person who, in fact, has no intention of the denial. but acknowledges the favours in the depths of his heart, commits an error occasionally because of human weakness, he shows repentance on it and tries to ovoid it. This saves him from being included among the deniers. Apart from this. aII other culprits are, in fact, beliers of Allah's blessings and deniers of His favours. That is why it has been said: "When you will have been seized as culprits, then We shall see as to which of Our favours you deny." In Surah Takathur: 8 the same thing has been put thus: "On that Day you will certainly be culled to account for the blessings you had been granted." That is, it will be asked: Had We granted you these blessings or not ? Then, what attitude did you adopt towards your Benefactor, and in what ways did you use His Blessings?"
 

 

 

 

*38 That is, "In Hell they will feel oppressed with thirst again and again. and will rush towards the springs of water, but will find only boiling water, which will not satisfy their thirst, and they will thus continue to wander to and fro between Hell and the springs for ever and ever. "
 

*39 That is, "Will you even at that time be able to deny that God can bring about Resurrection, can give you another life after death, can call you to account, and can also make this Hell in which you are suffering punisment today?"