• The party of jinns guided by the Qur’an

• The Prophet commanded to give respite to the disbelievers

Al-Ahqaf Verses 27 - 35

وَلَقَدْ أَهْلَكْنَا مَا حَوْلَكُمْ مِنَ الْقُرَىٰ وَصَرَّفْنَا الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

And indeed We destroyed of the towns which are around you, and We did display1Our signs that they might turn2(unto Us). (46:27)

فَلَوْلَا نَصَرَهُمُ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ قُرْبَانًا آلِهَةً بَلْ ضَلُّوا عَنْهُمْ وَذَٰلِكَ إِفْكُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ

Why then did not help them those whom they took for gods besides God, in approaching nigh

unto God? Nay! but they failed them, and this was their lie and what they used to forge. (46:28)3

وَإِذْ صَرَفْنَا إِلَيْكَ نَفَرًا مِنَ الْجِنِّ يَسْتَمِعُونَ الْقُرْآنَ فَلَمَّا حَضَرُوهُ قَالُوا أَنْصِتُوا فَلَمَّا قُضِيَ وَلَّوْا إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِمْ مُنْذِرِينَ

And when turned We unto thee a party of jinn4who (quietly) listened to the Qur’an when came they unto it, said they: “Be ye silent! (and listen)?” then when was finished (the recital), returned they unto their people warning (them against5the wrath of God)6(46:29)

قَالُوا يَا قَوْمَنَا إِنَّا سَمِعْنَا كِتَابًا أُنْزِلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ مُوسَىٰ مُصَدِّقًا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ يَهْدِي إِلَى الْحَقِّ وَإِلَىٰ طَرِيقٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ

Said (the Jinns): “O’ ye our people! Verily, have we listened unto a Book sent down (from God) after Moses, verifying what is before it, guiding unto the truth and unto a path straight aright. (46:30)

يَا قَوْمَنَا أَجِيبُوا دَاعِيَ اللَّهِ وَآمِنُوا بِهِ يَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ مِنْ ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَيُجِرْكُمْ مِنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ

“O’ ye our people! Respond ye (all) unto the Summoner unto God and believe ye in Him, He will forgive you of your sins, and guard you against a painful chastisement.” (46:31)

وَمَنْ لَا يُجِبْ دَاعِيَ اللَّهِ فَلَيْسَ بِمُعْجِزٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَيْسَ لَهُ مِنْ دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءُ أُولَٰئِكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُبِينٍ

And whosoever respondeth not unto the Summoner unto God, yet he can frustrate not God’s will in the earth, and there shall not be for him, other than Him7, any guardians; these are in manifest error (46:32)

أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَلَمْ يَعْيَ بِخَلْقِهِنَّ بِقَادِرٍ عَلَىٰ أَنْ يُحْيِيَ الْمَوْتَىٰ بَلَىٰ إِنَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

What! Have they not seen that God Who created the heavens and the earth and was not wearied by their creation, hath power to give life unto the dead? Aye! Verily, He is over all things powerful. 8(46:33)

وَيَوْمَ يُعْرَضُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا عَلَى النَّارِ أَلَيْسَ هَٰذَا بِالْحَقِّ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ وَرَبِّنَا قَالَ فَذُوقُوا الْعَذَابَ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْفُرُونَ

And on the day when shall be exposed those who disbelieved, to the fire (it will be asked of

them): “Is this not the truth?” They shall say: “Aye! By our Lord!” then He9will say: “Taste ye (now) the chastisement for what ye used to disbelieve”10(46:34)

فَاصْبِرْ كَمَا صَبَرَ أُولُو الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ وَلَا تَسْتَعْجِلْ لَهُمْ كَأَنَّهُمْ يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَ مَا يُوعَدُونَ لَمْ يَلْبَثُوا إِلَّا سَاعَةً مِنْ نَهَارٍ بَلَاغٌ فَهَلْ يُهْلَكُ إِلَّا الْقَوْمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ

Therefore (O’ Our Apostle Muhammad!) bear thou up with patience, as did the apostles endowed with constancy11and seek thou not to hasten for them (their doom); On the day when they will see what they have been promised, (it shall be unto them) as if they tarried not but (for only) an hour of the day; (a clear) Deliverance! (this is)! then shall be destroyed12any but the transgressing people. (46:35)

Commentary

Verse 27

May refer to the ancient habitations in the Arabian Peninsula or around it. (A.P.)

Verse 29

About the people worshipping the jinn in the place of God, see verse 6:100. The jinns are, acceptedly spiritual beings. One of such beings is referred to here - See note on Jinn. See verse 2:41 about the Book the Holy Qur’an verifying the previously revealed scriptures. After the death of Abu Talib, the Holy Prophet had become totally helpless and was exposed to open attacks from the people. When he went to Taif to the tribe of Saqeef, he first met the three chiefs of the people there, viz. Abdul-Lail, Mas’ood and Habib who only ridiculed him and treated him with derision and laughter. They set the mischievous ones and the lads of the place, began to make noises and make a fool of him in the streets of the town. They even pelted stones on him. He was wounded in his legs and at last he went and stood under the shade of a wall and then sat down under a date-palm. There were Utba and Shaiba the two sons of Rabiah and they turned him away from the place.

The Holy Prophet raised his hands and prayed to God about his helplessness. Seeing him praying, the two men sent some grapes through their Christian slave named Adas who was from Nainawah. When the slave heard the Holy Prophet reciting ‘Bismillah hir Rahman nir Rahim’ (In the name of God the Beneficent the Merciful), before he ate the fruits, a clause which the slave had never heard before from anyone in the town, asked the Holy Prophet as to what place he belonged. The reply was, Mecca and when the Holy Prophet asked the slave about his nativity the slave said that he belonged to Nainawah. The Holy Prophet said: ‘It was the native place of a righteous man of God, named Younus Ibn Mata (Jonas, son of Matthew)!

The slave in surprise, asked the Holy Prophet, ‘How dost thou know about Younus Ibn Mata?’ In reply the Holy Prophet said, “He was my brother, an apostle of God like myself.” Saying this he related some details about Younus Ibn Mata - The slave who was a good Christian, understood the actual position of the Holy Prophet and bowing to him and kissing his hands and feet, embraced Islam. When the slave returned to the two men Utba and Shaiba and on their enquiry about his conduct with the Holy Prophet, he said that “Muhammad is the awaited apostle of God and I have embraced his faith Islam.”

The two men warned the slave against his deserting his original faith saying that the Holy Prophet was an enchanter. The Holy Prophet left the place and staying in the night in a garden for his midnight prayers, he returned to Mecca. While he was reciting the Holy Qur’an, a group of the jinns passed the place and what one of the jinns conveyed to his tribe, is referred to in this verse.

‘Jinn’- There is abundant evidence of the jinns being of a separate species of creation with intellectual faculties of good and wicked, nature. (A.P.)

Verse 30

Ibn Abbas says once the Holy Prophet said that he was commanded by God to recite the Holy Qur'an to the jinns and to warn them. He asked his companions as to who would like to accompany him to the recital. None uttered a word save Ibn Mas’ood. The Holy Prophet asked thrice but every time there was silence and none replied - Ibn Mas’ood says that he was taken to the cave called Sheb-e-Haihoon which is on the top of a mountain near Mecca. Arriving at the place the Holy Prophet drew a circle round Ibn Mas’ood and commanded him never under any circumstances to step out of the circle, until he (the Holy Prophet) returns to him and going forward stood there and started reciting the Holy Qur'an and it was night.

Ibn Mas’ood says that he saw huge birds and huge serpents began to gather and started making peculiar noises and he got frightened and became anxious for the safety of the Holy Prophet. In the sky he saw black patch of cloud like smoke and at dawn every thing parted away and the Holy Prophet returned to Ibn Mas’ood. The Holy Prophet asked Ibn Mas’ood as to what he saw and Ibn Mas'ood related his experiences. The Holy Prophet said it was a gathering of about 12,000 jinns to whom chapter 113 of the Holy Qur’an was recited. (MS).

Verse 32

Qummi says that the Holy Prophet once went to the market place, Akkaza, along with Zaid Ibn Haritha to preach the message of Islam, on his way back to Mecca he stayed in the valley of Najbah for the night and when he recited the Holy Qur’an, there also assembled some jinns, one of the groups carried the message of Islam to his kind. (MS. UB).

It is said that among the jinns there are believers and disbelievers, good and wicked.

It is a proof positive that the Holy Prophet was a warner to the jinns as well as to mankind.

It is an assurance and an assertion that none can stop the flourishing of the truth and the one who attempts to do it, shall lose the sympathy of the others. (A.P.)

Verse 35

The duty of the apostle of God ends with his preaching the truth, i.e., conveying the message in the clearest possible terms and then it becomes the responsibility of the people to accept and follow it or to reject it. As those who accept the truth would surely be rewarded, those who reject it would naturally be punished with the requital which they earn. But there is the chance for everyone, man or woman to repent about his or her faith, before death, and none could say when it would come. Hence better repent and amend immediately as long as there is the opportunity left to do it.

The preposition –‘Min’, i.e., from - meaning of, and from - may be explanatory to mean all the prophets who were endowed with constancy, or of the prophets, some, according to Ahl Al-Bayt, the latter is meant - and it has been pointed out that there are five of the apostles - Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and the Holy Prophet. The Fifth and the Sixth Imams have said that these are the foremost ones, of the apostles of God and the axis on which apostleship moved. The instructions not to hasten in invoking God’s wrath - supports this view. (A.P.)

This may refer to Qur’an or to the Hour mentioned here. (A.P.)

• 1. Repeat.
• 2. Repent and amend.
• 3. Refer to verses 39:3, 10:18, 17:57.
• 4. Refer to note about verse on Jinn.
• 5. Or against evil living. This clearly indicates that Jinn were also a generation like mankind and are influenced by the Word of God. See Note on jinn, and the other reference to them in the Qur’an.
• 6. Refer to verses 72:1, 55:33, 6:130.
• 7. God.
• 8. Refer to verses 2:255, 50:15, 3:78-83.
• 9. God.
• 10. Refer to note about verses 36:63 & 36:64.
• 11. Fortitude.
• 12. Not total annihilation but the loss of happiness (A.P.).