1. That is, this is the Book whose verses are permeated with wisdom, the Book whose every part is full of beneficial insights.

2. The Qur’anic verses guide people to the Straight Way and represent God’s mercy to mankind. However, it is only those who adopt good conduct and who seek righteousness and virtue that can benefit from God’s guidance and mercy. The distinguishing characteristic of such people is that when they are warned against evil, they desist from it.

Likewise, when they are informed what the ways of goodness are, they follow them: As for the wicked who relish evil, they will neither benefit from Qur’anic guidance nor receive any portion of God’s mercy.

3. This does not mean that those described here as “doers of good” have none other than these three qualities — that they establish Prayer, pay zakah and firmly believe in the Hereafter. Here, some people are first characterized as “doers of good” so as to allude to the fact that they are — the ones who desist from all the evils the Qur’an forbids and perform all good works it enjoins. This is followed by identifying the following three chief qualities of these “doers of good”, the reason being that all good works proceed from them: (i) They establish Prayer as a result of which they develop God-consciousness, and their sense of being God-fearing becomes second nature. (ii) They pay zakah, which strengthens in them the spirit of sacrifice and selfless concern for others. It also helps them suppress excessive love of worldly objects and prompts them to earnestly seek to please God. (iii) They also have firm belief in the Hereafter which imbues them with a sense of accountability so that they do not behave like unbridled animals left free to graze in green pastures. Instead, their conduct reflects a responsible attitude worthy of a human being, whereby.

they are acutely aware that they should act with full consciousness of being their Lord’s servants to Whom they are accountable for all their deeds.

Viewed in this context, these “doers of good” are not those who would do good works accidentally and who would feel equally free to commit evil. On the contrary, the three qualities mentioned above institute in them a system of belief and morality from which good works flow as a matter of course. Whenever they lapse and commit some evil, it is by way of accident. They are not then impelled towards evil because of any driving factor inherently rooted in their belief system.

4. At the time of the revelation of these verses, the unbelieving Makkans thought and publicly stated that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) and his followers were set on a course of self-destruction.

The Qur’an refutes this contention and asserts that, contrary to their supposition, the believers were not doomed to suffer loss or destruction; rather, they would succeed and prosper. It is also those who refuse to believe that will fail to achieve success and prosperity.

Were one to interpret the Qur’anic concept of falah (prosperity) purely in material and mundane terms, one would be committing a serious error. In order to correctly understand this term, readers should peruse the following Qur’anic verses along with the relevant explanatory notes in this work: al-Baqarah 2:2-5, Al Imran 3:102, 130 and 200; al-Mda‘idah 5:35 and 90; al-An ‘am 6:21; al-A ‘raf 7:7-8 and 157; al-Tawbah 9:88; Yunus 10:17; al-Nahl 16:116; al-Hajj 22:77; al -Mu’ minun 23:1 and 117, al-Nur 24:51 and al-Rum 30:38.

5. Some people are fortunate enough to draw upon God’s guidance and mercy. By contradistinction are the wicked who not only fail to do so, but who even contrive to lure people away from the Straight Way.

6. The words in the text are “lahw al-hadith” which suggest an amusement or diversion that completely absorbs people, making them oblivious to everything around them. This expression is used to denote those things that are worthless, perverse or vile such as gossip, jest, vain tales, bootless fiction, dissolute singing and dancing, and other similar forms of amusement.

The expression “purchasing an enchanting diversion” can also be considered to mean opting for falsehood at the cost of truth or God’s Guidance and embracing things that neither bring any good in the present life nor in the Next.

This, however, is the figurative sense of the expression. Literally speaking, it simply means to spend one’s money on things that are _ vile and perverse. Several traditions corroborate this meaning of the verse. Ibn Hisham, for instance, narrated a tradition on Muhammad ibn Ishaq’s authority that when the Prophet's message began to spread despite the efforts of the Quraysh, al-Nadr ibn al-Harith told the Quraysh how to counter it. He said that the manner in which they were trying to oppose the Prophet's call would prove of no avail. After all, he had lived all his life and had reached middle age in their midst and was known to be the best of them as regards moral conduct. He was also the most truthful and trustworthy of them. It was only after Muhammad had declared himself to be God's Messenger that the same people who had held him in the highest esteem began to variously dub him as a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a poet and one devoid of sanity. Yet he could not be called a sorcerer for there was no trace of the sorcerers hocus pocus in him. Nor was there any resemblance between him and soothsayers who are known for their mumbo jumbo and rhymed exclamations.

Nor could he be identified as a poet for people knew only too well what poetry was like. Nor did he seem to betray insanity or any of the states associated with it. Hence, no one would believe such statements about Muhammad and none would desert him on account of descriptions of him as a soothsayer, sorcerer, poet or madman. Al-Nadr ibn al-Harith therefore volunteered to do something he considered effective in preventing the spread of Islam’s message. For this purpose, he went to Iraq and brought back interesting tales about the Persian royalty and such fabulous personalities as Rustam and Asfandyar. After his return, he held _ sessions in which these tales were narrated to wean people away from the Qur’an and absorb them in amusing stories. (See Ibn Hisham, Sirah, Vol. 1, pp. 320-321.) Al-Wahidi narrated substantially the same on the authority of al- Kalbi and Muqatil in his Asbab al-Nuzul. In addition to this Ibn ‘Abbas says that Nadr ibn Harith also purchased slave girls adept at singing and dancing to turn people’s attention away from the Qur’an. Whenever he learned that someone was attracted by the Prophet's message, he would ask one of these slave girls to take care of him. In this respect, she was directed feed him sumptuously, enchant him with melodious songs and so distract his attention from the Prophet's message. (See Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Lubab al-Naqul fi Asbab al-Nuzul, II edn., Cairo: Mustafa al-Bab al-Halabi, n.d., p. 172 ~ Ed.) Proponents of evil have resorted to similar devices throughout history.

They have always tried to engross people in play and amusement, music and dance, euphemistically calling them “cultural” activities. They do so in order to prevent people from paying heed to the serious problems of life. Thanks to the inebriation caused by these amusements, the victims lose all awareness that they are being driven towards destruction.

Many Companions and Successors have also given the same explanation of lahw al-hadith. On being asked to explain what the actual expression meant, ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas ‘ud emphatically stated on three occasions: “By God, it means singing. ” (See al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al- Kubra, Bab: Ma ja’ min al-Ma ‘asi min al-Ma ‘azif wa al-Mazamir; al-Hakim al-Nisaburi, al-Mustadrak, K. al-Tafsir, Bab: Tafsir Surah Luqman, comments on Luqman 31:6; Tabari, Tafsir, comments on Luqman 31:6; Ibn Abi Shaybah, Musannaf, K. al-Buyu‘, Bab: Li hadhihi al-Ayah wa min al-Nas ...; Tabari, Tafsir, comments on Luqman 31:6 — Ed.) Similar views have also been reported from ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas, Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah, Mujahid, ‘Ikrimah, Sa ‘id ibn Jubayr, al-Hasan al-Basri and Makhul. Ibn Jarir al- Tabari, Ibn Abi Hatim and al-Tirmidhi have reported on the authority of Abu Umamah al-Bahili that the Prophet (peace be on him) said: “It is not lawful to buy and sell singing girls, or to trade in them, or to subsist on their [i.e., singing girls’] earnings.” In another version, the last part of the tradition has the following words: “It is not lawful to subsist on their earnings.” Abu Umamah also narrated another tradition according to which the Prophet (peace be on him) said: “It is not lawful to instruct - slave girls in singing and dancing, or to trade in them, and it is prohibited to accept their earnings”. These three traditions also specify that the verse, “There are some human beings who purchase an enchanting diversion ....” was revealed with regard to these damsels whose occupation was to sing and dance. Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi records the following hadith narrated by ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak and Imam Malik on the authority of Anas ibn Malik: “The Prophet (peace be on him) said: Anyone who sits in the concert of a singing girl will have molten lead poured into his ears on the Day of Judgement.” (Ibn al-‘Arabi, Ahkam al-Qur’an, comments on Luqman 31:6 — Ed.) It is pertinent to add in this regard that the whole-culture of singing and dancing in those days was wholly dependent on slave girls. Free women had not yet assumed the role of “artists”. It is for this reason that the Prophet (peace be on him) made a pointed reference to the sale and purchase of singing damsels, using the term thaman (price) to denote the fee they charged. Significantly, he also used the word qaynah, meaning “slave girl” for them.

7. That the unbelievers’ action is “without having any knowledge” either qualifies the phrase “purchasing an enchanting diversion” or the phrase “in order to lead people away from the way of Allah”. If the words “without having any knowledge” are taken to qualify “purchasing an enchanting diversion”, the verse would mean that because of ignorance a person is so lured to this enchanting diversion without realizing that they are losing something as precious as faith.

The irony of the situation was that on the one hand people had access to the Qur’anic verses permeated with wisdom and true guidance just for the asking. Yet, they still turned away from them. On the other hand the same people sought perverse diversions, which they acquired at hefty prices, even though they were bound to vitiate their thinking and ruin their morality.

Alternatively, the expression “without having any knowledge” might be taken to qualify the phrase: “to lead people away from the way of Allah”. In this case, the verse would mean that a person had taken it upon himself to guide others even though he himself lacked knowledge and was unaware that he had incurred a heavy and sinful burden by trying to mislead God’s creatures from His way.

8. This unbeliever sought to engross people in various entertaining stories, dance and music. He had a contemptuous attitude towards the verses revealed by God and sought to drown the Qur’an’s message in a sea of laughter and mirth. No sooner had the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) recited a Qur’anic verse than he would arrange for concerts of beautiful damsels to enchant people with their melodies. Such was this unbeliever’s strategy to immerse people in amusements, so that they were no longer in the mood to attend to anything serious — be it God, the Hereafter or morality.

9. That is, the unbelievers will be recompensed with humiliating chastisements in keeping with the gravity of their crimes. This, because they brazenly blasphemed the faith God prescribed, reviled the verses He revealed, and heaped insults on the Messenger He raised.

10. Here, the believers are not simply being promised the “bliss of Paradise”; rather, they are being promised “Gardens of Bliss”. Had the former expression been used, it would have meant that they would enjoy the delights of the Gardens of Paradise. However, this falls short of saying that the Gardens of Paradise would be theirs. Hence why the present verse goes even beyond this. It says that they shall have “Gardens of Bliss”. The message conveyed here is quite unmistakable. They are being told that whole Gardens full of bliss will be bestowed upon them and that they will enjoy the delights of these Gardens as their owners rather — than as those simply entitled to enjoy their delights while the Gardens belonged to someone else.

11. Nothing can deter God from fulfilling His promise. Moreover, whatever He does is fully in accord with the requirements of justice and wisdom. The Quranic assertion that “This is Allah’s promise that shall” come true”, is followed by specifically mentioning two attributes of God: His being the Most Powerful and the Wisest. This underscores the fact that God neither goes back on His promise of His own accord nor can any power deter Him from fulfilling it. Therefore, there is no reason for anyone to entertain any fear that he will be denied the reward promised to those who believe and do good works. Moreover, God’s proclamation of this reward is anchored in His wisdom and justice. Hence, He will not reward any who does. not deserve it. Furthermore, those who believe and do good works are bound to be rewarded because they deserve to be so recompensed.

12. These preliminary observations are followed by stating the real purpose of the discourse ~ refutation of polytheism and invitation to monotheism.

13. That God has “created the heavens without any pillars visible to you” is open to two interpretations. First, that man himself can observe that the heavens are without any pillars to support them. Second, that although the heavens are supported by pillars, these are not visible to man. The latter interpretation is preferred by ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas and Mujahid. Quite a few other Qur’anic commentators, however, subscribe to the former interpretation.

‘Were one to explain this Qur’anic statement in the light of modern scientific knowledge, it would be said that countless stars and planets of colossal magnitude have been placed in their respective orbits in the heavens without any visible props. These heavenly bodies are not bound by any cable, nor are there any visible barriers preventing them from falling on one another. It is only the law of gravity that keeps the entire system in its place.

This interpretation reflects the extent of our present knowledge.

With the passage of time as our knowledge advances, perhaps it will be possible to offer an even more plausible explanation of the reality under discussion.

14. For details see Towards Understanding the Qur’an, Vol. IV, al-Nahl 16: n. 12, p. 317.

15. The unbelievers are challenged to identify what their deities had created. Those same deities which, according to their fancy, had the power to make or mar their destiny and which they insisted on worshipping.

16. The unbelievers were unable to point to anything that their deities had created. Therefore, nothing other than sheer irrationality explained their ascribing Divinity to such deities, their subservient prostrations before them, or their invocations of them to fulfil their needs. Only those who are totally devoid of common sense would accept in one breath that their deities lack the power to create anything and that God alone is the Creator of everything, and still insist in the other, that those same powerless deities ought to be worshipped. Any person with even an iota of understanding is bound to ask: why worship an object that is altogether devoid of creative power and that does not have even a minimal part in creating a single thing in the heavens and the earth? Why prostrate before such a thing, making it the object of reverential devotion? Why treat it as a deity when it does not have the power to hear its devotees’ petitions and is in any case powerless to fulfil any needs? Being absolutely powerless, it can obviously neither make nor mar anyone’s destiny.

17. After advancing a weighty and rational argument to repudiate polytheism, the people of Arabia are being told that this reasonable doctrine of monotheism was not being expounded to them for the first time in history by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him). Sages of the past had also expounded much the same truth. Luqman, who was well known to them, was an illustrious instance in point. The people of Arabia, therefore, had no truly valid reason to reject the Prophet Muhammad’s summons to monotheism on the grounds that even if it was a reasonable proposition, nobody had articulated it before.

As for Luqman, he was widely acclaimed as a paragon of wisdom throughout Arabia. Pre-Islamic poets such as Imra’ al-Qays, Labid, al- A‘sha and Tarafah all refer to him in their poetry. Some well-read Arabs even possessed a copy of his collection of wise sayings. According to some traditions, the first Madinan who was impressed by the Prophet (peace be on him) about three years before the Hijrah was Suwayd ibn Samit. He had gone to Makkah in connection with Hajj. The Prophet (peace be on him) used to visit the camps of pilgrims who came from different parts of the Peninsula and preached Islam to them. When Suwayd heard the Prophet's discourse, he said to him: “Perhaps you have something like that which I have.” “And what is that?” the Prophet (peace be on him) asked. “Luqman’s scroll”, he replied. At the Prophet's request Suwayd recited from his scroll. The Prophet (peace be on him) remarked: “This discourse is fine, but what I have is still better”, and then he recited some verses from the Qur’an. Thereupon Suwayd acknowledged it to be decidedly better than Luqman’s wisdom. (Ibn Hisham, Sirah, Vol. 2, pp. 67-68 and Usd al-Ghabah, Vol. 2, p. 378.) Historians of the time state that in view of his talents, bravery, poetic skills and social prestige, Suwayd was popularly known in Madinah as al-kamil, “the perfect one”. Suwayd returned to Madinah after meeting the Prophet (peace be on him). Thereafter he was slain in the Battle of, Buath. His tribesmen generally thought that after meeting the Prophet (peace be on him) he had embraced Islam.

There is wide divergence of opinion regarding the historical Luqman.

During the dark centuries of Jahiliyah, history was not committed to writing. Historical information was based on an accumulation of oral reports which had been in circulation for centuries. In light of these reports, some scholars tend to regard Luqman as a member of the ‘Ad and one of the kings of Yemen. In his Ard al-Qur’an Sayyid Sulayman Nadwi considers him, on the basis of these reports, to be a descendant of the believers who, along with the Prophet Hud (peace be on him), had survived God’s scourge that struck Hud’s nation. Reportedly, Luqman’s people had established a kingdom in Yemen and he was one of that nation’s kings. However, other reports narrated on the authority of some leading Companions and Successors sharply conflict with this report and depict him quite differently. ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas, for instance, was of the opinion that Luqman was an Abyssinian slave. Abu Hurayrah, Mujahid, ‘Ikrimah and Khalid al-Ruba‘I also held the same opinion.

According to Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Ansari, he hailed from Nubia. Sa Id ibn al-Musayyib considered Luqman to be a person of black complexion who belonged to Egypt. (See Tabari, Tafsir, comments on Luqman 31:12 and Shawkani, Fath al-Qadir, comments on Luqman 31:19 — Ed.) All of these opinions are more or less alike. This because the Arabs of the time referred to persons belonging to Egypt, Abyssinia or Nubia as blacks.

Nubia lay to the south of Egypt and to the north of the Sudan. Hence, there is no substantial difference in calling Luqman Egyptian, Nubian or Abyssinian. Suhayli, in his Rawd al-Unuf and Musudi in his Muruj al-Dhahab explain how the sayings of this black slave gained currency in Arabia. It appears from Suhayli’s and Masudi’s statements that Luqman was originally a Nubian. However, he lived in the region of Madyan and Aylah (present-day ‘Aqabah). His mother tongue was Arabic and therefore his sayings first gained currency in Arabia. However, Suhayli has also expressed the view that Luqman, the wise, and Luqmdan of the ‘Ad were two different historical figures and that it would be wrong to consider the two as the same (See Rawd al-Unuf), Vol. 1, p. 266 and Muruj al-Dhahab, Vol. 1, p. 57.) Another point worth clarifying is that the Orientalist scholar Derenbourg’s Fables de Logman le Sage, published from the Library of Paris, is a fictitious work which has nothing to do with the collection of Luqman’s sayings. These Fables were rather compiled by someone during the thirteenth century. Furthermore, the compiler displays a pitiably poor knowledge of Arabic. After reading this work it appears that it is undoubtedly a translated version of some other work which the compiler ascribes to Luqman. Orientalists are quite adept at producing such fabricated materials. By so doing, they merely seek to discredit the Qur’anic narratives, showing them to be legends devoid of all historical value. All this is well illustrated by B. Heller’s article on Luqman in The Encyclopedia of Islam. (See B. Heller [N.A. Stillman], art. “Lukman”, EP, vol. V, pp. 811-813 — Ed.)

18. God has endowed man with intelligence, wisdom, reason and perspicacity. All these necessitate that he be grateful to God instead of thankless. In fact, thankfulness to God should embrace every aspect of man’s life. He should be cognizant in the deepest recesses of his being that he owes all that he has to God. He should also express his thankfulness verbally. This thankfulness should also manifest itself in behavior by his abstaining from sin. It should also be manifest in his sparing no effort to please God, by sharing with God’s creatures whatever God has bestowed upon him, and by striving against God’s rebels. All such actions testify that he is truly grateful to God.

19. Whoever disbelieves in God incurs his own loss. As for God, man’s disbelief causes Him no harm because He is self-sufficient and does not stand in need of anyone’s thanks. Man’s expression of gratitude to God adds nothing to His dominion. Nor does anyone’s denial of God's Divinity detract from the fact that He is the only source of all the bounties that human beings enjoy. God is Innately Praiseworthy regardless of whether others praise Him or not. Every particle of the Universe testifies to His perfection and magnificence, to His infinite power of creation and to His all-embracing Providence. In actuality, every living being, by the mere fact of its existence, celebrates God’s glory.

20. Out of all of Luqman’s wise counsels, this particular one is brought into sharp relief for two reasons. First, that this was what he had counselled his own son. It goes without saying that one acts with utmost sincerity towards one’s own children. One might deceive others or be hypocritical towards them. But not even the most wicked person will ever willfully mislead his own children. Hence, the advice that Luqman tendered to his son clearly demonstrates that he truly believed polytheism to be the worst kind of monstrosity. It was precisely because he sincerely believed that he counselled his son, the very apple of his eyes, to shun polytheism. Second, that the advice was especially relevant because many unbelieving Makkan parents were guilty of compelling their children to revert to polytheism and abandon the-Prophet Muhammad’s call to monotheism. This is indicated by the verses that follow.

The ignorant, unbelieving Makkans are being told that Luqman, the illustrious sage of their land, had admonished his son - and obviously for no other reason than sincere concern for his son’s well-being to give up polytheism. Is it not strange then that the Prophet's contemporaries in Arabia were forcing their offspring to embrace the very same polytheism? After all, one should consider whether compelling children to adopt polytheism is conducive to their well-being or whether it spells their doom.

21. Injustice consists in denying a person his due, in acting in contravention of the dictates of right and equitableness. Polytheism is a “mighty wrong” precisely because a polytheist elevates to the status of the Creator and the Provider of all bounties those who have neither any share in creation, nor in the provision of sustenance or of the bounties that man enjoys.

This is the worst kind of wrong that one can conceive of. Being one of His creatures, it is God’s right that His creatures exclusively serve and worship Him. By serving others besides God, one denies God His due.

Worse, whenever one embraces polytheism one uses one’s faculties, both mental and physical, as well as myriad objects of the heavens and the earth that have been created by the One True God. For this reason, a person has no right to use these in serving anyone other than Him. Moreover, a person’s own being has the right that it should not court degradation or incur God’s wrath. However, when someone worships a created being in disregard of the One True God, he degrades himself as well as invites punishment upon himself. In sum, a polytheist’s entire life becomes a constant series of wrongs and injustices. There is not even a moment when he is not engaged in committing this “mighty wrong”.

22. The statement beginning with “We enjoined upon man” till “two years”, is a parenthetical one. The words are from God and are intended to further elucidate and elaborate upon Luqman’s statement.

23. Imam ShafiI, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan infer from these words that a child’s suckling period comes to an end at the expiry of two years. Hence, if a woman suckles a child within this period, this gives rise to the prohibition of marriage on the grounds of suckling. However, if a woman continues to suckle a child after it has attained more than two years of age, this does not give rise to the usual matrimonial prohibitions on the grounds of suckling. A statement by Imam Malik has also been reported in support of this doctrine. By way of precaution, however, Imam Abu Hanifah proposes that this period be of two and a half years. Furthermore, he made the additional observation that if a child was weaned within two or less years and if it did not subsist just on the breast milk of the suckling woman, the mere fact of suckling the child does not give rise to matrimonial prohibitions on that account. However, if the milk of the foster-mother’s breast was the child’s staple diet, the suckling of the child - would entail matrimonial prohibitions even though occasionally the child might have been fed other things as well. (Jassas, Ahkam al-Qur’an, comments on al-Baqarah 2:233 - Ed.) This, because the verse does not require, ina mandatory sense, that the child must necessarily be breast fed until two years of age. In this regard, another related Qur’anic command seems pertinent: “If they (fathers) wish that the period of suckling for their children be completed, mothers may suckle their children for two whole years” (al-Baqarah 2:233).

‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas’s inference, which has been endorsed by other scholars, is that the minimum period of conception is six months. (See Jassas, Ahkam al-Qur’an, comments on Luqman 31:14 — Ed.) It is for this reason that it has been laid down elsewhere in the Qur’an: “The carrying of the child to his weaning is a period of thirty months”, (al-Ahqaf 46:15).

This is an important legal injunction which settles the issue about whether a child’s birth was legitimate or not.

24. Those regarding whom you have no knowledge”, that is, those regarding whom you have no categorical knowledge that they are _God’s associates in His Divinity.

25. That is, their parents, their children, and, in fact, everybody will return to God.

26. For details see al-‘Ankabut 29: nn. 11-12.

27. Other pieces of Luqman’s advice are recounted here in order to stress that his views regarding morality, as also his views regarding matters of belief, were no different from the Prophet's. People should, therefore, not be astonished at the Prophet's teachings for these were not at all outlandish for the people of Arabia.

28. Nothing escapes God’s. knowledge and nothing is beyond His grasp. A grain hidden in a rock might be beyond man’s ken, but God knows it. Again, for man, a particle in the heavens might be too distant, but for God it is very close. Anything buried deep under the soil might be invisible to man, but to God it is clearly visible. In sum, whatever man does, be it good or bad, publicly or secretly, is not hidden from Him. God is not only aware of all man’s deeds but He will also present him with a record of all these deeds on the Day of Reckoning.

29. What is subtly implicit here is the message that anyone who embarks on enjoining good and forbidding evil is bound to encounter hardship. This, because others become upset with such a person and obstinately try to hurt him. The result being that he has to face a host of hardships on their account.

30. This can also be translated as follows: “Surely this is a thing requiring great resolve.” Those who undertake to reform their fellow beings when they themselves are lacking firm resolve will find the task daunting, for the accomplishment of the task calls for enormous courage and determination.

31. The Qur’an’s words are: “Ia tusa ir khaddaka li al-nas”. Sa‘r is a disease that afflicts a camel's neck as a result of which its head is always turned in the same direction. An Arabic idiom states, “fulan sa‘ara khaddahi” (so and so turned his cheek away [like a camel]), meaning that he behaved arrogantly with people, talking to them but keeping his face turned away from them. The same idiom figures in a couplet of the Taghlibite poet ‘Amr ibn Huyayy: “Whenever we found a tyrant who arrogantly turned his face away, we fully removed his crookedness and he became straight.” (See Tabari, Tafsir, comments on Luqman 31:18 — Ed.)

32. The Qur’an here employs the words mukhtal and fakhir. The former denotes an arrogant person who thinks too highly of himself. The latter denotes someone who boasts about his greatness before others. A person’s gait manifests arrogance, overweening and haughtiness when he is puffed up with pride and superciliousness. Hence why he deliberately walks in a manner that impresses his greatness upon others.

33. Some Qur’anic scholars interpret this to mean that one’s walk should be neither too brisk nor too slow; rather, it should be at a moderate pace. It is clear from the context, however, that what is meant here is not walking in the physical sense of the term. The fact is that moral judgements regarding good and bad are not applicable to the pace at which one walks, be it fast or slow. Whenever a person has to finish some task quickly he is bound to walk fast. On the other hand, anyone who is on a stroll might well be inclined to walk slowly. There is nothing morally wrong about one or the other and it is difficult to lay down any universal rule as to. what constitutes a “moderate” pace of walking.

The real objective of this directive is to bring about reform in man’s inner state. As long as this state remains vitiated, man’s external behavior reflects it, even in the way he walks. If someone is arrogant, this inevitably manifests from his gait. Furthermore, a person's gait precisely betrays the kind of arrogance he suffers from. Wealth, power, beauty, knowledge, authority and such other things make man arrogant and each kind of arrogance gives rise to a particular kind of gait. On the other hand, manifestations of excessive humbleness and self-abasement in one’s gait also stem from a debased psychological state. At times, it is a person’s suppressed feeling of pride that prompts him to make a show of utter austerity and devotion to God and this is displayed in his gait.

In other cases a person is so overpowered by adverse circumstances in this worldly life that he feels utterly frustrated and loses self-esteem. As a result, his gait becomes devoid of all zest and energy. Luqman’s advice is that man should mend his mental and psychological state and walk in a dignified way, neither strutting with overweening nor parading an artificial display of meekness.

The way the Companions of the Prophet (peace be on him) felt about this issue is illustrated by the following incident. Once Umar saw someone walking with his head downcast. He said to him: “Come on! Walk with your head upright. Islam is not sick.” Likewise, he censured someone who was walking languidly: “O miscreant! Why are you deadening our faith?”

In Umar’s view, religiosity did not consist in walking listlessly as though one were sick. He resented anyone who wore a cloak of artificial humility. Indeed, he considered that this made-up meekness depicted a distorted image of Islam before others and further that it gave rise to an inert and sluggish attitude. among the Muslims.

A similar incident is also related with regard to ‘A’ishah. Once she spotted someone walking in a manner that suggested he was utterly debilitated. She asked what had happened to him and was told that he was one of the qurra ’. Thereupon she exclaimed: “Umar was the most prominent of the qurra’, and yet when he walked, he walked swiftly: when he spoke, he was heard; and when he thrashed, he caused pain.” (See Aliisi, Rah al-Ma Gini, comments on Lugqman 31:19— Ed.) (For further * and

We were unable to trace the source of these statements. However, a statement close in spirit to these statements is found in Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, comments on al-Furqan 25:63: It is narrated about Umar that he saw a young man walking sluggishly.

He said: ‘What's the matter with you? Are you sick?’ The man said: ‘No’. There upon he straightened him up with the whip and ordered him to walk with vigor - Ed.

details see Towards Understanding the Qur’an, Vol. V, Bani Isra‘il 17: n. 43, p. 44; and Vol. VII, al-Furqan 25: n. 79, pp. 37-38.)

34. The injunction to “lower your voice” does not mean that one must invariably speak in a low pitch and never speak loudly. The example of the donkey’s braying in the verse is meant simply to emphasize the point about speaking in a moderate voice. One is, of course, free to raise or lower one’s voice, depending on the situation. While talking to those around one and in close proximity, one is naturally expected to speak in a soft voice on the other hand, one has to raise one’s pitch when addressing those at a distance, or when speaking in public.

Tonal variations are naturally made in consonance with the context.

A word of praise is delivered differently from a word of a censure, and good-will is expressed in a different way from disapproval. There is obviously nothing wrong in this variation. Luqman did not counsel his son to altogether disregard the need for tonal variation and invariably speak in a low voice. What is reprehensible, however, is to cry at the top of one’s voice in order to humiliate others or to impress others with one’s superiority. This is what has been likened to a donkey’s braying.

35. A thing can be subjected to someone’s service in two ways. First, that the thing be made subservient to him, and he be enabled to use it as he wills. Second, that the thing be made part of a system in such a way that it is endowed with utility and made conducive to serve his interests.

Now, while it is true that everything in the heavens and the earth has been subjected to man’s service, not everything has been subjected to that service in a uniform manner. To illustrate, God has subjected air, water, earth, fire, vegetation, minerals, cattle and many other objects to man’s service in the sense that he has been given the power to use them as he wishes. On the other hand, although the sun, the moon, etc., have also been subjected to man’s service, this subjection means that they have been invested with utility and have been rendered useable in a manner that is conducive to man’s interests.

36. “Visible bounties” denote bounties that are palpable or lie within the range of man’s knowledge. “Invisible bounties”, on the other hand, are those that are beyond the ken of man’s sense perception. Numerous things are at work in man’s own body and in the world around him which are conducive to his best interests even though he does not even have the faintest idea as regards the extent of God’s arrangements for his protection, sustenance, growth and well-being. As man’s research in different fields of science advances, an increasing number of God’s hitherto unknown bounties are being unraveled. It is obvious that the _bounties that are known so far will appear to be utterly insignificant were we to compare them with those that will become known in the future.

37. They wrangle over questions such as the following: is there a God or not? Is He the only God or is there a multiplicity of gods? What are God’s attributes and what is their nature? What is the nature of the relationship between God and His creatures?

38. The unbelievers do not have any source of knowledge that would enable them to observe or experience the reality at first hand. Nor do they have any guide who has informed them of the reality on the basis of direct observation and knowledge. Indeed, they do not possess any Scripture on which they might anchor their beliefs.

39. It is not at all necessary that the ancestors of a person, family or nation were on the right way. The mere fact that some belief or practice can be traced back to the times of someone’s forefathers does not necessarily mean that it is also sound. No intelligent person can blindly follow the ways of their forefathers disregarding the possibility that they might have been misguided. Nor should anyone be averse to finding out for themselves what the consequences would be of adhering to those ways.

40. A person should surrender themselves wholly to God and refer all their affairs to Him, treating God’s directives as the law for the whole of their lives.

41. That is, one’s practical life should conform to righteousness.

Submission to God should not be merely a verbal claim while one’s actual life is far from being one of obedience and servitude to Him.

42. After one learns how to hold this handle, one is immune to misguidance. Furthermore, one need not entertain any fear of self-destruction providing one truly serves God.

43. This is addressed to the Prophet (peace be on him). He is being told that the unbelievers suffer from the delusion that by rejecting Islam and persisting in unbelief they only cause harm to the Prophet (peace be on him).

The fact is that by so doing they only hurt themselves. Far from being able to cause any harm to the Prophet (peace be on him), they courted their own destruction. The Prophet (peace be on him) naturally felt grieved by the unbelievers’ attitude. Here God apprises him that if the unbelievers ' persist in disbelieving, he need not torment himself on their account.

44. Even the unbelievers conceded that God alone created the heavens and the earth. Hence why all praise should be exclusively for God because none else has any share in the creation of the universe.

45. Most people do not realize the implications and requirements of belief in God as the sole Creator of the Universe. Nor do they know what is inconsistent with this belief. Once a person recognizes that God alone is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, he must also recognize that He is the only Lord, and the Deity Who is exclusively entitled to every kind of worship, obedience and service. Hence why one should not celebrate the glory or sing the praises of any other than the One True God. All invocations and supplications are also to be addressed only to Him. None but God can be regarded as the Sovereign or Law-Giver of His creatures. It is illogical to recognize someone as the Creator and accept others as objects of worship and service. To do so amounts to rank irrationality, and is as preposterous as simultaneously affirming two mutually contradictory propositions. Such a notion can only be entertained by those who are steeped in ignorance. No sane person is prepared to recognize someone as the Almighty Creator in one breath and regard others, in the next, as having the power to fulfil needs and remove distresses. Nor would such a person prostrate himself in veneration of others than the Creator, nor would they hold anyone other than the One True God as their Sovereign and as One worthy of absolute obedience. To do so would be like being in constant and blatant conflict, all of which is unacceptable to a person of knowledge and understanding.

46. The fact of the matter is not simply that God is the Creator of the heavens and earth, but rather that He is also the Owner of all that exists in the heavens and on earth. It would be idle to fancy that God, after having created the Universe, simply abandoned it, leaving others to claim its ownership, whether wholly or partially, if they so wished. In point of fact it is God Alone Who is the Sole Owner of all that He has created. All that exists in the Universe is solely His, and He alone is invested with Divine authority.

47. For its explanation see n. 19 above.

48. “Words of Allah” here stand for the wonders of God’s creation and the marvels of His power and wisdom. The same idea is expressed in Surah al-Kahf 18:109. At the first instance, one might feel that this statement — that were all the trees on earth to become pens and the seas replenished by seven more seas were to supply them with ink, the Words of Allah would not be exhausted - is an exaggeration. However, on further reflection one realizes that there is not the least exaggeration in this statement. For quite literally, if all the trees on earth were to become pens, and the seas, replenished by seven more seas so as to. supply them with ink, even this would be insufficient to make a bare catalogue of all that exists in the world, let alone suffice to describe God’s power and wisdom. When it is impossible to simply record all that exists on earth, how can we even conceive that man will ever be able to record all that exists in the vast Universe? This statement drives home the fact that, when compared with Almighty God Who brought this enormous Universe into existence and Who constantly controls it, the puny beings whom people set up as their deities’ pale into utter insignificance. It is not only that they have no part in the governance of this Universe, but they lack even partial knowledge, let alone have full knowledge of even a small part of God’s dominion.

Hence, how can it be conceived that they will ever be invested with even a limited share of Divine powers that would enable them to answer prayers and make or mar the destinies of others?

49. God hears all voices and all sounds quite distinctly at one and the same time. He does so in such a way that none of the sounds or voices make Him oblivious of others. In like manner, He simultaneously observes the entire Universe and all objects and events in it in the minutest detail.

Yet the observation of these objects does not absorb Him totally so as to” prevent Him from observing other objects and events. The same holds true about His causing the birth of human beings and raising them to — life after they die. God has the power to resurrect all those who were ever born, right from the beginning of human life until the Last Day.

His creating some does not prevent Him from simultaneously creating others. For Him, it is all the same whether He creates a single person or billions of them.

50. The constant alternation of night and day underscores the fact - that the sun and the moon are bound in a meticulously regulated system of laws. The sun and the moon are specifically mentioned because from ancient times people have held these two prominent heavenly bodies as objects of worship. In fact, even today many regard them as deities.

The truth, however, is that God has subjected all the stars and planets, including the sun and the moon, to an inexorable law from which they cannot deviate even in the slightest.

51. Everything in the Universe pursues its course till its appointed time. Nothing in it is eternal and everlasting, be it the sun, the moon or any other star or planet. Everything came into existence at an appointed time before which-it did not exist. Likewise, everything will cease to exist after an appointed time. This truth is highlighted so as to stress that helpless objects, which have had a beginning in time and will have an end at a certain time, can never rightfully become deities.

52. That is, God is the only powerful actor. He is the One Who alone has the power to create things and to manage them.

53. It is only the unbelievers’ imagination that had contrived these false deities. They had assumed that such deities had a share in Divinity or the power to remove man’s distresses and fulfil his needs. In truth, no one and nothing has the power to accomplish any of these, even to the slightest degree.

54. God is All-High and Incomparably Great; when compared to Him, all are lowly and inferior.

55. There are distinct Signs which affirm that all power and authority belong wholly to God. The ships that man builds might be very solid and the extent of his navigational experience might also be immense. Yet, at sea, ships are exposed to such horrendous forces of nature that man’s skill and experience alone cannot enable a voyage to be accomplished safely.

It is only by dint of God’s grace and mercy that man is able to reach the shores of safety. As soon as someone is denied God’s gracious protection, he comes to recognize the inadequacy and inefficiency of his own tools ‘and skills. One might be a staunch atheist or a diehard polytheist, but no sooner does one encounter a truly tempestuous storm while at sea than one comes to know that God indeed exists and that He is the only God.

56. People who are steadfast and thankful to God are more likely to perceive the truth of monotheism. Once this truth dawns upon them, they hold fast to it. Steadfastness is their first and foremost trait. They stand out for being constant rather than for having a wavering and vacillating disposition. They adhere to their faith through thick and thin. They are not capricious so that they forget God when they enjoy prosperity and turn to Him in utter humility only when a calamity befalls them. Nor are they such who revile God when they are struck with affliction. Their second significant attribute is that they are ever thankful to God. They value the bounties He has granted them and they are consistent in expressing gratitude to their Benefactor.

57. The word used here is muqtasid which is open to more than one meaning. Were we to take iqtisad to mean rectitude and uprightness, the phrase would mean that even after the crisis is over and the person facing it lands on the shores of safety, he still adheres to tawhid, something to which he committed himself during his state of crisis. Experiencing such a crisis gave these righteous people constancies in adhering to tawhid.

Alternatively, if the word is taken to signify a medial, moderate attitude, the verse would mean that the crisis they experienced had a moderating effect on some ardent devotees of atheism and polytheism. It may also mean that once the worst is over, people lose a part of their fervor and enthusiasm for God, which had been aroused as a result of the threatening circumstances that had come to surround them.

It is likely that the present verse embraces all these shades of meaning.

The point stressed is that people perceive the truth when they are exposed to a severe storm during a sea voyage. In that hour of crisis, they abjure both polytheism and atheism and invoke the One True God to help them out of the crisis. However, once God delivers them safely to land, only a few appear to have learnt any lasting lesson from the experience. Even those few can be divided into the following categories: (i) some truly mend their ways; (ii) the disbelief of some becomes somewhat diluted, and (iii) some retain a part of the sincerity engendered by the crisis.

58. These two attributes are sharply opposed to the two attributes mentioned in the verse just above (i.e. verse 31). A perfidious person is one who is prone to treachery and disposed to break his word. As for an ungrateful person, he is one who never acknowledges the favors done him by his Benefactor, how so numerous they might be. Worse still, he even has the temerity to be rebellious towards his Benefactor. Those tainted with such traits brazenly revert to atheism or polytheism after they have been rescued from the crisis. In this changed state, they deny the Signs of God which they had observed in their own selves and around them at the time they were caught in the storm. They allow. themselves to forget that when they had prayed in distress to the One True God, it was because of an intuition deeply ingrained in their very own nature.

Atheists might try to explain away their instinctive response to such crises by saying that they were momentarily overcome with weakness. For in their view, it was not God Who rescued them; rather, they were saved because of the different means and devices to which they had resorted.

As for polytheists, they attribute their return to safety to the blessings they owe to holy personages whom they revere or to gods and goddesses to whom they are devoted. Accordingly, on reaching the shore they soon take to thanking their false gods by making offerings at their altars. They are totally unable to recall that in their hour of utter despair when they had no one else to turn to, they had called upon The One True God with utmost sincerity and devotion.

59. One’s relations with one’s friends, leaders, spiritual guides and other such people are not always very close. The closest mutual relation in the world is that found between parents and their offspring. But so horrendous will the Day of Reckoning be that no father will step forward and offer to redeem his son. Nor will any son come to his father’s rescue and suffer chastisement on his father’s behalf. In such a situation, how can it even be conceived that anyone will volunteer to ruin the everlasting life of the Hereafter for someone else’s sake? It would be utterly silly for anyone to destroy his prospects in the Everlasting Life so as to provide worldly benefit to others. It would also be stupid if anyone were to follow the course of sin and error under the illusion that someone else will come to his aid in the Next Life.

At this point one should take into consideration the content of verse 15 above wherein children have been told that while they ought to serve their parents as far as worldly matters are concerned, they should not obey them if they direct them to error in matters pertaining to faith and religion.

60. “Allah’s promise” here signifies the promise that resurrection will necessarily occur, that the Day of Resurrection is bound to come, that someday God’s Court of Justice will inevitably come to order and everyone will be called to account.

61. The life of this world beguiles the superficially-minded, filling their minds with a variety of misconceptions. Some fall prey to the mistaken notion that everything is confined just to this world, and that there will be no Afterlife. Those who think along these lines believe that there is nothing beyond the grave and, hence, they concentrate on making the most of whatever there is in this world. Intoxicated with wealth, affluence and power, such people completely forget the inevitability of death, victims as they are of the delusion that luxuriant living, power or authority will endure. Consigning spiritual and moral objectives to oblivion, these - people become wholly engrossed in the pursuit of material gain and pleasure, exalting them as ends in themselves. Such people constantly hanker after ever-higher standards of living, relegating everything else to insignificance. They do so disregarding the fact that this wild goose chase for higher standards of living might lead to a lowering in the standard of their humanity. In such an atmosphere, some people even begin to believe that worldly prosperity is the right standard by which to judge what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong. Hence they tend to conclude that whatever leads to material prosperity is good and whatever does not lead to it is evil. Some even begin to consider material prosperity an indicator of being blessed with God’s approval.

They even generalize that he who is successful in this world, regardless of how he has achieved that success, is ipso facto, one loved by God. On the contrary, anyone who is ill-off in the world, even if his lack of success might be due to his veraciousness and his being morally scrupulous, is doomed to failure even in the Next World.

According to this Qur’anic verse, these and all such misconceptions are the guiles of this world.

62. “The Deluder” could be Satan himself, a single person, a group of people, one’s own base self, or any other object that deludes. man.

The reason for using the word “deluder” here in its generality, without specifying any particular person or thing, is that the basic cause of each person’s delusion is different. Every person’s deluder is that which leads him astray, that which causes his life to take a turn in the wrong direction.

The Qur’anic command not to “let the Deluder delude you about Allah” embraces a whole range of deception and befooling. Some are being fooled by a deluder who encourages them to believe that God does not exist. Some are led to believe that after having created the world, God retired into isolation, leaving the world to the tender mercy of His creatures. The deluder of others makes them fancy that some people are so dear to God that anyone who curries favor with them might act similarly and feel assured that God will necessarily forgive him. Others are deluded into believing that since God is Forgiving and Merciful, they can go about sinning to their heart's fill for God will continue to pardon them. The deluder also makes some subscribe to determinism. This makes them convinced that if they commit evil they are helpless for it is God Who makes them do so. Furthermore, if they shun good works, this too is because God does not enable them to do good works.

There are innumerable delusions of this kind to which humans fall prey. Yet the basic cause behind all man’s intellectual waywardness, for all his sins and crimes is that he is a victim of delusion, of one kind or the other. It is only when he falls prey to such delusions that he becomes enmeshed in erroneous beliefs.

63. This verse is, in fact, a response to the question the unbelieving Makkans used to ask the Prophet (peace be on him) about when the Last Day would occur. They raised this question whenever he tried to explain to them the doctrines about the Last Day and the Hereafter. At times the Qur’an responds to this by specifically mentioning the question, while at other times, it responds without mentioning it. The Present verse is of the latter kind.

“Surely Allah alone has the knowledge of the Hour” is the core reply to the question. The statements in this verse that follow provide evidentiary support to this reply. It is clearly stated that man does not even have knowledge of some of the matters that are of the utmost interest to him.

This being so, how can he know for sure when this whole Universe will come to an end? Let us consider some of the obvious limitations of man’s knowledge.

For instance, man’s material prosperity and adversity depend mainly on rainfall, yet rainfall is totally under God’s control. God causes rain to fall as and when and in the quantity that He wills. He stops it, again at His will. Man does not know where and when it will rain and in what quantity. Nor does man know which part of the earth will remain deprived of rainfall; nor yet, for which part of the earth rainfall would be harmful. ' Consider another case: a woman becomes pregnant with her husband’s seed. This is the process that perpetuates man’s progeny. Yet neither the husband nor the wife is aware as regards the fetus being nurtured in the womb and what its shape and its good and bad qualities will be at the time it is born. In fact, man does not even know what his next day will be like. A sudden accident can change the entire course of his life. Yet he cannot anticipate that accident even by just a minute before it occurs. Man does not even know where he will breathe his last. All these crucial bits of knowledge rest only with God, man being denied the least bit of such knowledge. Man would, of course, love to have such knowledge to hand so that he can prepare himself to deal with the resultant situations. Yet he has no other option but to be content with the fact that it is God’s will that prevails in his as in all other cases. In like manner, there is no other course for man but to have faith in God’s Will as the sole determinant of the Last Hour. No precise knowledge of that Hour has been divulged to anyone nor will it be so divulged in the future.

It is pertinent to note that the present verse does not provide an exhaustive list of the matters that belong to the realm of the Unseen, of matters that are known to God alone. This verse mentions only a few examples for illustrative purposes. It states certain matters that are of vital concern to man but about which he is still in the dark. It would be wrong to assume that only these five matters mentioned here are in God's exclusive knowledge. Ghayb (the Unseen) comprises all things that lie beyond the range of man’s knowledge and which are exclusively known to God. The range of ghayb in this sense is vast; it is veritably limitless.

(For further elaboration see Towards Understanding the Qur'an, Vol. IV, Surah al-Nahl 16: n. 83, p. 354.)