Surah 54: Al-Qamar
The Holy Qur’an with English Translation and Commentary (Five Volume Commentary)
[a]In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.[4005]
[a] See 1:1.
[4005] Commentary:
See 1:1.
The Hour has drawn nigh[b], and the moon is rent asunder.[4006]
[b] 21:2.
[4006] Important Words:
انشق (is rent asunder) is derived from شق. They say شق الشیء i.e. he split, clave, tore or rent the thing. شق العصا means, he broke the staff, i.e. he separated himself from the community. An Arab would say, شق عصا المسلمین i.e. he created disunion and dissension among the Muslims. انشق القمر means, the moon was or became rent asunder; or according to some, the affair became manifest (Lane, Aqrab & Mufradat).
القمر (the moon). قمر الشیء means, the light of the thing became intense. أقمر اللیل means, the night became bright with the light of the moon. القمر means, the moon in its third night and after; the moon absolutely. أقمار العلم و شموسه means, the ulema or learned men of the people. القمران means, the sun and the moon (Lane & Aqrab).
Commentary:
Whether or not "splitting of the moon" into two parts, observable by the naked eye, contravened any physical law of nature, it cannot be denied that the event lacks historical evidence which could at all be described as unimpeachable. At the same time no one can presume to have fathomed all divine mysteries or fully comprehended or encompassed all the secrets of nature. It is not possible to imagine that such an event, affecting a considerable area of the globe, should have remained unnoticed in the observatories of the world or that it should have remained unrecorded in books of history. But the incident having found a mention in such reliable collections of Hadith as Bukhari and Muslim and having been narrated successively in traditions of reliable authority and reported by such learned Companions of the Holy Prophet as Ibn Mas‘ud and Ibn ‘Abbas, does show that some natural phenomenon of unusual importance must have taken place in the time of the Holy Prophet. Some commentators of the Holy Qur’an—Radi among them—have sought to solve the difficult problem by declaring the incident to be a lunar eclipse. Imam Ghazali and Shah Wali Allah also hold the view that the moon had not in fact been rent asunder, but that God had so contrived that it appeared to the beholders as such. However, taking into consideration the forceful language in which it has been mentioned in the Holy Qur’an, the incident appears to be something more than a mere lunar eclipse. It indeed constituted a great miracle shown by the Prophet at the insistent demand of disbelievers (see Bukhari & Muslim). It seems to be a vision of the Holy Prophet in which the Companions of the Holy Prophet and some of the Quraish were made to share—just as the rod turning into a serpent was a vision of Moses in which the magicians were made to share. Alternatively, it may be that just as the striking of seawater by Moses with his rod coincided with the ebb of the tide and thus assumed the character of a miracle, because God alone knew when the sea would recede and it was He Who commanded Moses to strike the waters at the time of recession, similarly God may have commanded the Holy Prophet to show the miracle of the cleaving asunder of the moon at a time when a heavenly body was to take such a position in front of the moon that it caused the moon to appear to the beholders as split into two parts.
But the most plausible explanation, which is also possessed of very deep spiritual significance of this, one of the most outstanding miracles shown by the Holy Prophet, lies in the fact that the moon was the national emblem of the Arabs and the symbol of their political power, just as the sun at that time was the national ensign of the Persians. When Safiyyah, the daughter of Huyay bin Akhtab, a leader of the Jews of Khaibar, mentioned to her father that she had seen in a dream that the moon had fallen into her lap, he slapped her face saying that she wanted to marry the leader of the Arabs. After the fall of Khaibar Safiyyah’s dream was fulfilled when she was married to the Holy Prophet (Zurqani & Usdul-Ghabbah). Similarly, ‘A’ishah had seen a dream that three moons had fallen in her private apartment which saw its fulfilment when the Holy Prophet, Abu Bakr and ‘Umar were buried there one after the other (Mu’atta’, Kitabul-Jana’iz). According to this sense of the word و قمر the verse would signify that the hour of destruction of their political power with which the disbelieving Arabs had been threatened in 53:58 has already arrived. The word الساعه (Hour) in that case would refer to the Battle of Badr in which all the chiefs and leaders of the Quraish were killed and the foundations of the complete destruction of their power were laid. Thus the verse constituted a mighty prophecy which met with remarkable fulfilment, nearly eight or nine years after its announcement. Moreover, the Holy Prophet has been called "illuminating moon" (قمراً منیراً) in the Holy Qur’an. In this sense of the word the verse would mean that after the Holy Prophet’s separation from the Quraish, the "Hour" of the destruction of their power would arrive, and it happened likewise. About a year after the Migration of the Holy Prophet to Medina, the Battle of Badr was fought which broke the Quraishite power.
Taking the expression انشق القمر in the sense, "the affair has become manifest," the verse would mean that the hour of the destruction of the Quraishite power has arrived and that now it would become manifest that the Prophet was a true Divine Messenger.
The word الساعة, besides the Battle of Badr, may apply to the Battle of the Ditch and the Fall of Mecca, as these three events combined to bring about complete and total annihilation of the power of pagan Arabs.
[a]And if they see a Sign, they turn away and say, ‘a continuous sorcery.’[4007]
[a] 21:2.
[4007] Important Words:
مستمر (continuous) is derived from استمر which means, he or it passed; went away; it (a thing) went on in one uniform course or manner; it continued in the same state; he or it became strong or firm like a rope tightly twisted. استمر بالشیء means, he became strong to bear the thing. مستمر means, (1) passing, fleeting, transient; (2) continuous; (3) strong, firm (Lane & Aqrab).
They reject the truth and follow their own fancies. But every decree of God shall certainly come to pass.[4008]
[4008] Commentary:
The verse means that the destruction of the power of the pagan Quraish and the triumph of Islam has been decreed by God and the Divine decree must come to pass.
And there has already come to them the great news wherein is a warning—[4009]
[4009] Important Words:
مزدجر (warning) is derived from ازدجر which means, he chid, repelled, drove, spurned, checked him. They say ازدجرہ عن کذا i.e. he prevented or hindered him from doing so by cry or harsh speech. مزدجر means, prevention, prohibition; threatening; something by which one is prevented, forbidden from doing a certain thing—a warning (Lane & Aqrab).
Commentary:
The verse purports to say that the pagan Arabs must have learnt from the accounts of disbelievers of the Prophets of yore that rejection of Truth does not pay. They should have taken a lesson from their evil end and should have abstained from following in their footsteps.
Consummate wisdom; but the [a]warnings profit them not.[4010]
[a] 10:102.
[4010] Important Words:
النذر (warning) is inf. noun from أنذر and means, a warning. It is also the plural of نذیر i.e. a warner. They say أنذرہ بالامر i.e. he informed him or advised him of the affair; he warned him of it or put him on guard or in fear against it (Aqrab & Lane).
Therefore, turn thou away from them. The day when the Summoner will summon them to a disagreeable thing.[4011]
[4011] Important Words:
نکر (disagreeable) is derived from نکر (nakira) which means, it (a thing or affair) was or became bad, evil, abominable or foul; it was or became disallowed, disagreeable; it was or became difficult, hard, arduous or severe (Lane).
Commentary:
See v. 9.
[b]While their eyes will be cast down and they will come forth from their graves as though they were locusts scattered about,[4012]
[b] 70:45.
[4012] Commentary:
'Graves' here means the houses of disbelievers. At several places in the Holy Qur’an disbelievers have been likened to the dead because of their being completely devoid of spiritual life (27:81; 35:23).
[c]Hastening towards the Summoner. The disbelievers will say, ‘This is a hard day.’[4013]
[c] 36:52; 14:44.
[4013] Important Words:
مھطعین (hastening) is the plural of مھطع which is act. part. from أھطع which is transitive form of ھطع. They say ھطع الرجل i.e. the man came running in fright; or the man advanced with his eyes fixed on something from which he did not raise them. أھطع فی السیر means, he hastened and came in haste frightened. أھطع الرجل also means, the man looked with humility. مھطع means, one who looks at a thing without raising his eyes from it (Aqrab). See also 14:44.
Commentary:
This and the preceding two verses give a graphic picture of the confusion, consternation and bewilderment of the Quraish when they saw the Summoner—the Holy Prophet—whom they had driven out of Mecca and upon whose head they had set a price only a few years earlier, at the very gates of the city. The mighty prophecy embodied in these verses was made at a time when the fate of Islam itself was hanging in the balance and, humanly speaking, there was not the remotest possibility of its being fulfilled.
The people of Noah rejected the truth before them[a]; aye, they rejected Our servant and said, ‘A [b]madman, and one who is spurned.’[4014]
[a] 6:35; 22:43; 35:26; 40:6.
[b] 23:26.
[4014] Commentary:
As briefly stated in the Introduction, almost the entire Surah is devoted to a discussion of the dreadful fate which the Rejecters of former Divine Prophets had met and this fact has been adduced as an argument to prove the truth of the Holy Prophet’s claim. The cases of the People of Noah, of the tribes of ‘Ad and Thamud and that of the people of Lot have received a special and somewhat detailed mention because these peoples lived on the confines of the Hijaz and the Quraish were quite familiar with their histories and had commercial relations with them. The people to whom Noah preached his Message lived in Iraq which lies to the north-east of Arabia, and the tribe of ‘Ad lived in Yemen and Hadramaut which form the southern part of it while the tribe of Thamud throve and flourished in the north-west of Arabia which extends from the Hijaz to Palestine and the ill-fated people of Lot lived in Sodom and Gomorrah in Palestine.
He prayed to his Lord saying ‘I am overcome, so come Thou to my help [c]!’
[c] 23:27; 26:118-119.
Thereupon We opened the gates of heaven with water pouring down;[4015]
[4015] Important Words:
منھمر (pouring down) is derived from ھمر. They say ھمر الماء i.e. he poured out the water. ھمر العین بالدمع means, the eyes flowed with tears. انھمر الماء means, the water poured out and flowed (Aqrab).