Surah 15: Al-Hijr
The Holy Qur’an with English Translation and Short Commentary
[a]In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful.
[a] 1:1.
[b]Alif Lam Ra. [c]These are verses of the perfect Book and of the illuminating Qur’an.[1476]
[b] 10:2; 11:2; 12:2; 13:2; 14:2.
[c] 27:2; 31:3.
[1476] Only in 27:2 and in the verse under comment do the words, 'Book' and 'Qur’an', occur together but, whereas in the present verse the word 'Book' precedes the word 'Qur’an', in 27:2 the order has been reversed. While the word 'Book' implies a prophecy that the Holy Book of Islam will continue to be written, the word 'Qur’an' points to the prophecy that it will continue to be increasingly read and recited. Moreover, whereas the words 'illuminating Qur’an' have been used in the Holy Qur’an only twice, the words 'illuminating Book' have been used no less than twelve times. This is to hint that a record in writing is much more useful than mere oral transmission. Muslims should, therefore, give more attention to education and to the study of written knowledge.
Often do the disbelievers wish that they were Muslims.[1477]
[1477] It is on record that such a desire was actually expressed by some disbelievers in the time of the Holy Prophet.
[d]Leave them alone that they may eat and enjoy themselves and that vain hope[1478] may beguile them, but they will soon know.
[d] 47:13.
[1478] The verse may mean that the wish of disbelievers mentioned in the last verse—that they had been Muslims—is simply a 'vain hope', i.e. a mere passing wish; their real desire being the pursuit of worldly enjoyment and material gains.
And never a town[1479] have We destroyed but there was for it a known decree.[1479A]
[1479] 'Town' stands for the people to whom a Prophet is sent. The 'town' of the Holy Prophet has been called 'Mother of towns' in the Holy Qur’an (6:93).
[1479A] The words, 'known decree,' here signifies the time appointed for the destruction of the opponents of a Prophet as predicted by him.
[a]No people can escape their doom by outstripping their appointed term, nor can they remain behind.
[a] 7:35; 10:50; 16:62.
And they said, [b]‘O thou to whom this exhortation has been sent down, thou art surely a madman,[1480]
[b] 37:37; 44:15; 68:52.
[1480] Majnun does not mean 'one possessed by a devil or a jinn' or simply 'possessed', but 'a mad or insane person', or 'one whose intellectual faculties have become very much impaired' (Lane).
[c]‘Why dost thou not bring angels to us, if thou art of the truthful?’
[c] 6:9; 11:13; 25:8.
[d]We do not send down angels but with the requirements of justice, and when We do send them, the disbelievers are not respited.[1481]
[d] 6:9.
[1481] Disbelievers are here told that when in accordance with the requirements of truth, justice and wisdom (Bilhaqq) they will become deserving of Divine punishment, angels will descend upon them and they will be granted no respite.
Verily, it is [e]We Who have sent down this Exhortation, and most surely We are its Guardian.[1482]
[e] 36:70; 65:11.
[1482] The promise about the protection and preservation of the Holy Qur’an made in this verse has been so remarkably fulfilled that even if there had been no other proof, this fact alone would have sufficed to establish its Divine origin. This Surah was revealed at Mecca (Noldeke) when the life of the Holy Prophet and his followers was extremely precarious and the enemy could easily crush the new Faith. It was then that disbelievers were challenged to do their worst to destroy it and were warned that God would frustrate all their designs because He Himself was its Guardian. The challenge was open and unequivocal and the enemy strong and ruthless, and yet the Holy Qur’an remained safe against corruption and interpolation and tampering with and has ever continued to enjoy perfect security. This distinction of the Holy Qur’an is not shared by any other revealed Book. Sir William Muir, the notoriously hostile critic of Islam, says: 'We may, upon the strongest presumption, affirm that every verse in the Holy Qur’an is the genuine and unaltered composition of Mohammad himself… There is otherwise every security, internal and external, that we possess the text which Mohammad himself gave forth and used… To compare their pure text with the various readings of our Scriptures, is to compare things between which there is no analogy' (Introduction to 'The Life of Mohammad'). Prof. Noldeke, the great German Orientalist writes as follows: 'Efforts of European scholars to prove the existence of later interpolations in the Holy Qur’an have failed' (Enc. Brit.). The utter failure of Dr. Mingana, a few years ago, to find fault with the purity of the text in the Holy Qur’an, on the contrary, set the seal on the truth of its claim that among all revealed Scriptures the Holy Qur’an alone has remained completely immune from all interpolation or tampering with it. See "The Larger Edition of the Commentary," pp.1263-1266.
And We sent Messengers before thee among parties of ancient peoples.
And [a]there never came to them a Messenger but they mocked at him.
[a] 36:31; 43:8.