COMMENTARY:

(VERSE 96)- The night, the day, the sun, the moon, the great astronomical universe of God. How far and yet how near to us! God’s universe is boundless, and we can barely comprehend even its relations to us. But this last we must try to do if we want to be numbered with “the people who know”. Taqdir= verse 91 and commentary, and Surat Al-Nisa’ 4 verse 149.

(Verse 97)- At sea, or in deserts or forests, or “in fairy scenes forlorn”, whenever we sweep over wide spaces, it is the starts that act as our guides, just as the sun and moon have already been mentioned as our measures of time.

(Verse 98)- A/Produced: Ansha-a= made you grow, increase, develop, and reach maturity: another of the processes of creation. This supplement is in verse 117 from Surat Al-Bagara 2, and verse 94 in Surat Al-An’am 6. It is one of the wonders of God’s Creation, that from one person we have grown to be so many, and each individual has so many faculties and capacities, and yet we are all one. In the next verse we have the allegory of grapes and other fruits: all grapes may be similar to look at, yet each variety has a distinctive flavor and other distinctive qualities, and each individual grape may have its own special qualities. So this applies for mankind. B/ In the sojourn of this life we must respond to God’s hand in fashioning us, by making full use of all our faculties, and we must get ready for our departure into the Life that will be eternal.

(Verse 99)- A/ our allegory now brings us maturity, the fruits, the harvest, the vintage. Through the seed we came up from nothingness to life: we lived our daily life of rest and work and passed the mile stones of time; we had the spiritual experience of traversing through vat spaces in the spiritual world, guiding our course through the star of Faith; we grew, and now for the harvest or the vintage! How satisfied the grower must be when the golden grain is harvested in heaps or the vintage gathered! So will be the man if he has produced the fruits of Faith! B/ each fruit-whether it is grapes, or olives, or pomegranates- looks alike in its species, and yet each variety may be different in flavor, consistency, shape, size, color, juice or oil contents, proportion of seed to fruit, etc… in each variety individuals may be different. Apply the allegory to man, whose varied spiritual fruit may be equally different and yet equally valuable! C/ and so we finish this wonderful allegory. Search through the world’s literature, and see if you can find another such song or hymn, - so fruity in its literary flavor, so profound in its spiritual meaning! D/ there is a refrain in this song, which is subtly varied. In verse 97 in its:”We detail our Signs/Verses for people who know”. So far we were speaking of the things we see around us every day. Knowledge is the appropriate instrument for these things. In verse 98 we read; “We detail Our Signs for people who understand”. Understanding is a higher faculty than knowledge, and is necessary for seeing the mystery of this life. At the end of verse 99 we have: “In these things there are Signs for people who believe”. Here we are speaking of the real fruits of spiritual life. For them Faith is necessary, as bringing us nearer to God. 

(Verse 100)- Jinns: who are they? In Surat Al-Bagara 2 verse 34:

And in Al-Kahf 18 verse 50 we are told that Iblis (Satan-Devil-Lucifer) was one of the Jinns, and it is suggested that that was why he disobeyed the Command of God. But in that passage and other similar passages, we are told that God commanded the angels to bow down to Adam, and they obeyed except Iblis. That implies that Iblis had been of the company of angels. In many passages Jinns and men are spoken of together. In Surat Al-Nisa’ 4 verses 14-15, man is stated to have been created from clay, while Jinns from a flame of fire. The root meaning of Janna, Yajinnu, is:”to be covered or hidden”, and Janna Yajinnu, in the active voice: “to cover or hide” as in verse 76. Some people say that Jinn therefore mean the hidden qualities or capacities in man; others say that it means wild or jungle folk hidden in the hills or forests, other generally spoken means (lost his mind- became lunatic-Crazy).

 (Verses 101-102) – See Surat Al-Bagara 2 verse 117: 

(Verse 103)- Latif=fine, subtle, courteous, so fine and subtle so as to be invisible to the physical eye; so fine as to be imperceptible to the senses; figuratively, so pure as to be above the mental or spiritual vision of ordinary men. The active meaning should also be understood: “One who understands the finest mysteries”. See Surat Al-Hajj 22 verse 63.

(Verse 104)- I understand that the (Say) here to be understood in the beginning of this verse, the words would then be the words of the Apostle [PPBUH], as in fact is suggested in verse 107 to come below. That is why I have enclosed them in inverted commas.

(Verse 105-106)- A/ See verse 65 and commentary. B/ The teaching in the Qur’an explain things by various symbols, parables, narratives, and appeals to nature. Each time, a new phase of the question is presented to our minds. This is what a diligent and earnest teacher would do, such as was Muhammad Al-Mustapha [PPBUH]. Those who were in search of knowledge and had thus acquired some knowledge of spiritual things were greatly helped to understand more clearly the things of which –before the varied explanations- they had only one-sided knowledge.    

(Verse 107)- God’s Plan is to use the human will to co-operate in understanding Him and His relations to us. This is the answer to an objector who might say:”If He is All-Powerful, why does sin or evil exists in the world? Can He not destroy it?” He can, but His Plan is different, and in any case it is not for a Teacher to force any one to accept the truths which he is inspired to preach and proclaim.

(Verse 108)- A man’s actual personal religion depends upon many things; his personal psychology, the background of his life, his hidden or repressed feelings, tendencies, or history (which psycho analysis tries to unveil), his hereditary dispositions or antipathies, and all the subtle influences of his education and his environment. The task before the man of God is: (1) to use any of these which can sub-serve the higher ends, (2) to purify such as have been misused, (3) to introduce new ideas and modes of looking at things, and (4) to combat what is wrong and cannot be mended: all for the purpose of leading to the truth and gradually letting in spiritual light where there was darkness before. If that is not done with discretion and the skill of a spiritual Teacher, there may be not only a reaction of obstinacy, but an unseemly show of dishonor to the true God and His Truth, and doubts would spread among the weaker brethren whose faith is shallow and infirm. What happens to individuals is true collectively of nations or groups of people. They think in their self-obsession that their own ideas are right. God in His infinite compassion bears with them, and asks those who have purer ideas of faith not to vilify the weaknesses of their neighbors, lest the neighbors in their turn vilify the real truth and make matters even worse than before. In so far as there is active evil, He will deal with it in His own way. Of course the righteous man must not hide his light under a bushel, or compromise with evil, or refuse to establish right living where he has the power to do so.

(Verse 109)- If the Unbelievers are merely obstinate, nothing will convince them. There is no story fuller of miracles than the story of Jesus. Yet in that same story we are told that Jesus said:” A wicked adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas” Matt. xvi- 4. There are Signs given by God every day, understood by those who believe. A mere insistence upon some particular or special Sign means more contumacy and misunderstanding of the spiritual world.                 

(Verse 110)- A/ where there is sheer obstinacy and ridicule of faith, the result will be that such a sinner’s heart will be hardened and his eyes will be sealed, so that he cannot even see the things visible to ordinary mortals. The sinner gathers impetus in his descent towards wrong.

B/ in Surat Al-Bagara 2 verse 15:      

 God’s Grace is always ready to help human weakness or ignorance, and to accept repentance and give forgiveness. But where the sinner in actual rebellion, he will be given rope, and it will be his own fault if  he wanders about distractedly, without any certain hope or refuge.