(Illustration of verses 127-152: Justice to women and orphans is part of religion and the fear of God. Stand out firmly for justice to all -even against yourselves; or your nearest of kin. Remain firm in faith, and consort not with evil or hypocrisy. Be true in speech, and do not hurt the others, nor distinguish between the Teachers of the Truth, for God’s Truth is one and should be believed.)
COMMENTARY:
(Verse 127)- Again and again it is impressed on the community of Islam to be just in their dealings with women, orphans, children, and all whose weakness requires special consideration. The Law about widows and orphans, inheritance, dower, and marriage had already been declared in verses 2-35, and further instructions are now given on further reference. The words translated (Orphans of Women) mean –I think- the orphaned children of widows, of whom there were several after the battle of Uhud, and whom it was the duty of the community to provide for. But some Commentators take them to mean “Female Orphans”. In any case, because women were orphans or widows, it was not right that anyone should take advantage of their helpless position to deprive them of dower or of their portion in inheritance. – Also see verse 75. But widows and orphans are to be helped because they are ordinarily weak, ill-treated, and oppressed. In communities which base their civil rights on brute strength, the weaker go the wall, and public opinion expects nothing else. In Nietzsche’s philosophy of the superman that doctrine is stressed strongly, and some of the militarist nations in our own time seem inclined to support this reversion to our primitive instincts. Even in modern democracies of the saner sort, we are often told that it is the fate of the minorities to suffer; strength of numbers here becomes the passport to power and privilege. Islam, while upholding sane manly views in general, enjoins the most solicitous care for the weak and oppressed in every way –in rights of property, in social rights, and in the right to opportunities of development. Spiritual strength or weakness does not necessarily go with physical or numerical strength.        
(Verse 128)- To protect the woman’s economic interests, various rules are prescribed for dower in marriage. But the sanctity of marriage itself is greater than any economic interests. Divorce is, of all things permitted, most hateful to God. Therefore if a breach between husband and wife can be prevented by some economic consideration, it is better to make that concession than to imperil the future of the wife, the children, and probably the husband also. Such concessions are permissible, in view of the love of wealth ingrained in the unregenerate man; but recommendations is made that we should practice self-restraint, and do what we can to come to an amicable settlement without any economic sacrifice on the part of the woman.
(Verse 129-130)- In this material world there are two principal causes of division between man and wife, money and “the other woman” or “the other man”. Money was dealt with in the last verse. Here is the case of “the other woman”. Legally more than one wife (up to four) is permissible on the condition that the man can be perfectly fair and just to all. But this is a condition almost impossible to fulfill. If –in the hope that he might be able to fulfill it- a man puts himself in that impossible position, it is only right to insist that he should discard one but at least fulfill all the onward duties that are incumbent on him in respect of her.
(Verse 131) – Notice the refrain:”To God belong all things in the heavens and on earth”: repeated three times, each time with a new application. In the first instance it follows the statement of God’s universal providence and love. It two persons, in spite of every sincere desire to love and comfort each other, fail to achieve that end, and have to separate, God’s all-reaching bounty never fails, for He is Lord of all things. In the second instance it is connected with God’s Self-Existence, Self-Excellence, and independence of all creatures: all His commands are for our good, and they are given to all His creatures, according to their capacities. In the third instance, it is connected with His universal power:  for He could destroy any individual or nation and create a new one without any loss to Himself; but He gives a chance to all again and again and even rewards them beyond their own ambitious. –God’s existence is absolute existence. It does not depend on any other person or any other thing. And it is worthy of all praise, for it is all-good and comprises every possible excellence. It is necessary to stress this point in order to show that the moral law for man is not a mere matter of transcendental commands, but really rests on the essential needs of mankind itself. If therefore such schools of thought as Behaviorism proved their theories up to the hilt, they do not affect the position of Islam in the least. The highest ethical standards are enjoined by Islam, not as dogmatic imperatives, but because they can be shown to follow from the needs of man’s nature and results of man’s experience.
(Verse 132-133)- This refers to the next verse. He does not need us, but we need Him. Our hopes, our happiness, our success centre in Him, but He is Self-sufficient. He has the power to supersede us, but His goodness is ever seeking to give us every chance in this world as well as in the Hereafter.
(Verse 134)- Man in this life can only see up to the horizon of this life. The highest rewards which his wishes or ambitions can conceive in the terms of this life. But God can give him not only these but something infinitely higher, - the rewards of the Hereafter- which it did not even enter his heart to ask for or his imagination to conceive.
(Verse 135)- Justice is God’s attribute, and to stand firm for justice is to be witness to God, even if it is detrimental to our own interests; (as we conceive them) or the interests of those who are near and dear to us. According to the Latin saying :{ let justice be done though heaven should fall}. But Islamic justice is something higher than the formal justice of Roman law or any other human Law. It is seven more penetrative than the subtler justice in the speculations of Greek philosophers. It searches out the innermost motives, because we are to act as in the presence of God –to whom all things, acts, and motives are known. Some people may be inclined to favor the rich, because they expect something from them. Some people may be inclined to favor the poor because they are generally helpless. Partially in either case is wrong. Be just, without fear or favor. Both the rich and the poor are under God’s protection as far as their legitimate interests are concerned, but they cannot expect to be favored at the expense of others. And He can protect their interests far better than any man.
(Verse 136)- If your belief is by habit or birth or the example of those you love or respect or admire, make that belief more specific and personal to yourself. We must not only have faith, but realize that faith in our inmost being. The chief objects of our Faith are God, His Apostle/Messenger, and His Revelations. To all these we must give a home in our hearts. The angels we do not see and realize as we realize God, who is nearer to us than the vehicle of our life-blood, and the Day of Judgment is for our future experience, but we must not deny them, or we cut off a part of our spiritual view. 
(Verses 137-138)- Those that go on changing sides again and again can have no real Faith at any time. Their motives are mere worldly double-dealing. How can they expect God’s grace or forgiveness?      Here is a clear warning against those who make their religion a mere matter of worldly convenience. True religion goes far deeper. It transforms the very nature of man. After that transformation it is as impossible for him to change as it is for light to become darkness.
(Verse 139)- If the motive is some advantage, some honor, = the fountain of all good is God. How can it really be expected from those who deny Faith? And if there is some show of worldly honor, what is it worth against the contempt they earn in the spiritual world?
(Verse 140)- See Surat Al-Ana’m 6 verse 68 an earlier Meccan verse.  – Where we see or hear Truth held in light esteem, we ought to make our protest and withdraw from such company, not out of arrogance, as if we thought ourselves superior to other people, but out of real humility, lest our own nature be corrupted in such society. But it is possible that our protest or our sincere remonstrance may change the theme of discourse. In that case we have done well to those who were inclined to hold Truth in light esteem, for we have saved them for ridiculing Truth.