Essence of the Holy Qur’an — Page 19
19 Chapter 7 Al-A‘r a f (Revealed before Hijrah) Title and Time of Revelation According to Ibn ‘Abb a s, Ibn Zubair, H asan, Muj a hid, ‘Ikrimah, ‘A ta ’ and J a bir bin Zaid, this S u rah belongs to the Meccan period with the exception of vv. 165-172. Qat a dah however, is of the opinion that v. 165 was revealed at Medina. The S u rah takes its title from v. 47. Commentators have not succeeded in finding out any real connection between the word A‘r a f and the subject-matter of the S u rah. This is because they have assigned a wrong meaning to the word. They think that A‘r a f is the name of an intervening spiritual stage between Paradise and Hell and that the Fellows of A‘r a f will appear distinct from the inmates of Hell but will not as yet have entered Paradise. The Qur’ a n rejects this meaning of the word because it has mentioned only two groups of people—the dwellers of Paradise and the inmates of Hell. There is no mention in it of any third group or class of people. It lends no support to the interpretation of the word A‘r a f as the place of persons of a middling spiritual status, nor can any internal evidence be adduced in support of this interpretation. The Qur’ a n depicts the Fellows of Al-A‘r a f as at one time addressing the dwellers of Paradise and at another time talking to the inmates of Hell; and their spiritual knowledge has been declared to be so great that they can recognize the dwellers of Paradise by their special marks and also the inmates of Hell by the latter’s particular signs. They rebuke and upbraid the inmates of Hell and pray for the inmates of Paradise (7:47, 49, 50). Can a person, who himself is hanging, as it were, in a state of uncertainty between Paradise and Hell, be so presumptuous as to assume an air of superiority as the Fellows of Al-A‘r a f have been shown to do? The fact is that the Fellows of Al- A‘r a f are the Prophets of God, who will enjoy a special spiritual status on the Day of Judgment and will pray for the dwellers of Paradise and rebuke and reprimand the inmates of Hell. And because the S u rah is the first among the Qur’ a nic Chapters in which the life stories of several Prophets have been dealt with at some length, it has rightly been given the name Al-A‘r a f. Moreover, the very construction of the word supports this inference. A‘r a f is the plural of ‘ Urf which means a high and elevated place and means also that spiritual realization which a man acquires by the help of God-given intellect and the testimony of his inner self. So A‘r a f may signify those teachings of which the truth is established by rational arguments and the testimony of human nature; and, as the teachings of Prophets possess all these qualities, they alone deserve this spiritually exalted position and so they can legitimately be called the Fellows