Essence of the Holy Qur’an — Page 43
Maryam 43 manner of his birth without the agency of a human father. The procedure adopted to bring about this most extraordinary consummation implied that Prophethood was now going to be transferred from the House of Isaac to that of Ishmael, since there had remained among the Israelites no male from whose loins a Prophet of God should have been born. After this the S u rah reinforces the argument against the godhead of Jesus by stating that if all the Prophets from Adam down to the last Israelite Prophet before Jesus, to whom a brief reference is made in the S u rah , were mere human beings, why should Jesus, who was also only a Prophet of God, be invested with Divine attributes and be regarded as God or Son of God. As Resurrection and Life after death were to be widely denied in the Latter Days by Christians with whom the S u rah particularly deals, much stress has also been laid on the Hereafter, and stale and hackneyed arguments of disbelievers against it exposed and refuted. The disbelievers, the S u rah says, seem to derive false comfort from their wealth, material means and large numbers and adduce these things as an argument in support of their denial of the Life after death and of their belief that what really matters is the present life. They are warned that they should not be deceived by the apparent material weakness of believers and of their own power, wealth and vast resources since Truth always progresses gradually and in stages but most surely it does triumph in the end. The S u rah ends with an answer to an implied question, viz. why Arabic has been adopted as a vehicle for the revelation of the Qur’ a nic teaching. The answer given is: Since the Arabs are the first addressees of the Qur’ a n, and it is natural and also sensible that a Message should be addressed to a people in their own tongue in order that they should easily understand it and having understood it should convey it to others; therefore the Qur’ a n has been revealed in Arabic.