The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 55
PT. 1 AL-BAQARAH CH. 2 أُولَيكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَوُا الضَّللَةَ بِالْهُدى These are they who have. 17 taken error in exchange for فَمَا رَبِحَتْ تِجَارَتُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا guidance; but their traffic has مُهْتَدِينَ brought them no gain, nor are they rightly guided. 23 عمى like but whereas عمى "2:87, 176; 3:178; 14:4; 16:108. is wider in its significance, being used for blindness both physical and mental, dac is confined to mental blindness only (Kashshāf). da also means, it (the place) lost all marks or signs helpful for identification or for finding a way through it (Aqrab). Commentary:. lit) يستهزئ In this verse the word will mock) has been used for God, and this has occasioned the criticism that the God of the Quran is given to mocking. The criticism is due to the utter ignorance of Arabic idiom and usage. In Arabic, punishment for an evil is sometimes denoted by the term used for the evil itself. For instance, in 42:41 we read ſplis äijäi olja, i. e. the penalty for an evil is an evil the like thereof, whereas the penalty of an evil is not an evil. Again in 2:195 the word (transgression) is used for the punishment of transgression. Similarly, the well-known pre-Islamic Christian poet, 'Amr bin Kulthum says: فنجهل فوق جهل الجاهلينا الالا يجهلن احد علينا "Beware! Nobody should employ ignorance against us; or we will show greater ignorance in return;" i. e. we will severely avenge such ignorance (Mu'allaqāt). does Thus the expression not mean, Allah shall mock at them, but that Allah will punish them for their mocking. The former meaning, followed by some translators, is absolutely inconsistent with the spirit of the Quran which condemns jest and ridicule as marks of ignorance (2:68). How, then, can God attribute to Himself what He declares to be a practice of the ignorant? The clause, Allah will let them continue in their transgression, should not be understood to mean that God grants the hypocrites respite to let them increase in transgression. Such a meaning is contradicted by verses 6:111 and 35:38, where it is clearly stated that God grants the disbelievers respite with the sole object of reforming them but they only increase in unfortunately transgression. The word (wandering blindly) is derived from the root ass which, as explained above, signifies, besides other meanings, the absence of signs or marks; The meaning here would, therefore, be that the hypocrites persist in their wickedness without care or consideration, as if the way they are travelling has lost all signs, leaving the traveller without any sense of distance or direction. 23. Important Words: have taken in exchange is) اشتروا 55