The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 84
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH adjudge by it to be erring and many by it does He guide, and none does He adjudge thereby to be erring except the disobedient, 33 33. Important Words: حيى (disdains) is derived from which means: (1) he lived or had life; (2) he felt or had a sense of shame or shyness or bashfulness. The infinitive means, sense of shame or modesty or shyness or bashfulness; or keeping back from a thing through fear of blame means, he felt a sense of shame or shyness; he kept back, or he forbore, or he shrank from. 135 means, he disdained it, or he refused to do it by reason of pride, or he kept far from it (Lane). (He adjudges to be erring) is from which is derived from which means, he went astray; he lost his way; he erred; he was lost; he perished. is the transitive form of. They say a i. e. he led him astray; he caused him to err; he lost him or it; he caused him to perish. ao also means, he found him to be erring or straying or lost, etc. (Lane). aul ahol may also mean, (1) God adjudged him to be erring or He adjudged him to have gone astray; (2) God forsook or abandoned him and he went astray (Kashshäf). See also 1:7. (the disobedient) is the plural of which is derived from the verb which means, he left the right course, or he declined from the right path. means, he departed from the command of his Lord; he disobeyed his Lord. is thus one 84 PT. 1 كَثِيرًا وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِةٍ إِلَّا الْفَسِقِينَ who departs from the right course or from the way of truth, or from the limits of the law, or from the bounds of obedience. The word is generally applied to one who first takes upon himself to obey an authority or to observe the ordinances of a law and then falls short of it (Lane & Aqrab). Commentary: If, as described in the previous verse, there is not much in common between the gifts of this world and those of the next, why has the Quran given a description of Heaven at all? This question is answered in the present verse. Even if the picture of Heaven and Hell given in the Quran is not exact, it cannot be denied that the imagery used enlightens and helps us to form an idea of the next life. God has, no doubt, described Heaven and Hell by using metaphors and similes, but no one can say that they are useless. Metaphors and similes are used in all languages, and they express depths of meaning which cannot be reached otherwise, and in things of the spirit they afford perhaps the only method by which ideas can be conveyed. The words used for describing Heaven may be as inadequate and insignificant as a gnat; nevertheless they help to conjure up the picture. The believers know the words are only meta- phorical and try to get to the depth of