The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 160
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH PT. 1 وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي And surely, you have known. 66 السَّبْتِ فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُوْنُوْا قِرَدَةً خَسِيْنَ ® the end of those amongst you, who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath. So We said to them: b‘Be ye apes, despised. '72 "4:48, 155; 7:164; 16:125. b5:61; 7:167. Commentary: After i. e. the dog moved away as a خسأ الكلب خسأ الرجل result of being driven away God's receiving commandments on the Mount, the Israelites, instead of strengthening their connection with the Lord, showed laxity and carelessness in observing His behests (Num. 11:1); but as God wanted to uplift them and bestow His grace and mercy on them in matters temporal as well as spiritual, He forgave them their sins and saved them from being the losers. 72. Important Words: (the Sabbath) is derived from meaning: (1) he rested. ; (2) he cut or broke a thing; (3) he shaved his hair; (4) he observed the Sabbath. The noun (Sabbath) signifies that day of the week which is observed as a sacred day in which no worldly work is done (Aqrab & Mufradāt). Among the Jews, Saturday was (and still is) observed as a sacred day which was passed in joyfulness and rest from work as well as in contemplation, sacrifice, holy convocation, etc. (Jew. Enc. under "Sabbath"). (apes) is the plural of (the ape) which is derived from the verb > meaning, he clove to the ground; he lay in dust. 3 means, he was or became abject or mean. means, apes or monkeys (Lane). (despised) is the plural of which is derived from ts. They say 160 of ✓ ✓ means, the man drove away the dog, despising it. Thus the word is both transitive and intransitive. means, one who moves away despised by others or one who is spurned by others (Aqrab). which the plural is is a word which, according to the rules of Arabic grammar, is used about rational beings only, the word used with regard to animals being abs. Commentary: as The verse speaks of the Sabbath and its violation by the Israelites. It is pointed out that God's covenant made it binding on the Israelites, among other things, to keep the Sabbath (Exod. 20:8-11), i. e. observe Saturday as a sacred day devoted to spiritual joyfulness and holy convocation, etc. but, recalcitrant usual, some among them violated the sanctity of the Sabbath and did not observe it, which brought on them God's wrath, disgrace and humiliation (Neh. 13:15- 18 & Jer. 17:21-23). The violation of the Sabbath was a great sin, inasmuch as it indicated that the Israelites wanted to remain engrossed in worldly affairs and did not like to pay any heed to religion, not even for a single day out of a whole week. It is wrong to infer from the word