The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 232
CH. 2 R. 16. AL-BAQARAH PT. 1 from the religion of Abraham وَمَنْ يَرْغَبُ عَنْ مِلَّةِ اِبْراهِمَ إِلَّا مَنْ And who will turn away. 131 سَفِهَ نَفْسَهُ وَلَقَدِ اصْطَفَيْنَهُ في الدُّنْيَا ?but he who is foolish of mind وَإِنَّهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ لَمِنَ الصَّلِحِينَ b Him did We choose in this world, and in the next he will surely be righteous. 137 among the "3:96; 4:126; 6:162. 2:125; 3:34; 16:121, 122; 60:5. dant of Ishmael, fall to the ground. Before passing on to the next verse a brief reference to Hagar, mother of Ishmael, will not be out of place here. C. J. Ellicott, Lord Bishop of Gloucester, says in his Commentary: "Hagar. . . v. . . was to be, not Abraham's concubine, but his wife" (Vol. 1, p. 69). The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan ben Uzziel tell us that "Sarah. . . took Hagar. . . and set her free, and gave her to Abraham, her husband, to wife" (Translation by J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862, p. 205). This setting free of the "handmaid" or "bondwoman" does not imply that Hagar was a barbarian slave or that she was a slave from her very childhood. Sir Leonard Wooley says that she was a "civilised creature sprung from the second great centre of culture in the ancient world" (Abraham, London, 1936, p. 144). "According to Midrash", says another authority, "Hagar had been given as a slave to Abraham by her father, the Pharaoh of Egypt, who said, "My daughter had better be a slave in the house of Abraham, than mistress in any other" (Translation of 232 the Targums by J. W. Etheridge, note 8, on page 204). 137. Important Words: will turn away is derived) يرغب or giving عن from which is used either with the preposition ¿ different meanings. as means, he sought or desired it; and means, he turned away from it or he left or loathed it (Aqrab). dmed (is foolish of mind). The word din is used in three different forms: dew (1) (safiha), (2) (safaha), and (3) (safuha). All these give different meanings. The Quran uses the first form, i. e. dew (safiha) which means, he was ignorant or he behaved ignorantly; he was foolish or he acted foolishly; he was lightwitted or he behaved light-wittedly. When the word dew is used with me as its seeming object as in the verse under comment, it does not actually become transitive but simply looks so (as does the verb which see under 2:28). In fact, as most lexicographers have explained, the expression medew is really either am dew or é o dén or me and means, either he is foolish of mind, or he is foolish