The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 340
CH. 2 AL-BAQARAH of this world, which appear so attractive to them as to leave no room in their hearts for God and His Messenger. The or author of the act denoted by the verb which is in the passive voice, has not been named here; but elsewhere the Quran clearly states that it is Satan who has taken upon himself to make the things of this world look beautiful and attractive in the eyes of unbelieving people (15:40), who thus become engrossed in the affairs of the world. Intoxicated with their material gains and worldly possessions, disbelievers, and for that matter, hypocrites also, look down upon believers and scoff at them when they see their apparently low worldly position and hear promises of victory and future greatness being made to them. In view of the utter helplessness of the believers, they cannot possibly bring themselves to conceive that believers will ever become heirs to that eminence and glory which is promised to them by God and, therefore, they treat such promises with contempt. But truth has always triumphed over falsehood in the end. The history of all religions and particularly that of Islam bears undeniable testimony to this fact. The clause, but those who fear God shall be above them on the Day of Resurrection, does not mean that the triumph of the Faithful over disbelievers will be confined to the next world only. The words "the Day of Resurrection" have been added to point out that whereas believers will also triumph in this world, as borne out by the facts of history, their triumph in the next world will be 340 PT. 2 complete and perpetual. These words may also refer, according to Arab usage, to the time of the downfall of disbelievers and the rise of the Faithful in this very world. In this sense the clause would signify, "wait a while, for the appointed time is not far distant when Muslims will triumph over their enemies and will be above them in all respects", i. e. in knowledge, wealth, power, etc. —a fact to which the early history of Islam in Medina, Damascus, Baghdad, Egypt, Spain, etc. , bears ample testimony. To quote only one instance, i. e. that of the Arabs being in their time above the rest of the world in science, Robert Briffault says: "The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal to Arab culture; it owes its existence" (The Making of Humanity). or fear of It will be noted that while making the promise of future greatness, the substitutes the verse expression "those who fear God" for the expression "those who believe". This change has been made to point to the fact that to obtain triumph mere d (belief) is not enough; the Muslims should effect a real change in themselves, by attaining God. The phrase "without reckoning" may mean three things: (1) that the favours and gifts of God know no ending; for a thing that does not end cannot be reckoned; (2) that God bestows upon believers more favours and more gifts than they appear to deserve, the more SO because believers spend in the cause of God to the utmost of their power without