The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 139
PT. 4 ĀL-E-‘IMRĀN CH. 3 وَلَبِن قُتِلْتُمْ فِي سَبِيْلِ اللهِ اَوْ مُتُّم And if you are slain in the. 158 لَمَغْفِرَةٌ مِّنَ اللهِ وَرَحْمَةٌ خَيْرٌ مِّمَّا surely forgiveness from Allah يَجْمَعُونَ cause of Allah or you die, and mercy shall be better than what they hoard. 440 وَلَبِن مُتُّم اَوْ قُتِلْ إلى الله And if you die or be slain. 159 b surely unto Allah shall you be gathered together. 441 10:59; 43:33. 5:97; 6:73; 8:25; 23:80. meaning is supported by the context. The idea contained in the words, so that Allah may make it a cause of regret in their hearts, is that when Muslims refused to act upon the advice of disbelievers not to fight, and instead, came forth in large numbers to fight in the way of God, the disbelievers were naturally grieved at their failure to win them over to their way of thinking. The interpretation of the clause, and Allah gives life and causes death, would vary according to the different meanings of the words (death) and (life) occurring in it. If the death referred to in the verse is taken in the sense of destruction, the clause would mean that with the death of a few Muslims, Islam would not go to ruin. God has decreed to vouchsafe victory to Muslims and the death in fighting of a number of the victorious army cannot possibly result in their destruction. If, however, death is here taken to mean "disgrace", then the clause would mean that God's votaries and true servants never meet with disgrace because all honour is in His hands and He gives it to 579 تُحْشَرُونَ whomsoever He pleases. Truly speaking, he who fights and lays down his life in the cause of truth can in no sense be regarded as dead, because such a one gives his life for the sake of Him Who is the controller of all life and death. Such a person can never die; for though physically he may die, spiritually he lives forever. In this connection, see also 2:155. 440. Commentary: The words, forgiveness from Allah and mercy shall be better than what they hoard, mean that hypocrites are afraid of death because of the wealth and property which they have to leave behind; whereas, if believers are killed in the cause of Allah, they will get what is incomparably greater than what hypocrites are greedily hoarding up, or what Muslims themselves may have collected in the form of wealth and other worldly things. There is thus no reason for true believers to be afraid of death. 441. Commentary: The pronoun "you" includes both hypocrites and believers; for all will be gathered unto God for reward or