The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 144
CH. 3 ĀL-E-‘IMRĀN PT. 4 Allah and whose abode is Hell? أَفَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ رِضْوَانَ اللهِ كَمَنْ بَاءَ Is he who follows the. 163 b pleasure of Allah like him who بِسَخَطٍ مِنَ اللهِ وَ مَأْويهُ جَهَنَّمُ draws on himself the wrath of وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ. هُمْ دَرَجَتُ عِنْدَ اللهِ وَاللهُ بَصِيرٌ بِمَا They have different grades. 164 يَعْمَلُونَ And an evil retreat it is! 445 of grace with Allah; and Allah sees what they do. 446 "2:208, 266; 3:16; 5:3, 17; 9:72. is this apprehension that the verse condemns in the words, And it is not possible for a Prophet to act dishonestly. But no imputation of actual faithlessness to the Holy Prophet is implied. The verse simply purports to say that it was far from the Prophet to ignore the rights to the booty of those whom he himself had stationed at a certain place. The verse may also be taken as a rebuke to the hypocrites who deserted the Holy Prophet in the Battle of Uḥud. In this case, the implication would be that while the hypocrites had proved faithless to the Prophet by leaving him in the lurch, the Prophet would not prove faithless to God by refusing to fight in His cause even when weak and deserted. This meaning is also supported by the context. 445. Commentary: The words, who follows the pleasure of Allah, apply to the Holy Prophet and his true followers who, undaunted by the defection of the hypocrites at Uḥud, which considerably weakened their ranks, proceeded to fight the enemies of 584 Islam. The hypocrites, on the other hand, by their act of desertion, drew upon themselves the wrath of God. They turned away from the fire of war, but a much worse fire awaited them in Hell. They retreated from the battlefield in order to seek security, but their retreat proved to be the gate of Gehenna for them. كمن باء بسخط من الله The expression rendered as, like him who draws on himself the wrath of Allah, may also be translated as "like him who turns (or returns) with the wrath of Allah". The latter rendering would help further to clarify the explanation given above. 446. Commentary: The words literally mean, they are different grades. Actually, however, they mean, they are the possessors of different grades of grace, the word J, (possessors) being understood before the word. The word has been dropped to intensify the meaning, as if the holders of these grades of grace were the very grades personified.