The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 169
address. But with the Holy Prophet's coming to Medina, Muslims became welded into an organised community; therefore, at Medina the form of address: "O people" generally became changed into: "O ye who believe". This change was quite natural. But with the Prophet's advent to Medina, disbelievers were not altogether ignored. At Medina also they used to enquire of the Holy Prophet about many things and their questions were answered and those answers are recorded in the Quran. So whenever in Medina an answer to a certain question was revealed in which along with Muslims, disbelievers were also addressed, the form of address consisted of the words: "O people. " But when the revealed answer or commandment concerned only Muslims, the words: "O ye who believe" were used. So there was no reason for the words: "O people" to be definitely given up at Medina; and to fix Mecca as the place of revelation of a specific Surah because of these words having been used in it is simply arbitrary. Similarly, the inference of Nöldeke that because Jews have been referred to in some of the verses of this Sūrah in a friendly spirit, therefore these verses must belong to the Meccan period, is ill-based. In the verses which deal with Jews, the Quran maintains an attitude of uniform fairness to them whether those verses belong to the Meccan or the Medinite period. For instance, it is in a Medinite Sūrah, i. e. Al-Baqarah, that occurs the verse, And the Jews say, 'the Christians stand on nothing,' and the Christians say, 'the Jews stand on nothing' while they both read the same Book (2:114). In this verse the Quran has been scrupulously fair towards both Jews and Christians. So the argument that because in a certain verse Jews have been referred to in a friendly spirit, therefore that verse must necessarily belong to the Meccan period, carries no weight. Subject Matter As in Al-e-'Imrān, the Christian faith constitutes the main theme of this Surah. But in this Surah greater space has been assigned to a comparison of the detailed teachings of the two religions, Islam and Christianity, with special reference to the progress and domination of Christianity in the Latter Days. As in the Latter Days, Christianity was loudly to profess and proclaim its superiority over Islam on the basis of its teachings regarding women, this chapter largely deals with them, and even a cursory glance over these teachings establishes the fact that even in this respect, Islamic teachings are infinitely superior to those of Christianity. And as the subject of orphans is intimately connected with that of women, it has also received special mention here. The Surah is the first among Divine revelations to safeguard the rights of women. They are not only given the right of inheritance along with men, but have also been declared to be the masters and arbiters of their property. 609