The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 236
CH. 4 AN-NISA' they come not near under- standing anything?547 PT. 5 مَا أَصَابَكَ مِنْ حَسَنَةٍ فَمِنَ اللهِ وَمَا Whatever of good comes to. 80 thee is from Allah; and b أَصَابَكَ مِنْ سَيِّئَةٍ فَمِنْ نَفْسِكَ whatever of evil befalls thee is وارسلك لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولاً وَكَفَى بِاللهِ وَاَرْسَلْنَاكَ from thyself. And We have sent thee as a Messenger to 547. Important Words: (strongly built) is derived from › meaning, he plastered (a wall, etc. ) شاد البناء. with the requisite material means, he raised the building high. means, they strengthened and exalted the religion. means, he raised it high, namely, a place or a building; or he built it firmly and strongly and raised it high (Lane & Aqrab). Commentary: The words, Wheresoever you may be, death will overtake you, may either refer to the general physical law about the inevitability of death, meaning that when one must die sooner or later, there is no reason why one should be so afraid of death as to refuse to fight in a just cause; or they may be taken as particularly addressed to the hypocrites, who disobeyed the Divine command to fight, thinking that in this way they that hypocrites when Muslims achieved a success, they attributed it to God, saying that since Islam was a divine religion, it was bound to prosper and succeed. But when a misfortune overtook Muslims, they declared that it was due to mistakes committed by the Prophet. The Quran says that from the viewpoint from which they ascribe success to God, failures are also ascribable to Him. By attributing success to God and failure to the Prophet, the hypocrites sought to discredit the Prophet and to lower him in the estimation of Muslims. The words, Say, All is from Allah, point to the fact that both successes and misfortunes were foretold by the Holy Prophet (e. g. see 2:156-158). So even the failures which the hypocrites attributed to the Holy Prophet really constituted a proof of his truth. The expression, All is from Allah, is also true in this sense that God is the final controlling power in the universe and whatever good or evil befalls man is attributable either to the general law of nature ordained by God or to one the or other of His special decrees. 676 would be able to avoid death. The verse purports to say that God had decreed that they should suffer death and destruction, however well protected they might be. It was customary with