The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 359
PT. 6 AL-MĀ'IDAH CH. 5 رَّبِّكَ وَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ to thee from thy Lord; and if رِسَالَتَهُ وَاللهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ. conveyed His Message at all إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِى الْقَوْمَ الْكَفِرِينَ thou do it not, thou hast not And Allah will protect thee from men. Surely, Allah guides not the disbelieving people. 698 قُلْ يَاهْلَ الْكِتٰبِ لَسْتُمْ عَلَى شَيْ ءٍ حَتَّى Say, “O People of the Book. 69 you stand on nothing until you تُقِيمُوا التَّوْريةَ وَالْإِيْلَ وَمَا أُنْزِلَ observe the Torah and the Gospel and what has now been 698. Commentary: There is much difference of opinion about the time when this verse, containing a promise of God to protect the Holy Prophet against his not used here in the sense of "not showing the way to truth", for occurring directly after the command to deliver the message of God to the people it cannot mean that God will not guide disbelievers to truth. If they enemies, was revealed. Ibn Jarir, Ibn were not to be guided to the right Kathir, Durr-e-Manthūr and Al- path, what was the sense in Baḥrul-Muḥīt mention a large number commanding the Prophet to deliver of narrators who report that the verse God's Message to them? The was revealed at Mecca. There are expression is, therefore, used here not certain others, however, according to in the spiritual but in the physical whom the verse was revealed at sense. Occurring immediately after Medina. The author of the Rūḥul- the Divine promise of protection to Ma'ānī says, the verse was first revealed at Mecca, and was revealed again at Medina, and this seems to be the correct view. In fact, it appears to have been revealed four or five times. The words, if thou do it not, thou hast not conveyed His message, do not signify apprehension that the Holy Prophet was going to be remiss in his duty. They have been simply used to express the general principle that he who fails to convey part of his message, in fact, fails to deliver the message at all. the Holy Prophet, the expression () means that God will not allow disbelievers to devise means of successfully harming him; and that they will not be guided to come near him and kill him. It must, however, be remembered that the Divine promise regarding the protection of the Holy Prophet did not mean that his enemies would not be allowed to do him any physical harm whatsoever. It only means that they would not be permitted to take his life or disable him permanently so as to The expression 504) (guides not) is render him unfit for his work. 799