The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 403
PT. 7 AL-AN'ĀM CH. 6 وَلَوْ نَزَلْنَا عَلَيْكَ كِتبًا فِي قِرْطَاس And if We had sent down to. 8 thee a writing upon parchment فَلَمَسُوهُ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ لَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا and they had felt it with their hands, even then the disbelievers would have surely said, 'This is nothing but manifest sorcery. ,755 إِنْ هَذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ وَقَالُوا لَوْلَا اُنْزِلَ عَلَيْهِ مَلَكُ And they say, “Why has not. 9 an angel been sent down to him?” "2:211; 25:8. of the Holy Prophet shall be destroyed like the enemies of the former Prophets. Even within the confines of Arabia there had been people who were visited with Divine punishment in consequence of their opposition to their respective Prophets who appeared in bygone times. Among them were the tribes, Tubba', 'Ad, Thamud and others whose stories were current among the Arabs. The words, as We have established you not, do not mean that the world is retrogressing. The fact is that although the world is progressing as a whole, yet some of the older nations which rose to the heights of civilization in their time were SO advanced in certain branches of art and science that in these specific branches they have so far not been equalled by the generations that followed. Take, for instance, the ancient Egyptians. The modern age, in spite of the marvels it has wrought in the domain of science, still gazes with wonder at some of the works of ancient Egyptian civilization. 843 Similarly, there were people among the Arabs who carved wonderful fortresses out of rocks. Thus every people that ever attained to the heights of civilization enjoyed a certain distinction which is not shared by other nations. By using this expression, the Quran means to say, "When these powerful people were destroyed in spite of their mastery of certain branches of knowledge, how can your arts save you from destruction?” 755. Important Words: (parchment) means paper; a roll or scroll of paper; anything one writes upon; a writing or book; a butt or target (Lane). Commentary: The words, and they had felt it with their hands, mean, "and they had made sure that it was a heavenly thing and not an earthly one". The words also embody a beautiful allusion to the spiritual blindness of the people. Being blind, they cannot see; so they have to feel with their hands.