The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 424
PT. 7 نُصَرِّفُ الْآيَتِ ثُمَّ هُمْ يَصْدِفُونَ CH. 6 AL-AN'ĀM bring it back to you?' See how We vary the Signs, yet they turn away. 793 قُلْ أَرَعَيْتَكُمْ إِنْ أَتُكُمْ عَذَابُ اللهِ Say, “What think yeh If the. 48 بَغْتَةً أَوْ جَهْرَةً هَلْ يُهْلَكُ إِلَّا الْقَوْمُ you suddenly or openly will الظَّلِمُونَ punishment of Allah come upon any be destroyed save the wrongdoing people?'794 793. Commentary: "6:41; 10:51; 12:108; 43:67. The preceding verse spoke of the punishment that cuts at the root. But there is a stage when only a part is affected, or even if the whole body is affected the disease is not deep- rooted and there is yet time to prevent the total loss of the body. In its early stages, a disease is generally curable; but if it is not attended to in time, it may be aggravated and become incurable. It is against such negligence that men are warned in the present verse. Some men delay acceptance of Divine Messengers. They wait for more and more signs, and go on postponing the tendering of allegiance to the heavenly Messengers until it is too late. The punishment of God descends on the enemies of the Prophets; and those who do not make use of their inward light and prefer to wait for more and more evidence of the truth of the Divine Messengers also perish with their enemies. So this verse warns those who are in the habit of delaying and postponing, and exhorts them to use their inward light for the recognition of the Divine Messenger, and expedite their acceptance of him, 864 lest delay should result in the total extinction of their God-given faculties and they should perish with the rest. They should be prompt to make use of their hearing, and their eyes, to make use of these faculties in time, and their hearts; for if they fail they will gradually become impaired and will finally be lost; then no power will be able to restore these faculties to them after they have completely lost. been The words, how We vary the Signs, signify that in order to make things God brings the perfectly clear, different aspects of signs before the people, sometimes showing one kind of sign and sometimes another, so that all kinds of people may be satisfied. 794. Commentary: The word "suddenly" signifies the coming of the Divine punishment without warning or previous indication. The Fall of Mecca belonged to this class of signs. The word "openly" implies giving a warning beforehand so that such people as still retain inward light and have a desire to follow the guidance