The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 83
PT. 11 YŪNUS CH. 10 قَالَ قَدْ أُجِيبَتْ دَعْوَتُكُمَا فَاسْتَقِيمَا He said, Your prayer is. 90 accepted. So be ye twain وَلَا تَتَّبِعَنِ سَبِيلَ الَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ steadfast, and follow not the path of those who know not. '1362 Important Words), therefore attacking their hearts would mean attacking their progeny. Now an attack upon the progeny of a people may be made in two ways: either by the children being smitten with some calamity or misfortune, or by making the children renounce the faith of their forefathers and go over to the new faith. It was in the latter way that the hearts of disbelievers were attacked in the time of the Holy Prophet, for their children embraced Islam. In the time of Moses, however, his enemies were punished with the death of all their firstborn children (Exod. 12:29). It is worthy of note here that in the first part of the verse where mention اموال is is made of the favours of God, the word (embellishment), which here stands for "children," is placed before J (wealth), while in the prayer where reference is made to punishment, (wealth) mentioned before (hearts) which here stands for "children," thus reversing the previous order. The reason for this change in the order of words is that while mentioning His favours God has (embellishment), which represents children, before J (wealth), because of its being the more important of the two, but when referring to punishment, the lesser calamity has been mentioned first, hinting thereby that if disbelievers mended their ways put زينة after suffering a financial loss, they might still be spared the punishment concerning their progeny. This change in the order of words, besides revealing the wisdom underlying the arrangement of words in the Quran, also throws interesting light on the tender-heartedness of Moses. 1362. Commentary: It seems strange that when the offering of prayer is spoken of, Moses alone is mentioned as having when in the present prayed (see the preceding verse); but verse the acceptance of prayer is mentioned, God has joined Aaron with Moses by using the pronoun l (lit. you both). This is so because Moses, though apparently praying alone, had joined Aaron in his prayer by using the words (Our Lord) in the preceding verse. The words, follow not the path of those who know not, contain an explanation of a previous injunction calling on Moses and Aaron to be steadfast. The words do not mean that the Prophets of God sometimes 1291 follow the wishes of disbelievers. They only imply a warning to Moses and Aaron to be on their guard against the machinations of their enemies and to refrain from indulging in discussions which might turn their attention away from their real goal, as their enemies desired.