The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 237
PT. 12 YUSUF be relieved and in which they shall give presents to others. '1553 1553. Important Words: (shall be relieved) is derived from (aorist) and (aorist غات الله البلاد They say اغاث and (يغوث (aorist ) i. e. God watered the country with rain; sent down rain on ,means اغاثه or ( يغوث aorist) غاثه. the land he aided or helped him; he removed from him trouble or affliction. means, the rain gave us relief. (Lane & Aqrab). (give presents) is derived from which means: (1) he pressed or squeezed the thing so as to force out its juice, etc. ; (2) he took or collected the produce of the earth; (3) he aided or succoured or saved or preserved (him); (4) he gave something to someone or did some benefit to someone (Lane). Commentary: Thinking in their ignorance that the verb is used only in the sense "they shall be rained upon," some Christian critics of the Quran have objected that as it very seldom rains in Egypt and the fertility of its soil depends entirely on the flooding of the Nile, therefore the statement that "the people shall be rained upon" betrays the ignorance of the Revealer of the Quran of even the elementary facts of geography. But these critics, instead of exposing the ignorance of the Quran, have betrayed their own ignorance of the Arabic language. The verb as shown under Important Words is used in three different senses, i. e. (1) sending down rain; דו CH. 12 النَّاسُ وَفِيهِ يَعْصِرُونَ and aiding; and (2) helping (3) relieving and removing trouble. with the text of the Quran. But even if Of these the latter two quite agree the word be taken in the first- mentioned sense there is no ground for objection, for though it is true that the fertility of the soil in Egypt depends on the flooding of the Nile, the flooding of the Nile itself depends 1445 on the rain on the mountains where lies its source. So if Joseph is represented here as saying that after seven years of famine, rains would fall, he obviously meant to say that rains would fall in such parts of the land as would cause the swelling of the Nile, which would bring relief to the famine-stricken people of Egypt. The objection that the Quran has used an ambiguous and equivocal word is also devoid of all substance. The ambiguity lies in the critics' own minds. The Quran has every right to use any word in the sense in which it is used in the Arabic language. If the critics of the Quran are not conversant with the particular use of a certain word, they should blame their own ignorance and not the Quran. In fact, the beauty of the Quranic style lies in the fact that it has used a word which applies with equal appropriateness to the times both of Joseph and the Holy Prophet, whose respective peoples were visited with a severe seven-year famine. Of the three meanings of the word given under Important Words, the first applied to the time of