The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 391
PT. 14 AL-HIJR CH. 15 religions and nationalities (34:13 & 2 of all, given to him. So those who Chron. 2:7-18). man (5) Savages and wild peoples who in pre-historic times, before man had morally developed enough to be given a revealed code of laws, lived in caves and hollows of the earth and were subject to no laws or rules of conduct. When, however, became civilized after having been given a revealed Law, those among the last-mentioned class of men who obeyed it were called (man) by the Quran while those who were of a fiery and rebellious temperament were called (jinn). In this sense these two classes of human beings viz. (man) and (jinn) still exist and people continue to change from one class to the other according as they become law-abiding and civilized or throw off the yoke of law and defy it. For a fuller treatment of this subject the reader is referred to "Sair-e-Rūḥānī" and "Tafsir-e-Kabir" by Hadrat Khalifatul Masīḥ II, the Second Successor to the Promised Messiah. Now for the interpretation of the verse the words, And the jinn We had created before from the fire of hot wind, signify that the people whom God has given the name of jinn were only men of fiery temperament who, on account of their unruly nature, became easily excited and would not submit to anybody. In fact, before the birth of Adam, men were of this nature and disposition. Adam was the first man who achieved a high standard of moral and social perfection and this is why Divine revelation which intimately deals with morals and sociology was, first accepted Adam's lead and joined the social system set up by him brought, as it were, a sort of death on their fiery temperament and received the imprint of God's allegiance and were thus called "clayey" (see the preceding verse) because of their resemblance to clay, which easily submits to any kind of impression with which it is imprinted or any kind of shape which is given to it. But because the jinn preferred individual freedom to association in a social system and refused to give their allegiance to anybody, they were called "fiery" (the present verse), which means that, like the flame of fire, they broke all restraints and went out of control. And they were called jinn also because they lived underground. The objection that it is putting a far- fetched interpretation on the words, And the jinn We had created before from the fire of hot wind, to say that they merely signify a fiery disposition, possesses no weight. The objection has been answered by the Quran itself where it uses similar expressions. In 21:38, for instance, it says Ji. e. man is made of haste. Now all commentators of the Quran agree that these words simply mean that man is by nature hasty and not that there is any material substance called "haste" of which he is made. 1599 It is also possible that in the earliest stages of his creation man was a fiery being but, as the result of a long process of evolution and develop- ment, he finally became a clayey one, and Adam may have been the leader