The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 471
PT. 14 AN-NAHL CH. 16 وَلِلَّهِ يَسْجُدُ مَا فِي السَّمَوَاتِ وَمَا فِي And whatever is in the. 50 heavens and whatever creature الْأَرْضِ مِنْ دَابَّةٍ وَالْمَلَيْكَةُ وَهُمْ is in the earth submits humbly to "13:16; 22:19. certain stage become contracted, signifying that its power, influence and glory are about to depart and that it is about to be reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. When such is the eternal law of nature, why then do the disbelievers not take a lesson from this natural phenomenon and realize that their shadow is decreasing and why do they not give up conceit and pride and accept the Prophet of God? In the preceding verses reference was made to the various forms of Divine punishment. In this verse, however, disbelievers are told to think and ponder why their power is declining and that of the Holy Prophet increasing. Nothing in this world can go against the will of the Creator. Natural objects have long shadows when the sun is at their backs. From this natural phenomenon it is easily understandable that the shadows of those who have God at their back must also become long, hinting that their power and influence must grow. But just as shadows have no independent existence of their own and depend on the sun for their increase or decrease, similarly success and prosperity depend only on the sun of the grace of God. When God withdraws His grace from a people, their progress and prosperity depart. Disbelievers are warned that punishments mentioned above will 1679 result in the complete obliteration of their shadows while the shadow of the Holy Prophet will continue to expand and lengthen until it will spread and reach to Mecca. Such is the eternal law of God which is embodied in the present verse and which they have been invited to study and profit by. It may be objected that it is to the East or to the West that shadows are shifted and not to the right or to the left as mentioned in this verse. The reason for this description lies in the fact that it is with reference to the Holy Prophet and the Meccans that the directions have been mentioned in this verse. In fact, the verse implies a reference to the Hijrah. The Prophet was to go to Medina, which lies in the North, and the Meccans were in Mecca, which is in the South. If a person standing at a place where the boundaries of Mecca and Medina meet should face the East, Mecca will be on his right and Medina on his left. 'The right', thus refers to Mecca and 'the left' to Medina. The use of the word (the right) in the singular and J(the left) in the plural signifies that the shadow of disbelievers, being limited, will decline and decrease and the Holy Prophet who will migrate to a town situated to the left will have many shadows i. e. his cause will advance and progress from many sides.