The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 476
CH. 16 AN-NAHL PT. 14 وَإِذَا بُشِّرَ أَحَدُهُمْ بِال وجهه And when to one of them is. 59 بِالْأُنْثَى ظَلَّ وَجْهُهُ conveyed the tidings of the birth of a female, his face darkens, while he suppresses his inward grief. مُسْوَدًا وَهُوَ كَظِيمُن يَتَوَارَى مِنَ الْقَوْمِ مِنْ سُوءِ مَا بُشِّرَبِهِ He hides himself from the. 60 people because of the bad news أَيُمْسِكُهُ عَلَى هُوَنٍ اَمْ يَدُسُّهُ فِي he has had, “Shall he keep it in القُتُرَابِ أَلَا سَاءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ spite of disgrace or bury it in the dust?' Verily, evil is that which they judge. 1860 "43:18. their own accepted principles. The Commentary: rejection of truth makes them impervious to this patent fact that they attribute daughters to God while they themselves feel humiliated at daughters being attributed to them. This shows how helpless human intellect, unaided by Divine revelation, is to understand even very easy and simple things, let alone difficult and complicated religious problems. A possible objection that the Quran wrongly assumes that polytheists regard daughters as a source of humiliation is answered in the next verse. 1860. Important Words: (disgrace) is the infinitive noun the man ان الرجل They says. هان from was or became low, base, vile, contemptible, despicable; he became weak and at rest. means, the matter was easy and light to him. (haun) means, ease and dignity and (hun) means, disgrace (Lane & Aqrab). In this and the previous verse the Quran has strongly condemned the low conception of the Arabs of their womenfolk and the degraded position they accorded them in their society. The Quran has throughout upheld the honour of woman and has recognized her rights, and in this respect it stands unique among all the Scriptures of the world. It may incidentally be stated here that it is generally believed that the practice of burying daughters alive was common among all Arab tribes. History lends no support this popular misconception. Had it been so the number of men over women would have greatly predominated in Arabia. But that was never the case. Nevertheless, the birth of a daughter was looked upon as a source of humiliation and embarrassment to the parents. But the foul practice of burying daughters alive was confined to a few tribes outside Mecca who had an exaggerated notion of their 1684 to