The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 33
PT. 11 YŪNUS CH. 10 فَلَمَّا أَغْجُهُمْ إِذَاهُمْ يَبْغُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ But when He has delivered. 24 them, lo! they begin to commit excesses in the earth b بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ يَاَيُّهَا النَّاسُ إِنَّمَا بَغْيُكُمْ عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ مَّتَاعَ الْحَيَوةِ الدُّنْيَا ثُمَّ wrongfully. O ye men, your إِلَيْنَا مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَنُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ own selves. Have the enjoyment تَعْمَلُونَ excesses are only against your of the present life. Then to Us shall be your return; and We will inform you of what you used to do. 1299 إِنَّمَا مَثَلُ الْحَيُوةِ الدُّنْيَا كَمَا اَنْزَلْنَهُ مِنَ The likeness of the present. 25 life is only as water which We السَّمَاءِ فَاخْتَلَطَ بِهِ نَبَاتُ الْأَرْضِ مَّا يَأْكُلُ ,send down from the clouds "17:68; 31:33. 35:44. 18:46. It is worthy of note that whereas the verse uses the pronoun "you" in the second person in the first two clauses, it suddenly changes to a pronoun of the third person (them, they) in the third and the following clauses. This is not without purpose. The first two clauses referred to both believers and disbelievers, for it is both for believers and disbelievers that God has provided the means of travel by land and sea. Hence the pronoun "you" has been used in the first two clauses. But as in the following clauses it has been pointed out that a section of the people become ungrateful, therefore here the second person has been changed into the third person, in order to show that it is only disbelievers that become ungrateful. 1299. Commentary: disbelievers temporarily mend their ways when they are seized with punishment but, as the present verse points out, they revert to the paths of transgression and iniquity when the punishment passes away, forgetting that their acts of transgression will only tell against themselves. The words, your excesses are only against your own selves, point out that the Law is not a curse but a mercy of God, sent down for the well-being of mankind. Therefore, he who defies or infringes the Law, only harms himself. The words, Have the enjoyment of the present life, are intended to signify that even the rejecters of truth may have temporary benefits and may even "enjoy" their state of rejection just as a diseased person temporarily enjoys the things forbidden him. But the result is As stated in the preceding verse, always disastrous. 1241