The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 584
CH. 17 BANI ISRĀ'ĪL PT. 15 وَمَا مَنَعَنَا أَنْ تُرْسِلَ بِالْايْتِ إِلَّا أَنْ And nothing could hinder. 60 Us from sending Signs, except كَذَّبَ بِهَا الْأَوَّلُونَ وَأَتَيْنَا ثَمُودَ النَّاقَةَ that the former people rejected مُبْصِرَةً فَظَلَمُوْا بِهَا وَمَا نُرْسِلُ them, but this is no hindrance بِالْايْتِ إِلَّا تَخْوِيفًا And We gave Thamūd the she- camel as a clear Sign, but they unjustly rejected it. And We send not Signs but to warn. 1989 "17:95; 18:56. punishment" was to be fulfilled after the advent of the Promised Messiah, and we find that it is already being fulfilled. 1989. Important Words: (unjustly rejected it). The word means, (1) he did wrong; or acted wrongfully, unjustly or tyrannically, (2) he put a thing in a wrong place or in a place not its own. ie whoso من اشبه اباه فما ظلم They say resembles his father, he has not put the likeness in a wrong place; (3) he made him suffer loss as in i. e. and they made not كانوا انفسهم يظلمون Us to suffer loss or detriment but it was themselves they made to suffer loss or detriment. means, he dug the ground in what was not the place of digging, dab also means, he imposed upon him a thing that was above his power or ability. The word is also used transitively by means of → as in the Quranic words (ie. and they disbelieved in them (the Signs) or unjustly rejected them (Lane & Aqrab). See also 2:36, 52. Commentary: وا The verse beautifully states that heavenly signs will never cease to appear. It warns Muslims not to entertain such a foolish belief and proceeds to refute and demolish the only possible objection against the appearance of heavenly signs. The objection is: When the people to whom the signs were first shown did not profit by them, where was the warrant that their successors would do so? The arguments given in refutation of this objection are: (a) If been a reasonable ground, no Prophet the rejection of heavenly signs had would have appeared. But this did after the very first Prophet-Adam- not happen and fresh Prophets continued to appear in all ages and fresh signs continued to be shown at their hands, which showed that the rejection of signs never proved a barrier in the way of the appearance of new signs. (b) Prophets are sent in the world in order to warn wrongdoers of their transgressions and iniquities and of the impending Divine punishment in consequence of those iniquities. Any such punishment without a previous warning and without showing signs would be contrary to Divine mercy. As an illustration of the claim that 1792