The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 593
PT. 15 R. 8. BANI ISRĀ'ĪL CH. 17 shall summon every people يَوْمَ نَدْعُوا كُلَّ أُنَاسِ بِاِمَامِهِمْ ۚ فَمَنْ Remember the day when We. 72 أُوتِيَ كِتُبَهُ بِيَمِينِهِ فَأُولَبِكَ يَقْرَءُونَ with their Leader. Then whoso كتبهُمْ وَلَا يُظْلَمُوْنَ فَتِيلًا shall be given his book in his right hand such will read their book and they will not be wronged a whit. 2001 "69:20; 84:8, 9. seems strange. The fact that an Arab, and of all Arabs the Holy Prophet, who throughout his whole life never experienced a sea voyage, should have SO much emphasized the importance of sea-voyaging does indeed show that the Quran could not be his composition. He did not and could not know the great benefits of sea-voyaging. The words, and exalted them far above many, may seem to suggest that man is superior only to certain species of creation and not all creation. But a little deeper reflection over the expression makes such an inference appear quite unwarranted. The verse speaks of all mankind and it is true that all men are not superior to all other creatures. There are men morally so degraded as to be worse than animals and beasts. There are others who are superior even to the angels. There are others still who are so righteous as to occupy a higher spiritual position than even the most exalted angels. In short, all men are not superior to all other creatures, but some men do top the whole creation and man as such is superior to most of the creation, for the sun, the moon, 1801 the stars, and animals have been created for him and are engaged in his service. Hence, mankind as a class is superior to most of God's creatures, while man in his perfect spiritual state is certainly superior to the whole creation. 2001. Commentary: The word (Leader) here means a spiritual Leader or a Prophet. On the Day of Judgement every people will be summoned along with their Prophet, for he will have to render an account of how he discharged his divine mission and how his people received and treated his Message (4:42; 16:85, 90; Bukhārī, Kitābut- Tafsir). According to Islam the right hand is a symbol of blessing while the left is a symbol of punishment. In the human body the right side enjoys a certain superiority over the left since the tissues of the right side generally are stronger than those of the left. The giving of the record of one's deeds in one's right hand as mentioned in this verse signifies that it will be a good and favourable record. A certain preference for the right hand is a trait common among all