The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 625
the Christian Faith was to pass. Mention has also been made of how Muslims would behave and make themselves the object of Divine wrath by imitating the iniquitous ways of the Jews. An answer has also been supplied to yet another question viz. what connection is there between these matters and the story of the Dwellers of the Cave, and of Dhul-Qarnain and Gog and Magog, the parable of two gardens and the Isra' (Spiritual Ascension) of Moses? The answer which the Surah under comment gives to this question is that these parables describe in metaphorical language the rise and fall of Christian nations and also the hardships and tribulations that Muslims had to suffer from them on account of their own iniquities. The Dwellers of the Cave are those early Christians who suffered untold persecution for the sake of their religion and upon whom God bestowed great material and spiritual blessings and favours as a reward for their sacrifices. The incidents mentioned in this chapter had happened long before the time of the Holy Prophet because the successors of those early Christians had forsaken the path of truth by the time he made his appearance. A brief account of the Dwellers of the Cave or early Christians is given to point to the fact that when Jews incurred Divine displeasure by their persistent rejection of truth, God chose these early Christians for the bestowal of His favours. But when later Christians departed from the path of virtue and took to iniquitous ways and practices, they too forfeited Divine favours. This subject has been described in the parable of "two gardens". The "two gardens" symbolized the two periods of the progress and prosperity of the Mosaic Dispensation, viz. (a) the period of prosperity of the Jewish people and (b) the period of the progress and advancement of Christian nations. Or they symbolized the two periods of the Christian people, the one before the time of the Holy Prophet and the other in our own time. Sūrah Bani Isrā'il contains an account of the favours which God bestowed upon the Jews and the present Surah deals with the great material progress and advancement made by Christian nations. After this, the Surah proceeds to say that when the Israelites abused the possession of these "two gardens" and consigned to oblivion God's great blessings and began to look down upon their cousins, the Ishmaelites, and became spiritually so depraved as to think that God's blessings were not so many Divine favours but rewards which they had themselves earned and therefore richly deserved as of right, then God heard the supplications of the despised and oppressed Ishmaelites and destroyed the gardens belonging to the Mosaic Dispensation, i. e. God broke the power of both Jews and Christians and chose the Ishmaelites, who were looked down upon, for His favours and gave them gardens better than those He had given to Jews and Christians. 1833