The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 151
In order to show that the cause of the Holy Prophet will prevail the Surah cites the examples of some former prophets. Moses, who was stated to be like him (Deut. 18:18) was one of them. The Jews accepted his message and found salvation and became a great nation. If they needed no belief in Atonement for salvation, why should those to whom the Holy Prophet has addressed his message need it when this message is in every respect more comprehensive than were Moses' teachings and has a much wider appeal and comprises all that was best and enduring in the teachings of all former Prophets? Another Prophet was the Patriarch Abraham. He was an ancestor of Jesus. He came before Moses. He also warned his people against setting up equals to God. God gave him spiritual light and bestowed upon him the inheritance of a country and he was blessed with a noble son like Isaac and a great grandson like Jacob and all of them were pious and righteous men. And before Abraham, came Noah who also succeeded in his mission and his enemies also were destroyed. Then there was David, Jesus' great progenitor. He, too, enjoyed a very high spiritual status. So did his son, the Prophet Solomon. All these great Prophets of God attained their high spiritual status and the pleasure of God without believing in Atonement. Similarly, Job suffered much in the cause of God and so did Ishmael and Idrīs and Dhul-Kifl and the Prophet Dhun-Nun who bore a close resemblance with Jesus. Then there was Zachariah and his son, the Prophet Yaḥyā. All these chosen servants of God like Jesus were models of noble and righteous conduct and like him they suffered great hardships and privations in the way of God. Then why, of all these Prophets, should Jesus alone be regarded as son of God and not them? After the account of these Prophets, mention is made of Jesus and his mother, Mary, who became widely known and highly respected. Their circumstances were in no way different from those of the noble Prophets of God mentioned above. Even the unusual birth of Jesus entitled him to no special spiritual status. The birth of Yaḥyā had also taken place in very exceptional circumstances. If Jesus was born without the agency of a human father, Yahya's birth took place when his father had reached an extreme old age and his mother had become barren and was quite unfit to give birth to a child. Similarly, Jesus' suffering in the cause of truth was no novel thing. Whereas he was only hung on the cross but taken down alive, Yaḥyā suffered actual death for the sake of God. Then why should only Jesus' death atone for the sins of mankind and not that of Yaḥyā? Towards the end, the Surah points to the phenomenal rise and great material might and dazzling prosperity, progress and power of Gog and Magog Christian nations of the west. When these nations, it proceeds to say, will have spread all over the world and have occupied every position of power 2065