The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 288
CH. 23 AL-MU'MINÜN PT. 18 وَاَنْزَلْنَا مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً بِقَدَرٍ فَأَسْكَتُهُ And We sent down water. 19 فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ وَإِنَّا عَلَى ذَهَابِ بِهِ لَقَدِرُونَ from the sky according to measure, and We caused it to stay in the earth-and surely it is We Who determine its taking away- 2523 فَأَنْشَأْنَا لَكُمُ بِهِ جَنَّتٍ مِّنْ نَّخِيْلِ And We produced for you. 20 و أَعْنَابِ لَكُمْ فِيْهَا فَوَاكِهُ كَثِيرَةٌ وَمِنْهَا تَأْكُلُونَ thereby gardens of date-palms and vines; for you therein are abundant fruits; and of them you eat. 2524 2523. Commentary: a15:23. 16:12, 68; 36:35. This verse gives the first illustration of how God supplies the physical and spiritual needs of man. All life, it says, depends on water which descends from heaven, in the form of rain, snow or hail. Similarly, spiritual water descends from heaven in the form of Divine revelation without which no spiritual life can exist. The verse purports to say that if men out of their perversity and ingratitude reject the Divine Message and the heavenly water which God has sent down, they will become deprived of it. The parallelism in the physical and spiritual life of man with which this Surah has opened, is further developed in the present and the next few verses. The words, And surely it is We Who determine its taking away, refer to a well-known law of nature. The verse means to say that God sends down rain but rain-water does not stay in the earth permanently. It disappears by evaporation or flows into the sea through streams and rivers. The earth again becomes dry and then fresh rain is needed to make it fertile. The same is the case with Divine teaching. It powerfully influences the lives of men and brings about a great change in them for a certain period. Then it begins to be neglected, ignored and misinterpreted and SO a fresh revelation is needed. This law of God came into operation with the life of in operation till the end of time. man on this planet and it will remain reference to a prophecy of the Holy The verse also embodies an implied Prophet about his second advent in and about the spread of irreligious the person of the Promised Messiah and spiritual darkness in the centuries 2202 before the latter's advent, when there was to remain nothing of Islam but its name and nothing of the Quran but its written words (Mishkāt, Kitābul-'Ilm) and belief would have gone up to the Pleiades (Bukhārī, Kitābut-Tafsir). 2524. Commentary: In this verse God gives another illustration of the various boons and