The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 327
PT. 18 AL-MU'MINÜN CH. 23 اِنّى جَزَيْتُهُمُ الْيَوْمَ بِمَا صَبَرُوا أَنَّهُمُ I have rewarded them this. 112 هُمُ الْفَابِرُونَ day for their steadfastness so that they alone have triumphed. " قُل كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ عَدَدَسِنِينَ God will then say, what. 113 number of years did you tarry in the earth?' قَالُوا لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ فَسْئَلِ They will say, “We tarried. 114 الْعَادِينَ for a day or part of a day, but ask those who keep count. '2585 قُل اِنْ لَّبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا لَّوْ أَنَّكُمْ كُنْتُمُ He will say, “You tarried. 115 ŠTENJEVI ZAJSIJE تَعْلَمُونَ but a little, if only you knew!2586 disbelievers strong and powerful. In the pride of their power and wealth the latter mocked at the poor believers and indulged so much in this unseemly business of scoffing and mocking at them that they lost all sense of propriety and dignity and even forgot their responsibilities and duties to God. Thus the poverty of the believers became the cause of the disbelievers indulging in mockery and consigning God to oblivion. The verse also means that the believers being poor and weak, the disbelievers employed them against their will or desire, exploited them and exacted compulsory service from them without paying them any wages or compensation for the work they did. 2585. Commentary: A whole life spent in ease and comfort, when followed by pain and punishment, appears very short and even becomes a source of regret and mortification. The verse purports to 2241 say that when disbelievers will leave behind a life spent in luxury in this world and will be brought face to face with Divine punishment and then will be confronted with the question as to how long they lived in the world, they will feel as if they had lived only for a day or even part of a day and will say so. The reply of disbelievers shows how vain and short-lived are the comforts of this life. 2586. Commentary: The divine rejoinder to disbelievers will be that worldly life and its pleasures or comforts were indeed transitory and very short-lived but they had never realized this fact and so kept on indulging in idle pursuits and mocking at God's Messengers and their followers as if there would be no end to this life. If they had only realized the transitoriness of this life, they would not have rejected the Divine Messengers.