The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 421
mistake to suppose that God would allow the time-honoured system that had come into being through the great religions of the world to be destroyed. On the contrary, God had created man to demonstrate in his person His great attributes and in order that he should respond to the Divine Call. If man does not fulfil the great and sublime object of his creation, then there is no need or justification for him to exist and no need for God to feel any hesitancy in destroying him. In the Surah under comment we are told that in his love and solicitude for humanity, the Holy Prophet feels grieved at this apprehended possibility and wishes and desires that man may be saved. This desire of the Holy Prophet no doubt proceeds from his great love for mankind. The destruction of man, however, does not apparently seem to be quite in harmony with the Divine design. The Divine design is that having been endowed with knowledge of and insight into the Heavenly plan, man should be vouchsafed the opportunity to discover, with his own will and endeavour, the ways of the nearness of God and then should try to attain such nearness. But if he refuses to do so, he should suffer the consequences of his refusal. The Surah then proceeds to tell us that if man had not been endowed with the discretion and ability to make a choice, he would have become a mere machine and an automaton and would not have been considered as a being made in the image of God. So man must act and conduct himself in harmony with the Divine scheme without which he cannot attain true and real salvation. Subject Matter The Surah particularly deals with the Divine attributes, Latif (Benignant), Sami' (Hearing), Malik (King) and Raḥīm (Merciful), and gives sound and solid arguments and reasons to prove that God is Holy, He hears the prayers of His creatures, He is Merciful and He is the King and Ruler of the whole universe. It proceeds to say that the Quran gives its own arguments and proofs and needs no extraneous help or support to substantiate and establish the truth of its claims and teachings. It is further stated that the Holy Prophet's grief at the refusal of disbelievers to accept the Divine Message will be of no avail to them because it is entirely their own choice whether to accept or reject the truth, and God will not compel them to accept it. As disbelievers have deliberately preferred disbelief to belief therefore they have become far removed from the realities of life and only mock and jeer at truth. The Surah then goes on to say that as for the fulfilment of human needs and requirements, God has created pairs in all things in the physical world. It stands to reason that in the spiritual realm also He should have created their counterparts. This arrangement shows that God is Almighty and Merciful. Next, it gives in detail the story of Moses: How he was entrusted with his great mission and was commanded to go with his brother, Aaron, to 2335