The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 586
CH. 30 AR-RŪM PT. 21 يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِّنَ الْحَيُوةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ They know only the outer. 8 عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ غُفِلُونَ و قف aspect of the life of this world, and of the Hereafter they are utterly unmindful. 2994 أَوَلَمْ يَتَفَكَّرُوا فِي أَنْفُسِهِمْ مَا خَلَقَ اللهُ Do they not reflect in their. 9 own minds? Allah has not السَّمَوتِ وَالْاَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ created the heavens and the وَإِنَّ كَثِيْرًا مِنَ النَّاسِ two but in accordance with the وَأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى بِلِقَائِ رَبِّهِمْ لَكْفِرُونَ earth and all that is between the requirements of wisdom and for a fixed term. "But many among men believe not in the meeting with their Lord. 2995 أَوَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَيَنْظُرُوا Have they not travelled in. 10 the earth so that they might see "7:186. 10:46; 29:24; 32:11. 12:110; 22:47; 35:45; 47:11. has made this promise," is to the Divine decree alluded to in the words "that Allah might accomplish the thing that was decreed" (8:43) used with reference to the Battle of Badr. 2994. Commentary: The verse means to say that the knowledge of disbelievers is confined to the material side of this world and they are ignorant of things spiritual. The implication is that if disbelievers cannot understand how a people (the Romans) who had been completely broken and had lain exhausted and prostrate a few years back won a smashing victory over their powerful foe (the Persians) and how a handful of Muslims with no experience of war and having no arms and ammunition, succeeded in defeating a powerful army of the Quraish, three times their number, it is because the disbelievers' knowledge is limited to an understanding of the physical causes of the incidents, but the causes of the defeat of the Persians and that of the Quraish lay deeper and were more spiritual than material or mundane. 2995. Commentary: The verse means to say that if disbelievers had reflected over the great powers and faculties with which man has been endowed and had reflected also over the very limited duration of their worldly existence they would have realized that man's life on this earth is not the be-all and end-all of his creation and that there is a fuller and better life beyond the grave where man's spiritual progress will know no end and that the present life is only a preparation for the life hereafter. See also v. 12 below. 2500