The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 631
PT. 21 AS-SAJDAH CH. 32 كُنتُم بِهِ تُكَذِبُونَ the punishment of the Fire which you used to deny, '3068A وَلَنُذِيقَنَّهُمْ مِنَ الْعَذَابِ الْأَدْنَى دُونَ And most surely We will. 22 make them taste of the nearer punishment before the greater punishment, so that they may return to Us with repentance. 3069 الْعَذَابِ الْأَكْبَرِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ وَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنْ ذُكِرَ بِايْتِ رَبِّهِ does greater Sjell who 23. And wrong than he who is reminded ثُمَّ أَعْرَضَ عَنْهَا إِنَّا مِنَ الْمُجْرِمِينَ of the Signs of his Lord and مُنْتَقِمُونَ then turns away from them? We will surely punish the guilty. 3070 R. 3. وَلَقَدْ أَتَيْنَا مُوسَى الكتب فَلَا تَكُنْ And We did give Moses the. 24 Book be not therefore in doubt a52:48. 2:88; 17:3; 23:50. next world are far too good and too plentiful, even to be imagined or conceived. They will be far beyond the widest stretch of human imagination. 3068A. Commentary: The reference in the word "fire" in this verse seems to be to the punishment which the sinners suffer in this life, possibly the punishment of war. The words, "every time they desire to come forth therefrom, they will be turned back into it," support this inference. The whole of humanity, particularly the materialistic Western nations, have gone to rack and ruin by constant wars. Millions of lives have been lost in these wars and many more men have been maimed and mutilated, and property beyond calculation has been destroyed. And yet like the sword of Democles the dread of more terrible wars is constantly hanging over humanity's head. 3069. Commentary: the nearer العذاب الأدنى The expressions punishment) and (the greater respectively punishment) may signify: (1) afflictions of the present life and those of the Hereafter or (2) the defeat of the Quraish in the Battle of Badr and the Fall of Mecca when their power was finally and completely broken; or (3) smaller miseries and misfortunes which befall a disbelieving people by way of warning before their final destruction. 3070. Commentary: 2545 That the enemies of truth and the rejecters of the Divine Message have never prospered is writ large on the pages of history.