The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 50
CH. 19 MARYAM PT. 16 and deeds. The speaking of truth becomes, as it were, a part of his being, a second nature with him (Lane). This is the highest stage of Abraham was a native of Ur of the Chaldees in Iraq. His people worshipped the sun and the stars. Their chief god was Merodach or (Madruk). It was also called Bel, i. e. (the quality or condition of Lord (Enc. Bib. ). being truthful). Abraham was a great iconoclast. He preached the Unity and Oneness of God and strongly denounced and condemned idol-worship. By his iconoclastic activities he incurred the enmity of his father and so with his wife and his nephew Lot, he had to leave his native place for Canaan the land which God had promised to give to his seed (Gen 12:7). When Canaan suffered from a severe famine Abraham left it for Egypt where he married Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. For a detailed account of Abraham see 6:75. (the Book) in this verse means the Quran. The Holy Prophet is here directed to relate the story of Abraham as it is given in the Quran and not as it is related in the Bible. While the Quran depicts Abraham as a truthful man the Bible accuses him of telling lies (Gen. 20:13). صدیق The word possesses a double connotation. While on the one hand it means one who is highly truthful, on the other it denotes a spiritual rank next only to the rank of prophethood. In fact, every quality possesses two connotations and two uses. It is used as an attribute and it also expresses a rank. In the present verse has been used to express only the attribute and quality of truthfulness and not the rank of which is included in the rank of ❀ (a Prophet) which has also been mentioned in regard to Abraham in this verse. The verse means that Abraham was a Prophet of God and one of his most prominent and distinctive qualities was that he was truthful par excellence. The Quran has laid great stress on the truthfulness of Abraham perhaps (a truthful man) is the because in some future time lies were to be attributed to him by some commentators of the Quran. has intensified form of which is active participle from which means, he spoke the truth (Lane). means one who speaks the truth. being the intensive form of four meanings; (a) one who very generally and often speaks the truth; (b) one who never tells a lie; (c) one who is so habituated to speaking truth that it becomes impossible for him to tell a lie; and (d) one who is truthful in his talk and substantiates the truth of his talk and beliefs by his actions | The Surah opens with a brief mention 1964 It seems appropriate and pertinent to write here a few words about the order and arrangement of the verses of the present Surah because some Christian writers have found fault with the chronological order of the incidents mentioned in it. In fact the central theme of this Surah is to disprove and demolish the Christian dogma of godhead of Jesus Christ.