The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 704
PT. 22 وَمَا أَتَيْتُهُمْ مِنْ كُتُبِ يَدْرُسُوْنَهَا وَمَا CH. 34 SABA' no 45. And We gave them books which they studied nor did We send to them any Warner before thee. 3166 أَرْسَلْنَا إِلَيْهِمْ قَبْلَكَ مِنْ نَّذِيرٍةٌ وَكَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ وَمَا بَلَغُوا And those who were before. 46 مِعْشَارَ مَا أَتَيْنَهُمْ فَكَذَّبُوا رُسُلِى قن them also rejected the truth- and these have not attained even to a tenth of that which We gave split up the people into groups and parties and thus had sought to carve out of this chaos a new community for himself and to impose his leadership on them (v. 8). This objection was answered by a reference to the Divine practice that whenever there came a Prophet into the world, the people to whom he preached his Message naturally became split up into two hostile camps with the result that those who accepted it and followed the Prophet's lead triumphed over their opponents and became a strong community. To this the disbelievers would retort that the Prophet could not succeed in the face of their great resources, power and numbers (v. 36). When this objection was also refuted by the argument that power and wealth belonged to God and that it was not these things but right beliefs and good actions that led to the success and prosperity of a people and that Muslims being righteous and holding right beliefs were destined to triumph over them (vv. 37-40), the disbelievers pretended to derive consolation from the false and flimsy plea that the Prophet could not succeed because three great factors worked towards his failure, viz. that he acted against the old traditions of their forefathers, that he was a liar and an impostor and that he employed unfair and deceitful means for the furtherance of his cause and held out false promises. It is to these three objections of disbelievers that the verse under comment refers. 3166. Commentary: The verse answers all the objections mentioned in the preceding verse. It purports to say that disbelievers accuse the Holy Prophet of having defied and flouted the time-honoured traditions of their forefathers. This objection is answered by the question "do they possess any Book which has come down to them from their forebears 2618 and which contains teachings opposed to the teachings of the Prophet?" It further says that when no Prophet had come to their forefathers and they had received no revelation, then what value can their views and opinions possess as compared with the teachings of the Holy Prophet who claims to have been commissioned by God and to have received revelation direct from Him?