The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 710
Subject Matter The Surah opens with the declaration that all praise belongs to God Who is the Originator of the heavens and the earth. The declaration implies that being the Creator of the universe God has not only provided for the physical needs of man but also for his moral and spiritual needs, and that for this purpose He has created angels through whose instrumentality He controls the physical universe and conveys His will to men. The Surah further says that since the creation of man God has been sending Prophets and Messengers to convey His will and that now He has decreed to bestow His mercy upon mankind in the form of the Quran. After this announcement of the bestowal of Divine mercy upon man, he has been warned not to reject it, as this will entail grave consequences. The subject further continues that whenever a Divine Messenger addresses his Message to his people, they become split up into two camps those that accept the Divine Message and become heirs to God's blessings and mercy and those who reject His Prophet and incur His displeasure and come to grief. Further, the Holy Prophet is asked not to grieve over his being rejected by disbelievers, since by rejecting him they only injure their own souls and cannot frustrate God's purpose. The Surah proceeds to draw a moral lesson from the quite insignificant beginnings of man, viz. that Islam too will, from a humble start, grow into a mighty organisation. It further compares Islam to a sea whose water is sweet and pleasant to drink and whose teachings slake the thirst of spiritual wayfarers. Next, it observes that Islam is no novel phenomenon. Alternate periods of spiritual light and darkness continue to come over the world as day follows night and vice versa. After a long period of darkness and cessation of revelation, the sun of Islam has risen to illumine the dark world and God has decreed to bring into being a new creation and a new order of things through its teachings. Through the Quran God will give eyes to the blind and ears to the deaf and the dead will receive new life, but those who will deliberately shut the avenues of their hearts and refuse to listen to the Divine Call will incur spiritual death and will be like the dead in the graves. The Surah further develops the subject of the continuity of revelation and says that the Holy Prophet is no new Messenger. There have been coming in the world, from time immemorial, Divine Messengers who called men to God. "There is no people," the Sūrah says, "to whom a warner has not been sent. " The Surah then invites attention to the study of the physical phenomenon which bears a striking resemblance to a similar phenomenon in the spiritual realm. When rain falls on dry and parched land, it begins to bloom, blossom and vibrate with new life, and many kinds of crops, flowers and fruits of varying colours, tastes, and forms, are brought forth. The water 2624