The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 734
a voice in the wilderness. The forces of evil will hold the whole world in their firm grip. Man will worship false gods and as a result of his sins Divine wrath will be excited and God's punishment will descend upon the world. This punishment will be sudden and swift like a blast from heaven and will leave the earth scorched and singed and the guilty will be called upon to render an account of their evil actions. Next, the Surah invites attention to the study of a well-known law of nature, viz. that when all earth becomes dry and parched, God sends down rain and the dead soil begins to vibrate with a new life, and herbage, vegetables and flowers and fruits of various kinds grow up. Similarly, in the spiritual realm when man's soul becomes corroded and contaminated and he is stuck fast in the quagmire of sin and iniquity, God, out of His infinite grace and mercy, causes spiritual water to descend from heaven in the form of Divine revelation. The Surah then gives another simile to explain the same subject. It points to the law of the alternation of day and night and from it draws the moral lesson that just as, in the physical world, day follows night, similarly in the spiritual world when darkness spreads, a Prophet is raised to dispel it. Divine Prophets are of two categories: (a) Law-bearing Prophets who, like the sun, are an independent source of light; and (b) subordinate Prophets who, like the moon, derive and borrow their light from the Master- Prophet. The Surah further points to a revealed truth that God has created all things in pairs; there are pairs even in vegetables and inorganic matter. This simile points out that Divine revelation must be accompanied by human reason and intelligence. All true knowledge is the result of the combination of Divine revelation and human reason. Then, after recounting some Divine blessings, the Sūrah gives a brief but graphic description of the conditions of believers and disbelievers in this and the next world. The believers, it says, will have the good things of the world in this life and the pleasure and grace of God in the next, and disbelievers will completely fail in their designs and endeavours against the cause of truth in this life. They will be punished with (a blast) in this world and will burn in the fire of Hell in the next, and when they will be made to stand before God's Judgement Seat, their mouths, hands, and feet will bear witness against them. Towards its close, the Sūrah draws attention to the great and bright future of Islam. It says that God's decree, viz. that a people like the Arabs who had lain very low in the scale of humanity for long centuries should now rise to the height of material power and spiritual glory, is not an idle dream or poetic fancy. A Prophet of God, a Divine Messenger, has appeared among them and he will lead them to the highest pinnacles of spiritual and material grandeur. And this is not a difficult thing for God, who is Almighty and 2648