Teachings and Commentary 1-12
In the name of Allaah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Soorah starts with an attention grabbing style.
1 The Inevitable! 2 What is the Inevitable? 3 And what would make you realize what
the Inevitable is?
It asks questions to make people think and pay attention. The occurrence of the
end of the world has been called “the Inevitable” to give people a clear message
that they should not speculate on it being merely a hollow, baseless claim. Their
disbelief or doubts about it are not going to make it go away. It is inevitable
and they better be ready for it.
The Makkans were not the first people to reject the reality of the Day of Judgment
and the life Hereafter. The next section cites some familiar historical examples
to warn them that any people who rejected the call of a messenger and the belief
in the Hereafter were destroyed by Allaah. Thus they should not take the call of
the Prophet ŝall Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam lightly. It is an extremely serious matter.
If they reject it, they will be doing so at their own peril.
4 Thamood and ‘Aad called the loudly knocking calamity a lie. 5 So, as for Thamood,
they were destroyed by an excessively severe incident. 6 And as for ‘Aad, they were
destroyed by a fierce, violent wind, 7 which Allaah imposed on them continuously
for seven nights and eight days, so you could have seen the people therein fallen
as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees. 8 Do you then see any survivors from
them?
In verse 4, the Last Day has been called “Al-Qaari‘ah” which means something that
knocks, pounds, pulverizes or hammers with a loud sound.
The destruction of the people of Thamood and ‘Aad was known among Arabs. The calamity
which struck Thamood has been described differently at different places in the Qur-aan,
emphasizing its different aspects. In Soorah Al-A‘raaf 7:78 it was called a violent
shaking, in Soorah Hood 11:67, it was described as explosive sound and in Fussilat
41:17 it was termed as thunder. Here only its excessive severity has been mentioned.
‘Aad were destroyed by a cold, dry and fierce winter wind.
9 The same mistake was made by Fir‘own (Pharaoh) and those before him, and the overturned
townships. 10 They disobeyed the messenger of their Lord, so He seized them with
a tightening grip.
“Overturned townships” refers to the townships of homosexuals in the Dead Sea area
(Sodom and Gomorrah) that sank into the Dead Sea and into the ground and were buried
underneath stones and soil dumped over them by violent winds.
11 It was indeed Us Who carried you upon the floating Ark when the water overflowed
beyond limits, 12 so that We make it a reminder for you and that the remembering
ears would hear and remember it.
Although the people who survived in Nooĥ’s (Noah’s) Ark had been many, many generations
ago, “carried you” has been used to make people realize that they exist only because
Nooĥ ‘alayhissalaam and his followers were saved. Being their descendents, they
must remember the incident and learn lessons from it.
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