42.22
Abbas - Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs
Thou seest the wrong-doers) the disbelievers on the Day of Judgement (fearful of that which they have earned) of that which they have said and done in their state of disbelief, (and it will surely befall them) that which they fear; (while those who believe) in Muhammad (pbuh) and in the Qur'an (and do good works) between them and their Lord, i.e. Abu Bakr and his fellow believers ((will be) in flowering meadows of the Gardens, having what they wish from their Lord) in Paradise. (This) Paradise (is the great preferment) is the great bounty.
You will see the wrongdoers on the Day of Resurrection apprehensive because of what they had earned in this world in the way of evil deeds lest they be requited for these; and it that is the requital for these deeds will surely befall them on the Day of Resurrection inevitably; but those who believe and perform righteous deeds will be in the lushest Gardens in other words in the best of these Gardens in comparison with the other ones. They will have whatever they wish near their Lord; that is the great favour.
The Provision of Allah in this World and the Hereafter
Here Allah speaks of His kindness towards His creation, in that He provides for every last one of them and does not forget anyone. When it comes to His provision, the righteous and the sinner are alike. Allah says:
(And no moving creature is there on the earth but its provision is due from Allah. And He knows its dwelling place and its deposit. All is in a Clear Book.) (11:6) And there are many similar Ayat.
يَرْزُقُ مَن يَشَآءُ
(He gives provisions to whom He wills.) means, He gives generously to whomsoever He wills.
وَهُوَ الْقَوِىُّ الْعَزِيزُ
(And He is the All-Strong, the Almighty.) means, there is nothing that can overpower Him. Then Allah says:
مَن كَانَ يُرِيدُ حَرْثَ الاٌّخِرَةِ
(Whosoever desires the reward of the Hereafter,) means, whoever does things for the sake of the Hereafter,
نَزِدْ لَهُ فِى حَرْثِهِ
(We give him increase in his reward, ) meaning, `We will give him strength and help him to do what he wants to do, and We will increase it for him. So for every good, We will multiply it and give him between ten and seven hundred good rewards,' as much as Allah wills.
(and whosoever desires the reward of this world, We give him thereof, and he has no portion in the Hereafter.) means, whoever strives for the purpose of worldly gains, and never pays any heed to the Hereafter at all, Allah will deny him the Hereafter; and in this world, if He wills He will give to him and if He does not will, he will gain neither. So the one who strives with this intention in mind will have the worst deal in this world and in the Hereafter. The evidence for that is the fact that this Ayah is reinforced by the passage in Subhan (i.e., Surat Al-Isra') in which Allah says: y
(Whoever desires the quick-passing, We readily grant him what We will for whom We like. Then, afterwards, We have appointed for him Hell; he will (enter) burn therein disgraced and rejected. And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it, with the necessary effort due for it while he is a believer -- then such are the ones whose striving shall be appreciated. On each -- these as well as those -- We bestow from the bounties of your Lord. And the bounties of your Lord can never be forbidden. See how We prefer one above another (in this world), and verily, the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in preferment.) (17:18-21) It was reported that Ubayy bin Ka`b, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "The Messenger of Allah said:
(Give the glad tidings to this Ummah of sublimity, high status, victory and power in the land. But whoever among them does the deeds of the Hereafter for the sake of worldly gain, will have no portion of the Hereafter.)''
Making Legislation for the Creatures is Shirk Allah says:
(Or have they partners with Allah who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not ordained) means, they do not follow what Allah has ordained for you of upright religion; on the contrary, they follow what their devils (Shayatin), of men and Jinn, have prescribed for them. They instituted taboos, such as the Bahirah, Sa'ibah, Wasilah or Ham. They also permitted eating flesh and blood of animals not slaughtered for consumption, gambling and other kinds of misguidance, ignorance and falsehood. These are things that they invented during Jahiliyyah, when they came up with all kinds of false rulings on what was permitted and what was forbidden, and false rites of worship and other corrupt ideas. It was recorded in the Sahih that the Messenger of Allah said:
(I saw `Amr bin Luhayy bin Qama`ah dragging his intestines in Hell) -- because he had been the first one to introduce the idea of the Sa'ibah. This man was one of the kings of the Khuza`ah tribe, and he was the first one to do these things. He was the one who had made the Quraysh worship idols, may the curse of Allah be upon him. Allah said:
وَلَوْلاَ كَلِمَةُ الْفَصْلِ لَقُضِىَ بَيْنَهُمْ
(And had it not been for a decisive Word, the matter would have been judged between them.) means, the punishment would have been hastened for them, were it not for the fact that it had already been decreed that it would be delayed until the Day of Resurrection.
وَإِنَّ الظَّـلِمِينَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
(And verily, for the wrongdoers there is a painful torment.) i.e., an agonizing torment in Hell, what a terrible destination.
The Terror of the Idolators in the Place of Gathering
تَرَى الظَّـلِمِينَ مُشْفِقِينَ مِمَّا كَسَبُواْ
(You will see the wrongdoers fearful of that which they have earned,) means, in the arena of Resurrection.
وَهُوَ وَاقِعٌ بِهِمْ
(and it will surely befall them.) means, the thing that they fear will undoubtedly happen to them. This is how they will be on the Day of Resurrection; they will be in a state of utter fear and terror.
(But those who believe and do righteous deeds (will be) in the flowering meadows of the Gardens. They shall have whatsoever they desire with their Lord.) What comparison can there be between the former and the latter How can the one who will be in the arena of resurrection in a state of humiliation and fear, deserving it for his wrongdoing, be compared with the one who will be in the gardens of Paradise, enjoying whatever he wants of food, drink, clothing, dwellings, scenery, spouses and other delights such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and has never crossed the minds of men. Allah says:
ذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَضْلُ الْكَبِيرُ
(That is the supreme grace.) means, the ultimate victory and complete blessing.
42.21-23
Maududi - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an
In this verse the word shuraka (associates) obviously does not mean those beings whom the people invoke, or those in whose names they make offerings, or those before whom they carry out rites of worship, but inevitably it refers to those men whom the people regard as associates in the authority and sovereignty of Allah, whose thoughts, creeds, ideologies and philosophies they believe in, whose values they adroit, whose moral precepts and norms of civilization and culture they accept, and whose laws and rules and regulations they adopt to their rituals and rites of worship, in their personal and collective lives, in their trade and business dealings, in their politics and governments, as if they constituted the shari'ah that they had to follow faithfully. This is a complete code of life which the inventors invented against the legislation of Allah, Lord of the worlds, without His sanction and followed by the followers. This is the same sort of shirk as prostrating oneself before another and invoking another than Allah. (For further explanation, see An Nisa: 60; AI-Ma'idah: 87; AI.An'am: 121, 136. 137; At-Taubah: 31; Yunus: 59; IbrahIm: 22; An-Nahl: 115-116; AI.Kahf: 52: AI-Qasas: 62.64 : Saba : 41; Ya Sin: GO and the relevant E N.'s)
That is, 'This is such a boldness against Allah that had not judgement been deferred till Resurrection, the torment would have been sent down on every such person, who in spite of being Allah'. servant, enforced his own religion and way of life on Allah's earth, and those people also would have been visited by it, who forsook Allah's Religion and accepted the religion invented by others."
"This work": Every effort that the Holy prophet was making to save the people from Allah's punishment and to enable them to become worthy of the promise of Paradise.
The word qurba in the original has been interpreted differently by the different commentators. One section of them takes it in the meaning of kinship and has given this meaning to the verse "I do not ask of you any reward for this service, but I do desire that you (O people of Quraish) should show some regard tar the kinship that there is between me and you. You should have accepted my invitation. but if you do not accept it, you should not be so hard-hearted as to Become my bitterest enemies in the entire land of Arabia. " This is the interpretation given by Hadrat 'Abdullah bin 'Abbas, which has been cited by lmam Ahmad, Bukhari. Muslim. Tirmidhi, Ibn Jarir, Tabarani, Baihaqi. Ibn Said and others on the authority of many reporters and the same commentary has been given by Mujahid. 'Ikrimah, Qatadah, Suddi, Abu Malik, 'Abdur Rehman bin Zaid bin Aslam, Dahhak. 'Ata bin Dinar and the other major commentators. The other section takes qurba in the meaning of nearness and interprets the verse to mean: "I do not seek from you any other reward than this that you should develop in yourselves a desire for attaining nearness to Allah. That is; you should be reformed. That is my only reward. " This commentary has been reported from Hasan Basri and a saying of Qatadah also has been cited in support of this: so much so that in a tradition by Tabarani this saying has also been attributed to Ibn 'Abbas. In the Qur'an itself, at another place, this same subject has been treated, thus: "Tell them: I do not seek of you any reward for this work: I only ask of the one who will. to adopt the way of his Lord.' (AI-Furqan: 57). The third group takes qurba in the meaning of the kindred, and interprets the verse to mean this: "I do not seek from you any other reward than this that you should love my near and dear ones." Then, some of the commentators of this group interpret 'the kindred" to mean alt the children of 'Abdul Muttalib, and some others restrict it to Hadrat 'AIi and Fatimah and their children. This commentary has been reported from Said bin Jubair and 'Amr bin Shu'aib, and in some traditions it has been attributed to Ibn 'Abbas and Hadrat 'AIi bin Husain (Zam al-'Abedin), but this interpretation cannot be accepted for several reasons. Firstly. when Surah Ash-Shura was sent down at Makkah, Hadrat 'AIi and Fatimah had not yet been married and, therefore, there could be no question of their children. As for the children of 'Abdul Muttalib, they were not all following the Holy Prophet but some of them had openly joined with his enemies, and the enmity of Abu Lahab is too well known. Second, "the kindred" of the Holy Prophet were not only the children of 'Abdul Muttalib but he had his kindred among all the families of the Quraish through his mother and his father and his wife. Hadrat Khadijah. In all these clans he had his best supporters as well as his staunch enemies 'Third, and this is the most important paint, in view of the high position of a Prophet from which he starts his mission of inviting the people towards Allah, it does not seem fitting that he would ask the people to love his kindred in return for his services in connection with his great Mission. No person of fine taste could imagine that Allah would have taught His Prophet such a mean thing, and the Prophet would havc uttered the same before the Quraish. In the stones that have been narrated of the Prophets in the Qur'an, we find that a Prophet after a Prophet stands up before his people sad says: "I do not ask of you any reward: my reward is with Allah, Lord of the worlds." (Yunus: 72; Hud: 29, 51; Ash-Shu'ara': 109, 127, 145, 164, l80). In Surah Ya Sin the criterion given of a Prophet's truthfulness is that he gives his invitation without any selfish motive. (v. 21). In the Qur'an the Holy Prophet himself has been made to say again and again words to the effect: "I demand no reward from you for this message. " (Al An'am: 90, Yusuf: 104, Al-Mu'minun: 72, Al-Furqan: 57, Saba: 47, Suad: 86, At-Tur; 40, AI Qalam: 46). After this, what could be the occasion for the Holy Prophet to tell the people that in return for his service of inviting them to Allah, they should lout his relatives. Then it seems all the more irrelevant when we state that the addressees here are the disbelievers and not the believers. The whole discourse, from the beginning w the end, is directed to them. Therefore, there could be no question in this regard of asking the opponents for any reward, for a reward is asked of those who show some appreciation for the services that a person has rendered for them. The disbelievers were not at all appreciative of the Holy Prophet's services: on the contrary, they regarded them as a crime and had turned bitterly hostile to him.
That is, "Contrary to the culprits who commit disobedience knowingly, Allah's affair with the servants who strive to do good, is like this: (1) He makes them even more righteous than they could be solely by their own efforts; (2) He overlooks the weaknesses that remain in their work, and the sins that are committed by them inadvertently, in spite of striving to become good; and (3) Allah appreciates whatever little provision of the good deeds they bring and rewards them richly and generously for it. "
