The Sand Dunes (Al-Ahqaf)
Verses 26-28 GROUP_1342 46.26-28
26
وَلَقَدْ مَكَّنَّاهُمْ فِيمَا إِن مَّكَّنَّاكُمْ فِيهِ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ سَمْعًا وَأَبْصَارًا وَأَفْئِدَةً فَمَا أَغْنَى عَنْهُمْ سَمْعُهُمْ وَلَا أَبْصَارُهُمْ وَلَا أَفْئِدَتُهُم مِّن شَيْءٍ إِذْ كَانُوا يَجْحَدُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللَّهِ وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِؤُون
We had empowered them to an extent which We have not empowered you, [O people of later times]; and We had endowed them with hearing, and sight, and hearts: but neither their hearing, nor their sight, nor their hearts were of the least avail to them, since they went on rejecting God’s revelations; and they were overwhelmed by the very thing which they had been wont to deride.
27
وَلَقَدْ أَهْلَكْنَا مَا حَوْلَكُم مِّنَ الْقُرَى وَصَرَّفْنَا الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ
We have also destroyed other towns that once [flourished] around you—We had given them various signs so that they might return [to the right path]—
28
فَلَوْلَا نَصَرَهُمُ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ قُرْبَانًا آلِهَةً بَلْ ضَلُّوا عَنْهُمْ وَذَلِكَ إِفْكُهُمْ وَمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ
so why did their gods not help them, those they set up as gods besides God to bring them nearer to Him? No indeed! They failed them utterly: it was all a lie, a fabrication of their own making.
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Commentary
(a) The worldly status enjoyed by the Quraysh chiefs had made them arrogant. Here they have been reminded of their neighbours, the people of ‘Ad. From the point of view of civilization, they had been on a much higher plane than the Quraysh. Nonetheless, when God’s ordinance was imposed, their entire grandeur and glory were destroyed. Whatever they had considered their supports, failed to come to their rescue. A human being is, after all, going to be greatly reduced in stature before the majesty of God. But that apart, the system of the world has been devised in such a way that in this life man has to make himself small before others. This is shown by events which are the signs of God. If, before being cut down to size in the Hereafter, a man learns a lesson from these signs, he will voluntarily make himself small in this very life. Before facing the Hereafter, he will become realistic in this world itself. Different kinds of events demonstrate God’s signs, but man turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to them, for he is not prepared to learn any lesson from them.