The Cattle (Al-An‘am)
Verses 4-6 GROUP_201 6.4-6
4
وَمَا تَأْتِيهِم مِّنْ آيَةٍ مِّنْ آيَاتِ رَبِّهِمْ إِلاَّ كَانُواْ عَنْهَا مُعْرِضِينَ
yet every time a sign comes to them from their Lord, they turn away from it.
5
فَقَدْ كَذَّبُواْ بِالْحَقِّ لَمَّا جَاءهُمْ فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِيهِمْ أَنبَاء مَا كَانُواْ بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِؤُونَ
They have rejected truth whenever it came to them, yet [more] news will reach them concerning what they have been making a mockery of.
6
أَلَمْ يَرَوْاْ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِن قَبْلِهِم مِّن قَرْنٍ مَّكَّنَّاهُمْ فِي الأَرْضِ مَا لَمْ نُمَكِّن لَّكُمْ وَأَرْسَلْنَا السَّمَاء عَلَيْهِم مِّدْرَارًا وَجَعَلْنَا الأَنْهَارَ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهِمْ فَأَهْلَكْنَاهُم بِذُنُوبِهِمْ وَأَنْشَأْنَا مِن بَعْدِهِمْ قَرْنًا آخَرِينَ
Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them? We established them on the earth more firmly than you, and We sent the clouds over them, pouring down abundant rain; and made the rivers flow at their feet. Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and raised up other generations after them.
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
Commentary
The message of God and the Hereafter, issued directly by God Himself, is accompanied by clear signs which establish it as a true call from the Almighty. Its being on the lines of nature on which the system of God’s eternal world is established; its being supported by arguments that cannot be countered by anybody; its being backed by a preacher of God’s word whose seriousness and sincerity are above doubt; its repeated survival of the destructive plans of its opponents, despite their superior power—all these are clear indications of its being based on truth. Inspite of all this, man does not believe in it and is not willing to support it. The reason for this is that all these proofs, in spite of all their clarity, always appear through a veil of cause and effect. When these signs come to a man’s attention, he attributes them to certain causes and pays no heed to them. He does not become inclined to accept their validity Instead of accepting the call he would say that had this call been on behalf of God, then God and His angels would have been visible to the naked eye. But this idea is absolutely meaningless, because when God and His angels appear in all their glory, it will be the time for the final rendering of accounts and not for giving a call of Truth or for preaching about the greatness of God. (a) Those who have firmly established themselves in this world, having accumulated many material goods for themselves, and who see the manifestations of their own greatness and popularity around them, are always liable to be a prey to misunder- standing. They look down upon the things God has gathered around the caller of Truth as compared to the things around them. This overweening confidence on their part increases to such an extent that they even become unafraid of God. They make fun of the warning given by the missionary of Truth that, if their arrogance continued, their material achievements would not be able to save them from God’s scourge. Their treatment of the dayee as a non-entity makes his warnings also insignificant. Even historic instances of God’s having destroyed materially well set up people, as if their lives were of no value whatsoever, fail to teach them a lesson. The recurrence of events in which one set of people face decline while another set rises shows that the rule of ‘crime and punishment’ is prevalent here, but man does not learn a lesson from this. The succeeding generations repeat those very same actions as were indulged in by their predecessors, due to which they were destroyed.