Hud (Hud)

Commentary

(a) Here the invention of a falsehood does not refer to the Being of God, but to His word. God did not appear before us Himself, in order to give His message, but had it announced through the mouth of a human being. This human being at that time happened apparently to be an ordinary man, but there were clearly godly glimpses in his discourse. If, in their judgement of him, people had taken into account his discourse, they would have found God in its greatness. But thanks to people’s superficiality and appearance-loving nature, their view was contorted by the ordinary position of the preacher. The prophet’s being ‘ordinary’ (in terms of worldly glory) was visible to them, but they were unable to see the extraordinary nature of the message given by him. They considered it as emanating from an ‘ordinary’ man and heaped scorn upon it; they raised false objections to what he had to say and then ignored it as if it were of no importance whatsoever. (a) The real reasons for people’s sinful behaviour and their failure to treat the divine message with due respect were their lack of any firm belief in the Hereafter and their having no fear in their hearts for Almighty God. It was this fearlessness which caused them to treat the divine message without the seriousness it deserved. And anything about which an individual is not serious will fail to elicit the correct response from him. But such insincerity and lack of seriousness will vanish when people stand before the Lord of the Universe on the Day of Judgement. At that time they will have lost their present freedom. The worldly goods and resources on the strength of which they had become arrogant, will turn into God’s tape-recorders, which will start giving evidence against them. At that time it will be abundantly clear that the reason for their rejection of God’s preacher was not that they were unable to understand him, but rather that they were not serious about him. The horror of Doomsday will suddenly make them serious. At that time, in the face of their own helplessness, they will understand all that they had been unable to understand while living in the world in an atmosphere of freedom. God has blessed man with fine capabilities and talents. If he utilises them, he can understand any subject in depth. In his worldly matters, he actually utilises these talents, but when it comes to the Hereafter, he becomes deaf, in spite of having ears. He becomes blind, in spite of having eyes. Man’s success depends entirely upon his sincerity. Those who are sincere in worldly matters are successful in them. Similarly, those who are sincere in matters of the Hereafter will be successful in the Hereafter.