Bees (Al-Nahl) النحل 103–105
103
وَلَقَدْ نَعْلَمُ أَنَّهُمْ يَقُولُونَ إِنَّمَا يُعَلِّمُهُ بَشَرٌ لِّسَانُ الَّذِي يُلْحِدُونَ إِلَيْهِ أَعْجَمِيٌّ وَهَـذَا لِسَانٌ عَرَبِيٌّ مُّبِينٌ
Indeed, We know what they say, ‘It is only a human being who imparts [all] this to him!’ But the tongue of him to whom they point is foreign, whereas this is plain Arabic speech.
104
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللّهِ لاَ يَهْدِيهِمُ اللّهُ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ
God will not guide those who will not believe in the signs of God; and theirs will be a painful punishment.
105
إِنَّمَا يَفْتَرِي الْكَذِبَ الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِآيَاتِ اللّهِ وَأُوْلـئِكَ هُمُ الْكَاذِبُونَ
Only those fabricate lies concerning God who do not believe in the signs of God, and these are the liars.
No class discussions published for this verse group yet.
(a) In Makkah there were some non-Arab slaves. In various books of tafsir (commentary) their names have been given as Jabr, Yasar, ‘A’ish, Ya‘ish, etc. (there is some mention also of Salman al-Farsi who later became a Muslim). These slaves being either Jews or Christians were very knowledgeable about the ancient holy religions of Judaism and Christianity. From time to time they chanced to meet the Prophet Muhammad. On the basis of such meetings, the Chiefs of the Quraysh started saying, ‘The non-Arabs tell Muhammad something and he presents it to the people, declaring it to be “divine discourse.’” Why was this ridiculous statement made by them? It was due to the same common wrong approach which is found in every period all over the world; i.e. the refusal to recognize the value of one who is one’s own contemporary. The Prophet Muhammad was a contemporary personality for the Quraysh, and therefore, they failed to appreciate him. This verse shows that those who feel nothing but contempt for their contempo- raries can never be truly inspired to accept the Truth. Instead of accepting the Truth, they fabricate false allegations against the messengers of the Truth; ignoring the greater facts, they seize upon irrelevant things amounting to hair-splitting in order to defame the preacher. They spend their entire lives in this way until the day of their death when they will be punished by God.