Tafsir al-Sadi - Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi’ - (343)

Tafsir al-SadiAbd al-Rahman al-Sadi’

(69–70) “Like those before you: they were mightier than you in strength and possessed more wealth and children. They enjoyed their allotted share, and you have enjoyed your allotted share just as those before you enjoyed theirs; and you have indulged in falsehood just as they did. Their deeds have come to nothing in this world and the Hereafter, and it is they who are the losers. * Has the account not reached them of those before them—the people of Noah, ‘Ad, Thamud, the people of Abraham, the people of Midian, and the overturned cities? Their messengers came to them with clear proofs. Allah would never wrong them; rather, they wronged themselves.”

Allah Most High warns the hypocrites lest they suffer what befell the disbelieving nations before them: “the people of Noah, ‘Ad, Thamud, the people of Abraham, the people of Midian, and the overturned cities”—meaning the towns of the people of Lot.

To all of them, “their messengers came with clear proofs”—that is, with the plain and manifest truth that makes the realities of things clear. Yet they rejected those proofs, and what Allah has related to us consequently befell them. Your deeds resemble theirs: you enjoyed your allotted share—that is, your portion of this world—pursuing it for pleasure and the satisfaction of desire while turning away from its intended purpose. You used it to aid you in disobeying Allah, and your ambitions and desires extended no further than the blessings you had been granted, just as those before you had done. “And you have indulged in falsehood just as they did”—that is, you engaged in falsehood and lies, and argued falsely in order to refute the truth. This, then, is the sum of their deeds and knowledge: enjoying their allotted worldly share and engaging in falsehood. They therefore deserved the punishment and destruction deserved by those before them who had acted as they did.

As for the believers, although they enjoy their portion and what they have been granted of this world, they do so as a means of helping them obey Allah. Their knowledge is the knowledge brought by the messengers: attaining certainty in every lofty matter and arguing with the truth in order to refute falsehood.

﴿٦٩ - ٧٠﴾ ﴿كَالَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ كَانُوا أَشَدَّ مِنْكُمْ قُوَّةً وَأَكْثَرَ أَمْوَالا وَأَوْلادًا فَاسْتَمْتَعُوا بِخَلاقِهِمْ فَاسْتَمْتَعْتُمْ بِخَلاقِكُمْ كَمَا اسْتَمْتَعَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ بِخَلاقِهِمْ وَخُضْتُمْ كَالَّذِي خَاضُوا أُولَئِكَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ وَأُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ * أَلَمْ يَأْتِهِمْ نَبَأُ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ قَوْمِ نُوحٍ وَعَادٍ وَثَمُودَ وَقَوْمِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَأَصْحَابِ مَدْيَنَ وَالْمُؤْتَفِكَاتِ أَتَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُمْ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيَظْلِمَهُمْ وَلَكِنْ كَانُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ﴾ . يقول تعالى محذرا المنافقين أن يصيبهم ما أصاب من قبلهم من الأمم المكذبة. ﴿قَوْمِ نُوحٍ وَعَادٍ وَثَمُودَ وَقَوْمِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَأَصْحَابِ مَدْيَنَ وَالْمُؤْتَفِكَاتِ﴾ أي: قرى قوم لوط. فكلهم ﴿أَتَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُمْ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ﴾ أي: بالحق الواضح الجلي، المبين لحقائق الأشياء، فكذبوا بها، فجرى عليهم ما قص الله علينا، فأنتم أعمالكم شبيهة بأعمالهم، استمتعتم بخلاقكم، أي: بنصيبكم من الدنيا فتناولتموه على وجه اللذة والشهوة معرضين عن المراد منه، واستعنتم به على معاصي الله، ولم تتعد همتكم وإرادتكم ما خولتم من النعم كما فعل الذين من قبلكم وخضتم كالذي خاضوا، أي: وخضتم بالباطل والزور وجادلتم بالباطل لتدحضوا به الحق، فهذه أعمالهم وعلومهم، استمتاع بالخلاق وخوض بالباطل، فاستحقوا من العقوبة والإهلاك ما استحق من قبلهم ممن فعلوا كفعلهم، وأما المؤمنون فهم وإن استمتعوا بنصيبهم وما خولوا من الدنيا، فإنه على وجه الاستعانة به على طاعة الله، وأما علومهم فهي علوم الرسل، وهي الوصول إلى اليقين في جميع المطالب العالية، والمجادلة بالحق لإدحاض الباطل.