4. The Prophet (s) is also being consoled through these verses, “that people before you also tried and were even killed, but console yourself in remembering that you are on the truth”. As the messengers say, our Lord knows we are telling you the truth as Allah says here, so console yourself always with the truth!
5. It is a tactic to those who oppose Islam to threaten it with force or with ridiculous arguments (in this case the people resorted to superstitions and bad omens)
6. The truth will always have supporters. You put in the work and Allah will give you the helpers, so put your trust and you‟ll be helped from sources you do not even expect
7. A sign of true teaching is that the man teaching is sincere (he does not expect anything in return) and that his message is rational and full of guidance
8. The gruesome death of this man is not mentioned; one of the wisdoms is so we don‟t want the Makkans to gloat or get ideas. Another more important wisdom that the more negative or harsh details are usually glossed over and the Qur'an focuses on the positive. The descriptions of Jannah are more than Jahannam, Allah‟s mercy is more detailed than His adhaab; today we have done the exact
opposite in this culture. There are vivid details about crime, murder etc and hearing about these things makes your heart hard and desensitizes this so you don‟t care in the future. Rather when you follow the Qur'anic style of focusing on the positives and the mercy of Allah, you make Islam easier for others to follow.
9. One of the most important lessons of this passage is the man‟s sincerity for his people and his concern for them; he has so much love for the people and wisdom in giving Dawah that even after they killed him – literally one minute he is being kicked on the floor and the next minute in Jannah – his thoughts are still with the people and how he wished they knew better. We thus learn that you can not preach Islam to others if you have no concern for them
Yasir Qadhi: it is really sad that a car salesman will have more passion to sell his car than we have to preach Islam to others. The #1 advice in sales is to be passionate about your product, we MUST believe in our own product! Thus if you don‟t care about Islam or the people that you are
teaching you wont be able to give Dawah, he loved them so much that he even ignored their murder of him, he had SO much love for his people! The Prophet (s) and we are being told to have a concern for our people! Today many people have a disdain and arrogance against non-muslims.
10. We learn the importance of overlooking foolishness from your own people, rather forgive and forget and move on! When the man forgave murder, what about us? And indeed everything is less than murder.
Ayat 28- 32: The Destruction of Those That Reject The Prophets
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28. And We sent not against his people after him a host from heaven, nor do We send (such a thing).
Allah is saying that He did not need to be melodramatic about their destruction – all we needed was one noise, a shout that came and lo! They were all destroyed.
So what is Allah‟s style of punishment… ?
29. It was but one Saihah (shout, etc.) and lo! They (all) were silent (dead-destroyed).
One Sayhah (a shout) in reference to the blowing of the trumpet, and they will be “Khamidoon”
“Khaamidun” is a precise noun, when the embers give out and all that is left is coal which than crumbles. Khamidoon can also mean a candle flickering to it‟s very last bit before dying, and this is called “Khamada.” This is how Allah describes their punishment; literally like a candle or a coal they were extinguished out
Now Allah shifts focus and speaks of the destruction of those who reject, and the Quraysh are being addresses directly. This is in reference to the Quraysh challenging the Prophet (s) : why doesn‟t Allah send a punishment if you are truthful? The truth is that Allah does not need legions of angels from the sky, and the punishment will come when Allah wants not when you dictate. Now the tone changes and a threat is being given even though this is something of the past. Allah says we didn‟t send a
punishment after they killed the man (Allah says “after him” i.e he is no longer there, Allah does not tell us that he died because this is not necessary to mention to the Quraysh, they don‟t need any more ideas on what to do with the Prophet (s)), despite all this Allah says we did not send any army from the heavens nor would we do so.
Does Allah ever send punishments? Yes, sometimes, about 6 times, Allah did send His punishment and an entire city was destroyed, but these are the exceptions. This is not Allah‟s sunnah.
Historically though Antioch was not destroyed and it is still there, so how do we reconcile? The more plausible (2nd) interpretation is that those who rejected only were destroyed
A third interpretation of this ayah is that Allah speaks of the Day of Judgement when one shout will initiate it
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30. Alas for mankind! There never came a Messenger to them but they used to mock at him.
“Ya Hasra” is used to express regret or remorse. “Hasra” comes from the word Haseer i.e. to become tired, as if you heart has become tired of healing. Allah does not express such, so who is saying this?
Some scholars say it is the creation itself such as the sky, the moon, the oceans, the mountains, the animals. In the Qur'an the heavens, the earth were all asked if they wanted the amanah and they refused, but mankind said they want to and so they were given so. As Muslims we thus believe that inanimate objects have some conscious and they communicate with Allah, their conscious is at a different level than ours and we will not comprehend their‟s. In this case they express regret for mankind here.
Why is the word, “mocking” used to reject the Messengers sent by Allah?
Mocking is the height of disrespect and rejection, you can reject without mocking but you can‟t mock without rejecting. This is the height of arrogance and so no Muslim can ever make fun of Allah, the Qur'an and the Prophet (s). Anybody who does so has committed an act of Kufr, anyone who does so this is worse than clear rejection.
31. Do they not see how many of the generations We have destroyed before them? Verily, they will not return to them.
“Not return” means that their time of glory has passed. Allah is now arguing that if you will not believe from the Qur'an and revelation than look at your own humanity; look at the past and those nations, and look at the glory of yours and ask yourself how long has it lasted and what will become of your glory? And can you reach the level of glory of others? This is because the Quraysh at the time were deemed to be the “lords” of the Arab lands.
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32. And surely, all, everyone of them will be brought before Us.
Allah emphasizes that indeed everyone will leave the duniya and will be gathered infront of Him.
Yasir Qadhi: We have neglected this aspect of dawah, we should ask others who we preach about what they think will happen in the next life?
BENEFITS FROM THIS SECTION
1. Via Antioch, Allah tells us to learn from history of the greatest and most powerful Empires that fell.
That vicious cycle continues to this day, what became of the Roman empire, the British empire and other empires that were once so powerful?
2. All of us will leave the duniya and return to stand in front of Allah
3. Man is in such a sad state that even the Creation and the angels pity us.
4. The entire creation, creations such as the heavens, the earth and the mountains, all rejected the amanah of intellect but mankind took on this responsibility.