CHAP. XXXII.
Intitled, Adoration
[a]
; revealed at Mecca.
In the name of the most merciful God.
[a] The title is taken from the middle of the chapter, where the believers are said to fall down adoring
[b] See the Prelim. Disc. §. III p. 59, &c.
[c] See chap. 28. p. 321.
[d]
A thousand years;] As to the reconciliation of this passage with another
[1]
,
which seems
contradictory, see the Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 84.
Some, however, do not interpret the passage before us of the
resurrection, but suppose that the words here describe the making and
executing of the decrees of God, which are sent down from heaven to earth, and
are returned (or ascend, as the verb properly signifies) back to him, after
they have been put in execution; and present themselves, as it were, so
executed, to his knowledge, in the space of a day with God, but with man, of a
thousand years. Others imagine this space to be the time which the angels,
who carry the divine decrees, and bring them back executed, take in descending
and reascending, because the distance from heaven to earth is a journey of
five hundred years: and others fancy that the angels bring down at once
decrees for a thousand years to come, which being expired, they return back
for fresh orders, &c
[1]
.
[1] Chap. 70.
[1] Al Beidawi.
[a] An extract of despicable water;] i.e. Seed.
[b] See the Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 72.
[c] See chap. 7. p. 118, and chap. 11. p. 187.
[d] No soul;] Not even an angel of those who approach nearest God’s throne, nor any prophet who hath been sent by him [2] .
[2] Idem.
[e] The complete satisfaction;] Literally, The joy of the eyes. The commentators fail not, on occasion of this passage, to produce that saying of their prophet, which was originally none of his own; God saith, I have prepared for my righteous servants, what eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.
[a] Be not thou in doubt as to the revelation thereof;] Or, as some interpret it, of the revelation of the Korân to thyself; since the delivery of the law to Moses proves that the revelation of the Korân to thee is not the first instance of the kind. Others think the words should be translated thus: Be thou not in doubt as to thy meeting of that prophet; supposing that the interview between Moses and Mohammed in the sixth heaven, when the latter took his night journey thither, is here intended [1] .
[1] Idem.
[b] Through whose dwellings they walk;] The Meccans frequently passing by the places where the Adites, Thamudites, Midianites, Sodomites, &c., once dwelt.
[c] On the day of that decision;] That is, on the day of judgment; tho’ some suppose the day here intended to be that of the victory at Bedr, or else that of the taking of Mecca, when several of those who had been proscribed were put to death without remission [2] .
[2] See the Prelim. Disc. §. p. 55.