Surah Al-Hajj, Ayah 46

The Consequences for the Disbelievers

Here Allah consoles His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for the disbelief of those among his people who opposed him.

وَإِن يُكَذِّبُوكَ فَقَدْ كَذَّبَتْ قَبْلَهُمْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ

(And if they deny you, so did deny before them the people of Nuh) until His saying,

وَكُذِّبَ مُوسَى

(and denied was Musa.) means, despite all the clear signs and evidence that they brought.

فَأمْلَيْتُ لِلْكَـفِرِينَ

(But I granted respite to the disbelievers for a while,) means, `I delayed and postponed.'

ثُمَّ أَخَذْتُهُمْ فَكَيْفَ كَانَ نَكِيرِ

(then I seized them, and how (terrible) was My punishment!) means, `how great was My vengeance against them and My punishment of them!' In the Two Sahihs it is reported from Abu Musa that the Prophet said:

Commentary

Travels undertaken to acquire insight into things and to learn lessons from the past is one of the religious objectives

أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُ‌وا فِي الْأَرْ‌ضِ فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ (Have they not, then, travelled on earth so that they should have hearts - 22:46) This verse encourages travel, provided the person travelling keeps his eyes wide open and imbibes in his mind the lessons of history. The phrase فَتَكُونَ لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ (so that they should have hearts - 22:46) suggests that a person can gain wisdom and intelligence by a careful study of the history of bygone times and an account of people who inhabited this world in different ages. Every event of history holds a lesson for a person who has insight and who does not regard history as a mere record of episodes and occurrences. Ibn Abi Hatim has written in his book اَلتَفَکّر quoting Malik Ibn Dinar (رح) that Allah Ta’ ala commanded Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) to wear shoes made of iron and to hold in his hand a staff made of iron and travel around the earth until his shoes would be worn out and his staff broken down. (Ruh-Ma ani). If this narration is true, then naturally it means to acquire knowledge and lessons from the past.

Before God, people with eyes are those who look at things in order to learn a lesson or draw wisdom from them. Those who see things without learning a lesson from them, are blind in the eyes of God. Their seeing is like that of animals, not human beings. God has spread on the earth innumerable lesson-giving things. Among them are the ancient memorials left behind by past nations. These nations once enjoyed pomp and power, but the signs of their existence today are nothing but a few dilapidated ruins. This reminds everybody of the fate he is finally going to meet. But when people lose the mind’s eye, the eyes on the face will fail to show them anything meaningful.