Surah Ash-Shu'ara, Ayah 105

Nuh's preaching to His People, and Their Response

Here Allah tells us about His servant and Messenger Nuh, peace be upon him, who was the first Messenger sent by Allah to the people of earth after they started to worship idols. Allah sent him to forbid that and to warn people of the consequences of idol worship. But his people belied him and continued their evil practice of worshipping idols besides Allah. Allah revealed that their disbelieving in him was akin to disbelieving in all the Messengers, So Allah said:

كَذَّبَتْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ الْمُرْسَلِينَ - إِذْ قَالَ لَهُمْ أَخُوهُمْ نُوحٌ أَلاَ تَتَّقُونَ

(The people of Nuh belied the Messengers. When their brother Nuh said to them: "Will you not have Taqwa") meaning, `do you not fear Allah when you worship others instead of Him'

إِنِّي لَكُمْ رَسُولٌ أَمِينٌ

(I am a trustworthy Messenger to you.) means, `I am the Messenger of Allah to you, faithfully fulfilling the mission with which Allah has sent me. I convey the Messages of my Lord to you, and I do not add anything to them or take anything away from them.,

فَاتَّقُواْ اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ وَمَآ أَسْـَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ أَجْرٍ

(So have Taqwa of Allah, and obey me. No reward do I ask of you for it;) means, `I do not want any payment for the advice I give you; I will save my reward for it with Allah. '

فَاتَّقُواْ اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُونِ

(So have Taqwa of Allah, and obey me.) `It is clear to you that I am telling the truth and that I am faithfully fulfilling the mission with which Allah has entrusted me.'

يَوْمَ لَا يَنفَعُ مَالٌ وَلَا بَنُونَ ﴿88﴾ إِلَّا مَنْ أَتَى اللَّـهَ بِقَلْبٍ سَلِيمٍ ﴿89﴾

The Day when neither wealth will be of any use (to any one) nor sons, [ 88] except to one who will come to Allah with a sound heart, [ 26:89]

This verse has declared that wealth and children will not be of any help to a person on the Day of Judgment. This declaration is subjected to exception in the words, "except to one who will come to Allah with sound heart". (coming with sound heart means to come to Him with true faith). Now, this exception has been interpreted in two different ways. According to one interpretation adopted by some commentators this exception is not meant to exclude the believers from the rule. It is an exception of a special type which is known in Arabic grammar as "munqati" (This type of exception does not exclude anything from the aforementioned statement. It simply says that the thing negated in the first sentence is found in someone else.) A simple example for this expression is that a person is asked about Zaid whether he has some wealth and children, and he replies, "No, his wealth and children are nothing but his sound heart." The same expression is used in this verse. The gist of the verse, according to this interpretation would be that wealth and children will not be helpful to anyone, neither to a believer nor to a disbeliever; what will be helpful, instead of wealth and children, is one's sound heart, i.e. the true faith and righteous deeds.

A man’s heaven and hell are not far away from him. Only a curtain intervenes between them. When Doomsday removes that curtain, every man will see that he was standing just on the edge of his heaven or hell, though the negligent man considered it something very distant. There were false leaders (mujrimun), who enjoyed an elevated position in the society of their times. They did not accept the call for Truth simply because, thereafter, their greatness would be finished. Their false pride prevented them from accepting the Truth. As a result, their followers likewise did not consider the call for Truth worth responding to. Equating the leaders with the Lord of the Universe means giving the same status to their utterances as to those of the Lord of the Universe. The Quranic commentator, Ibn Kathir, portrays them as carrying out the orders of their leaders ‘as the orders of the Lord of the Universe are carried out.’ Those who accepted the pronouncements of their leaders as if they were God’s commandments in the world, will themselves, in the Hereafter, call those leaders blameworthy, but it will be of no avail. The place where one was required to recognise and differentiate between the falsifiers and the men of Truth was the world and not the Hereafter.