Surah Luqman, Ayah 9

The Good Destiny of the Believers

Here Allah mentions the destiny of the righteous in the Hereafter, those who believe in Allah and His Messenger and do righteous deeds in accordance with the Laws of Allah.

لَهُمْ جَنَّـتُ النَّعِيمِ

(for them are Gardens of Delight.) means, there they will enjoy all kinds of delights and pleasures, food, drink, clothing, dwelling-places, means of transportation, women, a light of beauty and delightful sounds, which have never crossed the mind of any human being. They will stay there forever, never leaving and never desiring change.

وَعْدَ اللَّهِ حَقًّا

(It is a promise of Allah in truth.) meaning, this will undoubtedly come to pass, for it is a promise from Allah, and Allah never breaks His promise, because He is the Most Generous Bestower Who does what He wills and is able to do all things.

The word: اشتراء (ishtira) in: وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْتَرِ‌ي لَهْوَ الْحَدِيثِ (And from among the people who buys the distracting amusement of things - 31:6) literally means 'to buy.' And on occasions, the same word is used in the sense of 'doing an act instead of another' - as in: أُولَـٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ اشْتَرَ‌وُا الضَّلَالَةَ بِالْهُدَىٰ are the people who have bought error at the rice of guidance - 2:16, 2:175 and in some other verses.

The Cause of Revelation

This verse was revealed because of a particular event relating to Nadr Ibn Harith. He was one of the top businessmen from among the Mushriks of Makkah who used to travel to different countries in connection with his business. Once he bought and brought back a collection of historical stories featuring Cyrus and other Persian kings from Iran. Thus armed, he said to the Quraish of Makkah: "Muhammad tells you the stories of the people of ` Ad and Thamud and others. I shall tell you better stories, those of Rustam, Isfandyar and other kings of Persia. They started listening to his stories eagerly simply because they contained no lessons to learn and no work to do. It was nothing but some delicious stories. Because of these, many Mushriks who had some measure of interest in the Divine Word because of its miraculous nature, rather listened to it stealthily, found an excuse to draw away from the Qur'an. (ذکرہ فی الروح عن اسباب النزول للواحدی و مقاتل و ذکرنحوہ فی الدر المنثور بروایۃ البیھقی)

Utterances are of two types—one offering good advice and the other entertainment. The former make one realize one’s responsibilities and urge a man to do good rather than commit any impropriety. However, in every age those who have taken an interest in words of advice have indeed been very few. It has always been in the nature of man to prefer being entertained. Books which give good advice, are plentiful but he is always the more frequent purchaser of books which divert his mind and which do not demand any serious action on his part. The guilt of one who goes to the length of inducing others to indulge in purely entertaining (i.e.wasteful) pursuits is greater, because he has made himself the leader of dissipation, keeping people preoccupied with pointless activities and rendering them incapable of giving their attention to more serious affairs. Conceit is the worst trait in a man. If Truth presents itself before a conceited individual, he will not accept it, because he thinks too highly of himself. He will contemptuously overlook it and press on regardlessly. Just the opposite is true of the believers. Their advice-loving nature compels them to accept the truth and to surrender their life to it completely.