Surah Maryam, Ayah 74

The Disbelievers boast over Their good Fortune in the World

Allah, the Exalted, informs that when the clear, evident Ayat of Allah are recited to the disbelievers, they reject them and turn away. They say about those who believe, while boasting to them and arguing that their false religion is correct,

خَيْرٌ مَّقَاماً وَأَحْسَنُ نَدِيّاً

(best dwellings and the finest Nadiyyan.) This means the best houses, with the loftiest levels and the finest Nadiyyan, which are meeting rooms for men to gather and discuss matters. Thus, this means that their meeting rooms are full of more people who come to attend. In this they were saying, "How can we be upon falsehood while we are in this manner of successful living" These people were actually those who were concealed in the house of Al-Arqam bin Abi Al-Arqam and its likes from the other houses. This is as Allah says about them,

Commentary

خَيْرٌ‌ مَّقَامًا وَأَحْسَنُ نَدِيًّا

"Superior in respect of its place and better in respect of its assembly" - 19:73.

The infidels never relaxed their efforts to confuse and perplex the believers. They were very rich and possessed material wealth in great abundance. They had their retinues, their followers, friends and supporters. In contrast, the believers were poor and lacking in worldly assets. However, it is a common experience that material wealth turns people's heads and makes them unduly proud and arrogant, so that even the sensible and wise among them are led to believe that their prosperity and affluence is the reward of their personal merit and effort, and will last forever. History is replete with instances where prosperous communities and rich nations crumbled to dust and vanished without leaving a trace. But these instances of Divine wrath hold no lesson for them and fail to turn them from their erroneous ways.

Those who do not care about what is right or what is wrong, who prefer the considerations of this world to those of the life hereafter and who choose to please other people rather than God, are always successful from the worldly point of view. They are surrounded by glamour and glitter. As opposed to this, those who in all their dealings are worried about right and wrong, who ignore the considerations of this world and prefer those of the life hereafter, and who care for God rather than the attitude of the public, are often bereft of external pomp and glory. This difference gives rise to misunderstandings. It is thought that those who are better off from the worldly point of view are God’s favoured ones and those who do not enjoy this position in this world are low in God’s esteem. But this is a completely wrong assessment, and past history contradicts and disproves it. How many haughty heads of the past have rolled and are buried in the ground? And how many grand palaces are there still extant today that have not fallen into ruin?