Overview

(Verses 31 - 35)

Arrogant Rejection

By contrast, we have an image of those bent on denying the truth. They do not prepare for the inevitable end by doing something in obedience of God. Rather, they arrogantly indulge in disobedience and sin:

He neither believed nor prayed, but denied the truth and turned away, then he went back to his people All of arrogance. (Verses 31-33)

It is reported that these verses refer to a particular person, Abu Jahl 'Amr ibn Hisham, who used to visit the Prophet sometimes and listen to the Qur'an. He would then go away, refusing to believe. In fact, he was neither polite nor fearful of God. He would continue to hurt the Prophet by what he said, and would try to turn people away from Islam. He would also take pride in such actions, treating his evil deeds as something to be proud of. The Qur'an derides his attitude. In its description of his arrogant movements, it invites the listeners' scorn.

Yet there are many like Abu Jahl whom the message of Islam faces. They listen but turn away. They are inventive in their opposition to the word of truth, pouring harm on its advocates, working out evil schemes and feeling proud of their evil deeds and of the corruption they spread on earth. Hence, the Qur'an issues a clear threat to such people:

Your doom, man, comes nearer and nearer, and ever nearer and nearer. (Verses 34-35)

The surah uses here an idiom, awla laka fa awla, which implies a strong threat and repeats it twice. Hence the translation expresses the implied meaning. On one occasion, the Prophet held Abu Jahl by the scruff of his neck and used this expression as it occurs in the surah. Abu Jahl said: Are you threatening me, Muhammad? By God, neither you nor your Lord can do anything to me. I am the most powerful man ever to walk in between these hills." When the Battle of Badr took place, God killed him by the hands of Muhammad's followers. Before him, Pharaoh said to the chiefs of his people: "Nobles! I know of no deity that you could have other than myself" (28: 38) He also said: "My people, is the kingdom of Egypt not mine, with all these rivers flowing at my feet?" (43: 51) Yet God smote him down, drowned him.

The history of the divine message is full of people who forgot God and His power, of those who fed their own power, relying on tribes, forces and authority, thinking that all these will give them protection. Then such people are taken away like a fly or a mosquito. Remember then, when the time of death comes it cannot be put forward or backward by even a fraction of a second.